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Baseball defined the essence of Ethan Allen. The game was his life’s work. A true student athlete who earned two degrees, Allen went from the University of Cincinnati to his hometown Cincinnati Reds in 1926 and remained in the majors for 13 seasons, never playing in the minors. He also played for the New York […]

Buddy Gilbert is rarely, if ever, mentioned among baseball’s greatest hitters. Yet he holds a claim to baseball fame: His 10 percent ratio of home runs to at-bats is technically the highest in major league history (given a cutoff of 20 at-bats). The outfielder played in just seven big league games with the Cincinnati Reds […]

Frank Carswell was a right-handed pitcher whose career began in 1944 with the local Dan Montgomerys of Buffalo, New York; included stints in the Negro Leagues with the Cleveland Buckeyes, Harlem Colored Giants, Harlem Globetrotters, Chicago American Giants, and Indianapolis Clowns; and ended with a postseason barnstorming gig with Jackie Robinson’s New York All-Stars in […]

Betsy Jochum was one of the sixty original players, as well as one of the best, in the early years of the All-American Girls Professional Base Ball League, a professional women’s circuit born during World War II and made famous in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own. Sixty years later, she had the […]

Andy Seminick was a rock-solid catcher who had a career year in 1950 and had a lot to do with the Phillies winning their first pennant in 35 years. He was the antithesis of bonus babies like Curt Simmons, Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, and Stan Lopata because he was anything but highly sought after. He […]

A familiar baseball stereotype of the mid-twentieth century was the “good field, no hit” Latino shortstop.1 The prototype was captured by Willy Miranda – who many contend was the slickest Cuban glove man ever born but who ended his near-decade-long sojourn in the majors with a mere 70 extra base hits and a lightweight .221 […]

“Some people say he was the greatest African American player ever. That may be so — I don’t know — but what seems clear is that he was the best black player of his time.” — Monte Irvin   The story of John Henry “Pop” Lloyd has many facets. It is a story of communities […]

Joseph Chester Fowler was known as Boob by some and Gink by others, but the nickname the Waco, Texas, native preferred was simply Chet.1 He was born on November 11, 1900, to a mother from Texas and a father from Georgia. Census records reveal little about his circumstances growing up, but the 1910 Census finds […]

Ozzie Virgil was the first Dominican to play in the major leagues, as well as the first player of color for the Detroit Tigers. Spending parts of nine seasons in the major leagues as a utility player, Virgil forged a lifelong career in baseball by transitioning to coaching. “Virgil should be for my country as […]

Monty Pfyl’s career began and ended with his “ultimate sacrifice.” In the left-handed first baseman’s only major league at bat, he followed instructions from John McGraw and laid down a sacrifice bunt. This event occurred before Pfyl had ever played an inning in the minor leagues. He later committed one of the Deadball Era’s ultimate […]

Porter Riley Charleston was born in Mexia, Limestone County, Texas, on January 8, 1904. Charleston’s life story is filled with gaps. His parentage remains obscure; whether or not he played in one of the Negro/Colored Leagues in Texas is not known.1 When Charleston first traveled to Pennsylvania, where his Negro League career began with the […]

In the early 1990s, no major-league pitcher’s nickname fit better than Steve Avery’s — The Kid. Unfortunately for Steve and the teams he played with, the trials, tribulations, and disappointments that sometimes come with adulthood came much too fast. Steven Thomas Avery was born in Trenton, Michigan, on April 14, 1970 to Kenneth W. and […]

Outside the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, a statue depicting southpaw Johnny Podres after a pitch release stands 60 feet, six inches from a statue of catcher Roy Campanella. They commemorate the Brooklyn Dodgers winning the 1955 World Series over the New York Yankees, their traditional autumn foe at […]

South Side Park, later known as Schorling Park, located on 39th Street between Princeton and Wentworth Streets, hosted its first game on April 21, 1900. (THE INTER-OCEAN, APRIL 8, 1900)   The ballpark on 39th Street in Chicago between Princeton and Wentworth Streets had as many names as any ballpark in the era before corporate […]

As a kid growing up in Pasco across the river, being able to stand on the mound at Sanders Field was as big for me as going to Yankee Stadium. — Bruce Kison1 Sanders Field, circa 1953 (Photos courtesy of the Eastern Benton County Historical Society)   Sanders-Jacobs Memorial Field, originally known as Sanders Field, […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. New York Yankees captain Roger Peckinpaugh, second from left, and New York Giants captain Dave Bancroft, far right, pose with the umpires at home plate before Game One of the 1921 World Series at the Polo Grounds in […]

In conjunction with SABR’s Eight Myths Out project, here are specific examples of factual errors or misinformation that appear in Eight Men Out, both the 1963 best-selling book written by Eliot Asinof and the 1988 film directed by John Sayles. Certain entries on this list may seem like pedantic nitpicking: surnames misspelled, Abe Attell’s boxing […]

When the 1931 World Series opened at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis on October 1st, it appeared to be a mere continuation of the regular season. The Philadelphia A’s star pitcher, Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove, rebounded from an early 2-0 deficit to cruise to a 6-2 win for Connie Mack’s team. Grove had outdone himself […]

The fourth-place Boston Beaneaters hosted the Chicago Colts at the South End Grounds for the finale of a four-game series on June 11, 1891. The Colts appeared to have no trouble in winning the first two games of the series, taking the opener 5-3 and the second game, the following day, by 9-7. In the […]

Down by a run in the final inning, the Baltimore Orioles “succeeded in getting the necessary runs to give them the victory”1 over the New York Metropolitans. The Orioles had an uphill battle during the entire game, yet they came through with a walk-off victory at home. About a thousand spectators showed up at Oriole […]

Box scores don’t lie. But sometimes they cannot tell the whole truth. Like a classic novel, whose layers are best understood by reading its criticism, a box score’s secrets can be revealed through game stories. Context enables a deeper understanding of history, allowing the pieces of the puzzle to expose the entire picture. The April […]

During the 1926 American League season, there were a handful of instances where the capacity of Comiskey Park in Chicago was exceeded by the demands of the public, usually when the New York Yankees came to town.1 In these situations, the excess attendees were allowed onto the playing field and rather ineffectively roped off from […]

By Elena North More than 30 people attended the Spring 2021 meeting of SABR’s Hanlan’s Point Chapter in Toronto on Saturday, March 21, including a number of attendees of the 43rd (!) season of Bill Humber’s Spring Training for Fans class. Chapter Coordinator Allen Tait kicked things off with a welcome to all ‘regulars, returnees, […]

His fastball has long since died. He still has a few curveballs which he throws at us routinely. — Nicholas Burns, United States State Department Spokesman   Most baseball fans tend to take their idle ballpark pastimes far too seriously. On momentary reflection, even a diehard rooter would have to admit that big–league baseball’s most […]