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Ernie White 1 had a predicament. His Columbia (South Carolina) Reds were on the road against the Augusta (Georgia) Rams, finishing a three-game South Atlantic (Sally) League series, and his regular catcher, Wilbur McConnell, was out of action with a split finger sustained two days earlier against the Macon Peaches. Backup Everett Johnson was carrying […]

Both teams managed 10 base hits, but the Bostons scored twice as many runs. Neither team scored for the first two innings. Boston sent only six batters to the plate in those innings. Pirates Fred Clarke and Jimmy Sebring singled in the first and second innings, respectively. The pitchers presented a rematch of Game Two […]

The last game of 2019 appeared to be an uneventful contest at Kauffman Stadium for both the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals. The Twins going into the game had wrapped up the American League Central Division title, and with a 101-60 record going into the last day of the regular season, they were […]

The once-struggling Cincinnati Reds were rested and ready1 on Friday, August 12, 1966, when they hosted the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates for the start of a three-game series at Crosley Field. The Reds had won six of their last seven games against the Pirates, but trailed eight games to seven in the season’s rivalry. As Pittsburgh […]

A two-time All-Star, Silver Slugger Award winner, and the 1988 American League MVP runner-up, Mike Greenwell spent his entire 12-season major-league career with the Boston Red Sox. He was the Red Sox’ starting left fielder for 10 years, from 1987 through 1996. Injuries limited Greenwell considerably in 1996, his final big-league season, but he did […]

“You ought to have seen it. Mr. Young, formerly of Canton, O., now of this beautiful city of trees and pretty girls, made his debut yesterday at League Park.” — Leader and Herald, August 7, 1890   “Well boys,” murmured Adrian “Cap” Anson as he rose from his downy couch at the Hollenden Hotel in […]

Joe DiMaggio – a 56-game hitting streak. It’s a statistic engraved in the minds of almost anyone who has followed baseball. Ted Williams had a record streak of his own, an equally impressive one. In 1949 he reached base safely in 84 consecutive games. DiMaggio’s celebrated 1941 hitting streak ended when he failed to get […]

Pumpsie Green’s successful Millers debut was nearly set back when the car in which he was riding in a morning parade down Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis ran out of gas.1 The parade was the idea of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce as a way to introduce fans to an entirely new 1958 Millers team. […]

Walter Johnson was on a roll of historic proportions as he prepared for his final start of the season. Beginning with his three-hit shutout against the New York Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader on September 5 for his 30th victory of the season, the Washington Senators hurler had yielded only two earned […]

All major-league franchises have had their share of noteworthy moments concerning the racial aspects of the sport’s chronicle. The Pirates, for example, have participated in one of the most renowned events in this narrative, with the game on September 1, 1971, a prime example. On that evening at Three Rivers Stadium, manager Danny Murtaugh wrote out […]

Robert Edward (Bob) Hogan was a one-game major-leaguer in 1882. He is credited with starting one game for the St. Louis Brown Stockings, against the Louisville Eclipse. It took place in St. Louis that July 5. He pitched a complete game (eight innings).1 He allowed seven runs on ten hits, striking out four and walking […]

“Pembroke Finlayson” was surely a mouthful of a name for a 5-foot-6, 140-pound lad. Known as the “Midget Twirler,” young Mr. Finlayson made two very brief appearances in major-league baseball, pitching for the Brooklyn club, before reaching the age of 22. He might have worked his way back to the bigs if he’d only made […]

While the Boston Red Stockings of 1871 had many players who would go on to distinguished baseball careers, outfielder Frank Barrows was not one of them. In his only year in the new National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, Barrows played in 18 games for Boston, batted.151 (13 hits in 86 at-bats), and drove […]

Billy Hatcher had a knack for picking the right moment. A cursory glance at his stats gives the impression of a solid yet unremarkable career, a journeyman right-handed outfielder who hopped around the major leagues for 12 seasons, playing for seven teams. But a closer look reveals a series of highlights that most other big […]

Ellis Clary played in the majors for nearly four seasons during World War II, and he had an at-bat during the St. Louis Browns’ only World Series appearance in 1944. Once his playing career ended, he spent six years as a coach with the Washington Senators and more than three decades as a scout for […]

Jake Jones made one of the loudest debuts in the history of the Boston Red Sox. After Joe Cronin swapped slumping first baseman Rudy York — who had knocked in 119 runs for the AL champs in 1946 — to the visiting Chicago White Sox for Murrell Jones on June 14, 1947, York’s first response […]

“(For Dykstra) no dare was too bold, no drink too strong, no car too fast, no poker hand too big.”  — Jeff Pearlman, author of The Bad Guys Won!1 “The Dude would be an experience even if it had nothing to do with baseball. You could meet the Dude away from the field and come […]

For a few years as a young man he was the most noted second baseman in all of baseball. But a combination of factors prevented Charlie Sweasy from fulfilling the promise of his youth. He played his final major-league game at the age of 30 and is all but forgotten today. Charles James Sweasy1 was […]

Despite his diminutive size, Charley “Red” Dooin was an outstanding defensive backstop who caught 1,124 games for the Phillies, a team record until Mike Lieberthal topped it in 2006. “This writer has watched catchers from the days of Charley Farrell and Connie Mack and none could go farther for fouls or block off a runner […]

In 1915, America’s leading syndicated sportswriter, Hugh Fullerton, published a forgettable baseball novel in which a star left-handed pitcher named Williams is bribed and threatened by gamblers to lose the pennant for his team.1 Fullerton, who dedicated the novel to his friend and mentor, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, had been writing about the […]

An integral player on the 1971 World Series Championship team in Pittsburgh, a three-time All-Star and Most Valuable Player vote-getter in Philadelphia, Dave Cash spent his 12-year career as a reliable and often stellar second baseman. Cash has been credited with coining the phrase ‘Yes We Can’ as the Phillies ended their 26-year postseason drought […]

Bill McCool was once one of the most promising pitchers in baseball – a teenager with a fastball that was often too much for major leaguers to handle. But bad luck and injuries derailed his career before he turned 25. William John McCool was born on July 14, 1944, to Carl and Dolores McCool. He […]

This outfielder was the first member of the Lumbee people of Robeson County, North Carolina, to play in the majors. Throughout his playing days, Gene Locklear’s skill as an artist also got attention. “They are both individual things, and you have to have talent. You can’t just have desire,” Locklear said in 2005.1 One of […]

When Ted Williams was still in high school, he broke into baseball with his hometown San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League. It’s said he wore a sweatshirt that he borrowed from Cedric Durst on his first day, because he couldn’t afford one.1 In his autobiography, Williams wrote, “On the road my roommate was […]