Search Results

Fiddler Bill McGee is far better known as a musician in the Mississippi Mudcat Band organized by Pepper Martin than as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants from 1935 to 1942. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound righthander was a handsome guy with grey eyes, light brown hair, a ruddy face, and, according […]

Tom Bruno pitched in parts of four major-league seasons from 1976 through 1979. A 6-foot-5 righty, Bruno mainly worked in relief, compiling a 7-7 record and a 4.22 ERA over 69 games. He signed with the Kansas City Royals in 1971 and attended that club’s pioneering Baseball Academy. After reaching the majors with the Royals […]

Kurt Bevacqua played in 15 major league seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, and San Diego Padres from 1971 to 1985. Bevacqua crafted a career as a pinch hitter and utility player at a time when that role was needed on a major league roster and for […]

A strong, quiet, and athletic 205-pounder who stood 6-feet-2, wore glasses, batted from the left side, and threw right-handed, Norm Siebern split time between first base and the outfield for six major-league teams. Originally a Yankee, he played in two World Series for New York, and was part of the package the Yankees sent to […]

At spring training in 1921, Branch Rickey, vice president of the St. Louis Cardinals as well as the club’s field manager, was looking over the rookies in camp at Orange, Texas. Turning to veteran shortstop Doc Lavan, he said, “Tell that bat boy to get out of the infield.” Advised that the “bat boy” was […]

Vern Hoscheit’s career in professional baseball spanned six decades. Signed as a catcher by the New York Yankees in 1941, he had little hope of making the major-league roster with Bill Dickey and later Yogi Berra ensconced behind the plate. The Yankees front office took notice of Hoscheit’s leadership potential and made him a player-manager […]

It was the sixth inning of a 1913 exhibition game between the Brooklyn Superbas and Ty Cobb’s All Stars, and “there suddenly boomed from the first base coaching lines a chatter, the likes of which has not been heard from our side since the day of the Big Wind.”1 Benny Meyer was giving both teams […]

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Darrell Porter leapt into the waiting arms of relief pitcher Bruce Sutter after the last out of the 1982 World Series. Fireworks lit up the sky above Busch Stadium. Fans roared with delight; many jumped onto the field and joined the celebration. Porter, voted the Series MVP, said afterward, “I didn’t […]

Art Fromme struggled often with illness and injury, but when healthy he was among the best pitchers in the National League. In his finest season, the right-hander achieved a 19-13 record for the 1909 Cincinnati Reds. He never threw a major-league no-hitter, but from 1907-14 he hurled four one-hitters and four two-hitters. Arthur Henry Fromme […]

Oscar Dugey, a utility player, was called “the luckiest kid in baseball” after playing on two straight pennant winners, in 1914 and 1915. One of the best infielders to come out of the Texas League in the 20th century’s first two decades, the 5-foot 8, 160-pound right-hander hit just .194 in 195 games during his […]

Monty Pfyl’s career began and ended with his “ultimate sacrifice.” In the left-handed first baseman’s only major league at bat, he followed instructions from John McGraw and laid down a sacrifice bunt. This event occurred before Pfyl had ever played an inning in the minor leagues. He later committed one of the Deadball Era’s ultimate […]

In 1895, Sammy Samuels became the fifth Jewish player to appear in major league baseball and one of just six in the 19th century. Samuels’ brief stint with the St. Louis Brown Stockings was notable for his struggles at the plate and at third base. In the decades that followed, his poor play would be […]

From 1962 through 1968, right-hander Jack Lamabe pitched for seven different teams: the Pirates, Red Sox, Astros, White Sox, Mets, Cardinals, and Cubs. He won a world championship with the 1967 St. Louis Cardinals, helping them get through an August that was particularly challenging due to the loss of ace pitcher Bob Gibson to a […]

Jody Reed was a smallish (5-feet-9, 170 pounds)1 and fiery middle infielder with a rocket for a throwing arm and a knack for hitting doubles. He was with the Red Sox from 1987 to 1992. He went on to shorter stints with the Dodgers, Brewers, Padres, and Tigers during an 11-year major-league career. Reed gave […]

Wilbur Wehde was born on November 23, 1906, in the hamlet of Holstein, Iowa. The town, roughly 45 miles east of Sioux City, was at the time home to fewer than 1,000 residents, mostly first- or second-generation German immigrants. Wehde’s father, Gustave, managed a creamery and brokered other farmers’ produce, while his mother, Frieda, managed […]

By the numbers, pitcher Jon Warden’s final professional season, 1971, looks unimpressive. Bouncing between three teams in three organizations at the Double-A and Triple-A levels, the 24-year-old lefty went 1-0 with a 6.43 ERA in nine games.1 In 14 innings he walked nine hitters and struck out only three. His best performance of the season […]

Bob Ojeda had no love lost for the Boston Red Sox, and the feeling was mutual. The free-thinking and independent southpaw had not always fit in when Fenway was his home park, and his hard-line pro-union stance leading up to the previous year’s two-day strike had not endeared him to all of the team’s veterans. […]

It was almost as if sportswriters had a sense of relief following Bob Groom’s no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox in the Gateway City. Nothing “remotely resembled a hit,” declared beat writer W.J. O’Connor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch;1 Groom’s gem was “free from stain or taint,” offered the Chicago Tribune’s I.E. Sanborn.2 A day […]

When Eddie Cicotte‘s first pitch crossed the middle of home plate for a strike, everything appeared normal to the 30,511 fans at Redland Field for Game One of the 1919 World Series. It was a festive day in Cincinnati, and one long overdue. The city was celebrating its first pennant winner since 1882 as well […]

When baseball’s stars convened in Pittsburgh for the 1994 All-Star Game, emerging pennant races and milestone quests shared headlines with labor-management discord. A strike shuttered the majors a month later, relegating the unfinished campaign to an ignominious place in the game’s history, but the National League’s 8-7 win over the American League in 10 innings […]

The Northern Independent League, formerly known as the Northern New York League, was expected to go from four to six teams in 1906 by expanding into two Canadian cities, Montreal and Ottawa.1 But when Montreal’s application was “turned down with a thud,” the league made a curious decision.2 It admitted Ottawa and began the season […]

Some baseball fans of the 1970s and ’80s might say that pitcher Dan Boitano never unlocked his full potential. A three-time first-round draft pick,1 Boitano appeared in just 51 games over five big-league seasons, posting a 2-2 record and a 5.68 ERA. The members of the 1973 Elmira Pioneer-Red Sox2 would be unlikely to agree […]

There was much ballyhoo when, in 1962, Major League Baseball made its long-overdue move into the Deep South by awarding an expansion franchise to Houston, Texas. This was swiftly followed by a club moving to Atlanta and by two more expansion franchises in Florida. Yet in all the ballyhoo, it was largely forgotten that Major […]

Here is a list of all known players to have hit four or more home runs in a single professional game, first published by SABR founding member Bob McConnell in The Minor League Research Journal, Volume 2 (1997), updated in Going for the Fences: The Minor League Home Run Record Book (2009), and now maintained […]