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Tampa Bay Roush-Lopez Chapter Meeting Notes June 7, 2025, via Zoom at 3:00 PM EDT Attendees: Mark Drucker, Chair, Sam Dolson, Vice Chair, Bobby Salerno, Treasurer, Ken Clawson, Secretary, Steve Nadel, Ed Denta. Levi Fender, Barry Halpern, Anthony Kissel, Sam Abercrombie, Sam Zygner, Johan Martinez, Rebekah Elmore, Bruce Mitrani, Larry Lamedola-Wantagh, Mason Marsh,  Rich Klein. […]

Countless Illinois high-school basketball players knew Bob Freels as “Mr. Steps,” the hawkeyed referee who made sure no traveling penalty went uncalled.1 Freels apparently became so fond of the nickname that he carries it for eternity: It’s etched into his gravestone in his hometown of Mascoutah, Illinois, in the southern part of the state, about […]

In the early years of baseball, the job of manager entailed far more than it does in the modern era. Today’s skipper is focused almost exclusively on the play on the field – making lineups, in-game decisions, keeping the club focused on each and every game. While he may consult on roster decisions, they are […]

Like many New York Yankees from their late 1960s and early 1970s nadir, Jerry Kenney suffered from the curse of expectations that media and fans had for the once dominant franchise. Winning 29 pennants and 20 World Series in 44 years, from 1921 to 1964 inclusive, was proof to many fans that winning was an […]

Many players emerged out of California and the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900s who didn’t particularly leave an impression in the major leagues – yet decades later their names still evoked memories of the early days of the Pacific Coast League. After appearing in a single game in the National League in 1900, Tommy […]

Johnny Antonelli, somewhat unfairly, is remembered by the incidents he was part of, instead of as an individual who had an impressive pitching career. Labels abound and, of the memories attached to them, controversies. He was, in the minds of many, a “bonus baby” who never paid his dues in the minors. A player on […]

One of the main attractions of the Louisville Slugger Museum is its Signature Wall showing the names and signatures that have been branded on bats for hundreds of baseball players dating back to the beginning of the practice. Among the names of plaques featured from the 1920s is Baldonaro Acosto. The incorrectly spelled name on […]

Born and raised in the Bronx, All-Star and Gold Glove third baseman Frank Malzone was a Red Sox fixture for more than 60 years, save for one season playing for the California Angels. Born on February 28, 1930, he was a Yankees fan growing up but was signed out of Samuel Gompers High School by […]

As of 2016, three major-league pitchers had triple-digit lifetime ERAs.[1] One was Frank “Socko” Wurm, a 20-year-old veteran of World War II who allowed four runs to score in one-third of an inning with the Brooklyn Dodgers in September 1944. After his rocky debut, the lefty never got a chance to lower his 108.00 mark. […]

Left-hander Bill Foxen was the most talented of a trio of Deadball Era pitching brothers, and the only one to have a major league career. That career, however, never quite lived up to expectations and lasted only three-plus seasons. In retrospect, there may have been a reason: Foxen was actually five years older than he […]

Marty Keough came from a family with a deep sports tradition that so far encompasses four generations and both genders. His father was Cecil D. “Zeke” Keough, a star right-hander at the University of California at Berkeley. Marty said, “He beat USC, I think, two or three times in one year. That was his claim […]

Brian Bark was a compact lefty pitcher (5-foot-9, 170 pounds) who had but a brief career in the majors. Bark appeared in three games for the 1995 Boston Red Sox and never yielded a run – either earned or unearned. He never got into another major-league game, leaving him with a career earned run average […]

Once famous but now long-forgotten, Canadian-born capitalist Erastus Wiman was deeply involved in the post-Civil War commercial affairs of greater New York, focusing much of his attention on transforming his adopted home of Staten Island into a regional center of trade and transportation. A self-made millionaire, Wiman also expended time and treasure on attracting tourists/potential […]

Henry Chadwick, baseball’s first historian, tried to capture a game in a chart for his newspaper readers. It was called a box score, and as it evolved over the years, it offered the raw material for the statistically minded to analyze, understand, and appreciate the game. There were dozens who followed, from Ernie Lanigan, longtime […]

To many major leaguers, their baseball career and the statistics attached to it form their life’s work. To others it’s a steppingstone to a productive life beyond the game. Frank Carpin is one of the latter. The lefty pitched in 49 big-league games in 1965 and 1966 but went on to many decades of success […]

Introduction On Saturday, March 25, 1905, a small yet curious article appeared in the Salt Lake Telegram that announced a baseball game to be played the following day between the Salt Lake Browns and the Ogden Chocolates at Walker’s Field in Salt Lake City.1 This would be the first formally organized game of baseball between […]

This article was published in “The Stars Shone on Philadelphia: The 1934 Negro National League Champions” (SABR, 2023), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin.   The 1934 Negro National League Championship Series between the Philadelphia Stars and the Chicago American Giants was a closely contested, contentious nailbiter of a series. Not only did […]

Boston Braves fans had few reasons to be hopeful as the 1952 season opened at Braves Field on Tuesday, April 15. Only three seasons after winning the 1948 National League pennant, the Braves were coming off a 76-78 record and a fourth-place finish. Also, the American League’s Red Sox were winning the battle of Boston […]

“If you pitch the second game, Newk, I’ll give you tomorrow off to go fishing.” – Brooklyn Dodgers manager Burt Shotton1   With less than four weeks remaining in the 1950 regular season, the Brooklyn Dodgers boarded the train bound for Philadelphia to open a four-game series with the National League’s first-place Phillies. The Dodgers […]

If the Philadelphia Phillies played their August 7, 1969, exhibition against their Double-A farm team as a farce, it might have been because they couldn’t handle any more drama. Phillies manager Bob Skinner resigned on the day of the game, blasting team management for perceived lack of support in his disciplinary struggles with slugger Dick […]

Twelve-year American League veteran Bobby Shantz made his National League debut in 1961, after a pair of transactions – an expansion-draft selection and a trade – brought him to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Opening the season in the bullpen, the 35-year-old left-hander soon was making spot starts to patch up the defending World Series’ champions’ rotation. […]

In the waning days of December 1873, a small group of National Association executives known as the Championship Committee voted to award that season’s pennant to the Boston Red Stockings in a contentious 2-to-1 decision.1 The deciding vote was cast by Elias Hicks Hayhurst, a representative of the Philadelphia Athletics. In siding with fellow committeeman […]

Darryl Kile was no stranger to quashing claims that his best days were behind him. After a 12-21 record in his first two major-league seasons, he made the All-Star team and pitched a no-hitter in 1993. After three straight years of earned-run averages above 4.00, he rebounded in ’97, landing a 19-7 record and a […]

Going into Game Three of the 1981 American League Division Series, the Milwaukee Brewers faced a challenge: Make history, or go home. The Brewers – founded as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 – earned their first postseason berth in the strike-altered 1981 season. But the New York Yankees beat the Brewers in Milwaukee in the […]