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A player by the name of Percival Sumner Rising wouldn’t go long without attracting a nickname. Pop Rising is how the young player became known at least as early as 1903.i Rising was bald at a very early age, and – the Hartford Courant explained – “as baldness is associated with age, it was believed […]

John Boyce Taylor – known as “Steel Arm Johnny” for his pitching – was the second of four tremendously talented baseball-playing brothers. One of them, Ben, was eventually inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Eldest brother Charles, known in baseball as “C.I.,” was a brilliant manager; along with Rube Foster, he […]

For over half a century, Charles “Doc” Barrett (1877-1954) was a trainer, first at Williams College and then at Columbia University. Although Barrett was involved with many sports, he formed a strong and distinctive connection with major-league baseball. While at Williams he did double duty as a scout for the New York Highlanders. He also […]

“Mystique” is a word often linked with Sandy Koufax. He was dubbed “The Left Arm of God” for his pitching feats – especially over the five years from 1962 to 1966. A long litany of statistics attests to his brilliance during this period, but perhaps the most salient points are these. Koufax became the first […]

Miller Huggins was the Hall of Fame manager who led the New York Yankees to their first six American League pennants and three world championships, in the 1920s. He forged unique relationships with both Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and their star outfielder, Babe Ruth. One newspaperman wrote, “Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert saw in Huggins a […]

The intriguingly named Smead Jolley had a lengthy 16-year minor-league career wrapped around four years on the White Sox and Red Sox. He was large for the era (6-feet-3 and 210 pounds, a left-handed-hitting outfielder who threw right-handed and was at every level successful as a hitter. But he had a proclivity for the defensive […]

When Shufflin’ Phil Douglas arrived on the baseball scene in 1910 at the tender age of 20, he brought with him size and a fastball impressive enough to draw comparisons to Walter Johnson’s. Douglas, a product of Cedartown, Georgia, was a big man, especially for that era, standing 6-feet-3 and weighing 190 pounds, who threw […]

Paul Snyder was the indispensable man behind the scenes of the Atlanta Braves’ success. If anyone has said a bad word about him, it has not been recorded in the hothouse world of baseball. A baseball lifer since he started his career as a Braves minor-league outfielder-first baseman in 1958, Snyder is a rarity in […]

On June 23, 1931, sportswriter Walter W. Smith encountered George Watkins, the St. Louis Cardinals right fielder, in the lobby of Philadelphia’s Franklin Hotel, where the team was staying for a series against the Phillies. Both men were relatively new to their jobs; Smith had begun covering the team for the St. Louis Star the […]

Why didn’t Jeremy Giambi slide? Hindsight is always crystal clear, much to the chagrin of involved parties. The Yankees mystique built upon a century of dominance over major-league baseball. The ill-advised enthusiastic wave by third-base coach Ron Washington, perhaps blind to actions outside his tunnel of vision. The cruel spectacle of a slow runner attempting […]

“There isn’t a better third baseman in the American League than Gene Robertson,” St. Louis Browns player/manager George Sisler said on the eve of the 1925 season.1 Indeed, that proved to be Robertson’s best year of nine in the majors (1919; 1922-26, 1928-1930). Two years later, though, he was in the minors, supposedly banished because […]

Opening Day at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, April 10, 1980. Visiting Boston scores two runs in the top of the inning to tie Brewers at 5 apiece. Bottom of the inning, two outs, bases loaded. Up to the plate steps Sixto Lezcano. A packed house of 53,313 screaming as one, urging Sixto to send them home […]

Ninety miles. To most baseball fans, the term refers to fastball speed, a pitch whose “standard” for major-league success hinges on such baseline velocity. A ball thrown at such speed can cross home plate in little more than a second. By contrast, it takes much longer to travel the 90 miles that separate Cuba and […]

Lee Quillin distinguished himself during 13 years in professional baseball in the early 20th century. He played for the 1906 World Series champion Chicago White Sox and the 1907 Sox team, contributing as a utility infielder. The right-hander also put together four minor-league seasons hitting over .300, plus another at .298; he helped his clubs […]

Darren Oliver grew up in a baseball family and pitched all or parts of 20 major-league seasons (1993-2004, 2006-2013). Although the lefty saw action for nine different major league teams, he made his biggest mark with the Texas Rangers, the club that drafted him out of high school. During his three stints with Texas, Oliver […]

At age 29, Dana Kiecker was named Red Sox Rookie of the Year in 1990, a season in which Boston won the AL East. He won eight games in the regular season, posting a 3.97 ERA, and pitched well in the clutch in the one opportunity he had in that year’s American League Championship Series. […]

On July 30, 1948, the New York Giants were within one out of a franchise-record four consecutive shutouts when Chicago Cubs lefty swinger Bill Nicholson connected for a drive into shallow right field. Les Layton, inserted in the game as a defensive replacement in right, raced to the ball. He seemingly secured the out as […]

Fresh off a one-hit shutout of the Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants right-hander Tom Williams faced the St. Louis Giants, who rivaled Chicago among the hottest teams in the Negro National League in July 1921. Williams outdueled St. Louis’s Bill Drake, limiting the Giants’ powerful lineup to three hits and stranding the bases loaded […]

In response to the new “freak delivery” rules implemented for 1920, American League President Ban Johnson allowed teams to designate two pitchers who could continue throwing the spitball for one more season,1 while the National League did not limit the number of authorized spitball pitchers.2 The thought was that the transitional year would give those […]

“This sort of thing isn’t done in England, you know, where they have cricket, you know, and rowing, you know, but not this sort of thing, you know.” — Comments overheard from a British high commissioner in attendance.1   In what would be a “prime time” matchup today, the first scheduled game of the new […]

The career of the greatest pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals history was winding down in the summer of 1975. Bob Gibson had twice won the National League Cy Young Award and once was Most Valuable Player. Three times he pitched complete games in the Game Seven of the World Series, winning two of them.1 Gibson […]

The fall classic, the world’s championship of baseball, was not yet regarded as an integral part of the national pastime in 1905. While there was a championship series in 1903 between the American League-winning Boston Americans and the National League champion Pittsburgh Pirates, whether this interleague postseason series would become a regular event was far […]

Lee Allen (1915-1969) once said, “I care very little for statistics as such. My concern is the players. Who are these men? What are they? What problems have they faced? Where are they now?” To Allen, all major league players had a story and none should be forgotten. He parlayed his passion into several books, […]

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