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John C. Tattersall (1910–1981) was a great authority on home runs and early baseball records. His scrapbooks of multiple box scores for nearly every game from 1876 to 1890 proved vital for three generations of baseball encyclopedia: Turkin-Thompson in 1951, ICI/Macmillan in 1969, and Total Baseball in 1989. His day-by-day records have been lost, but […]

John C. Tattersall (1910–1981) was a great authority on home runs and early baseball records. His scrapbooks of multiple box scores for nearly every game from 1876 to 1890 proved vital for three generations of baseball encyclopedia: Turkin-Thompson in 1951, ICI/Macmillan in 1969, and Total Baseball in 1989. His day-by-day records have been lost, but […]

SABR’s Gardner-Waterman Vermont Chapter had a fun meeting last Sunday, November 18, 2018. Congratulations to Scott Tipson on winning the 2nd SABR-Vermont Trivia Contest. This meeting’s theme was “Name That Stadium.” Defending champion Chuck McGill finished 2nd and Larry Granillo finished in 3rd place. (If you would like to take a crack at the trivia, […]

Twenty-four people attended the September 16, 2013, monthly roundtable of the Bob Broeg St. Louis SABR Chapter at its usual location, the Original Crusoe’s in South St. Louis. Attendees primarily discussed the Cardinals’ playoff hopes. The membership did so while watching the broadcast of the Cardinals-Rockies game from Denver. John Schoon reported on the book […]

August 5, 2012 Twenty members and guests of the Allan Roth Chapter gathered at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. We viewed a magnificent exhibit from the Gary Cypres collection, including hand painted advertisements, baseball themed quilts, arcade and tabletop games, and ballpark models.  Barry Mednick reviewed the Topps 1951 red back […]

There were 21 people present at the April 18, 2011, monthly roundtable of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter at its usual location, the Original Crusoe’s restaurant in South St. Louis. Barbara Sheinbein, a member of the chapter’s historical ballparks marker committee, reported on the upcoming April 20 ceremony (read more about it here) to […]

Swift Canadian Mel Kerr made just one major-league appearance. It came with the Chicago Cubs as a pinch-runner in September 1925 as the team utilized the multi-sport athlete’s world-class foot speed. Yet, as is often the case, there is more to the story than that solitary moment in his life. Indeed, Kerr was ranked with […]

John Young carried an impressive 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame during his baseball playing days. Even more impressive than his physical stature on the field, however, was the stature he later gained as a baseball ambassador for the underprivileged. In founding the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, Young left an indelible mark on the game that […]

Hal R. Smith’s seven-year major league career (1956-61; 1965) overlapped with that of fellow catcher1 Hal W. Smith (1955-64), who is remembered for his crucial home run in Game Seven of the 1960 World Series. The Hal Smith discussed here was a two-time All-Star, best known as a skilled defensive receiver. Smith impressed many knowledgeable […]

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker best describes the baseball life of Grover Allen Hartley. He did it all. Baseball player, coach, manager, umpire, union organizer, business manager, owner, fireman – that was Grover Hartley. Loved, beloved, hated, and scorned – that was also Grover Hartley. Hartley was born July 2, 1888, on a farm near Splashville, Indiana, a […]

East of Puerto Rico lie the isles of Vieques and Culebra. Along with a sprinkling of cays, they are sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. As of 2018, pitcher Julio Navarro was the only viequense ever to make the majors, largely because the island is an undeveloped place with a population of only about […]

Patsy Tebeau was a pugnacious competitor from the mean streets of St. Louis who sought any advantage he thought he could gain. His tactics delivered a brand of baseball that clearly was much dirtier than you see in the modern game. Bill James has written about 19th century baseball: “The tactics of the eighties were […]

The baseball epitaph for Deadball Era right-hander Del Mason might well be the familiar: Minor League Star/Major League Bust. Twice the best pitcher of a minor-league circuit, Mason was a disappointment in ensuing trials with the Washington Senators (1904) and Cincinnati Reds (1906-1907). In retrospect, it appears that Mason lacked that extra level of pitching […]

Blaine Durbin had a meteoric rise through the bush leagues in the first decade of the 20th century. It brought the lefty pitcher to the attention of several big-league teams, including Frank Chance’s legendary Chicago Cubs dynasty. Yet Durbin’s story mirrors countless others: a phenom whose career fizzled out, promise left unfulfilled. He pitched in […]

Baseball fans generally remember players who are involved in some of game’s most famous events. The same can be assumed of players who are the first to accomplish a particular feat in the game. However, George Hall was both a central figure in one of major-league baseball’s earliest scandals and the first major-league player to […]

Generations ago it would have been difficult to determine which was the more unlikely — a fringe major-league ballplayer ascending to the governorship of his home state and later becoming one of its United States senators, or a Democrat being elected to such lofty posts in then rock-solid Republican New Hampshire. Whichever the case, Fred […]

In a four-year voyage to an all-too brief career in big league baseball, Val Heim embarked in 1938 from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He sailed on to Jackson, Mississippi, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Waterloo, Iowa, before commencing his big-league career at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, in late August 1942. His excursion began with an […]

Dana Fillingim used the wet pitch to his advantage from 1912 to 1928, as one of the last legal spitballers in the majors. His 47-73 overall record in the majors was as deceptive to the passing eye as the spitball was to an opposing batter. The right-hander won 20 games twice in the minors and once […]

In a life that spanned 101 years, Shan Deniston made a mark as an athlete, a Marine, a high school and college coach, a teacher, and a husband and father. From a baseball standpoint, though, Deniston owes most of his notability to a single night of work – a two-hour, 27-minute sliver of his lengthy […]

Central Indiana proved a fertile spawning ground for late-nineteenth-century baseball talent. Among those from the region making their mark in the game were future Hall of Famers Amos Rusie and Sam Thompson. Soon thereafter, early Deadball Era standouts, including Cooperstown-bound Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown and 204-game winner Al Orth, joined their ranks. The subject of […]

As the title of his 2013 autobiography showed, George Altman’s baseball journey took him from the Negro Leagues (1955) to the majors (1959-67) and beyond (Japan, 1968-75). The slugging 6-foot-4 outfielder, who also played first base from time to time, hit 101 home runs in the majors. He was a National League All-Star in 1961 […]

For many African American males growing up in poverty-stricken households throughout Los Angeles, sports offered a chance to break away from the cultural and economic restraints imposed on them by their surroundings. This was no different for a young Darryl Eugene Strawberry (born March 12, 1962, in Los Angeles). Darryl was the third boy born […]

If one had to summarize Bill Madlock’s career in song, the best two numbers to choose would be Noël Coward’s “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” and Duke Ellington’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing if You Ain’t Got That Swing.” The former because “Mad Dog” was his nickname, the latter because it took only one cut for […]

For three consecutive seasons in the late 1880s, the Brooklyn Grays/Bridegrooms of the major league American Association relocated their home games from their grounds at Washington Park to a newly opened venue: Ridgewood Park II, originally known as Wallace’s Ridgewood Park or Grounds. The reason was straightforward: Ridgewood was located in Queens, where state blue […]