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It’s heartbreaking when a no-hit bid ends in the ninth inning. On September 2, 1942, Hank Borowy’s bid for the New York Yankees against the St. Louis Browns ended in the first inning … but he didn’t know it until after the game was over. The Yankees, cruising to a second straight American League pennant, […]

On occasion, broadcasters have announced breaking news during live game telecasts. During Monday Night Football on December 8, 1980, ABC’s Howard Cosell announced an “unspeakable tragedy”: the shooting death of musician John Lennon. During the NBA Finals on June 17, 1994, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw showed viewers live footage of football legend O. J. Simpson […]

The fourth-place Philadelphia Phillies seemed to have the upper hand on the defending World Series champion Milwaukee Braves once again. The Phillies had defeated the Braves in their previous five meetings in 1958, including come-from-behind victories in the bottom of the ninth the past two evenings. They threatened to make it six straight wins when […]

When the Pittsburgh Pirates began their 1924 spring training in Paso Robles, California, their starting outfield was firmly established. Max Carey, a future Hall of Famer, anchored the center field position, Carson Bigbee held down left field, and Clyde Barnhart roamed in right. But the two backup positions were up for grabs. Three young players […]

“I’m going to have a good year because I’m Al Oliver. I always have a good year. The question is how good.”1 That confident self-assessment came in 1978, a little over halfway through this slashing line-drive hitter’s long and successful career. In 18 seasons, the lefty-swinging first baseman-outfielder amassed 2,743 hits and posted a .303 […]

(On arriving at Kauffman Stadium for the first time) “As we drive up we see the Crown. There was a little mist and I’m thinking ‘this is an unbelievable sight.’ The lights are on. It doesn’t get any better than that. Then all of a sudden we pull in, we go into the clubhouse, and […]

Chuck Connors was a career minor-league ballplayer who played portions of two seasons in the major leagues, with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949 and Chicago Cubs in 1951. Connors gained greater fame as one of the very few ballplayers who was a successful actor in his post-baseball career, best known for his role as Lucas […]

Tommy Lasorda. You could almost say he needs no introduction. Famous and familiar for his nearly 20 years as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lasorda was the personification of the Dodgers and baseball’s best-known ambassador. Profane or charming, pugnacious or proud, outrageous or simply outspoken, Lasorda could be all these and more. Lasorda’s major-league […]

It simply should not have taken six years for Gary Carter to get into the Hall of Fame. He was one of the best catchers of his era, and many observers put him in the top ten in major-league history. He was an outstanding defender with a strong arm who did all the other things […]

Bert Blyleven’s career statistics speak for themselves: 287 victories, 4,970 innings pitched, 3,701 strikeouts, and 60 shutouts accumulated over the course of 22 seasons in the big leagues (1970-1990, 1992). However, some sportswriters questioned whether the Dutch-born right-hander, whose curveball was regarded as the era’s finest, was Hall of Fame material when he retired. In […]

Glenn Beckert had a good-but-not-great career for the good-but-not-great Chicago Cubs teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Those teams starred a quartet of baseball immortals in Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, Ron Santo, and Billy Williams. Steadily and sometimes spectacularly manning the keystone sack and batting second, Beckert made four All-Star teams, received MVP […]

Don Richard “Richie” Ashburn, a Hall of Fame outfielder, who made the most putouts of any outfielder in major-league baseball during the 1950s, started out as a catcher, which should not be surprising because throughout his long career in baseball, Richie Ashburn had always been his own man. His independent quality even emerged during his […]

Ike Butler is a one-year major-league baseball anecdote – a player whose inclusion in a baseball encyclopedia was made possible by an opportunistic telegram sent during a franchise upheaval. However trivial his two-month major-league career was, Butler’s minor-league career, especially the decade spent on the West Coast, included more than 200 professional wins and at […]

“Where is the furniture?” To Luis Rivera and his five Latino teammates, it must have seemed like a cruel prank. More than a decade before the dot.com boom made the San Francisco Bay Area an outlandishly expensive place to live, they expected their rented home to be furnished. Wasn’t that common? Their already-stretched $600 monthly […]

The Woodman surname has a distinguished history in the string of coastal suburbs north of Boston known as the North Shore. A local restaurateur named Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman claimed to have invented the fried clam there in July 1916. Whether Woodman was truly the first to fry clams is open to debate. What’s certain is […]

An auto accident curtailed this pitcher’s modest major-league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960s. But when he moved on to Duke University, Butters became a smashing success. He served as baseball coach from 1968-70 and then found his true métier — The Sporting News labeled him the world champion of fundraisers. Noted sports […]

Jeff Kunkel appeared in 357 games over eight major-league seasons, persevering through the weight of lofty expectations, a plethora of injuries, and personal loss. He holds or held a number of interesting baseball distinctions: No resident of New Jersey has ever been selected higher in the amateur draft; no other person is known to have […]

SABR’s Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston met via Zoom once again on Monday, November 16, 2020, with 34 members participating. Chair Bob Dorrill welcomed everyone and noted that submissions for the third edition of our newsletter are due in January. Zoom-master Joe Thompson offered five survey questions about the hometown team. The results would be […]

On Saturday, May 9, 2020, the Oscar Charleston SABR Chapter in Indianapolis held a virtual meeting and heard a presentation from Professor Todd McDorman of Wabash College. McDorman built off of his 2019 presentation at the Baseball Hall of Fame called “‘Nobody’s Perfect’: Armando Galarraga’s (Im)Perfect Game and Instant Replay.” You can watch a replay […]

SABR Boston Chapter Report May 21, 2018 Gibson House Museum On Monday, May 21, 2018, SABR Boston Chapter members joined with members of several other Boston-Back Bay history groups and the BoSox Club for a fine evening of hot dogs and baseball. The National Historical Landmark Gibson House Museum (Beacon Street) hosted its seventh annual […]

On Monday, March 16, 2015, SABR members from the Larry Dierker Chapter filled every seat in our special room at the Spaghetti Western Restaurant for our monthly meeting. We welcomed new members Vinnie Vronty, Joe Lahane, and Ken Sandlin and mentioned a few of our good friends who are currently on the DL — Harold […]

Seventeen members and guests attended the December 17, 2013, monthly roundtable meeting of the Bob Broeg SABR St. Louis Chapter. The event was held at the usual and friendly location, the Original Crusoe’s restaurant in south St. Louis. Concern was expressed by many members for the rapidly declining health of our chapter Secretary, Jim Rygelski, […]

Twenty-seven SABR members and friends of the Larry Dierker Chapter were treated to a very special evening on Monday, October 8, 2012, in Houston. Our session began with a tribute and moment of silence for Larry Joe Miggins, son of Larry Miggins who was the heart and soul of the SABR sponsored Houston Babies vintage […]

Ebbets Field has been gone for more than half a century, but the place still has a remarkable grip on our consciousness. At least three books have been devoted to the lovable old ballpark in Crown Heights.1 Yet even these in-depth works don’t shine much light on what happened after the Dodgers left Brooklyn. They […]