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In the 1920s and 1930s, Clarence “Fats” Jenkins was an athletic wonder. A two-sport superstar, Jenkins was a dynamic leadoff hitter in the Negro Leagues and a brilliant point guard in the early days of professional basketball. An older brother was known as Big Fats, and Clarence, as a chubby youngster, was dubbed Little Fats, […]

“I have a personality that some people call a flake or crazy or insane,” Larry Andersen acknowledged.1 “But if I thought about nothing except what I’m going to be doing that night when I pitch, I’d be a basket case. Of course, I’ve been accused of being close to that anyway.”2 “How come fat chance […]

“Hometown boy makes good” is a classic trope of film, fiction, and sports pages. The dirty-faced boy from the sandlots grows up to be the star of the local nine, the surrogate son or brother, buddy or boyfriend of every fan. When the hometown boy fails to make good — or good enough — the […]

From the predicted goat to the arguable hero of the 1931 World Series was quite an accomplishment for a somewhat stoic Dib Williams. Dr. Earl Williams, an Arkansas country doctor, really enjoyed baseball, and a couple of the players he helped develop made it to the major leagues: Otis Brannan, an infielder for a couple […]

Al Barlick rose from a Midwestern coal-mining family to a long career as a major-league umpire and eventual election to baseball’s Hall of Fame, the sixth umpire to be so honored. He gave his adult life to baseball and umpiring, working 57 years (1936-1993) in the game. Albert Joseph Barlick was born on April 2, […]

Over the final six weeks of the 1982 season, right-hander Brian Denman started nine games for the Boston Red Sox. The last of the nine was a six-hit shutout of the New York Yankees. They were the only nine times he appeared in the majors. He’d worked four-plus seasons in the minor leagues before getting […]

Adam Hyzdu was a multisport superstar at a high school known for superstar athletes including Buddy Bell, Barry Larkin, and Ken Griffey Jr. After being selected in the first round of the 1990 amateur draft, Hyzdu went on to have an interesting 18-year career in professional baseball. The slugging right-handed outfielder knocked out 273 minor-league […]

If the designation “starting pitcher” was ever applicable, it is a description that fits the career of right-hander Gar Finnvold. He pitched in 113 professional baseball games and every single one of them – both in the minor leagues and in the majors – was as a starter. The tall 6-foot-5, 195-pound righty hails from […]

For years after his major-league debut in 1898, Bert Conn was known throughout the Philadelphia area as the “schoolboy twirler” despite having hurt his arm and moved from a pitcher in the major leagues to an everyday player in the minors. But Conn’s rapid rise from Philadelphia high-school pitcher to Philadelphia Phillies starter at the […]

Vic Correll made his major-league debut for the Boston Red Sox in the last game of the 1972 season. It was October 4 in Detroit. The season was a very unusual one; the Red Sox finished just a half-game out of first place. Detroit won the pennant. On October 1, the Red Sox held a […]

For young Dickie Cole, growing up in Southern California in the 1930s, dreams of becoming a major leaguer must have seemed as distant as the nearest big-league team, the St. Louis Cardinals, half a country away. Lying on the living-room floor and listening to France Laux doing the Cardinal games on KMOX radio in St. […]

In mid-June 2015, the Boston Red Sox were trying to end a seven-game skid. In last place in the American League East Division, they had been swept in back-to-back series by two of their divisional foes, the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. Four consecutive interleague games against the Atlanta Braves were next. The first […]

It took two Ted Williams home runs for The Kid to win this game. They were widely separated, the first one coming in the top of the third inning and the second one not until the 11th. Williams had started the season pinch-hitting in six of his first seven games. In spring training, on March […]

As the 1932 National Football League season began, there was reason for excitement among Boston’s sports fans. Since the Boston Bulldogs folded after their lone season in 1929,1 Boston had been without an entry in the 12-year-old NFL. However, in July 1932, a syndicate headed by George Preston Marshall, a laundry tycoon from Washington, D.C., […]

Ironically, the Chicago Cubs got off to an auspicious start in baseball’s centennial year. They began the 1969 season with the National League’s best Opening Day record: 39 wins, 28 losses, 2 ties. And there was plenty of optimism on Chicago’s North Side as the newly-configured major leagues got underway. George Vass wrote of the […]

With an 8-4 record and a sparkling 2.22 ERA, 25-year-old Emory Nicholas “Bubba” Church had enjoyed an outstanding rookie season for the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies as he took the mound in the first game of a doubleheader against the Cincinnati Reds on September 15 in Shibe Park.  While not earning a decision this day, Church […]

What makes a memorable night at the ballpark? How about a game featuring some of the major leagues’ biggest stars, an exciting come-from-behind win by the home team, five home runs, and a heartfelt tribute to a local baseball legend? Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget the announcement over the public-address system that the president […]

The 1967 Boston Red Sox captured the attention of the baseball world by going from ninth place to the World Series in one season’s time. The so-called “Impossible Dream” season rejuvenated a franchise that hadn’t made the Series since 1946 and had come to be viewed as a going-nowhere “country club” team.1 Some of that […]

Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn posted a 59-12 record for the National League’s Providence Grays in 1884, but that was still 10 years in the future. He’d won 48 in 1883. In his 11-year career, there were three times Radbourn won more than 30 games. Al Spalding had only a six-year career, if one excludes the […]

The Cincinnati Red Stockings and Pittsburgh Alleghenys were two of the six inaugural members of the American Association in 1882.1 The Red Stockings won the pennant in that first season, while the Alleghenys finished fourth. With the American Association’s success in 1882, two new professional associations, the Northwestern League (NWL) and the Interstate Association (ISA), […]

Clark Griffith was prescient. At the end of the 1914 season, with the Philadelphia A’s advancing to represent the American League in the World Series, the Washington Senators manager told reporters, “The best ball club in the game today will not take part in the coming world’s series.”1 He gave that distinction to the Boston […]

Babe Ruth was well on his way to hitting his historic 60 home runs in 19271 when Paul and Lloyd Waner became the first brothers to homer in the same game. Unlike Ruth’s trademark towering shots over the fence, the Waners’ home runs were the “cheap” kind – they bounced over the left-field fence in […]

SABR’s Mark Armour gets little argument to his claim, “[Jim Brosnan’s] legacy will remain his writing, especially his two classic books [The Long Season and Pennant Race].1 Yet, Brosnan left behind another legacy, this one less desirable. He was one of a trio of Cubs pitchers who in 1957 set a National League record that […]

Florida Marlins closer Ugueth Urbina, right, and catcher Ivan Rodriguez celebrate winning the National League pennant on October 15, 2003, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. (MLB.COM)   The Chicago Cubs had not won a World Series since 1908 and their last appearance was 1945. They upset the Atlanta Braves in the division series, their first postseason-series […]