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Beginning in 1888 and for the next five summers, right-hander Huyler Westervelt was a pitching standout on various amateur baseball teams in the greater New York City area. As a result, he attracted a number of offers from major league clubs but did not accept one until he signed with the New York Giants in […]

In 1927, the Chicago Cubs signed local sandlot hurler Roy Hansen. Skipper Joe McCarthy thought highly enough of the 20-year-old to extend him an invitation to spring training for the first of three successive years. Hansen was surely overwhelmed by the team’s picturesque training facility on Catalina Island, club owner William Wrigley’s private sanctuary located […]

The St. Louis Cardinals captured three National League pennants during the 1980s. The team’s stalwart second baseman during the successful run was Tom Herr, a line-drive hitter who played outstanding defense and had a knack for getting on base. In his All-Star season of 1985, Herr hit .302 with career bests in home runs (8) […]

  Any objective summary of Eddie Bennett’s contributions to baseball makes him seem at best a minor figure in the game’s history. Yet during the 1920s and early 1930s, his evident devotion for the game made him a powerful symbol to many fans. Although his time in the limelight was brief, there are signs that […]

Mastering the art of the line drive but unable to master his own temper, Heinie Manush burst onto the major league scene with the Detroit Tigers and quickly became one of the fiercest and most feared hitters in the game. Born July 20, 1901, in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Henry Emmett Manush was raised in the Deep […]

A Wisconsin hero on the football gridiron and the baseball diamond, Robert James ‘Red’ Wilson was a bright, talented, and dedicated student-athlete who later enjoyed a good major league career as a catcher for the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers, and, briefly, the Cleveland Indians from 1951 to 1960. One of the greatest athletes […]

At the turn of the twentieth century, Native American baseball players found themselves becoming integrated into the professional ranks of baseball. Charles Albert “Chief” Bender, a member of the White Earth Band of Chippewa, became a Hall of Fame pitcher for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics. Louis LeRoy of Stock-bridge-Munsee, the boy with the “ten thousand […]

Alfredo Claudino Griffin was a professional baseball player for 20 years, 18 of which were in the major leagues. He was a fan favorite for his outgoing personality and sure-handed glove in the middle infield. And he’s the answer to two great trivia questions: (1) Who was on deck when Joe Carter hit the ninth-inning […]

Horace Wilds is pictured in the middle row, second from right, in a photo of the 1887-88 Oakland Tribunes baseball team published in the Oakland Tribune newspaper on September 6, 1908. (Courtesy of Stephen V. Rice)   Horace Wilds, an African American catcher, excelled on white semipro teams in Oakland and San Francisco from 1886 […]

The split-finger fastball became a popular weapon for pitchers in the 1980s. Few if any used it better than righty Mike Scott. With the splitter, he went from mediocrity to ace. Though many believed he was doing something else to make the ball move so much — namely, scuffing it — that was never proven […]

Although sometimes overshadowed by Andrew “Rube” Foster, lefthander Dan McClellan starred as one of the finest African-American pitchers during the twentieth century’s first decade. With his peak coming with the Cuban X Giants from 1900 to 1904, then the Philadelphia Giants from 1905 to 1910, he may have won 300 games over his career. McClellan […]

Adam DeBus was one of many “cup of coffee” major leaguers, spending about six weeks with the 1917 Pittsburgh Pirates. By all accounts he was a marginal player, having played only 2½ previous seasons of professional baseball at the Class C level. His opportunity in the big leagues was probably due more to wartime manpower […]

With two major leaguers, a third brother, Charles, who coached the Villanova University baseball team for more than two decades, and a fourth, Hugh, who coached the Hazleton High School basketball team to three state titles, the McGeehan family of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, built a towering sports legacy in the first third of the 20th […]

The Clown Prince of BaseballDid 5,000 gigsFor 50 years he shared the billWith circus dogs and talking pigsAnd by the 9th inningHe’d be back at the motelWith an early morning wake-up callAnd the next night he’d be someplace else.1   Max Patkin never made it to the big leagues as a player. But that did […]

Few have eclipsed Lefty O’Doul as a baseball legend in San Francisco. He was known first as a pitcher and then as one of the game’s best hitters. Later, he managed the local Seals club for 17 years. He was always readily identifiable for his attire and was nicknamed “The Man in the Green Suit” […]

Lefty Tyler was the third of the Miracle Braves’ Big Three, and the only one who didn’t win a 1914 World Series game (though the Braves won his only start). During the astonishing run from last to first, Tyler was, according to sportswriter Tom Meany, “untouchable when he had to be, which was most of […]

Patsy Tebeau was a pugnacious competitor from the mean streets of St. Louis who sought any advantage he thought he could gain. His tactics delivered a brand of baseball that clearly was much dirtier than you see in the modern game. Bill James has written about 19th century baseball: “The tactics of the eighties were […]

On June 22, 1990, the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers at Riverfront Stadium. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Reds’ Eric Davis was rounding third base after a base hit to right field—the would-be winning run. Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia stood at home plate as if he was not expecting a […]

Herb “Baldy” Souell, 5-feet-9 and 150 pounds, carved out an 11-year career as an undersized third baseman for the Kansas City Monarchs from 1940 to 1950. He threw right-handed but was a switch-hitter whose valuable bat kept him in the top third of the Monarchs’ lineup for most of his career. Once Souell’s time with […]

In 1969 the Minnesota Twins ran away with the first American League West Division pennant by winning 97 games. In 1970 they showed no signs of slowing down. A month and a half into the season, the red-hot Twins sported a record of 24-10 and sought a sweep of a three-game series against the Kansas […]

With a 3-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians in the first game of a doubleheader on Tuesday, August 22, 1978, the Milwaukee Brewers won their 70th game for only the third time in their nine major-league seasons.1 A 12-4 record in eight twin bills (five sweeps, two splits, swept once) played a role in their […]

“‘Why,’ said an American after the match, ‘your crowd applauded all the fly hits. In the States the crowds only let us know when we miss ’em.’” — Sydney Morning Herald, January 2, 1914   The steamship St. Albans roared into Brisbane, Australia, on January 1, 1914. This was “an American invasion” of Australia on […]

Baseball fans, tune in this season to SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a new weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer. SABRcast will feature insights and analysis of what’s happening in modern baseball on and off the field, plus compelling interviews with figures from around the game — and music from […]

Once a gem, its luster long since faded along with its utility, Hinchliffe Stadium stands as a relic of a working-class city proud of its baseball heritage and teeters on the precipice of revival. Paterson, New Jersey, lays claim to this storied facility, once the renowned site of Negro League games, but it is hardly […]