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With no one out, the bases loaded, and his team holding a four-run lead in the top of the ninth inning, Chicago White Sox pitcher and manager Clark Griffith had a choice to make when the most feared hitter in the American League stepped to the plate at the Windy City’s South Side Park on […]

After a three-season Negro National League liftoff, Minnie Miñoso’s career as integrated baseball’s first Afro-Latino star blazed almost entirely in the American League, from 1949 debut with the Cleveland Indians through late-season appearances with the Chicago White Sox more than a quarter-century later. Miñoso crossed over to the National League only once, in 1962, when […]

Before the Friday night game began at Seattle’s Safeco Field, the pitching matchup didn’t augur an even battle. The starters were two right-handers, Ryan Franklin for the Seattle Mariners and Curt Schilling for the Boston Red Sox. The 31-year-old Franklin, in his fifth major-league season, was 3-14 with a 5.31 earned-run average for the Mariners, […]

It was a “titanic struggle,” declared sportswriter Jack Ryder about the longest, and surely one of the most exciting, games of the 1934 major-league season.1 It featured seven lead changes, clutch hitting, sensational defense, rubber-armed pitching, and some luck. The Cincinnati Reds were having another abysmal season when they engaged the St. Louis Cardinals in […]

By 1914, New York Giants executives had accepted that inconsistent performances had become the norm for Rube Marquard, but they could not have predicted that he was about to make a decision that could have left him exiled to life as a baseball pariah and “certain to be hard ridden by the rooters” in the […]

As the Boston Red Sox began their stretch run into September 2013, they were riding the crest of an unanticipated wave. Defying the preseason analysis that offered little hope of anything better than the previous season’s last-place finish, the Red Sox found themselves in the unexpected position of leading the American League East. Having made […]

“‘Why,’ said an American after the match, ‘your crowd applauded all the fly hits. In the States the crowds only let us know when we miss ’em.’” — Sydney Morning Herald, January 2, 1914   The steamship St. Albans roared into Brisbane, Australia, on January 1, 1914. This was “an American invasion” of Australia on […]

The Boston Red Sox display a large 2004 World Series banner covering the left-field wall at Fenway Park during their home opener on April 11, 2005. (Courtesy of Kurt Blumenau)   Opening Day ceremonies at Fenway Park were notably different in 2005. For the first time in 86 years, fans who were present were able […]

“There is no smarter man in baseball today than Miller Huggins.” — John McGraw1 New York Yankees co-owner Jacob Ruppert realized by mid-August 1917 that the Yankees, mired in a seven-game losing streak, were not going to contend for a championship anytime soon with easygoing manager Bill Donovan leading the team. The Yankees were not […]

Ben Oglivie was the first, but not the last, hitter in Milwaukee Brewers history to hit three home runs in a game. As of Opening Day 2015, Brewers had hit three home runs in a game 19 times. But Oglivie is the only one to accomplish it three times.1 Milwaukee acquired Oglivie from Detroit before […]

Fledging leagues need paying customers to survive, but sometimes owners have to give away free samples to entice potential consumers to pay for products. This kind of thinking led to Fans’ Day, when, “[f]or the first time in many years admission to a big league game was free”1 as the Federal League’s Brooklyn entry’s “gates […]

“The most wonderful game on record.”1 That’s how contemporary newspaper reports described the no-run, no-hit, no-man-reach-first-base 1–0 triumph by Worcester’s Lee Richmond over Cleveland. Although the term itself wouldn’t be created for more than a quarter-century, it was the first “perfect game” ever pitched.2 Actually, the “perfect” label was applied to one aspect of the […]

It began just after 3:00 in the afternoon when Cincinnati’s ace, Eppa Rixey, served one up to Cubs second baseman Sparky Adams. Sixteen innings later it ended after Charley Dressen scored on a single by Wally Pipp. Between those two pitches, the Cincinnati Reds and the Chicago Cubs battled through the longest and one of […]

The 1972 season was marred by a season-opening strike. When agreement was reached, it was decided to play out the schedule as it had been, even if that meant some teams would play a game or two more than others. That resulted in the Detroit Tigers playing one more game than the Boston Red Sox. […]

Thomas F. McCullough, business manager of the Southern Association’s Memphis team, was fed up with postponements due to wet grounds at Red Elm Park, the local ballpark. So he came up with a solution: Elevate the diamond so that rainwater drained from it. His innovation was unveiled in the spring of 1907.1 From the summit […]

Diminutive Andy Oyler — listed as 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds on his contract card from The Sporting News1 and recalled as having “very large” hands by a boyhood friend of his grandson2 — was known more his fielding than his hitting. Nevertheless, Oyler is best remembered for a home run he never hit. Andrew Paul […]

Fans of two franchises that featured the ultimate in futility for so many years might find it interesting that right-hander Bill Fleming pitched for only two major-league teams: the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. He didn’t have a winning record for either. Though born Leslie Fletcherd Fleming on July 31, 1913, in Rowland, California, […]

Longtime scout Joe Stephenson once called Ken Brett “a combination of George Brett [his brother], Fred Lynn, and Roger Maris. He was the best prospect that I ever saw.”1 Ken Brett’s numbers never quite lived up to the reputation. “The worst curse in life,” Brett would later offer, “is unlimited potential.”2 After becoming the youngest […]

The well-traveled right-handed pitcher Bobby Locke spent the month of September 1964 on the Phillies roster after a call-up from Little Rock. He pitched in eight games, three of them during the team’s fatal ten-game losing streak, including the one in which Chico Ruiz’s steal of home launched the losing streak. (Art Mahaffey was on […]

Depending on how you spell it, or sometimes how you pronounce it, Boston has enjoyed its share of “Miller Time” for many seasons. In recent years the Red Sox have employed pitchers Andrew and Wade Miller, third baseman Bill Mueller (pronounced Miller) and first baseman Kevin Millar (OK, close enough). In past history there were […]

Benjamin Franklin Hunt made his major league debut on August 24, 1910, pitching the Red Sox to a 5-2 win against the St. Louis Browns. Also effective in his next two starts, a complete game win versus the White Sox, and a tough 2-0 loss to Jack Coombs and the Athletics, Hunt seemed well on […]

Variously called the Candy Kid, the LaCrosse Lulu, the Big Bohemian, and even Edward the Mighty—but known in boxscores simply as “Koney”—Ed Konetchy led his league’s first basemen in fielding eight times and batted .281 in 2,085 games. His 2,150 hits included 344 doubles, 182 triples (15th all time), and 74 home runs. Koney was […]

“One feller I want to meet if he’s still alive and can be found is that fellow Henriksen,” remarked 72-year-old Hugh Bedient to Jamestown Post-Journal sportswriter Frank Hyde. It was March of 1962, and in four weeks’ time Hugh was expected in Boston along with the other surviving members of the 1912 World Champions for […]

It’s unlikely that Pop Corkhill is discussed as an outfielder on par with Mays, Mantle, and Musial. Perhaps he should be. During his major-league career — from 1883 to 1892 — Corkhill placed in the top 10 for fielding percentage eight times; range factor seven times; assists five times; and putouts four times.1 For his […]