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Rick Wise won 188 major-league ballgames, was a two-time All-Star, threw a no-hitter (and barely missed three others), and was the winning pitcher in what many still say was the greatest baseball game ever played, Game Six of the 1975 World Series. He had a lot of support from his family growing up. Wise’s father, […]

“Dwight Evans was the best Red Sox right fielder I ever saw.” — Johnny Pesky A member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame, Dwight Evans was voted Red Sox MVP four times by the Boston Baseball Writers. It might not be a stretch at all to agree with Herb Crehan, who writes, “Dewey might […]

The American dream of being a well-known baseball player was firmly established years before Babe Ruth’s major-league debut in 1914. For instance, in 1910 a New York Times article on recreation centers and urban parks asked, rhetorically, “What youngster nowadays dreams of being President of the country when it is just as easy to conjure […]

The Boston Red Sox acquired second baseman Denny Doyle from the California Angels in mid-June 1975 to solidify the team’s infield defense. But Denny Doyle did a lot more for the 1975 Red Sox than just shore up their defense. Doyle batted a career-high .298 in 1975, batting .310 in 89 games with the Red […]

Of the 22 men who played for the Boston Red Stockings over the five years from 1871 through 1875, 17 were American-born and the other five were born in other countries. There was one Canadian, one Irishman, and three from England. George Hall (Stepney) and Harry Wright (Sheffield) were both English natives. So was Samuel […]

When the Orioles “threatened in the eighth, [relief pitcher] Lefty Jacobs took over and in his usual manner made short work of the rally idea.”1 — Baltimore Sun, May 9, 1938   Art Jacobs was an itinerant minor leaguer from 1923 to 1941. The southpaw began his career as a starting pitcher and in his […]

With a population of just over 10 million, the Dominican Republic has produced approximately 450 big-league pitchers as of May 2021. Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Pedro Martinez are easily the most famous, and most successful; however, no hurler from the Caribbean nation had a reputation as a harder thrower than Mario Soto. A […]

Due to a single base-running blunder on September 23, 1908, Fred Merkle became known by such unflattering epithets as “Bonehead,” “Leather Skull,” and “Ivory Pate.” Those who knew the right-handed cleanup hitter, however, described him as a “gentleman and scholar” and “voracious reader”; in fact, teammate Chief Meyers called him “the smartest man on the […]

Could one imagine a better prospect than young left-hander Billy Hoeft? As an American Legion and Oshkosh (Wisconsin) High School pitcher, he reeled off a string of 34 consecutive victories in 1948 and 1949 before losing the last game of the season, 2-1, on an unearned run.1 The string included three no-hit games. His Legion […]

Red Thisted never saw a professional baseball game until he was 20 years old. He made up for lost time, though. Over the course of four decades, he attended every home game played my Milwaukee’s ballclub, plus all of the away games when not prevented by wartime travel restrictions. From the start of the 1926 […]

“Getting the American league franchise formerly held by Philadelphia was a glorious triumph for the Kansas City spirit. … [H]undreds of thousands of supporters are atingle for the opening of the big league era the A’s now bring.” — Kansas City Star, April 11, 19551   Philadelphia had been home to Connie Mack’s Athletics since […]

It was the start of a dynasty. Or so thought Milwaukee’s baseball fans. On September 21, 1958, the Braves won the National League pennant for the second year in row. Hank Aaron propelled the reigning World Series champs with a 2-for-3 afternoon, sending four runs across Crosley Field’s home plate. Red Schoendienst knocked in a […]

For the “Cardiac Kids,” there was no place like home. More than 1,500 screaming fans greeted their darling Red Sox at Logan Airport on their return flight from St. Louis. The following day, U.S. Marines were called in to control over 15,000 cheering fans who lined the streets in Peabody in a tribute honoring Dick […]

It was time for Ted Williams to unload. He came into the Tuesday night game in Detroit hitless in his last six at-bats. He was facing Jim Bunning, against whom he had been 0-for-7 to this point in 1958. Nine days earlier, Bunning had no-hit the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Williams was 0-for-4 in […]

Many baseball fans consider Branch Rickey the greatest innovator in baseball history. Not only did he break baseball’s color barrier by bringing Jackie Robinson to the majors, he also invented the farm system, which has become the standard means teams use to develop talent. Another great innovator who deserves credit for the changes he brought […]

“Jim Rice. Remember the name.”1 The uncredited scribe who wrote that sentence in the September 22, 1973, edition of the Boston Globe proved to be very prescient indeed. Rice hit 382 home runs in a 16-season career spent entirely with the Boston Red Sox, helped Boston teams reach two World Series, and was inducted into […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Redlegs in 11 innings on June 21, 1957, at Crosley Field was a good game, its outcome in doubt until the final pitch, but one of its most notable events took place after the final out. “Temple’s ‘Hit’ Costs Him $100,” the Cincinnati Post’s page one story […]

One game short of his 300th career victory, Early Wynn was without a job in baseball as the 1963 season began. Wynn, who first pitched in the major leagues in 1939 for the Washington Senators, had been a four-time 20-game winner for Cleveland in the 1950s. Traded to the White Sox in December of 1957, […]

On May 5, 2000, 20-year-old Taiwanese right-hander Chien-Ming Wang signed with the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent.1 Wang’s signing was a surprise to some. “In high school, he was kind of terrible,” said Louis Yu, a sportswriter who covered Wang then. “He was tall and very, very skinny. His delivery wasn’t smooth, […]

A month before Opening Day 1953, the Cincinnati Reds were expecting to kick off their season by hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates. On March 18, though, the National League club owners convened in St. Petersburg, Florida, to consider the transfer of Lou Perini’s Boston Braves to Milwaukee. Dodgers president Walter O’Malley made the motion, Horace Stoneham […]

Roaring Bill Kennedy took the mound for the Pirates in Game Five of the 1903 World Series. Deacon Phillippe had the day off. Right-handed William Park Kennedy had pitched in the major leagues since 1892, mostly for Brooklyn, and had been a four-time 20-game winner, though he’d pitched for the New York Giants in 1902 […]

The Cincinnati Reds had endured a rough winter. Confessions of game-fixing tarnished their long-coveted championship. Three key players were holdouts. A beloved team executive passed away. But the slings and arrows of baseball’s fortune could not diminish Cincinnati’s celebration of Opening Day. As a record crowd overflowed Redland Field, the Reds opened 1921 by surging […]

While Neil Young began the year singing, “Keep on rockin’ in the free world,”1 millions around the globe were seeking freedom by the spring of 1989. One day before Toronto and Boston concluded their weekend three-game series, the Chinese government used lethal force to crush a seven-week pro-democracy protest in Beijing.2 In Poland, citizens voted […]

When the Washington Senators1 were founded in 1891, they played their games at Boundary Field in Northwest Washington. Boundary Field was named for its location on the northwest boundary line of the District of Columbia at Boundary Line and Seventh Street. The field is labeled on the 1904 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map as “Athletic Fields,” […]