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When Pat Gosney shipped off for US Army duty in the summer of 1952, he left with a good story to tell his buddies: Just before entering military service, he’d pitched a three-hit shutout against a major-league team. The story came with a few caveats, which Gosney no doubt admitted by and by. The shutout […]

The 1886 Chicago White Stockings successfully defended their National League crown on the broad shoulders of captain Adrian “Cap” Anson, batting champ Mike “King” Kelly, and a dominant trio of pitchers. Between them, John Clarkson, Jim McCormick, and one-year wonder Jocko Flynn started and racked up a decision in every one of the team’s 124 […]

Roberto “Bobby” Ramos was born in Cuba in 1955. Emigrating to Miami, Florida, as a child, he caught for the Jackson High School baseball team. At the end of his senior year, he was named to the All-City team and selected in the seventh round of the June 1974 amateur draft by the Montreal Expos.1 […]

Ever since the convention of running the bases counterclockwise was established, sometime between 1834, when informal rules originating from the English game of rounders specified clockwise, and 1857, when the opposite direction was formally codified,1 infield positions beyond first base have been the domain of the right-handed. Able to throw leftward without pirouetting, righties have […]

In this game, 37-year-old Diego Seguí broke the Boston Red Sox franchise record for the most strikeouts in a game by a reliever, setting a mark that lasted nearly a half-century. After 10-plus years in the big leagues, spent mostly as a swingman for the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics, Washington Senators, and Seattle Pilots, […]

It takes a certain kind of person to play catcher. They have to be the sage in-game counsel to the pitcher, helping him navigate the opposing lineup. They have to have the endurance to squat and crouch for three-plus hours, game in and game out, for 120 to 140 games per season. You also need […]

John “Beans” Reardon, left, wearing a flu mask underneath his umpire’s mask, prepares to call a pitch in a California Winter League game on January 26, 1919, in Pasadena, California. During a global influenza pandemic, all players and fans were required by city ordinance to wear facial coverings at all times while outdoors. The catcher […]

“Only 56 more and I’ll catch Babe Ruth,”1 quipped Chuck Hiller after accomplishing what the Sultan of Swat never could. On October 8, 1962, this singles hitter made history by striking the seventh World Series grand slam – and the first by a National Leaguer – in leading the San Francisco Giants to a 7-3 […]

Late-19th century American life could be grisly. Annually, from 1880 to 1900, some 35,000 workers died and another 500,000 were injured.1 Away from the workplace, the deadly and maiming effects of fires, explosions, and railroads took up volumes of newsprint. Medical and public health advances that would add decades to American lifespans lay mostly on […]

Few names in early 20th-century America incited as much animosity and vitriol as Kaiser Wilhelm II, the emperor of Germany. After assuming the throne in 1888, the bombastic and often tactless leader inaugurated an aggressive foreign policy program that antagonized nations and directly led to World War I, in 1914. No wonder Ohio-born Irvin Wilhelm […]

The thing that sticks in the minds of many baseball fans about Greg Harris is that he was ambidextrous. Indeed, he had a glove custom-made for him with an extra thumb, so he could use it either on his left hand or his right hand. Though he long wanted the opportunity, there was only one […]

As far as we know he never played baseball. He certainly was a fan, but America’s pastime was never his greatest passion. Even when he owned a club that won two National League pennants, Francis Dale had more irons in the fire, serving simultaneously in several unrelated enterprises. His name is omitted from most of […]

In the 1970s, three decades after his four-year major-league playing career had come to an end Johnny Welaj (pronounced “WELL-eye”) wrote to author Harrington E. Crissey Jr. to reminisce. “It was great to be associated with [Philadelphia Athletics manager] Connie Mack,” he said. “There are not enough good things that baseball can say of him. […]

A rookie at the age of 34, he beat the Chicago White Stockings 10 consecutive times in the heart of their dynasty, struck out 483 batters in a single-season, and earned the reputation as one of the first power pitchers in the history of baseball. Hugh Ignatius “One-Arm” Daily did all that with the greatest […]

Serious major-league fans know that Jack Chesbro was the last 40-game winner, posting 41 victories in 1904. Others are aware that Carl Hubbell won 24 consecutive games from July 1936 into 1937. These are major-league records, but at the lower levels of baseball, Rip Hagerman posted 46 wins in his first year of professional ball […]

Marv Goodwin’s professional baseball career began with great promise in the spring of 1916. With a blazing fastball, a puzzling spitball, and great control, the young man showed the potential to become a major league star. He was one of the 17 pitchers to benefit from the spitter’s “grandfather clause,” throwing the wet one legally […]

Russ Kemmerer pitched a one-hit shutout in his first major-league start, on July 18, 1954, at Fenway Park, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 4-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Deprived of a no-hitter in the seventh inning when Sam Mele’s fly ball to left field eluded the outstretched glove of Ted Williams, the […]

Amos Booth started his professional baseball career with the Cincinnati Red Stockings.1 No, not the undefeated touring team from 1869, but the tragically inept 9-56 squad from 1876. Booth was the jack-of-all-trades for Cincinnati. He opened the season as a highly-regarded third baseman, but saw as much action at catcher and shortstop as he did […]

Curt Flood, Gene Conley, and Danny Ainge had nothing on Baltimore native Peck Lerian, who challenged the reserve clause and earned fame on both the basketball court and the baseball diamond. Showing great promise as the leading member of the Philadelphia Phillies’ young receiving corps at the close of the 1920s, he also stood out […]

At the turn of the 20th century, Dick Padden distinguished himself as one of the smartest men in baseball. Nicknamed “Brains,” the savvy second baseman found ways to take advantage of game situations. “Padden has the brains and also the talent,” declared sportswriter Jack Tanner in 1904.1 A “born leader” he was called.2 Richard Joseph […]

A native of Toronto, Ohio, a small city on the state’s border with West Virginia, Gordie Hinkle was a right-handed-hitting catcher who played 10 seasons of minor-league ball and saw 27 games in the major leagues, all in 1934 for the Boston Red Sox. Catchers of the day weren’t expected to hit particularly well, and […]

Though acknowledging that Fred Luderus “is not a Stuffy McInnis on defense, nor a Jake Daubert in batting, nor a Fred Merkle on the baselines,” J. C. Kofoed in the July 1915 issue of Baseball Magazine called the Phillies first baseman “the most under-rated man in baseball today.” A pure fastball hitter who feasted on […]

Casey Stengel is best remembered for his managerial accomplishments with the juggernaut New York Yankees of the 1950s and the bumbling, beloved New York Mets of the early ’60s, but decades earlier he was a hard-hitting outfielder who compiled a .284 batting average over 14 seasons in the National League. Planting his right foot closer […]

The older brother of a similarly short-tenured major leaguer, Frank Bell was a 10-game catcher/utilityman for the 1885 Brooklyn Grays of the American Association. Bell was out of baseball several years after his brief big-league audition and working in security when his life came to an abrupt end at age 28. He was fatally shot […]