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Any thought of the inevitability of the Boston Red Sox winning the 2007 American League pennant and World Series was likely dispelled by the way Game Two of the AL Championship Series turned out. Yes, the Cleveland Indians had been thrashed in Game One, a 10-3 defeat, but they turned the tables in Game Two. […]

The 1942 Negro League World Series was the first championship series since 1927 that pitted teams from two separate Black baseball leagues. The Homestead Grays, champions of the Negro National League, faced the Kansas City Monarchs, winners of the Negro American League pennant. The Series featured great teams and players, controversy, and perhaps the most […]

They didn’t know it at the time, but the Indianapolis Indians began the 1954 season with the right ingredients. The American Association club was affiliated with the major-league Cleveland Indians. What was the recipe for success? Start with a smart manager, Kerby Farrell, promoted to Indianapolis after leading the 1953 Reading (Pennsylvania) Indians to 101 […]

Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but when Don Wilson avenged the no-hitter pitched against his Houston Astro mates the night before, he was hot. Damn hot. On April 30, 1969, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jim Maloney threw his second career no-hitter as the Reds blasted the Houston Astros, 10-0. (His first came on […]

It may have come as a surprise to some that the New York Yankees had been missing from the fall classic for three seasons. The Philadelphia Athletics, who were called the Mackmen in tribute to club owner/manager Connie Mack, won three straight pennants from 1929 to 1931, and the World Series the first two of […]

Game Two of the NLCS was another extra-inning nail-biter, with the Pirates again prevailing in extra innings by a narrow margin. Only for drama, this game outdid its predecessor on several counts. Clutch hitting, controversy, terrible baserunning, heroics: it had it all. Chuck Tanner selected Jim Bibby, a strapping, intimidating right-hander, as his starter. The […]

Would May 3, 1917, be another extraordinary day at Chicago’s Weeghman Park like the day before? A few thousand fans were willing to brave the frigid weather to find out. And later that day, after the last out was recorded to secure a 10-3 win for the home team, the fans who had attended, as […]

In the years that followed, it was simple to say that victory in Game Seven was preordained after their miraculous escape from Game Six, but triumph in the deciding game was far from assured. As in the 1975 World Series, the Red Sox — after their own legendary ’75 Game Six win on Carlton Fisk’s […]

Right from the first inning it was obvious this was not going to be a typical game. Even by World Series Game Six standards, this one was out of this world. And that is where Mike Sergio came from, drifting down onto the Shea Stadium infield in a parachute with a modest “Go Mets” sign […]

George Pfister spent 56 years in Organized Baseball. However, he played just once in the majors, with the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers. It came on September 27, in the second to last game of the NL pennant-winners’ season. Pfister, then 23 years old, came in for the last five innings – but there was just one […]

When the curtain rose on the New York Yankees’ 1929 season, for the first time in team history each ballplayer wore a numbered jersey. Catching for New York that day was John Grabowski, the large block 8 on his back signifying his spot in the batting order. One of three backstops that Yankee manager Miller […]

Outfielder Chaney White had a 17-year career in the Negro major leagues from 1920 through 1936. During that time, he was a member of numerous championship teams that included squads in various Negro Leagues, the Cuban Winter League, the Florida Hotel League, and the California Winter League. In 1934, at age 40, he was still […]

Oscar Dugey, a utility player, was called “the luckiest kid in baseball” after playing on two straight pennant winners, in 1914 and 1915. One of the best infielders to come out of the Texas League in the 20th century’s first two decades, the 5-foot 8, 160-pound right-hander hit just .194 in 195 games during his […]

Dick Sisler, who hit the most famous home run in Phillies history, came from a baseball family. His older brother, George, played in the minors, later forging a distinguished career as a minor-league executive. Dick’s younger brother, Dave, pitched in the majors. Their father, George Harold Sisler, was a Hall of Famer whose playing accomplishments […]

Ron Kline is one of a number of professional athletes who entered politics after their professional athletic careers came to a close. The most notable baseball player turned politician is Jim Bunning, US Senator from Kentucky (1999-2011), though others (Vinegar Bend Mizell and Fred Brown, for instance) also served in political office.1 Ron Kline became […]

In the eyes of Pittsburgh Pirates fans, Don Robinson showed up right on time for a city and a team looking for homegrown talent to fill out the Pirates pitching staff and add a piece to a team capable of winning a pennant in the late 1970s. Had the Philadelphia Phillies selected Robinson in the […]

Over a seven-year big league career, 6-foot-4, 275-pound right-handed reliever Bobby Jenks compiled a 16-20 record with a 3.53 ERA and 173 saves. All of these saves were for the White Sox, putting Jenks second on the team’s all-time saves list. He pitched for the White Sox from 2005 to 2010, then spent 2011 with […]

Since 1931, Earl Webb has held the major-league record for the most doubles hit in a single season – 67. It is one of the longest-lasting records in baseball, despite the fact that when it was set, the season was eight games shorter than today’s 162-game schedule. As it happens, Earl’s team that year – […]

Before he died, Fabian Gaffke frequently told his family, “I hope when I’m off this earth, they play ball in Heaven.” Gaffke was “a sturdy Pole” (in the words of Milwaukee Journal sportswriter Sam Levy), born in Milwaukee’s South Side to John and Agnes Gaffke on August 5, 1913. John worked in a coke plant near the Allen-Bradley works and Agnes was […]

Over the course of a professional baseball career more than four decades long, Kenny Williams has done pretty much everything a person can do. After having navigated the grind of over a decade as a player, he made a smooth transition into the front office, where he came to be recognized as an astute baseball […]

Middleboro, Massachusetts has a long and rich baseball history. While every generation has a favorite candidate, determining the greatest player is not really debatable because only one man has gone from the baseball diamonds of Middleboro to the major leagues. Cyril Arlon Morgan was born in nearby Lakeville on November 11, 1895 to Joseph and […]

Eddie Grant was a typical Deadball Era third baseman: mediocre offensively (as attested by his lifetime .249 batting average and .295 slugging percentage) but defensively reliable, particularly against the bunt. “As a batter [Grant] was noted for his ability to sacrifice,” remembered Mike Donlin, “and he could lay back near third base and still throw […]

“We still don’t really know how Epy Guerrero signed this boy. It was a secret mission. All we know is that Epy Guerrero was here, and then he was gone.”  (Juan Navarro, sports editor of La Prensa, in reference to the signing of Bryan Alyea out of Nicaragua). Many could tell similar stories of Epy […]

From Bill McCurdy at the Pecan Park Eagle, about the Larry Dierker Chapter’s meeting on October 13, 2014: SABR Oct. 2014 Meeting is Pumpkin of Fun Nothing scary about it – if you want to discount the fact that yours truly took the October meeting f our Larry Dierker Chapter of SABR to another level on […]