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“Sammy Byrd, the Yankee reserve outfielder, is a good golfer, but he has not had a real chance to show how good a ball player he is.” — Boston Globe, December 17, 1934 Sammy Byrd could have been a starting outfielder on any other team, but on the great New York Yankees teams from […]
First we’ll use Spahn, then we’ll use Sain, Then an off day, followed by rain. Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain And followed, we hope, by two days of rain. —Gerry Hern, Boston Post, September 14, 1948 Nobody would mistake Post sportswriter Hern’s famous lines for “Casey at the Bat” or even poetry […]
Growing up in downstate Illinois, between Chicago and St. Louis, a midcentury youth was blessed by time and place. By radio, born in 1920, and television’s relatively new wonderwork, baseball could be followed through the art of play-by-play. If you grasped the pastime’s rhythm, the Voices often became as arresting as being at the park. […]
From the Wa-was to the Yeggs to the major leagues. The Class C Southern Michigan Association sported some unusual team monikers. (The Kalamazoo Kazoos won the pennant in 1910, then changed their names to the Celery Eaters and won it again.) It was still a rapid climb for Frank Patrick Gilhooley, who’d started out playing sandlot […]
William Wilcy “Cy” Moore was a right-handed pitcher with a tremendous sidearm sinkerball. In the major leagues for only six seasons, Moore will always be remembered for his memorable rookie year at the age of 30 with the heralded 1927 New York Yankees, earning him the distinction of becoming the team’s first great relief pitcher. […]
On Monday evening, September 22, 1947, the “sizzling steaks [were] on the house . . . [and] free gravy down the shirt front” was de rigueur at 600 Flatbush Avenue.1 Pitcher Hugh Casey, proprietor of Hugh Casey’s Steak and Chop House, was optimistically throwing a victory dinner party for his Dodgers teammates. Brooklyn’s beloved “Bums” […]
Although military service delayed his entry into professional baseball until he was 25 years old, speedy shortstop Dave Altizer rose rapidly through the minors and ended up playing parts of six seasons in the major leagues. Nicknamed “Daredevil” for his sometimes erratic and reckless play, he still showed such promise that one of his managers, […]
Thirty men registered plate appearances for the 2004 Boston Red Sox, but one of the biggest contributors to the offensive juggernaut did not face a single pitch. Had it not been for the December 27, 2002, announcement of Ron “Papa Jack” Jackson as the team’s new hitting coach, Boston’s stunning rise to the zenith of […]
In art, a painter may create masterpieces on canvas. In baseball the verb “paint” applies to a craft no less skillful. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary defines the verb as “… To throw pitches over the edges of the plate, which appear to be dark or black because of the contrast of the white rubber plate […]
The baseball epitaph for Deadball Era right-hander Del Mason might well be the familiar: Minor League Star/Major League Bust. Twice the best pitcher of a minor-league circuit, Mason was a disappointment in ensuing trials with the Washington Senators (1904) and Cincinnati Reds (1906-1907). In retrospect, it appears that Mason lacked that extra level of pitching […]
Soft-spoken Richard Atley Donald once threw 95-mile-per-hour fastballs for the 1939 New York Yankees, the first major league team to win four straight World Series. He won 12 straight games for them, to set an American League mark for rookies. Atley was a star pitcher for the 1937 Newark Bears, considered by many to be […]
It looked, at first glance, like a mistake. The Associated Press’s obituary for Ron Plaza, which ran in newspapers across the US in April 2012, noted that the Oakland Athletics’ roving minor-league instructor was entering his 61st season in professional baseball, but listed his age as only 77.1 There was no error. The prodigious infielder […]
“Things just kept happening, unexpected things, rare things, exciting things, dramatic things,” wrote John Wilson of the Houston Chronicle after the Astros doubleheader split with the visiting San Diego Padres that involved everything from dramatic home runs, controversial plays at home plate, and game-interrupting disputes to stellar defensive plays and even occasionally good pitching.1 “It […]
In mid-August of 1940, Jimmie Foxx went on a homer-hitting spree, banging out four-base hits five games in a row, hitting seven home runs in a seven-day stretch from August 13 through 19. On August 16 he hit a home run in the first inning and another – a game-winner– in the bottom of the […]
Despite the loss to the Boston Red Sox in the 1946 World Series opener, Cardinals fans approached Game Two with enthusiasm. Thousands of unreserved seats were sold the morning of the game. Pregame entertainment — comprised Frank Miller’s 25-piece jazz band and a 77-year-old bricklayer from Ohio dancing behind home plate in a white linen […]
Luis Tiant had led the majors with a 1.91 ERA in 1972 but his 1973 season got off to a rocky start. The Yankees were in town and they went to town, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. A single, followed by a strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play, sore-armed […]
The Detroit Wolverines visited Chicago’s West Side Park to battle the Chicago White Stockings on July 28, 1888, and “the result was a cannonading more terrible than any seen here this season.”1 The 1887 National League champion Wolverines (47-26) were looking to repeat as pennant winners and had assumed the top spot in the standings […]
From 1976 to 1985, the Kansas City Royals were one of the American League’s best teams. In that 10-year span, they made the playoffs seven times, and finished second in the other three years. When Darryl Motley squeezed Andy Van Slyke’s fly to right to clinch the 1985 World Series title, Royals fans had no […]
The magic number was 3 at County Stadium in Milwaukee on Saturday, May 14, 1983, as the Brewers hosted the Boston Red Sox. The temperature was brisk (53 degrees) but Ben Oglivie was hot, entering the game hitting .323 with a .427 on-base percentage. His bat would play a deciding role on this evening. The […]
On July 22, 1917, rookie Swede Risberg’s daring baserunning and clutch two-out hitting propelled the Chicago White Sox to an important 2-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox. The triumph stretched Chicago’s American League lead over second-place Boston to 3½ games. The Red Sox arrived in Chicago on July 19 trailing the White Sox by […]
The Boston Red Sox seemed determined (or destined) to lose the second game of their August 23, 1938, doubleheader with the Cleveland Indians, but they kept coming back. They were down 6-0 before the bottom of the second inning. They were outhit by the visiting Indians, committed four errors while Cleveland made none, and doled […]
San Diego Padres fans had already witnessed three extra-inning games of 13 or more innings (including one for 22 innings) during the first seven weeks of the 2008 season, so when the game on May 25 against Cincinnati was tied after nine innings, it really wasn’t a big surprise. What the 36,508 Petco Park fans […]
Baseball games are frequently protested by managers and teams on the wrong side of controversial calls, but it’s rare that a protest is upheld and a game’s result is impacted. One such successful protest occurred during the 1924 season, following an umpire’s erroneous ruling after a series of substitutions. The scoreboard read “Boston Red Sox […]
It was a familiar scenario for the Pirates and their fans, and one not likely to foster a bunch of fond memories. Pittsburgh had fielded some pretty good baseball teams in the 1970s, and five of the previous ones had been good enough to win the National League’s Eastern Division. Three of those times in […]