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Many believe that spitballer Frank Shellenback had his major-league career stolen from him when his key pitch was outlawed. In 1920 the National Commission did away with trick deliveries, including the spitball — and Shellenback’s team, the Chicago White Sox, for whom he had pitched in 1918 and 1919, didn’t list his name among those […]

Throwing over 45 consecutive scoreless innings for a last-place minor-league team? Yes, that deserved a call-up! Louisville-bred Rudy Schwenck, an early spitballer,1 went from working for a whiskey distillery to working on an incredible summer scoreless streak to a major league diamond over a six-month period in 1909. He was a “one-hit wonder” during a […]

Every red-blooded American boy growing up during the Great Depression dreamed of playing in the World Series, preferably in Yankee Stadium. Philip Donald Haugstad came close twice, missing by one day in 1947 and by one pitch to Bobby Thomson in 1951. Phil entered the world on February 23, 1924, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. […]

Some baseball players have the luck of being in the right place at the right time. Many others never do. A few, however, momentarily have this kind of good fortune in their grasp, then see it taken away. Shortstop Rey Quiñones was a May call-up for the 1986 Boston Red Sox, a team destined to […]

Ivan de Jesus Sr. is often remembered as being involved in the worst trade in the Philadelphia Phillies history, but the stigma associated with that trade didn’t actually define his playing career. He is otherwise known for being a durable, serviceable shortstop for the Chicago Cubs and the Phillies and for making two World Series […]

Two brief stints in the major leagues with six years in between. But right-handed pitcher Paul Musser also enjoyed a full 15 years in the minor leagues, with four 20-win seasons. He began pitching professionally in 1909, the year he turned 20. He was born on the 24th of June in 1889 in Millheim, Pennsylvania. […]

The son of a longtime major leaguer and the younger brother of another, Roberto Alomar was immersed in the world of baseball from an early age. Roberto’s father, Sandy Alomar, spent 15 years as a major-league infielder, and Roberto and his brother, also Sandy, spent most summers in major-league locker rooms. It was during these […]

Which pitcher earned the first win for the expansion Montreal Expos in 1969? If you said left-handed reliever Don Shaw, you would be correct. Besides the Expos, Shaw, a journeyman pitcher, applied his craft in parts of five seasons between 1967 and 1972 for the New York Mets, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Oakland […]

Al Smith was an accomplished ballplayer whose major-league career spanned 12 seasons with four American League teams. Primarily an outfielder, he played six positions as a major leaguer and was a fine defender with a strong arm and good speed. Smith finished with a .272 lifetime batting average, hit 164 home runs, and reached base […]

As he had done many times in recent years, Jimmie Foxx chose to spend the afternoon of July 21, 1967, with his younger brother, Sam. The two men lived close by one another in Miami, and often got together to reminisce about the elder Foxx’s legendary baseball career, in which he slugged 534 home runs, […]

The fifth-winningest pitcher of all time, Warren Spahn went 363-245 over parts of 21 years from 1942 to 1965. Only by remaining in the game two seasons too long did he fail to finish with an ERA under 3.00 (3.09) and a winning percentage over .600 (.597), and his totals are all the more impressive […]

Outfielder Joe “Pop” Durham played parts of three major league seasons for the Baltimore Orioles (87 games in 1954 and 1957) and St. Louis Cardinals (six games in 1959). He also played 10 years in the minors with a total of five teams. In 1954, Durham hit the first home run by an African American […]

Kid Mohler played more games at second base (2,871) than anyone else in professional baseball history, and he ranks second in bases stolen in the minor leagues (769).1 For two decades he excelled in the minors, including eight seasons with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League from 1905 to 1912. He captained […]

America has always had great duos. In entertainment it was Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, George Burns and Gracie Allen. In baseball it was the great Chicago White Sox tag team of Jerry Staley and Turk Lown. Together they formed the best one-two punch out of the bullpen in 1959 for manager Al Lopez. […]

Fred Schulte played center field for the pennant-winning 1933 Washington Senators. His three-run homer in Game Five of the World Series against the Giants pulled the Senators even. But New York won on a 10th-inning homer by Mel Ott that tipped off Schulte’s glove. The victory gave the Giants the championship. In his 11-year big-league […]

Dorian “Doe” Boyland was a good prospect who never got a proper chance to show what he could do in the major leagues. The first baseman received three trials with the Pittsburgh Pirates — in 1978, 1979, and 1981. He got into a total of 21 games, but started none of them and played in […]

Eddie Brown was a great hitter and a superb defender for the New York Giants, Brooklyn Robins, and Boston Braves during the roaring decade of the 1920s. Over the span of 20 seasons in professional baseball, Brown patrolled all three outfield stanchions, covered first base one full season, and handled shortstop another. As a rural […]

Milwaukee Brewers scout Felix Delgado “found [Ed Romero playing in the mountains of Puerto Rico two years ago.” Romero was 17 at the time. “After one workout, the Brewers signed … Romero, along with four others.”1 Edgardo Ralph (Rivera) Romero, born on December 9, 1957, in Santurce, Puerto Rico, was indeed signed at 17, in […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates spent most of the first 2½ months of the 1979 season struggling to play at the .500 level before they engineered a blockbuster trade that beat reporter Charley Feeney considered “too good to be true.”1 On June 28 the Pirates sent three pitching prospects (Fred Breining, Al Holland, and Ed Whitson) to […]

About 3,000 spectators filled the Union Grounds1 in St. Louis to watch the last game in a three-game National League series between New York Giants and St. Louis Maroons. The Giants had won the first two games, played on May 21 and 22, outscoring the home team by a combined 13-4. Since May 23 fell […]

What is the best day of the year? If you were to ask this question of a Brewers fan, more often than not you would get an answer of “Opening Day!” along with a facial expression that speaks, “Was that rhetorical?” For many fans, Opening Day is a holiday; a guaranteed vacation day each year, […]

When the New York Yankees arrived in Boston in April 2007, the Boston Red Sox had not swept a series from the Yankees at Fenway Park for 17 years. The last time had been August 31-September 2, 1990, part of Boston’s only season home sweep of the Yankees in franchise history. The last time the […]