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A native of Toronto, Ohio, a small city on the state’s border with West Virginia, Gordie Hinkle was a right-handed-hitting catcher who played 10 seasons of minor-league ball and saw 27 games in the major leagues, all in 1934 for the Boston Red Sox. Catchers of the day weren’t expected to hit particularly well, and […]

During the 1872 season of the National Association, John Conkey served as president of the Boston Base Ball Association, the corporation that entered the Boston baseball team to compete for the National Association championship. While the Boston team did win the championship in 1872, the Boston Base Ball Association experienced a significant financial loss that […]

Ameal Brooks played for semipro and Negro League teams from the late 1920s to 1950. He was known primarily for his work as a versatile catcher and outfielder, his clouting abilities at the plate, and an affinity for alcohol, which may explain his habit of jumping from team to team, sometimes in midseason. For more […]

Although Ernest “Spoon” Carter was never in the top tier of Negro League aces, he had enough pitching acumen to remain in great demand over the course of a 17-year career that also included stints in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, and Canada. In fact, teams’ desires for Carter’s services placed him at the center […]

Gary Waslewski woke in his Peabody, Massachusetts apartment on the morning of October 11, 1967 as the starting pitcher in Game Six of the World Series. “I was reading the papers that morning, and one guy wrote that Gary Waslewski has as much chance of winning as Custer had of beating the Indians,” Waslewski said. […]

When 21-year-old Charlie Beamon debuted for the Baltimore Orioles on September 26, 1956, he became the youngest of the majors’ 15 pitchers of color since Jackie Robinson integrated the sport in 1947.1 The righthander throttled the mighty Yankees, 1-0, with a complete game, but earned only two more victories in his three-year (1956-1958) big league […]

Statistics can tell you a lot about a baseball player. In the case of George Kelly, they don’t say nearly enough. The first baseman for the New York Giants when they dominated the National League in the early 1920s, he was a clutch hitter par excellence and an astonishing defensive player. A quick-wristed slasher who […]

A genuine pre-modern national star, one of the major league game’s pioneers, and one of the sport’s most enduring and intriguing figures, Louis Rogers “Pete” Browning was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 17, 1861, at 13th and Jefferson on the city’s west side. A lifelong resident of Louisville, Pete Browning was the youngest of […]

The Cleveland Indians boasted one of the strongest corps of starting pitchers in history in the early 1950s: Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, Early Wynn and Mike Garcia. For a few years Garcia was at least the equal of his Hall of Fame stablemates, but the righthander known as “The Big Bear” burned out early. Edward […]

John Lawrence Antonelli, Jr.1 was a Memphis native who carved out a full life in baseball despite a series of setbacks, detours, and U-turns. A high-school pitching phenom, he suffered an elbow injury that forced him to become a full-time infielder, where he played for over 1,700 minor-league games. He then fought his way to […]

Right-handed pitcher Bob Trowbridge was one of those players who came into the majors with amazing potential, but, for a variety of reasons, was never able to capitalize on it. After he was signed by the Boston Braves in 1950, he played only one season in the minors before he had to enter the military. […]

Before committing suicide under mysterious circumstances in the spring of 1907, Chick Stahl forged a reputation as one of the best center fielders in the game over the course of a 10-year major-league career. A lifetime .305 batter, the left-handed Stahl could also hit with power, and often ranked among the league leaders in extra-base […]

The SABR-Quebec Chapter met on November 10, 2018 at Madison’s Restaurant in Montreal for its fall gathering. We had a special guest in Robert Elias, a member of the Lefty O’Doul Chapter based in San Francisco, who is in Montreal for the current university semester. A Professor at the University of San Francisco, he is […]

“The New York Boys have a 17-year-old boy of 190 pounds on first base who is a regular Babe Ruth. If he gets a high fast one, he’ll slam it over the right field wall at the Cubs’ Park.” — James Crusinberry, Chicago Tribune, June 19, 1920.1   More than 6,600 fans assembled at Cubs […]

From 1875 to 1899 there were 50 complete-game no-hitters thrown in the “major” leagues.1 The hitless team scored in seven of those games. The first of these was in 1882 when Guy Hecker of Louisville beat Pittsburgh 3-1 in American Association action. The next two cases, also in the American Association, saw the hitless team actually […]

Baseball records are often great fun to contemplate. They are also sometimes arbitrary. Take for example Major League Baseball’s 200,000th regular-season game, played in Houston’s Minute Maid Park between the Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros on Saturday, September 24, 2011. 1 Baseball’s 100,000th regular-season game, played on September 6, 1963, between the Senators and Indians,2 […]

The beginning of the end of African American participation in Organized Baseball probably dates to an in-season exhibition game less than two decades after the close of the Civil War. Cap Anson’s Chicagos were a model of success on the field, having won the three previous National League titles, and at the time of the […]

As the St. Louis Cardinals visited the San Francisco Giants in early July 1960 for a two-game series, it would have been an especially prescient fan who could have foretold these were teams going in different directions — the opposite of what had been forecast for them. The Giants, third in 1959, were the preseason […]

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 in 1945. The start of his career was as unlikely as any player before him, since he had minimal time as a professional player prior to his debut.1 In […]

Dave “Boo” Ferriss, an ex-GI discharged from the Army Air Corps in February 1945, began his major-league career with an astonishing eight consecutive wins in 1945. The start of his career was as unlikely as that of any player before him, since Ferriss had minimal time as a professional player prior to his debut. In […]

Dave “Boo” Ferriss, an ex-GI discharged from the Army Air Corps in February 1945, began his major-league career with an astonishing eight consecutive wins in 1945. The start of his career was unprecedented, since Ferriss had minimal time as a professional player prior to his major-league debut with the Boston Red Sox.1 All of his […]

Dave “Boo” Ferriss, began his major-league career with an astonishing eight consecutive wins in 1945. The start of his career was as unlikely as any player before him, since Ferriss had minimal time as a professional player prior to his debut. In his first six starts for the Boston Red Sox, Ferriss hurled four shutouts […]

PETE VAN WIEREN (1944-2014) served 33 years as a sportscaster for the Atlanta Braves. Van Wieren retired after the 2008 season following a long, illustrious career as a Braves television and radio broadcaster. Along with partners Caray and Ernie Johnson Sr., Van Wieren developed a nationwide following when the Braves’ telecasts were broadcast across the […]

Dr. David Fletcher is an occupational medicine specialist and co-founder of SafeWorks Illinois, a private medical practice he operates in downstate Illinois. He is a noted national expert in occupational health and is clinical assistant professor at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine. Dr. Fletcher, a passionate baseball fan and native Chicagoan, was married […]