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Baldomero Almada — “Melo” or (to Americans) “Mel” — was the first native Mexican ever to play in the majors. Almada was born in Huatabampo in the state of Sonora on February 7, 1913, but he grew up in Los Angeles from an early age. On September 8, 1933, less than two months after a […]

Marty Krug appeared in only 20 games in 1912, his rookie season, mostly as a pinch-hitter, or a late-inning replacement. He watched the World Series from the superior but disappointing vantage of the winning team’s bench. He never once stepped onto the field against the New York Giants in those eight dramatic games. The knock […]

“Ripley’s Believe It or Not” featured Charley Gelbert in 1941, noting that he “played 239 major league games with a broken leg.” Shortstop Gelbert put in four full seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and played in back-to-back World Series, losing one and then winning one. And then an offseason hunting accident nearly ended his […]

Casey Stengel, an eccentric man himself, called Moe Berg “the strangest man ever to play baseball.” Dark, handsome, erudite, fluent in many languages, charming and shadowy-just who was this man who was a professional baseball player and a so-called master spy? Who is the real Moe Berg? He epitomizes frustration for any biographer. Moe Berg […]

John Schuerholz spent 26 seasons as a big-league GM, winning 16 division titles, six pennants, and two World Series. In Kansas City he oversaw that franchise’s first World Series. After moving to Atlanta, he took over a team that had lost more than 90 games four consecutive years and won the next 14 division titles […]

Perhaps unfairly, Charlie Root’s name and legacy are indelibly intertwined with one of baseball’s most enduring and intriguing legends: Babe Ruth’s “called shot” in Game Three of the 1932 World Series.  Overlooked is Root’s reputation as one of the most dependable, durable, and hardest-throwing pitchers of his generation. With the most victories in Chicago Cubs […]

Like so many ballplayers of his generation, Jack Hallett gave what may have been the best years of his career to the service of his country. Yet, after Navy duty called him from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitching staff in 1943, he had enough talent to return as a major leaguer in 1946 against postwar competition […]

Flamboyant, visionary, ego — or monomaniacal, tempestuous, alcoholic, and self-destructive — the words approach but do not satisfactorily explain Larry MacPhail. His innovative approach to the game brought about night baseball and baseball on the radio. He was a mover and shaker in the world of Major League baseball until in a fury he catapulted […]

An accepted piece of conventional wisdom in baseball says that if you can pitch a baseball with your left hand you can pitch for a long time regardless of how well you do so. The rarity of left-handers in general and pitchers in particular make the combination one of the sport’s most coveted assets. One […]

When Dave Hoskins of the visiting Dallas Eagles warmed up before his start against the Shreveport Sports on the evening of June 9, 1952, he had reason to be apprehensive. Earlier that day, Hoskins, the Texas League’s first Black player, had received three letters threatening his life. At the time Louisiana was not particularly hospitable […]

Boston Red Sox first baseman Al Flair answered a want ad and got a job playing baseball. The Sporting News explained: “An advertisement placed in the classified section of a Memphis newspaper [by Little Rock Travelers manager Doc Prothro] led to Flair’s entry into O.B. [Organized Baseball] A woman friend of the Flair family in […]

When the Orioles “threatened in the eighth, [relief pitcher] Lefty Jacobs took over and in his usual manner made short work of the rally idea.”1 — Baltimore Sun, May 9, 1938   Art Jacobs was an itinerant minor leaguer from 1923 to 1941. The southpaw began his career as a starting pitcher and in his […]

The 1945 Washington Senators1 intrigued war-weary baseball fans with an improbable pennant run. The team’s success stemmed largely from a unique pitching staff, dominated by four knuckleballers. The top performer was Roger Wolff, a journeyman right-hander who led the team with a career-high 20 wins. The second of ten children born to Leo and Eleanor […]

Jim “JD” Deshaies had a journeyman career as a left-handed pitcher for 12 years in the majors. At times he outshined some of his legendary rotation mates, but at others he suffered from shoulder injuries hampering his sneaky-fast velocity. Those injuries ultimately ended his playing days but paved the way for a second act as […]

In the days before players routinely wore gloves, the ability of a catcher to handle a fast pitcher or one with big curves was valued far more than his hitting. Bart Cantz was such a man. During three seasons in the majors (1888-90), Cantz finished with a batting average of just .157 with five extra-base […]

The Philadelphia Athletics were in the cellar of the eight-team American League on September 27, 1943. The team began the season with a 27-26 record but fell to last place by winning only 20 of its next 94 games. Connie Mack, the Athletics’ 80-year-old owner-manager, acquired some new talent for his faltering club, and on […]

Much of what made Rickey Henderson great on the ballfield was apparent from the start. He made his debut in the Oakland Athletics’ green and gold at 20 years old in June of 1979, got into his patented crouch, and doubled in his first at-bat. His first stolen base came two innings later. Henderson immediately […]

The Reds were on the brink. Twenty years removed from their only World Series championship, against the infamous Black Sox in 1919, Cincinnati was poised to become NL champions. Hosting the second-place St. Louis Cardinals in the final home game on the 1939 schedule, the Reds could clinch the pennant at Crosley Field by defeating […]

Born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969, they moved to Milwaukee the following season and became the Brewers. In the first 12 years of their existence, the team never reached the postseason. That was about to change. The 1981 Brewers were a team that had been on the rise for the three prior seasons, but […]

Over the course of a 162-game season, there will invariably be games in which a team squanders a lead in the late innings and suffers a painful loss. When the season draws to a close and that team narrowly misses the playoffs, it’s only natural to look back upon the games that slipped away and […]

Tossing a shutout and striking out at least 10 batters in a game was not uncommon in Sandy Koufax’s illustrious 12-year big-league career. After all, he blanked opponents 40 times and reached double figures in punchouts 97 times in just 314 career regular-season starts. The Los Angeles Dodgers southpaw’s performance against the Pittsburgh Pirates in […]

For three consecutive seasons in the late 1880s, the Brooklyn Grays/Bridegrooms of the major league American Association relocated their home games from their grounds at Washington Park to a newly opened venue: Ridgewood Park II, originally known as Wallace’s Ridgewood Park or Grounds. The reason was straightforward: Ridgewood was located in Queens, where state blue […]

Columbia University went through six baseball coaches in eight years from 1906 through 1913. But in 1914, former big league pitcher Andy Coakley joined the program, handling pitchers and catchers. He became the Lions’ head coach in 1915 and remained in that job for 37 years, stepping down after the 1951 season. Coakley shaped the […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Harvey’s Wallbangers: The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers” (2020), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.   On June 2, 1982, general manager Harry Dalton’s firing of second-year manager Buck Rodgers and appointing longtime hitting coach Harvey Keunn as the interim manager was the final piece in the Milwaukee Brewers’ only World Series appearance. […]