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The first game of the best-of-five 1981 NL West Division Series lived up to all of the pregame hype, most of which focused on the clubs’ starting pitchers. The Astros’ 34-year-old Nolan Ryan, not quite yet the major leagues’ ageless wonder, but described by the Houston Chronicle as the “ace of the best pitching staff […]

Hall of Famer Wade Boggs’ illustrious 18-year career included 12 consecutive All-Star Game appearances, eight Silver Slugger Awards, and five batting titles. The 240 hits he collected in 1985 are tied for the 13th highest in a major-league season (as of 2023). Boggs was a member of the 1996 New York Yankees team that won […]

The Kansas City Cowboys joined the American Association in 1888, becoming the third team by that name in three different major leagues within the previous four years.1 Despite Kansas City’s one-season tenures in the Union Association (1884) and National League (1886), the AA had selected it over Buffalo, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse as a replacement […]

It could have been the first time ever. From the very first occurrence of a major-league player hitting for the cycle (when Curry Foley used a grand slam to hit for the cycle on May 25, 1882) through the beginning of the 2020 season, there have been just two times when two major leaguers hit […]

“I knew I had a no-hitter after the first inning,” said Larry Dierker with an air of seriousness before breaking into a chuckle. “Walking back to the dugout, I wondered, ‘When was the last time I got through the first inning without giving up a hit?’”1 Dierker had come close to a no-hitter before. As […]

The New York Mets made several significant changes for 2005. They hired Willie Randolph to be their manager after two losing seasons under Art Howe.1 The 50-year-old Randolph had been a coach for the New York Yankees when they won six pennants and four World Series from 1996 through 2003.2 “It’s a lot of emotion […]

When the fans at Tiger Stadium settled into their seats for a game between the Yankees and Tigers on June 24, 1962, little did they know that history was about to take place at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues. The two teams, having played a doubleheader the day before, were looking to finish […]

It is hard to find a more important date in Braves Field history than October 11, 1948. Not only was it Game Six of the World Series, a do-or-die contest for the hometown team, but it was also a chance for that club to take its biggest step yet toward reconquering the city it had […]

The reigning NL Central champion Houston Astros made a bold move at the July 31 trading deadline in 1998 by acquiring left-hander Randy Johnson from the Seattle Mariners in a trade the club hoped would propel them to their first World Series appearance. The trade, however, was risky. The 34-year-old, 6-foot-10 hurler with his signature […]

Art Fromme struggled often with illness and injury, but when healthy he was among the best pitchers in the National League. In his finest season, the right-hander achieved a 19-13 record for the 1909 Cincinnati Reds. He never threw a major-league no-hitter, but from 1907-14 he hurled four one-hitters and four two-hitters. Arthur Henry Fromme […]

Shortly after his birth, Fred Lee Valentine’s aunt dubbed him “Squeaky” for the noises he made as a toddler. Since he was too young to argue with her about the name, it stuck and remained with him through high school and college and even into his pro career. It bespeaks the constancy of the man, […]

William H. Powell is not a household name like Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, or Satchel Paige. He never matriculated into the majors, is not listed in the pantheon of Negro League greats, and failed to acquire a nickname other than Bill. He had a good fastball and claimed, “I was the hardest-throwing pitcher on the […]

Red Smith, a small, shy man with a commonplace name, was an uncommonly stylish writer. Amid the purple bombast of the sports pages, “he was the first who gave us a license to really write English,” a colleague, Jerry Izenberg, said.1 “He was not just a great sports writer,” fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Anderson […]

Andy Seminick was a rock-solid catcher who had a career year in 1950 and had a lot to do with the Phillies winning their first pennant in 35 years. He was the antithesis of bonus babies like Curt Simmons, Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, and Stan Lopata because he was anything but highly sought after. He […]

In the eyes of Pittsburgh Pirates fans, Don Robinson showed up right on time for a city and a team looking for homegrown talent to fill out the Pirates pitching staff and add a piece to a team capable of winning a pennant in the late 1970s. Had the Philadelphia Phillies selected Robinson in the […]

“It’s going to be a tough act for the kid to follow,” said Cleveland pitcher Bob Feller.1 Indeed, it would be. Feller had just thrown the 12th one-hitter of his fabulous career, blanking Boston, 2-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at Cleveland on May 1, 1955. Boston catcher Sammy White singled to center field in the seventh inning for […]

Sinclair Oil’s dinosaur logo is as powerful a brand identifier as Exxon’s tiger or Mobil’s Pegasus. When Harry Sinclair died at the age of 80 in 1956, his obituaries in the Los Angeles Times1 and the New York Times2 highlighted his oil exploits—but did not mention his baseball interests.  In the early 1900s, Sinclair was […]

Eddie Grant was a typical Deadball Era third baseman: mediocre offensively (as attested by his lifetime .249 batting average and .295 slugging percentage) but defensively reliable, particularly against the bunt. “As a batter [Grant] was noted for his ability to sacrifice,” remembered Mike Donlin, “and he could lay back near third base and still throw […]

The date was May 27, 1944, and as left-handed starter Stan Partenheimer toed the mound and prepared to deliver his first major-league pitch, he might have paused for a moment to consider his surroundings.  Only 1,408 fans dotted the stands of St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park that Saturday afternoon, as Partenheimer’s fifth-place Red Sox faced the […]

Elmer William Valo was born in Slovakia but lived the American dream during nearly sixty years in professional baseball. He insisted he was not a “natural athlete,” saying, “Being a baseball player is not a glamorous job, it’s hard work.”1 In twenty years as a major league player, he reached base as often as Joe […]

At the time of his death, Fred Roat was remembered fondly as “one of the base ball celebrities of the country” who had “played contemporaneously with Billy Sunday of evangelistic fame and was at one time a protégé of the renowned Captain Anson.”1 Despite the flowery description of his baseball ability, however, Roat’s major-league career […]

“There was never a more graceful player than Bridwell.” — Sportswriter Sam Crane, 19101   Al Bridwell was a natural in the field, one of finest defensive shortstops of the Deadball Era. Hitting did not come naturally to him, but as a member of the New York Giants, he became a solid hitter under the […]

Chet Emerson had made it to the big leagues. It was September 1911 and the Philadelphia Athletics had seen enough promise in the 21-year-old Dartmouth graduate to sign him to play for legendary Connie Mack and his first-place A’s. It’s safe to say that Emerson wasn’t particularly worried about where in the powerful Philadelphia lineup […]

From Bill McCurdy at the Pecan Park Eagle, about the Larry Dierker Chapter’s meeting on October 13, 2014: SABR Oct. 2014 Meeting is Pumpkin of Fun Nothing scary about it – if you want to discount the fact that yours truly took the October meeting f our Larry Dierker Chapter of SABR to another level on […]