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For Dizzy Trout, the 30-year-old right-hander, no victory had meant so much. Sure, he had posted 98 wins in his seven seasons with the Detroit Tigers, including 20 in 1943 and 27 the following year. But on October 6, 1945, in Game Four of the 1945 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, Trout shined like […]

Would Ted Williams trade 18 points off his batting average for a game-winning home run? We can’t know the answer. Probably the answer would be “yes,” in that there’s always time to build up one’s batting average. As it happens, Williams hit over .400 in 1953 anyhow. This game wasn’t long after Williams had been […]

On Friday, July 25, 1947, Crosley Field was packed with 24,430 spectators as the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Philadelphia Phillies. On the surface, that many showing up to watch a sixth-place team play the last-place Phils seemed curious during a season in which Cincinnati posted the lowest home attendance of all teams in the National […]

The month of June 1931 came to a close with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs battling each other at the Baker Bowl. Chicago (36-29-1) held third place in the National League standings, seven games ahead of sixth-place Philadelphia (29-36-1). The teams had split the first two games of a four-game series, and on […]

With a Game Three win under their belts, the Brooklyn Robins were “bubbling over with enthusiasm” and insisted a second straight victory would give them so much “pep” going into Game Five that the Red Sox wouldn’t recognize them.1 Boston manager Bill Carrigan’s hunch to start left-hander Dutch Leonard under better conditions came to fruition […]

When the hot and humid morning of Tuesday, July 11, 1972, dawned in Detroit, the Tigers found themselves hanging onto a slim one-game division lead over the reigning World Series champion Baltimore Orioles, who were in the midst of a five-game losing streak that had coughed up their hold on first place just a couple […]

“New York and Boston finished tiedIn baseball’s roller coaster rideThey played one-hundred-sixty-twoAnd even that was one too few”1       Seemingly, the Boston Red Sox were on their way. At the All-Star break in 1978, the Red Sox enjoyed a healthy nine-game lead over second-place Milwaukee. Behind the Brewers were the New York Yankees (11½ […]

The game was the shortest official game in Boston Red Sox history, albeit a scoreless tie. It lasted only 50 minutes, called after five innings because of rain. It was just the fourth game of the new season. Fans probably weren’t expecting much; the Red Sox had finished in last place five of the previous […]

Two teams with a history of extra-inning games1 faced each other on a Saturday evening in the Astrodome and, after 4 hours and 14 minutes, the Houston Astros emerged victorious over the San Francisco Giants in 14 innings before the remnants of a crowd announced as 27,208. Giants great Willie Mays stood atop the list […]

Ray Chapman, Tony Conigliaro, Dickie Thon, Adam Greenberg: We recognize the names of big leaguers whose careers and lives were changed forever when they were hit by wayward pitches. Of course, the same thing can happen at any level of baseball, and players in the minors have had the same terrifying experience outside the big-league […]

Sources agree that a mere 306 fans turned out for the game on Thursday afternoon, October 1, 1964, at Boston’s Fenway Park. It can stand as the lowest documented attendance of a game at the ballpark, though there was a game there in 1922 which the Chicago Tribune claimed drew only, precisely, 68.1 That number […]

It was an unusual news story in a summer full of them. In the first week of July 1969, newspapers in Maine reported that Portland TV station WMTW, southern Maine’s home for Boston Red Sox telecasts, would also carry five New York Mets games “by special arrangement” that month.1 A station official said the Mets […]

A 6-foot-3, 190-pound1 coal miner from eastern Pennsylvania, Barney McFadden was a hard throwing righthanded pitcher in the early 20th century. After appearing in nine National League games for two teams, his career was abbreviated by control problems. Bernard Joseph McFadden was born on March 29, 1875,2 in the Eckley Miners’ Village in Luzerne County, […]

One might say that Jim Boyle went into the family business – recruited by no less than Hall-of-Fame manager John McGraw himself1 – but ultimately he chose his own path after being the first Boyle to attend college. Jim Boyle followed his uncles Jack Boyle and Eddie Boyle as a catcher into the major leagues. […]

In 1972 Hank Morgenweck achieved a long-held dream—a full-time umpiring job in the major leagues. Four seasons later, in bitter and disputed circumstances, he lost it. An experienced minor-league ump with a National League playoff game on his résumé, Morgenweck was named to the American League’s umpiring staff in spring 1972. But his contract was […]

Pat Corrales spent more than 50 years in professional baseball as a player, coach, and manager. Although he will never be confused with a slugging catcher like Mike Piazza, Corrales was an excellent defensive catcher and a student of the game who parlayed his knowledge and experience into a long and successful career as a […]

In the early 1900s the fledgling automobile industry sought out connections to the national pastime. The Chalmers Motor Company presented a car to the most valuable player. Ty Cobb considered opening a Hupmobile dealership. According to a newspaper ad, “ ‘Hans’ Wagner, ‘Ty’ Cobb, Sam Crawford and other ball players ride in their own machines […]

On the last day of the 1955 regular season, 18-year-old Roger Marquis played one inning in right field and batted once for the seventh-place Baltimore Orioles. That was his only major league appearance, and he was out of professional baseball altogether by age 21. Roger Julian Marquis was born on April 5, 1937, in Holyoke, […]

Del Baker was born and raised about as far from the big leagues as possible, yet he ultimately became famous as baseball’s canniest sign-stealer. Along the way, he also managed the Detroit Tigers to within a whisker of a world championship. In 1892, Delmer David Baker was born in Sherwood, Oregon, then a small rural […]

A run-scoring-machine leadoff hitter with great speed (408 career steals) and good power (235 homers), Johnny Damon had “good range defensively but … one of the worst outfield arms in the big leagues.” 1 Offensively, Damon had his best years with Kansas City in 2000 and Boston in 2004, and won World Series titles with […]

“I watched him go. He never came back…It made me realize how fragile life really is.”[1] – Bob Bailor Righty pitcher Mark “Dutch” Weems displayed promise as a Baltimore Orioles farmhand in the early 1970s. After turning pro in 1969, he reached Class AAA as early as 1971. He was playing winter ball in Venezuela […]

There have been countless cosmetic changes in how baseball has been played during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but the tools and rules of the game — and of the professional sport — have not been radically altered. A spectator from 1901 would recognize the game in 2021. The revolutionary advances occurred in the 19th […]

Jimmy Piersall played 20 years of professional baseball, including parts of 17 in the major leagues. He is best known for his nervous breakdown and hospitalization during his rookie season of 1952, an ordeal that led to a best-selling autobiography and two movies. Few could have imagined in 1952 that Piersall would have 15 years […]

Editor’s note: In 2010, SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee selected Deacon White as its Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend. This article first appeared in the committee’s Fall 2010 newsletter. In December 2012, the Veterans Committee elected White, along with former Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and longtime umpire Hank O’Day, to the National Baseball Hall of […]