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On May 4, 1871, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas1 opened the inaugural season of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players with a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Forest Citys. By the end of June the Kekiongas had compiled a 5-4 record, with two of the losses being shutouts. One of the shutouts came at […]

As Pete Rose stood on second base, basking in the cheers of the Expos faithful on hand for the 1984 home opener, it’s reasonable to think that he was feeling pretty good. He had made it through the most difficult offseason of his major-league career to that point, with the Expos the only team to […]

Dennis Leonard was the ace of the Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Three times a 20-game winner, he was a true workhorse, leading the league in games started three times. In 1982 his season was derailed when he was hit in the pitching hand by a line drive, […]

The score of this game is not a misprint. It was a 29-0 game played between two major-league championship teams. The two biggest reasons for the lopsided score were that the Atlantics made 30 errors and that they were facing one of the best pitchers of the time, Albert Spalding. In a bit of understatement, […]

Dwight Gooden called it his “worst game in a long time. ‘I embarrassed myself,’ said Doc. ‘I couldn’t pitch, I couldn’t hit, I couldn’t field.'”1 He also had trouble controlling his curve. But none of that mattered. When the New York Mets walked off the field at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium after their game on April […]

Dave “Boo” Ferriss, an ex-G.I. discharged from the Army Air Corps in February 1945, began his major-league career with an astonishing eight consecutive wins for the Boston Red Sox in 1945. His achievement was even more remarkable given that he had only one season in the minor leagues before becoming a major leaguer. In his […]

The 1927 New York Yankees are considered among the best teams ever. Two of their pitchers – Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt – are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.1 Another star pitcher on that legendary team who is not in the Hall of Fame is Urban Shocker. Shocker, who started 27 games […]

He “pitches with such intensity that he ought to be declared a fire hazard,” gushed sportswriter Mark Littwin after Bruce Kison’s dominant five-hit complete-game victory, while California Angels teammate Reggie Jackson described him “as so mentally tough, he’s a ball of fire.”1 Kison touted his coolness under pressure as a product of his postseason “experience” […]

The 1952 baseball season had turned the page to May, and the season’s stories were just starting to bloom like ivy on the brick walls of Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cubs led the National League with nine wins (against four losses), yet were percentage points behind the first-place Brooklyn Dodgers, who had a record of […]

A Rebel without a glove of glue allowed the Chicago Whales to eke out the second and final title in the truncated two-year history of the Federal League. By rebuffing the Pittsburgh Rebels 3-0 in the second game of a doubleheader halted by darkness after 6½ innings on the last day of the season, the […]

Lifelong Oakland A’s fan Jeremy Goodrich had an idea. Sure, the A’s had not been playing well in 2023, or drawing well, and the owner was planning to move the team to Las Vegas. But what if the Oakland fans staged a reverse boycott – showing up en masse on a random weeknight to show […]

On the morning of July 4, 1940, the St. Paul Saints defeated the Minneapolis Millers, 3-2, in a taut pitchers’ duel. Many of the 5,869 fans in attendance walked the few blocks from St. Paul’s Lexington Park to Selby Avenue and paid 10 cents for an eight-mile streetcar ride to Nicollet Park to catch the […]

It was quite a game for a holiday – or any day. It was quite a game for the 16,571 mostly Boston Red Sox fans at Fenway Park. And it was quite a game for slugger Jim Rice, who hit the only walk-off grand slam of his 16-year career to make the Red Sox winners […]

The Southern New England Lajoie-Start Chapter‘s annual post-Thanksgiving meeting on November 26, 2016, at St. Philip’s Parish Center in Greenville, Rhode Island, was a whopping success: Nearly 70 members and guests attended and enjoyed five hours of offseason baseball talk. Showing themselves to be stern judges of baseball talent, the attendees, in the annual mock […]

During the 1892 season while playing for St. Louis, Cliff Carroll had the misfortune of being fined by the club when a ball inadvertently rolled into his pocket. The incident, which occurred in the sixth inning on August 17 of that season, was his major claim to fame, although in his time he was a […]

Foghorn Bradley1 joined the Boston Red Stockings near the end of 1876, the first year of the National League’s existence. Boston was desperate for pitching. Bradley pitched decently, but Boston deemed him expendable at the end of the season. He never made it back to the major leagues as a player, but Bradley had a […]

Dick Hughes had a memorable rookie season in the big leagues in 1967. He led the world champion St. Louis Cardinals with 16 wins, while losing just 6 and posting a 2.67 ERA. At age 29, Hughes was runner-up to Tom Seaver for 1967 National League Rookie of the Year honors. The bespectacled right-hander, who […]

“He came back from the war, raised seven kids, practiced law and life moves on.”1 So said Madison (Wisconsin) attorney John Gerlach in a 2012 interview about his late father and law associate, Johnny Glen “Henna” Gerlach, who captained the 1937 and 1938 University of Wisconsin baseball teams (a .415 hitter his senior season of […]

One of the most energetic players of his era, Jimmy Austin was a sparkplug for the New York Highlanders and St. Louis Browns over an 18-year career spent entirely in the American League. A speedy switch-hitting third baseman, Austin stole at least twenty bases in each of his first six major league seasons, and he […]

A lifelong pursuit toward a ministerial career was put on hold for 21 years while the devoutly religious Lindy McDaniel labored in his temporary gig as a major-league hurler. During the interim employment he alternately became both the “toast of the town … [and] the roast of the town with his ups and downs.”1 Possessor […]

Curt Gowdy was the Cowboy behind the mike. Ned Martin quoted Ted Williams and Eudora Welty. Ken Coleman meant the Jimmy Fund. Bob Starr had a gentle lummox William Bendix kind of charm. In evaluating the Red Sox during the mid-to late 20th century, all helped baseball bewitch. Ken Harrelson was the Red Sox’ Southern-fried […]

Bob Osborn was a right-handed pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates in parts of six seasons from 1925 until 1931.  A spot starter and reliever in 1926 and 1927 for the Cubs, Osborn spent all of 1928 and most of 1929 in the minor leagues before Chicago made him a late-season call-up […]

If you were drafting players in a fantasy baseball league, you would probably rely heavily on statistics to make your decisions. But if you were choosing players for a real team for an actual 154-game season, your choices might be very different. The rigors of travel, game pressures, team chemistry and other intangibles might cause […]

When you examine the life of Abner Doubleday you eventually have to come to the point expressed by classic detective Joe Friday: “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.” Okay, so here are two facts about General Abner Doubleday’s life. First, his military career was lengthy and he “was the highest ranking officer in the […]