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The American League’s 1954 Rookie of the Year, Bob Grim was the first New York Yankee pitcher since 1910 to win 20 games in his rookie season.1 In 1955 he developed elbow problems which lingered for the rest of his eight-year major-league career. Although he never duplicated his first year’s success, from 1955 through 1959 […]

Six-foot-three right-hander Oral Hildebrand was a .500 pitcher for the Indians and Browns for eight years (1931-38) before landing with the World Champion Yankees and starting Game Four of the 1939 World Series. Oral Clyde Hildebrand was born on April 13, 1907, in Indianapolis, Indiana. Asked one time about his unique first name, Oral replied, […]

Versatile sandlot alumnus Mike O’Rourke packed a fair amount of action into his nine-game career as a major leaguer. As a pitcher for the 1890 Baltimore Orioles of the American Association, he completed all five of his starting assignments, albeit with only modest results. O’Rourke also served the club as a backup infielder and outfielder, […]

In the 2001 Baseball Prospectus annual, this comment was penned for a White Sox prospect: “He’s credited with a strong arm and the athleticism to play center field and has been compared to Larry Walker and Dale Murphy.”1 Joe Borchard didn’t have a career on the level of those greats, but still managed to put […]

At age 96 in 2020, Tim Thompson was one of the ever-rarer surviving veterans of World War II who played major-league baseball. Thompson also remained together with his wife of 77 years, Lois (two months younger). Their marriage outlasted Tim’s remarkable career in the game as player, manager, coach, and scout. Thompson’s WWII service actually […]

Charles Krehmeyer joined his first professional team in June 1883, signing with the Terre Haute (Indiana) Blues. When he made his major-league debut the following season, he joined a select club that even today numbers fewer than two dozen – catchers who threw left-handed and played more than one game in the majors. With only […]

Infielder Albert Roberge played portions of three seasons with the Boston Braves during the 1940s. He appeared in 177 games and compiled a lifetime .220 batting average. Three years of military service during World War II interrupted his baseball career. After playing a brief period in the majors on his return from the war, Roberge […]

Russ Snyder inked his first professional baseball contract with the New York Yankees in August 1952, just three months after graduating from high school.1 The next summer he was the top hitter in the minors – compared at the plate, on the bases, and in the outfield to Mickey Mantle,2 possibly a cross-pollination of Ted […]

Right-hander “Schoolboy” Waite Hoyt signed an option contract with the New York Giants as a 15-year-old in 1915. The following season he began a 23-year-career in Organized Baseball, including parts of 21 seasons in the big leagues, where he posted a 237-182 record and logged 3,762⅓ innings. Most remembered as a member of the New […]

Like Steve Carlton, who won 27 of his team’s 59 victories in 1972, Theodore Breitenstein was a left-handed ace on a weak team. Breitenstein was credited with 43 percent of the St. Louis Browns’ victories from 1893 to 1896. In 21 seasons of professional baseball from 1891 to 1911, the durable southpaw won more than […]

Although no more than that of a journeyman, the six-year major-league playing career of Bert Niehoff was not without its highlights. In 1915 he combined with future Hall of Fame shortstop Dave Bancroft to form the middle infield of the pennant-winning Philadelphia Phillies. The following year, Niehoff led the National League in doubles and was […]

Hard-throwing right-hander Clay Bryant went 32-20 in parts of six seasons for the Chicago Cubs before chronic elbow and shoulder pain ended his career at the age of 28 in 1940. But for one summer, the affable Alabaman caught lightning in a bottle. En route to winning 19 games and leading the National League in […]

Imagine being able to say you’d seen the big-league debuts of Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Bill Mazeroski1 – not to mention an All-Star Game, a no-hitter, a four-homer game, and a batter hitting for the cycle. Some baseball lovers spend a lifetime hoping to see those kinds of milestones. Bill […]

From the late 1970s through the early 1990s, few players were as feared with the bat or possessed the brashness of Jack Clark. Twice he powered teams to the World Series. Four times he played in the All-Star Game. His prowess at the plate moved his manager to call him “the greatest fastball hitter of […]

Pitching isn’t just about throwing hard. It’s about contrast and ball movement, and Enrique Romo kept hitters off stride and guessing. He had a broad repertoire, featuring a screwball, which he delivered from various arm angles while constantly changing speeds. “He’s the kind of pitcher you don’t want to face even once in a game,” […]

Before committing suicide under mysterious circumstances in the spring of 1907, Chick Stahl forged a reputation as one of the best center fielders in the game over the course of a 10-year major-league career. A lifetime .305 batter, the left-handed Stahl could also hit with power, and often ranked among the league leaders in extra-base […]

Most commonly remembered as the pitching coach-guru who helped develop the dominating staffs for the Oakland A’s championship teams of 1972-1974, Bill Posedel had a career in Organized Baseball spanning six decades, from the late 1920s to the 1970s. He debuted in the big leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938 as a hard-throwing 31-year-old […]

The team that was the last to integrate had been – 26 years earlier – the first to field a native of Mexico in the major leagues. The team was the Boston Red Sox, who took until 1959 to field a Black ballplayer – Pumpsie Green. In 1933, however, when Baldomero Melo “Mel” Almada took […]

The contrast could not have been starker on a Friday night in August 1965. While Claude Osteen of the Los Angeles Dodgers picked the Pittsburgh Pirates apart in a six-hitter at pristine Dodger Stadium, California National Guardsmen were occupying large swaths of South Central Los Angeles, engulfed in flames and violence less than nine miles […]

Manny Mota is frequently considered to be the Montreal Expos’ first player.1 Although Mota was the initial player chosen by the Expos in the National League expansion draft in October 1968, he wasn’t the first player under contract with the fledgling organization. That honor went to pitcher Dave Hartman, who was drafted by Montreal in […]

“I felt the pressure building on a no-hitter,” said Nolan Ryan. “I didn’t really feel it tonight until the ninth inning and then I was nervous.”1 Ever since the hard-throwing right-hander broke into the majors with the New York Mets in 1968 (after a cup of coffee two years earlier), sportswriters and fans thought it […]

Cal Ripken Jr. homers on September 6, 1995, during his record-breaking 2,131st consecutive game. (Courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles)   The outcome of this game was of little importance to the fans of two cities separated by less than 200 miles. The New York Yankees’ record was mediocre, a pedestrian 60-61, only slightly better than […]

Gary Carter earned the nickname “Kid” when he first came to spring training with the Montreal Expos at age 19 in 1973.1 He, along with Larry Parrish, Ellis Valentine, André Dawson, and pitcher Steve Rogers, would turn out to be the core players of this franchise in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But Carter, […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project.   In 1921 Arthur Irwin, at age 63, was in the twilight of a long career in baseball when he was named manager of the Hartford Senators of the Eastern League. He was also a scout for the […]