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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. A crowd gathers outside the New York Herald newspaper building to watch a billboard diagram of a game during the 1911 World Series between the Philadelphia A’s and New York Giants. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   If you were […]

Rip Russell came through in the biggest moment of his career, with a pinch-hit single leading off the top of the eighth inning in Game Seven of the 1946 World Series. Four batters later, both he and Catfish Metkovich scored on Dom DiMaggio’s double and the Boston Red Sox had tied the game against the […]

Montana’s Moonlight Graham, Wyman Andrus appeared in a single game at third base for the 1885 Providence Grays. His post-playing days, however, were spent as a distinguished leader of medicine and politics in an old west cattle town. William Wyman Andrus was born October 14, 1858, in the village of Orono, Ontario, Canada. He was […]

Many people can go through an entire life without a lifelong friend and even if they have one, at some point they will be separated for many years. The friendship of Jim Frey and Don Zimmer not only has endured for many decades since childhood, but the two spent the bulk of their friendship in […]

In the history of Bucknell University athletics, George Cockill’s name looms large. A three-sport varsity athlete in football, basketball, and baseball at the college in central Pennsylvania, the Class of 1905 alumnus returned to serve as varsity head coach in all three sports. He was posthumously selected to the school’s athletic Hall of Fame.1 Cockill’s […]

Baseball fans have become acquainted with the story of outfielder Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, whose major-league career consisted of playing two innings of one game without an at-bat for the New York Giants in 1905, primarily via the 1989 film Field of Dreams. In the history of America’s national pastime, there have been many players whose […]

In late July 1958 newspapers nationwide published a brief Associated Press dispatch announcing the death of Deadball Era pitcher Jack Rowan.1 Follow-up articles supplied poignant detail. The elderly gent, believed to be about 85 and without family, had spent his final years living alone in a small Detroit hotel room, surviving on a small monthly […]

Buck Herzog was one of the most versatile infielders in the history of the major leagues; his 1,493 games were divided almost equally among second base, shortstop, and third base. His motto, “When you get ’em down, choke ’em,” earned him the nickname “Choke ‘Em Charley.” John McGraw signed Herzog for the New York Giants […]

Former major leaguer Ralph Edward “Hap” Myers faced a possible death sentence for armed robbery in El Paso the year after he left the game, but later went on to serve as the director of a number of companies and retired as vice president of Laurentide Finance Corp. He was acquitted of the alleged crime […]

One might say that Jim Boyle went into the family business – recruited by no less than Hall-of-Fame manager John McGraw himself1 – but ultimately he chose his own path after being the first Boyle to attend college. Jim Boyle followed his uncles Jack Boyle and Eddie Boyle as a catcher into the major leagues. […]

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 […]

Since major-league baseball began, no player has ever enjoyed a debut to match Ted Cox’s. In every one of his first six at-bats, he got a base hit. Other players have made a hit in their first time at bat. Some of the greatest hitters of all time took a long time to get established. […]

Bill Hallahan “cast a spell of impotence over the bats of the slugging Athletics,” gushed St. Louis scribe J. Roy Stockton after the Cardinals southpaw’s overpowering three-hit shutout of heavily favored Philadelphia.1 Hallahan “pitched magnificently,” in the eyes of sportswriter S.O. Grauley of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “His curve ball was just wild enough to keep […]

The 1971 World Series pitted the best teams from each league, the NL’s Pittsburgh Pirates (97-65) against the AL’s Baltimore Orioles (101-57). The first game of the fall classic provided excitement for the 53,229 fans who packed Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. This was “the third-largest [crowd] to ever see a baseball game at the Stadium.”1 In […]

Injuries on the field have always been part of baseball. There are the common sprained ankles, pulled muscles, and arm injuries. But the scariest injuries often occur when a ball is smacked back up the middle at the pitcher. After finishing his delivery, the pitcher is less than 60 feet from the plate with very […]

Relocated, renamed, and piloted by two generations of Black baseball royalty, the Columbus Buckeyes opened the 1921 Negro National League season to fanfare, hosting the Chicago Giants on April 30. But Chicago’s John Taylor struck out 12 Buckeye batters and the Giants capitalized on shaky Columbus defense for a 5-3 win at Neil Park. The […]

The Philadelphia Phillies were finally mounting a rally against Mike McCormick and the San Francisco Giants. Trailing 4-0, they had the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the sixth with the heart of their order due to bat. Then the rain came. It was a “torrential downpour,” accompanied by thunder and lightning, […]

A crowd of 69,865 packed Yankee Stadium for the second game of the 1947 World Series. The New York Yankees had won Game One with five runs on only four hits. The Brooklyn Dodgers aimed to even the Series when the two teams took the field on a chilly October afternoon. Allie Reynolds was given […]

As August 1933 began, the race for the American League pennant was down to two teams, the Washington Senators (61-35) and the New York Yankees (60-36). The Philadelphia Athletics (47-49) were holding down third place in the standings, but, as they were 14 games behind the top spot, the task of winning the title seemed […]

The San Francisco Giants’ backs were against the wall. Sixteen teams had lost the first three games of the World Series in its 89-year history and none of them won the championship. Just three even won the fourth game and all three eventually fell in the fifth. Giants manager Roger Craig, ever the optimist, said, […]

A major-league record eight batters hit for the cycle in 1933.1 Four of those occurred in the month of August, and every one of the August contests involved the Philadelphia Athletics. In the span of four games, Athletics teammates Mickey Cochrane (August 2 against the New York Yankees) and Pinky Higgins (August 6 against the […]

Would “The Kid” still have it? Opening Day of the 1946 season saw Ted Williams come back after three years in military service during the Second World War. He’d set a rookie record in 1939 that still stood in 2020, with 145 RBIs. In 1941, he hit .406 — the last batter in major-league baseball […]

The darkness descending on Cincinnati’s Palace of the Fans made it clear that the Cincinnati Reds would have to score in the bottom of the 14th to avoid a 3-3 tie with the Brooklyn Superbas on July 9, 1910.1 Catcher John “Larry” McLean, who had sparked the Reds’ two-run second inning and completely shut down […]

Perennial summer traditions in St. Louis have always included hot weather and, in the old days, streetcar trips to Sportsman’s Park. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the latter tradition also included the lackluster performance of the city’s two baseball teams, the Cardinals and the Browns. Neither had ever generated much pennant […]