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The brand-new 1962 New York Mets posted one of the worst seasons in major-league history. Roger Craig lost his 20th game of the season on August 21. Craig entered that game in the ninth with the Mets leading the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4. He surrendered four runs before he was pulled by manager Casey Stengel with […]

Baseball fans love to say when they go to the ballpark that there is always a chance that something may happen that they have never seen before. Those among the announced crowd of 9,614 who stayed to the end of the matchup between the University of Arkansas and the University of Central Arkansas on April […]

“One day when I was three years old my Uncle Bathis (my daddy’s only brother) asked me what my name was. I said to him, ‘Preacher.’ Don’t know why I said that but it’s stuck with me ever since.”1 — Preacher Roe   There is an excitement that builds in anticipation of each World Series […]

Despite winning three professional batting titles, outfielder Luis Mercedes played only 70 major-league games over parts of three seasons (1991-1993) for the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants. After retiring, he became a renowned hitting instructor in his native Dominican Republic. Luis Roberto Mercedes Santana was born on February 15, 1968, in San Pedro de […]

Em Lindbeck’s big-league career spanned only two plate appearances. Although unsuccessful in the major leagues, he achieved success in nearly all other areas of his life. Lindbeck was a high school class president, a decorated multisport collegiate athlete, an all-star minor leaguer, an esteemed professional educator, and a public servant. A series of poor decisions […]

The life of Alexander Bannwart unfolded like that of a junior-grade Baron Munchausen — except that Bannwart’s adventures were real, not make-believe. He first stepped onto the public stage in 1906 when, despite being bereft of professional ballplaying experience, he somehow managed to land a berth with the Lowell (Massachusetts) Tigers of the Class B […]

It looked, at first glance, like a mistake. The Associated Press’s obituary for Ron Plaza, which ran in newspapers across the US in April 2012, noted that the Oakland Athletics’ roving minor-league instructor was entering his 61st season in professional baseball, but listed his age as only 77.1 There was no error. The prodigious infielder […]

Dick Siebert seemed destined for a life as a Lutheran minister but instead devoted more than 50 years of his life to the game of baseball. Stuck in the minor leagues as a player, he finally got a chance at the big leagues when Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Philadelphia Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack […]

Hank O’Day is one of the few men to have played, umpired, and managed at the major-league level. He was a World Series pitching hero. He had one of the greatest starts of any rookie manager in history. He was the home-plate umpire for 23 World Series games, as well as for four no-hitters in […]

“I’m just a guy who worked hard to get into this position. Nobody recruited me out of high school. The Houston kids got all the publicity. If a scout came to town, we all figured he was from the marines. I had to go to a tryout camp to get a junior college scholarship. I […]

Billy Geer had a somewhat nomadic baseball career, playing parts of six major league seasons with seven different teams. That nomadic life would continue in his post-baseball career as he took up another profession that would keep him on the run for the rest of his life. William H. Geer was born about 1852 in […]

Ferocious shortstop Bill Dahlen was ejected 65 times by umpires as a player and manager. This and other behavior earned him the nickname “Bad Bill.” Yet his rowdy character tended to overshadow his contributions—a reliable hitter; excellent, aggressive baserunner; and one of the finest fielders of his era (the 1890s and early 1900s). During his […]

Though he played ten years in the majors, when people look back at Ossie Vitt’s career, they tend to remember the player mutiny against him by the team called the “Cleveland Crybabies” when he was manager of the Indians in 1940. He managed the Indians from 1938 through 1940, and 18 seasons in the minor […]

Frederick Romaine Applegate, who won one of three decisions pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1904, was born on May 9, 1879. His father, James, emigrated from England to America in 1871. James settled in Williamsport, Pennsylvania’s timber-industry hub, where he worked as a grocer. In April 1878 he married New York native Mary Williams.1 […]

Right-handed pitcher Vallie Eaves had an undistinguished major-league career, appearing in just 24 games spread over five seasons with three different teams. Alcoholism and erratic behavior plagued him throughout his career. In 1945 The Sporting News wrote “… More than once firewater got him into trouble, but Eaves loved baseball and he could pitch … […]

He was a 21-game winner as a rookie in 1944 and four years later started the deciding game of the World Series, but these feats are not what Bill Voiselle is remembered for today. The right-handed pitcher compiled more than 160 victories in a long career split between the major and minor leagues, but it’s […]

“One of the best and most underrated players I have ever seen.” — Joe Morgan, Hall of Famer “A Puerto Rican legend whose brilliance equals that of the stars.” — Honduran sportswriter Greg Moraga   Growing up in Houston in the 1970s and ’80s, every kid idolized Astros left fielder José Cruz. They dreamed of […]

A player by the name of Percival Sumner Rising wouldn’t go long without attracting a nickname. Pop Rising is how the young player became known at least as early as 1903.i Rising was bald at a very early age, and – the Hartford Courant explained – “as baldness is associated with age, it was believed […]

Before John Stefero was 30 years old, his baseball statistics included 18 broken fingers1, a fractured hand, and a cracked kneecap. “A catcher’s life,” he sighed. Over three major league seasons, the left-handed hitter also earned a World Series ring in 1983, standing ovations and curtain calls from his hometown fans, and enough memories and […]

On July 1, 1920, Walter Johnson was attempting to complete a feat that had thus far eluded him in his thirteen-year career. The Washington Senator hurler was one out away from pitching his first no-hitter. Johnson was pitching a great game, striking out 10 Red Sox hitters and getting six others to foul out. He […]

Diminutive Andy Oyler — listed as 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds on his contract card from The Sporting News1 and recalled as having “very large” hands by a boyhood friend of his grandson2 — was known more his fielding than his hitting. Nevertheless, Oyler is best remembered for a home run he never hit. Andrew Paul […]

A glorious, romantic, and competitive era of Cuban amateur baseball was the early 1940s.1 During that time, there was a quartet of star pitchers: Conrado Marrero, Julio Moreno, Rogelio Martínez, and Sandalio Consuegra. All four entered the big leagues in 1950 with the Washington Senators. Consuegra – often known as Sandy in the U.S. – […]

Bob Watson of the Houston Astros touches home plate to score what was widely reported as the 1 millionth run in Major League Baseball history on May 4, 1975. (COURTESY OF THE HOUSTON ASTROS)   Like many youngsters growing up in urban America in the 1950s, Bob Watson’s first at bat was in a game […]

  Baseball only decrees 90 feet between bases and 60 feet 6 inches from home plate to the mound. Elsewhere, look backward, angel.“Thanks to Alexander Cartwright,” said former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, “the outfield distance, fence height, and space between the seats and lines vary. Parks could do as they liked.”1 Some have been liked better. […]