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In the annals of baseball dating back to when it first became a game played by professionals, the great teams have always taken on the persona of their managers. This includes the old Chicago White Stockings of the National League led by their first baseman-manager Adrian “Cap” Anson, and continues with managers such as Ned […]

The tale is familiar to followers of baseball legend: Young boy growing up in rough-and-tumble circumstances, running roughshod over parents and teachers, unrepentantly scoffing at law and decency, finally ends up in front of the local magistrate who has him declared incorrigible and packed off to the nearest reformatory. There, the lad discovers an outlet […]

Right-handed pitcher Bob Kline was a very large ballplayer, with a self-reported playing weight of 235 pounds and standing 6’4”. [1] When Red Sox trainer Bits Bierhalter put him on a diet regime, he lost effectiveness. Red Sox scout Jack McCallister discovered him at Central High School in Columbus, Ohio, where he played baseball, football, […]

Southpaw Pat Caraway garnered national attention in his rookie season with the Chicago White Sox in 1930 for his unorthodox pitching motion. “[He has] one of the most elaborate, complete and amusing windups ever seen in the majors,” mused sportswriter Hardin Burnley. “The lanky human slingshot twists himself into an intricate knot before suddenly hurling […]

Frank M. Schulte was the slugging right fielder for the great Chicago Cubs teams of 1906-10. After his first start on September 21, 1904, “Wildfire” remained with the Windy City club until 1916, and outlasted the likes of Mordecai Brown, Frank Chance, Johnny Evers, and Joe Tinker, who by the end of Schulte’s days in […]

Although rarely in the everyday lineup for an extended period, George Shoch was a useful member of several late-19th-century major-league teams. In an era of small rosters, Shoch’s versatility – he could play second, shortstop, third, and the outfield competently – was coveted by his managers. His durability, strong work ethic, and temperate habits were […]

Nino Espinosa was a right-handed pitcher with good control whose career ended prematurely because of a shoulder injury. After that, he became a scout in his native Dominican Republic until his tragic death from a heart attack at age 34. Arnulfo Acevedo Espinosa was born on August 15, 1953, in Villa Altagracia, about 30 miles […]

Infielder Larry Wolfe spent two full seasons in the major leagues, 1978 with the Minnesota Twins and 1979 with the Boston Red Sox, and a partial season for each team, too. He attracted enough interest in high school and college that he had been drafted by both the Dodgers (in 1971) and the Yankees (in […]

Due to a single base-running blunder on September 23, 1908, Fred Merkle became known by such unflattering epithets as “Bonehead,” “Leather Skull,” and “Ivory Pate.” Those who knew the right-handed cleanup hitter, however, described him as a “gentleman and scholar” and “voracious reader”; in fact, teammate Chief Meyers called him “the smartest man on the […]

Baseball has no player like Joe Pate today. He was a minor-league superstar, “the idol of Fort Worth baseball fans for a generation.”1 The burly left-handed pitcher won 257 games in 20 seasons from the bottom to the top of the minors. “Joe Pate was the greatest pitcher and put more money into the till […]

You could think of Al Huenke as another Moonlight Graham. Archie “Moonlight” Graham had one of the briefest major-league careers on record — two innings in right field for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905. He became posthumously famous when he turned up as a character in W.P. Kinsella’s 1982 novel Shoeless Joe […]

The major-league career of Dutch Schliebner can be summed up in three words: “George Sisler’s replacement.” When the 1922 American League MVP, Sisler, came down with sinus conditions after his banner season, it put the St. Louis Browns in a terrible bind. After the Browns experimented with Marty McManus and Cedric Durst at first base […]

A biography may be defined as a “remarkable odyssey through life and the lessons learned.”1 This description could have suited virtually anyone, but Bart Mindszenthy adapted it to introduce Ron Taylor before the Empire Club of Canada. Taylor’s odyssey ranged from the University of Toronto (the only alumnus to play major-league baseball), to the Ontario […]

Ron Hassey is the only catcher to have been behind the plate for two perfect games in the major leagues. Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, Mickey Cochrane, Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter, and Roy Campanella did not catch any. Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, and Iván Rodríguez have “only” one to their name. In fact, […]

Given baseball’s nature as a spectator sport, fans bless players with fame, and almost never find it themselves. An exception is Frank Wood, who gained notoriety in the 1890s as “Well! Well! Well!” Wood loudly directed his signature call towards his hometown New York Giants, quickly gaining the attention of the sporting press. Yet Wood’s […]

Outfielder Don Mueller was a hard man to strike out – in five of the eight years in which he played in at least 120 games for the New York Giants in the 1950s, he led the league in fewest strikeouts per at-bats. He was a two-time All-Star who participated in some of the most […]

The Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies, two teams firmly entrenched at the bottom of the National League standings, squared off in an unlikely pitchers’ duel at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia on August 22, 1921. Fans who attended were treated to a “herculean pitching battle”1 fought by two unlikely mound combatants, journeymen slingers Elmer Ponder […]

Like all the other major-league teams, the Boston Red Sox had lost many of their best players to military service during World War II. In 1945 five pitchers who had been regulars, Tex Hughson, Joe Dobson, Mickey Harris, Earl Johnson, and Mace Brown, were serving in the military. The Red Sox had finished in fourth […]

The fans were excited as they entered Marlins Park for the Friday night game pitting the Miami Marlins against the St. Louis Cardinals. While playing in the United States, Ichiro Suzuki had 2,998 hits and was only two away from the magic number of 3,000. The Marlins made it known that Ichiro would be in […]

The New York Mets faced the Houston Astros in the final game of a four-game series on the night of June 12, 1977. For Tom Seaver, the Mets’ starter against Floyd Bannister, it was his last game before being traded to the Cincinnati Reds. Both teams had losing records and the Mets needed a win […]

The Philadelphia Athletics were one game away from their third consecutive World Series title, an unprecedented feat.1 Their opponents, the St. Louis Cardinals, were reeling from an 8-1 loss in the sixth game and would be relying in Game Seven on a 38-year-old pitcher with an aching hand, a sore shoulder, and an inflamed appendix. […]

Rube Waddell approached home plate as Patsy Donovan came to bat in the fourth inning. Donovan, Washington’s right fielder and manager, stepped backward; he had reason to be wary. The Philadelphia pitcher was pulling a bundle out from under his sweater. The 2,000 fans in Washington’s American League Park stirred, then, as Waddell spoke, went […]

The surprising Senators, riding a three-game losing streak, entered the May 12 game tied for fourth place in the American League with a 14-14 record, four games behind the front-running Cleveland Indians. The Tigers, winners of four straight and seven of their last eight under new manager Jimmy Dykes, were 9-16, 6½ games off the […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox” (2019), edited by Don Zminda.   The Go-Go Sox were born on Opening Day at Comiskey Park in 1951, children of a fast-talking general manager and a slow-talking manager. After the Black Sox were banned, the White Sox recorded only seven winning […]