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Hanson “Hans” Horsey had a whirlwind four-inning cup of coffee with the 1912 Cincinnati Reds as a 22-year-old pitcher tasked with “taking one for the team” in an April blowout loss. But the slightly-built (5-foot-11, 165 pounds)1 right-hander, drafted after two seasons in Class-B baseball, pitched six more seasons in the minor leagues before returning […]

Grant Thatcher packed a lot into his five-game career with the Brooklyn Superbas in 1903 and 1904. He won his first three appearances with complete-game victories. His only major league loss was a four-inning complete game. Thatcher’s fourth and final career win occurred in his last outing, a nine-inning relief outing when the starting pitcher […]

For a pitcher with 474? innings of major-league experience behind him to leave on the note he did – his disastrous one partial inning for the 1908 Red Sox – must have been personally aggravating. But even with that disappointing finale, Jake Thielman won 30 big-league games with an earned-run average of 3.16. Thielman spent […]

For nearly half a century, one man’s voice defined baseball in Baltimore. Chuck Thompson, referred to as “the voice of God in Baltimore”1 by fellow sportscaster Ted Patterson, was the play-by-play broadcaster of Baltimore baseball for nearly every season from 1949 through 2000. Cal Ripken, Jr. grew up listening to Thompson on the radio and […]

A regular in the New York Giants outfield from 1910 to 1915, Fred Snodgrass was the “meteor” of the 1910 season, leading the National League in batting average for most of the year before tailing off to finish at .321. The next season Snodgrass batted third in the lineup and ranked second on the club […]

Jody Reed was a smallish (5-feet-9, 170 pounds)1 and fiery middle infielder with a rocket for a throwing arm and a knack for hitting doubles. He was with the Red Sox from 1987 to 1992. He went on to shorter stints with the Dodgers, Brewers, Padres, and Tigers during an 11-year major-league career. Reed gave […]

Half of the most famous version of the “Pretzel Battery,” catcher Heinie Peitz was a noted “coacher”—more of a bench jockey in modern parlance—whose mouth gained him nearly as much attention as his play. For nine years of his 16-season (1892–1906, 1913) career, he was a Cincinnati Reds mainstay. When he retired, Peitz ranked 12th […]

Baseball scouts have historically thrived on anonymity.   They ply their trade in the game’s shadows, rarely drawing acclaim or notoriety.  George Huff was the exception that proves the rule.   As both coach and scout, Huff was intimately involved in baseball for some 30 years.  But in truth baseball was essentially a sideline.  Despite considerable success […]

The man who broadcast Jackie Robinson’s first season with the Dodgers recalled that, as a boy in Sanford, Florida, “I saw black men tarred and feathered by the Ku Klux Klan and forced to walk the streets. I had grown up in a completely segregated world.” Red Barber confessed that when he learned the Dodgers […]

Kid Madden’s career was meteoric … and tragically short. Born in Portland, Maine, on October 22, 1866, the Kid took an early liking to pitching. Though frail and almost childlike in appearance – he weighed but 124 pounds spread thinly over a 5-foot-7 frame during his peak pitching years – Madden developed an assortment of […]

“The Chicagoes were not, as aforesaid, able to make a clean hit,” wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer of what it said to be “the first game on record in which such has been the case in a professional game.”1 The first no-hitter in professional baseball was thrown on July 28, 1875, by 21-year-old Joe Josephs, an […]

Perennial summer traditions in St. Louis have always included hot weather and, in the old days, streetcar trips to Sportsman’s Park. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the latter tradition also included the lackluster performance of the city’s two baseball teams, the Cardinals and the Browns. Neither had ever generated much pennant […]

Goose Goslin was a dangerous hitter, suggested St. Louis sportswriter Charles Regan, especially for pedestrians walking along Grand Boulevard in front of Sportsman’s Park, located on the north side of the Gateway City. Regan wondered whether the future Hall of Famer “would hurt many people” with his next moon shot in a slugfest with the […]

On this steamy August afternoon, the bespectacled outfielder Chick Hafey etched his name into the St. Louis record books and helped launch his team on a historic run to the National League pennant. As the Cardinals pounded out 19 hits in beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 16-6, in the first game of a five-game series, Hafey […]

The Chicago White Stockings were struggling in their return to the National Association after a two-year absence precipitated by the Great Fire in the Windy City which destroyed much of the city, including the team’s ballpark. The Chicago nine were 8-14, and were preparing to play the Boston Red Stockings in their first home game […]

Wednesday, June 12, 1872, was a hot, sultry day at the South End Grounds in Boston, as Harry Wright and his Red Stockings faced their rivals, the Athletics of Philadelphia. Despite the midweek date and the heat, so many Red Stockings fans flocked to the ball park that the 3:30 P.M. game time had to […]

“The Cubs are going to the World Series,” gushed the North Siders radio broadcaster, Pat Hughes. “The Cubs win the pennant.”1 The long-suffering lovable losers systematically dismantled the Los Angeles Dodgers and beat the best pitcher on the planet to capture their first NL flag in 71 years. There was an electric mood at Wrigley […]

Larry Bowa and Joe Hoerner crossed paths for the first time as teammates on the 1970 Philadelphia Phillies. Bowa, signed and developed by the Phillies’ organization, was a 24-year-old rookie shortstop batting leadoff for a mainly veteran team. Hoerner, a 33-year-old lefty reliever, was acquired in an offseason trade with the St. Louis Cardinals to […]

Baseball card collectors were treated to a unique surprise in 1985, as Topps’ flagship card set included a special subset devoted to the members of the 1984 US Olympic baseball team. This subset gave card buyers their first look at some names that would become familiar in years to come, like Mark McGwire, Bill Swift, […]

With one day left in the American League schedule, Detroit’s Heinie Manush was battling New York’s Babe Ruth for the league batting crown. Both batters were hitting .372; Manush was 182-for-489 (.37219), while Ruth was 184-for-494 (.37247). The outcome would be decided on this Sunday afternoon. Just below them was Detroit’s Bob Fothergill, at .360. […]

After Game Four of the 1986 World Series, reporters asked Boston Red Sox manager John McNamara about his slumping hitters, notably former batting champion Bill Buckner and reigning batting champ Wade Boggs, who against the New York Mets were hitting a combined .171 (6-for-35), effectively neutering the advantage provided by their hottest hitter, Marty Barrett, […]

What is it about Cincinnati baseball and bee swarms? The insects have disrupted four big-league ballgames there from 1976 through 2019. This is the story of the first such apian invasion. On Saturday afternoon, April 17, 1976, the Reds faced the San Francisco Giants at Riverfront Stadium. It was the Game of the Week on […]

Hall of Famer John Clarkson’s only major-league no-hitter came on July 27, 1885, for the National League’s Chicago White Stockings against the Providence Grays in Providence, Rhode Island. Providence’s starting pitcher was fellow Hall of Famer Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn. The White Stockings entered the game in first place with a 48-14 record and victories […]

On April 24, 2004, the Boston Red Sox came to the plate 26 times with runners in scoring position and were hitless each time. Nonetheless, they beat the New York Yankees, 3-2 in 12 innings, on the strength of three sacrifice flies and staunch relief pitching. Most games are noted for what did happen during […]