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Hank Greenberg (1911-1986) Apart from Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg hit more home runs from the right side of home plate in one season than any player in baseball history. In 1938 he belted 58 home runs, just two short of Babe Ruth’s record, and a total which tied Foxx’s output in 1932. Such awesome power […]
In the course of his career, Roberto Clemente played in 2,433 games and earned 266 assists. He made any number of spectacular defensive plays. One often cited is the time that Clemente, playing right field, earned an assist on a bunt. The game was at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh on Friday night, August 27, 1965. […]
Babe Ruth calling his shot . . . Gabby Hartnett’s home run in the gloamin’… Ernie Banks’ No. 500. . . These are some of the 6,905 major league home runs hit at Wrigley Field. The first home run was hit by Art Wilson of the Chicago Whales in a Federal League game on April […]
With the rapid spread in popularity of baseball across North America after the Civil War, St. Thomas, Ontario, was among the many burgeoning communities to use the game as a prominent civic community and promotional enterprise. The seat of Elgin County grew slowly until the arrival of the Canadian Southern and the Great Western railroads […]
“I received three letters that morning, one at a time. First one said I’d be shot if I sat in the dugout. Second one said I’d be shot if I went on the field and the third one said I’d be shot if I took the mound.” — Dave Hoskins1 1952 Globe Printing baseball […]
History students who want to learn about uneasy détente during the 1960s could study the tense Cold War between the US and other democratic nations on one side, and the USSR and other “Iron Curtain” Communist nations on the other. Or they could just look at the smiles-out-front, scowls-in-private relationship between the Los Angeles Dodgers […]
Freddie Fitzsimmons of the New York Giants gives a pitching clinic for the All-Japan team. (Courtesy of the San Francisco Giants) On the morning of June 29, 1953, readers of the Globe Gazette in Mason City, Iowa, were greeted by a headline on page 13: “New York Giants Invited to Tour Japan This Fall.”1 […]
A mixture of fact arid fiction surrounds the legendary Penobscot’s career. Although he was an instant success in his debut with Cleveland, his great start was negated by an old drinking problem. This is bounding Sockalexis, Fielder of the mighty Clevelands. Like the catapult in action, For the plate he […]
David Ortiz holds the 2004 World Series trophy during the victory parade in Boston. (Courtesy of Bill Nowlin) It’s not unusual for a championship team to show off some hard-won hardware. The Stanley Cup of the National Hockey League famously travels from player to player in the offseason, making public appearances along the way. […]
1951 Hazard Bombers. From L-R, top row: J. Ravelo, D. Hayling, E. Bobrik, J. Podres. Second row: K. Johnson, R. Coluni, L. Isert, M. Sanders, R. Torres. Third row: M. Macon, Max Smith (team owner). Fourth row: R. Dacko, J. Tondora, J. Chapman, K. Cox, E. Catlett. Bottom row: C, Crook Jr. (batboy), H. Snyder, […]
Jim “Mudcat” Grant. (SABR-Rucker-Archive) The spring of 1955 found minor-league manager Pinky May walking around Indianville with a list of players in his pocket.1 May, a journeyman third baseman who put in five years in the majors as a player with the Philadelphia Phillies, had been a manager in the Cleveland Indians farm system […]
Between 1951 and 1966, the Chicago White Sox outdrew the Chicago Cubs by a wide margin: 18,966,405 fans to 12,636,867. The White Sox proved the picture of on-field consistency during this period, never finishing below a .500 winning percentage. The Cubs proved nearly as consistent during these 16 years: only once did they finish above […]
One aspect of amateur baseball that is largely unexplored is the baseball played in our nation’s prisons. Prison games are easily overlooked by historians because few in the general public witnessed these games and they are seldom documented. One exception is the Stillwater State Prison in Stillwater, Minnesota, whose prison newspaper—The Prison Mirror, managed and […]
Nolan Ryan led the majors in giving up bases on balls in 1974 for the third consecutive year. His total was a near record, 202, and one might think that with the other young throwers on the Angels’ staff, there might be a new team record for issuing passes. But no, Andy Hassler gave up […]
Chicago is a city with many nicknames. Its “Windy City” moniker originated in the late 1800s as a comment on the city’s long-winded politicians, but if you stand on the corner of Jackson and Wabash downtown today, you might beg to differ when that wind comes off the lake. Famous poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago […]
Washington, D.C., is primarily known today as the home of our nation’s central government and for its wealth of great museums. Very few people are aware that the city helped give the game of baseball its rich national identity over 150 years ago. A thorough review of the recent “find” of baseball materials, known simply […]
Rube Waddell. Walter Johnson. Lefty Grove. Bob Feller. Sandy Koufax. Sam McDowell. Nolan Ryan. Doc Gooden. Roger Clemens. Pedro Martinez. Randy Johnson. (There are others, of course.) Their names are synonymous with “overpowering strikeout pitcher.” Even as time marches on, their names are not forgotten because each has been a standard against which subsequent generations […]
On “Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball’s Super Showman”.
Honus Wagner, or Hans as he was almost universally called, was relieved the season was over. His 20th campaign in the big leagues and 17th with the Pittsburgh Pirates had been physically and emotionally draining. The 1916 season had been troublesome even before it started and had only gotten worse. Many had predicted Wagner would […]
The mission of the California Angels in 1973 was to find a way to wrest the American League West Division title from their in-state neighbors to the north, the World Series champion Oakland Athletics. The Angels were counting on improvements engineered by General Manager Harry Dalton after the 1972 season. Now in his second season […]
Babe Ruth strikes a batting pose at Fenway Park in the early 1930s. (Leslie Jones photo, courtesy of the Boston Public Library.) Even among Jazz Age giants like Al Jolson and Jack Dempsey, it was Babe Ruth who was the King of Swing. “I swing as hard as I can, and I try to […]
Introduction and Context Now fully invested in the Great War taking place in Europe, the United States was burdened by a shift in its political and economic conditions that demanded a sharp focus on a mobilization of the nation’s armed forces. On the home front, Americans were implored to sacrifice for the good of the […]