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Sportswriters toppled over themselves on April 23, 1921, to describe the feats of minor-league pitcher Harry Biemiller the day before. The Buffalo (New York) Morning Express reported that Biemiller “succeeded in establishing his name in baseball hall of fame” [sic,1 while the Buffalo Enquirer told readers he had “stepped in the baseball hall of fame.”2 […]

When Nolan Ryan signed on November 19, 1979, what at the time was the richest contract in baseball history with the Houston Astros, his new team went from contenders to favorites in an instant. However, though Ryan indeed had helped to lead the Astros to the 1980 NL West Division title and their first playoff […]

The Boston Red Sox opened their 1916 season at home. They were world champions after winning 101 games in 1915 and taking the World Series in five games over the Philadelphia Phillies. The team was largely unchanged from the prior year, though they were without two of their biggest stars: center fielder Tris Speaker and […]

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 […]

It is known in Expos history as “The Tim Raines Game” and if ever there was a game meant to be named after a player, it was this one. The 1986-87 offseason was an odd one in Major League Baseball as it lacked business and busy-ness. Prominent free agents like Raines, Ron Guidry, and Jack […]

The National League pennant race had become a nailbiter. St. Louis was on an eight-game winning streak but clung to just a half-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds had won nine games in a row to remain in contention. With just three games left, the Reds remained a half-game behind the Cardinals. St. […]

A brief glance at the box score for the mid-August game between the Boston Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals makes it appear that the Braves’ 3-1 win was a standard affair. However, the August 18, 1915, contest between these two teams was anything but normal. While the game flowed in fairly typical fashion, with […]

After an 8-1 homestand against the Colorado Rockies, Toronto Blue Jays, and San Diego Padres, the Boston Red Sox headed to the West Coast to play the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Seattle Mariners, and Oakland Athletics in a road trip leading up to the 2013 All-Star break. The Red Sox won their first game […]

White Sox manager, Ozzie Guillén once said of A.J. Pierzynski: “If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less.”1 Pierzynski was a fierce competitor with a strong desire to win. This desire at times could rub teammates the wrong way and many times would get […]

Roberto Clemente’s saga is the stuff of myth. Chuck Goggin’s saga — less so. That said, their two stories are forever linked in a way that would be possible only in baseball. In a coup of historic proportions, the Pittsburgh Pirates plucked Clemente from the Dodgers organization for next to nothing in the 1954 minor-league […]

George Turbeville pitched with the Philadelphia Athletics from 1935 to 1937. His best game performance came against the Cleveland Indians. He held them scoreless for 14 innings before losing on Earl Averill’s home run. Surrendering home runs is what Turbeville is best known for. He gave up Joe DiMaggio’s first major-league blast on May 10, […]

“One of the greatest things the Red Sox ever did in all the years I’ve known them was when they brought Pop Popowski up here after 30 years in the minors working with young players and made him a coach. He’s one of the greatest baseball men I’ve ever known in this game.” — Ted […]

Left-handed pitcher Ray Dobens graduated as a bachelor of philosophy from Worcester, Massachusetts’ College of the Holy Cross on June 19, 1929 and signed a Boston Red Sox contract that same day. Eighteen days later, he broke in with the Boston Red Sox. College teammate Bots Nekola signed with the Yankees and had to wait nine more days for his first game. They […]

Harry Moran was born in Slater, West Virginia, on April 2, 1889. He was the son of L. D. (Lorenzey Dow) and Ella Moran, two native-born West Virginians. He was brought into at least a modestly wealthy family. At Harry’s birth L. D. was, according to the 1880 Census, a blacksmith laborer, a trade he […]

J. Lee Richmond, major league baseball’s first full-time1 left-handed pitcher; is best known for pitching the first perfect game. He also accomplished a number of other noteworthy firsts during his six-year major league career. Because he played concurrently as an amateur and as a professional, the first rules were promulgated that banned a professional from […]

Injury has curtailed the career of major league pitchers since the beginning of the professional game. In the days before rotator cuff and Tommy John surgery, pitchers had to hope for recovery or look for another line of work. Theodore A. Kennedy was one of those pitchers, but he was much more than a couple […]

Hal Kolstad had an unfortunate record as a major-league pitcher, losing four games without a win to his credit. It certainly didn’t help that he pitched for the eighth-place Boston Red Sox in 1962 and the seventh-place Sox in 1963. But he had a very solid 67-67 record in minor-league baseball, mostly at a high […]

Gary Allenson is a baseball lifer. He began his baseball career as a Little Leaguer and spent his entire life involved in the game. He played baseball at every level and has managed or coached at every professional level. Allenson was an excellent player at Arizona State University and competed in two College World Series […]

Former major league player and scout Lenny Yochim once said in a New Orleans Times-Picayune interview, “I had a good life doing something I love.”1 From his teenage days in the Crescent City in the 1940s until his retirement in 2002, Yochim spent practically every summer participating in some aspect of the sport to which […]

It’s ironic that a player who’s best remembered for the slogan “We’ll win plenty with Sam Dente” would have played almost half his career for two organizations synonymous with losing, the St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators. It was during his three-year Senators tenure from 1949 through 1951 that the slogan was first seen […]

With his trademark dark glasses and red socks, Bob Addie, the son of a New York City butcher, was a respected and popular fixture on the Washington sports and social scene for almost 40 years. A columnist and Senators beat writer for the Washington Times-Herald and the Washington Post, Addie served as president of the […]

“The bonus rule will ruin baseball if it isn’t curtailed,” proclaimed Branch Rickey, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, in August 1952.”1 A revised rule was adopted by the major leagues that winter. Clubs were required to carry any player receiving a signing bonus of more than $4,000 on their major-league roster for a minimum of two […]

In the early years of the 20th century college players became more commonplace in major league baseball. One of the most widely known was Christy Mathewson, who attended Bucknell University in Pennsylvania before embarking on a Hall of Fame career with the New York Giants. So when another Bucknell pitcher named William Parson had success […]

John Michael “Red” Corriden, the first-base coach for the 1947 New York Yankees, was a baseball lifer. From 1908 until he retired from baseball after the 1958 season, a span of fifty-one years, Corriden served as a player, coach, manager, and scout. The 1947 season was Corriden’s first as a Yankees coach. He was brought […]