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Tall, powerful, and fleet-footed, Burnis “Wild Bill” Wright was one of the Negro Leagues’ brightest stars for nearly a decade before embarking on a lengthy and successful Hall of Fame career in the Mexican Leagues. A towering 6-foot-4, 220-pound switch-hitter who slashed for average and slugged with power, he bunted effectively, ran like the wind, […]

“Dr. Frederick L. Wood, Dentist, Dies Suddenly” announced the London (Ontario) Free Press on November 18, 1935.1 The obituary for the “well-known dentist” amounts to one unassuming paragraph. 2 Surprisingly, it makes no mention of his many and varied accomplishments in sports — including 13 games in major-league baseball in 1884-85 — music, and the […]

The idiosyncratic Ralph Works produced a memorable, if not very successful, baseball career. After a promising major-league debut with Detroit in 1909, he proved a “persistent in-and-outer” with the Tigers over the next several seasons, never consistently successful and often clashing with manager Hughie Jennings.1 A long, restless denouement followed, with Works on the move […]

Lore Verne “King” Bader was a lesser member of the 1918 Boston Red Sox. A right-handed hurler, he pitched in just five games, starting four and compiling an unexceptional 1-3 record. All told, Bader appeared in a modest 22 games over three major league campaigns, in 1912 (with the New York Giants) and 1917-18 (with […]

In a single season of major-league baseball, in 1890, John Keefe compiled a 17–24 pitching record for the Syracuse team of the American Association. After pitching in the minor leagues in 1891, Keefe left baseball and returned to his hometown in Massachusetts to live an ordinary life as a mill worker. John T. Keefe was […]

Clara Díaz Chacón was a little girl who lived on a street in the fishing village of Puerto Caimito in Panama. A few houses up the road was an elementary school classmate. That boy’s studies ended in the ninth grade, but their paths crossed again when they were teenagers. They became boyfriend and girlfriend, and […]

Catcher Al Stokes “was one of the hardest workers a Rockford team ever had.” So wrote the Rockford (Illinois) Republic of his debut in the major leagues.1 It was a nice expression of appreciation and a nice way to be remembered for a couple of years of service for the local team. Stokes had caught […]

Jim Suchecki was born in Chicago of Polish-American parents. All four of his grandparents had come to America from Poland, but his parents – Joseph Suchecki and the former Josephine Piotrowski – were both born in Illinois. James Joseph Suchecki was their first-born, arriving on August 25, 1927. About five years later, they had another […]

It was no surprise that Eddie McNichol would play professional baseball. Born on January 10, 1879, in Martins Ferry, Ohio, he grew up on Wheeling Island surrounded by baseball and baseball players. Wheeling Island, a tiny strip of land in the middle of the Ohio River between Ohio and West Virginia, produced several young men […]

Goro Mikami, aka Jap Mikado, was the first known Japanese national to play professional baseball in the United States. He first played in the US in 1911 when Tokyo’s Waseda University club barnstormed the country. Two years later, Mikami returned to the U.S. as a graduate student at Knox College in Illinois. He starred at […]

The year 1914 is defined by the beginning of World War I as well as the completion of the Panama Canal. It was also the third year that Griffith Stadium had been open, and on May 14, 1914, the stadium was host to one of the most amazing games in the history of baseball. The […]

Early in the fall of 1887, Brooklyn Grays pitcher Will Terry married, breaking the heart of many a female admirer.1 Recently dubbed “Adonis” by the New York Tribune,2 the tall, slender 23-year-old was popular among men and women alike for his handsome looks, temperate manner and “gentlemanly … conduct on and off the field.”3 On […]

“Is baseball in danger?” – Chicago Tribune, September 5, 1920.1   The charges of “attempted crookedness” sparked by a game between the Chicago Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies on August 31, 1920, had repercussions well beyond what anyone could have expected. It was a game that, due to the chain of serious events it precipitated, […]

The Kansas City Cowboys joined the American Association in 1888, becoming the third team by that name in three different major leagues within the previous four years.1 Despite Kansas City’s one-season tenures in the Union Association (1884) and National League (1886), the AA had selected it over Buffalo, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse as a replacement […]

When Montreal lost the Triple-A Royals after the 1960 season, the city had to wait nine years for the big-league Expos to bring professional baseball back to town. When Toronto lost the Triple-A Maple Leafs after the 1967 season, it waited 10 years for the major-league Blue Jays to arrive. Canada’s capital, Ottawa, had them […]

“The locals really were outclassed,” lamented the St. Louis Star about the Cardinals’ twin-bill loss to the Chicago Cubs.1 Following his teammates’ victory in the opener, rookie King Cole “had his speed and his drop broke almost perfectly,” per Chicago’s Inter Ocean, holding the hosts hitless in a game called after seven innings so that […]

For most fans, watching a pitcher strike out 16 hitters in a game would be a memorable experience. Now, imagine seeing a pitcher strike out 16 hitters — only to be outdone by the other starter’s 24 whiffs. The 462 fans who saw two teams in the Class A New York-Penn League play the second […]

One of the many legends surrounding Babe Ruth involves Johnny Sylvester, a sick young boy who, lore says, asked the Babe to hit a home run for him in 1926. After sending a promise to “knock a homer for you on Wednesday,” Ruth hit three homers in Game Four of that year’s World Series.1 The […]

In the summer of 1971, Jay Franklin had the baseball world eating out of his hand. The first-round draft pick of the San Diego Padres signed a rich contract1 and joined the Tri-City2 Padres of the Class A Northwest League, where he set a league record for strikeouts. In his last minor-league appearance of the […]

On Friday, July 25, 1947, Crosley Field was packed with 24,430 spectators as the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Philadelphia Phillies. On the surface, that many showing up to watch a sixth-place team play the last-place Phils seemed curious during a season in which Cincinnati posted the lowest home attendance of all teams in the National […]

The weather turned unseasonably cold, rainy, and windy in Boston during the second week of April 1929, and that was bad news for baseball fans. The Boston Braves and the Boston Red Sox were scheduled to play back-to-back exhibition games on April 13 and 14, with one game at Fenway Park and the other at […]

Editor’s note: On September 23, 2008, SABR’s Deadball Era Committee commemorated the 100th anniversary of the “Merkle Game” by publishing a special centennial edition of “The Inside Game” newsletter focused entirely on the infamous incident that changed the fortunes of the 1908 National League pennant race. Click here to download the Deadball Era Committee’s Merkle […]

Robinson Canó’s single with the Diablos Rojos in the Mexican League playoffs on September 13, 2025, made him one of 23 players known to have recorded 4,000 career hits at all professional levels. (Courtesy of Prensa Diablos / Enrique Gutiérrez)   On Saturday, September 13, 2025, Robinson Canó stepped into the batter’s box at Estadio […]

Few multi-purpose stadiums in North American history can rival Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium for the number, variety and stature of events held there. Set in a vast fairgrounds complex on the shore of Lake Ontario, the municipal facility originally known as Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Stadium served as the largest sports and entertainment venue in Canada’s […]