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SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 11: A Checklist of Daguerreotypes in The Sporting News  Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1989. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Bill Hugo April 1989 Daguerreotypes were early nineteenth century photographs produced on a silver plate. If […]

Pumpsie Green holds two places in Boston Red Sox history – one well-known and eternal, the other obscure and perishable. The switch-hitting infielder, born Elijah Jerry Green, is remembered as the Red Sox’ first Black player, integrating the major leagues’ last segregated team on July 21, 1959. He played in 327 games in four seasons […]

Between 1901 and 2000, there were 165 major leaguers who both struck out four times in a game and hit three home runs in a game.1 None did both in the same game, but on July 9, 2000, Tyler Houston of the Milwaukee Brewers became the first to hit those marks in back-to-back games.2 Yet […]

With multiple hits in four of his past five games, Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Dode Paskert probably felt frustrated after popping up on the infield against New York Giants rookie Jeff Tesreau to lead off the bottom of the first inning on September 6, 1912. But what should have been an easy out for the […]

Rookie right-hander Fred Cambria was the starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates as they took on the Philadelphia Phillies at Three Rivers Stadium on Saturday, September 5, 1970. A late August call-up from the Columbus Jets of the Triple-A International League, where he had been 12-7 with a 4.17 ERA, Cambria was 0-1 in two […]

Shortly before the start of Game Six of the 1921 World Series, with the New York Yankees leading the New York Giants three games to two in the best-of eight series, Babe Ruth arrived at the Polo Grounds with his arm in a sling and wearing civilian clothes. Ruth had lacerated his elbow in Game […]

Baseball purists claim to love a 1-0 game settled in extra innings. Partisans of a particular team often take great pleasure in a true blowout – when it’s their team that comes out on top. Through the 2014 season the Red Sox have played in only four games in which they scored at least two […]

1870 New York Mutuals. Back row: Candy Nelson, Phonney Martin, Marty Swandell, Dave Eggler. Front row: Everett Mills, John Hatfield, Charlie Mills, Rynie Wolters, Tom Patterson.   Given the powerhouse teams that represented the Windy City in the 1870s and ’80s, one might assume that the quaint jargon signifying that a team had been “Chicagoed” […]

“Hands off the umpire” is one of the bedrock rules of baseball, equally applicable from Little League to the big leagues. Professional players, managers, and coaches who break the rule generally find themselves fined and suspended – especially if the contact is prolonged, intentional, and clearly hostile. Still, in a tight game or a close […]

It almost strains credulity, given the number of home runs hit over the years by the Boston Red Sox, but no Red Sox player hit a grand slam at Fenway Park until more than a dozen years and a month from its opening. The ballpark opened on April 20, 1912. Six days later, Hugh Bradley […]

On April 24, 2004, the Boston Red Sox came to the plate 26 times with runners in scoring position and were hitless each time. Nonetheless, they beat the New York Yankees, 3-2 in 12 innings, on the strength of three sacrifice flies and staunch relief pitching. Most games are noted for what did happen during […]

In Game Four of the 1946 World Series, the visiting St. Louis Cardinals had rapped out 20 hits. In Game Five, they got only four.1 It was the Red Sox who hit into double digits this time — but won only thanks to a three-run flurry in the seventh inning. Unheralded Joe Dobson, 13-6 during […]

Seattle was the scene of Randy Johnson’s rise from being just one piece of a trade for the Expos to acquire Mark Langston, to being one of baseball’s best pitchers. As a Mariner, Johnson was named to half of his 10 All-Star teams, won the first of his five Cy Young Awards (and finished in […]

The Nationals’ magic number was one. Either a Nationals win or a Braves loss would clinch Washington’s first NL East Division Championship. There were only three games to play in the regular season, so it seemed as if the championship was the Nationals to lose. They had been up as much as 8½ games less […]

It was a battle of division leaders on August 27, 1998, when the Yankees hosted the Anaheim Angels.1 The Yankees were first in the AL East with a record of 95-36 and a 16½-game lead over the Boston Red Sox. The Angels were first in the AL West with a record of 74-60 and a […]

On Saturday, September 27, 1924, with the New York Giants locked in a battle for the National League pennant with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants were set to meet the seventh-place Philadelphia Phillies at the Polo Grounds in a critical end-of-season game. Phillies shortstop Heinie Sand was standing on the field during batting practice when […]

It was somewhat ironic that in his next-to-last appearance in a Milwaukee Braves uniform, Warren Spahn replaced Arnold Umbach on the mound. The declining veteran got the final two outs in an 11-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on October 3, 1964, ensuring the first – and only – victory for the 21-year-old Umbach in […]

Statistics and anecdotes of early black player Charlie Grant are minimal and sketchy at best. The difficulty in seeking reliable evidence is compounded by the fact that many during his time and still today have consistently confused him with the great Frank Grant, who played in several white leagues during the nineteenth century and was […]

Frank Warfield may be one of the least understood and appreciated stars of the Negro Leagues, and possibly one of the most unjustly maligned. He stood just 5-feet-7-inches tall and was slight in stature, but he was feisty, fast, and, some would say, furious. Yet few player-managers in the Negro Leagues achieved as much as […]

Bill Monbouquette grew up just a few miles from Fenway Park and was signed by his hometown Boston Red Sox, but his first day with the team, the cops threw both him and his father into a holding cell at the ballpark. “I remember sitting out in the right-field stands at Fenway watching a game […]

What does Phil Garner have in common with Sir Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong? The answer is that all three performed feats never before achieved by humankind. Sir Edmund was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. And Phil Garner […]

The advent of free agency for players in the 1970s provided hot stove league fodder for baseball fans with news of players, their agents, team owners, and lawyers negotiating multi-million-dollar contracts and perks such as tax-deferred annuities and all sorts of other inducements. Nearly 100 years earlier, all that one particular 19th-century free agent wanted […]

World Series goats, in one of baseball’s crueler ironies, are more often than not instrumental in their team’s advance into postseason play in the first place. Consider Ed Summers, one of the sport’s first knuckleballers. With Bill Sherdel, Don Newcombe, and Charlie Leibrandt, Summers shares the ignominious record of most losses by a winless World […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2022 as part of SABR’s Baseball and the Supreme Court Project. 1914 Cracker Jack cards (L-R): Joe Tinker (3), Eddie Plank (6), Mordecai Brown (32), Rube Marquard (43).   In 1914 and for some time before, companies (mainly tobacco and confectionary producers) used trading cards as promotional […]