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As May turned to June the Pittsburgh Pirates found themselves sitting in an unremarkable fourth place in the National League East. Their current five-game win streak had improved their record to 23-21 but as recently as May 20 they had a losing record and had been as far as nine games behind the division-leading Montreal […]

The middle of August is often called the “dog days” of summer and of the baseball season. It can be hard to generate interest or excitement because the season has been going for more than four months but late-season pennant races have not yet gotten red-hot. The Chicago Cubs found a way by scoring a […]

As the Boston Red Sox pounded the Cleveland Indians in front of 11,410 fans at Cleveland Stadium on July 3, 1943, Boston rookie Leon Culberson became the first player of the season to hit for the cycle. The New York Times reported that “Culberson’s contributions formed the major share of a 12-hit barrage laid down […]

“With Rube] Waddell hurling the game of his life, the Browns never had a chance to win,” opined the St. Louis Republic about the Philadelphia Athletics pitcher’s overpowering five-inning no-hitter in rainy conditions.1 Waddell was “wound up to perform all sorts of stunts,” gushed the Philadelphia Inquirer; however, the paper noted that the Browns’ only […]

The idea of Luis Tiant pitching at Chicago’s Wrigley Field doesn’t seem unusual. Perhaps that’s because Tiant pitched some of the most memorable seasons of his long career at Fenway Park – like Wrigley, a cherished remnant of the “jewel box” era – as a member of the Boston Red Sox from 1971 through 1978. […]

“It was a freak contest.”1 That’s how the Buffalo Evening News summed up the action between the Buffalo and Kansas City teams at Buffalo’s International Fair Association Grounds on September 28, 1914. It seemed to be shaping into an utterly forgettable affair through seven innings. Loose fielding and poor pitching were the order of the […]

“I’m going to give it (the All-Star MVP trophy) to my mom. I think she’s the one who deserves it. When we (he and his brother Sandy Alomar Jr., the 1997 MVP) were young, she used to take us to the ballpark. Without her, we wouldn’t be here.” — Roberto Alomar, who earned MVP honors at the 69th All-Star Game.1 […]

Heading into the 1993 season, the July 2 game between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres at Veterans Stadium seemed like an unexciting item. The Phillies had finished last in the National League East Division in 1992, 26 games out; the Padres were third in the NL West, 16 games out. The Phillies promotions […]

“If you pitch long enough with good enough stuff,” said Tom Seaver, “you are bound to pitch a no-hitter sooner or later.”1 But even Tom Terrific probably did not think it would take 396 starts and 211 victories into his Hall of Fame career to toss his first and only no-hitter. Seaver’s masterpiece was “more […]

When the Boston Red Sox hosted the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 25, 2008, the pitching matchup featured two starters who had been getting out major-league hitters for a combined 37 seasons … in vastly different ways. Standing 6-feet-10 and throwing from the left-hand side, Randy Johnson was an intimidating presence, and he often overpowered batters […]

The Boston Red Sox had just come off the road after losing two games in Washington and splitting a pair against the Yankees in New York. Their record was 60-50 and they were in second place, 13½ games behind the Yankees. The Washington Senators came to visit Fenway Park for a Saturday afternoon doubleheader, the […]

He is the answer to one trivia question and half of the answer to another, but there was nothing trivial about the life of Will White. William Henry White was born in Caton, a farming community in Steuben County, in western New York, just a few miles above the Pennsylvania state line. He was the […]

Francis Isaiah “Monkey” Foreman’s life began and ended in Baltimore, Maryland. In between he played virtually everywhere in the Northeast and Midwest and seemingly forever. He was one of 19 men who played in four major leagues: the Union Association, the American Association, the National League, and the inaugural seasons of the American League. His […]

If the NBA was as big in the 1940s as it is today, Ernie Andres might have been a star basketball player. He was a guard for Indianapolis in the National Basketball League, a forerunner of the NBA, and in 1974 was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.1 And in 1942, he played […]

When the Washington Senators arrived in Pompano Beach, Florida, for spring training in 1971, manager Ted Williams couldn’t help but gush over his first overall pick in the January draft a year earlier. “That kid has major leaguer written all over him,” the Hall of Famer said of 20-year-old Detroit native William Roger “Bill” Fahey. […]

Doug Griffin’s professional baseball career comprised 13 years, beginning at Idaho Falls in 1965 and finishing with the Boston Red Sox in 1977. He spent eight seasons in the major leagues, seven of them with the Red Sox, and appeared briefly in the 1975 World Series. Douglas Lee Griffin was born on June 4, 1947 […]

On May 1, 1983, the Philadelphia Phillies celebrated their 100th anniversary in baseball. The festivities that day included 93-year-old John Enzmann, the oldest living member of the team. He was invited to toss out the ceremonial “first pitch.” Former Phil Bill Peterman was also on hand to take part in the festivities.1 Peterman was one […]

When the curtain rose on the New York Yankees’ 1929 season, for the first time in team history each ballplayer wore a numbered jersey. Catching for New York that day was John Grabowski, the large block 8 on his back signifying his spot in the batting order. One of three backstops that Yankee manager Miller […]

Over the history of baseball, there have been myriad players who have been, deservedly or undeservedly, tagged with the moniker of “goat.” These competitors have been involved in circumstances that changed outcomes at critical instances in momentous games. Two of the most famous such persons, Ralph Branca and Bill Buckner, have direct ties to the […]

In a career that spanned from 1885 to 1905, Count Campau demonstrated power at the plate, grace in the outfield, and exceptional speed. He was an itinerant minor-league star who played for teams in at least 19 cities, including three stops in the majors. A respected and effective leader, Campau served as the captain or […]

“A little more experience is all you need.”1 So wrote Brooklyn Dodgers manager Wilbert Robinson to Oscar Roettger of the Double-A St. Paul Saints (American Association) before the 1927 season. It didn’t quite happen — Roettger played in five games for Uncle Robbie’s squad and 37 games in the major leagues over four seasons. A substantial minor-league […]

Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1933, right-handed pitcher Wally Signer quit baseball after five mostly injury-plagued seasons in the minors instead of accepting a demotion in 1938. Over the course of the next five years, the New York City native emerged as one of the best hurlers in the city’s highly competitive semipro leagues. […]

Pitcher Nick Cullop had already turned in two strong seasons in the minors, but it was his performance in Cuba in the fall of 1912 that cemented his reputation. A group of New Orleans Pelicans players augmented with Heinie Groh went to Cuba for a 12-game series. They only won four of them; those were […]

This article appears in SABR’s “The 1883 Philadelphia Athletics: American Association Champions” (2022), edited by Paul Hofmann and Bill Nowlin.   On Friday, September 28, 1883, the Philadelphia Athletics clinched the American Association pennant, defeating the Louisville Eclipse 7-6, in a game that went 10 innings.1 It was an exciting conclusion to a hard-fought season: […]