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William Joseph Rohr was born on July 1, 1945, in San Diego, California, right in the middle of the baseball season. Rohr began playing baseball when he was 8, and despite weighing only 145 pounds in high school, he finished his career at Bellflower High with a 26-3 record, pitching four no-hitters for his varsity […]

Millions of Californians were not born there but chose the Golden State as the epicenter of their career and family lives. Two of them, London’s Bob Hope and Tacoma’s Bing Crosby, won fame and glory in Hollywood with a series of “Road” movies. The subject of this article, however, is a baseball personality whose life […]

On October 1, 1983, at Fenway Park, in the seventh inning Red Sox center fielder Lee Graham drove in Boston’s only run of a game against the Cleveland Indians. It was to be the only RBI of his brief five-game major league career. The Indians had scored one run in the top of the fourth […]

“Pete Kilduff, by dipping dust whenever Burleigh Grimes was to pitch a spitter in the 1920 Brooklyn-Cleveland (World Series), tipped off the Indians when a spitter was coming, and they let it pass and clouted his fast one, winning the series by beating the Brooklyn spitball ace, simply because they got onto a spitball sign.” […]

Hub Walker and his younger brother Gee debuted for the Detroit Tigers in 1931. While Gee became a standout hitter and one of the most popular Tigers in the 1930s, Hub, a scrappy, hard-nosed journeyman center fielder, played in just 297 big-league games in parts of five seasons with the Tigers and Cincinnati Reds. A […]

The only left-hander who pitched regularly for John McGraw‘s New York Giants until Rube Marquard joined the rotation in 1909, George Wiltse was known as “Hooks,” not for his ability to curve a baseball, nor for his hooknose, but for his fielding prowess. One story credits Giants catcher Frank Bowerman with saying “that’s hooking them” […]

Every little boy wants to follow in his big brother’s footsteps, especially when it comes to sports. One of Gary Rajsich’s three older brothers, lefty pitcher Dave Rajsich, made it to the big leagues for parts of three seasons (1978-80). In the end, Gary outdid Dave, playing one full season in the majors and parts […]

Jimmy Ripple battled injuries and struggled with his weight. Doubters said he didn’t have enough power to make it as an outfielder. But his career — just seven major-league seasons, three of them partial — was packed with a disproportionate number of highlights. He led teams on dramatic late-season charges, sparkled in three World Series, […]

Right-hander Tom Murphy pitched parts of 12 years (1968 to 1979) in the major leagues with six teams and enjoyed his greatest success with the California Angels and Milwaukee Brewers. Initially a starter when he broke in with California, he spent the second half of his career in the bullpen. Overall, Murphy won 68 games […]

A fiery, redheaded, energetic catcher, Ivey Wingo retired with the National League record for games caught in a career, 1,233. Wingo was a popular man with teammates and fans. His belief in civic duty was demonstrated in 1918 when it was noted in a Sporting News article that he had purchased $7,000 in Liberty Bonds […]

Ken Coleman, the legendary broadcaster of the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, and other teams, was truly thrilled when he heard that pitcher Dick Donovan was coming over to Cleveland in a trade with the Washington Senators after the 1961 season. Coleman and Donovan had been teammates on North Quincy (Massachusetts) High School baseball teams […]

Rance Mulliniks was a slightly built 6-foot, 160-pound left-handed-hitting infielder who played 16 major-league seasons with the California Angels, Kansas City Royals, and Toronto Blue Jays that culminated with a 1992 World Series championship for Toronto. The mustached and later glasses-wearing infielder from Central California developed into an excellent fielding third baseman who was also […]

Pete Rose’s return to the Cincinnati Reds on August 17, 1984, marked a high point in a desperately low season for the team. At 51-70, the Reds had little left to play for and only the San Francisco Giants gave the Reds a cushion from the dampness of the NL West basement. Rose, Cincinnati-born and […]

The Pirates, back home at Exposition Park, took a three-games-to-one lead in the World Series with a 5-4 win over the Boston Americans. Sunday had been a travel day, and on Monday it rained. Deacon Phillippe had an extra day of rest, and was ready to go yet again – his third start in four […]

An aging veteran, who had battled weight problems all season and was placed on waivers a few weeks before was an unlikely choice to hurl the Tigers’ first no-hitter. But that is what George Mullin did on his birthday, no less, as he redeemed himself and mowed down the St. Louis Browns to make Detroit […]

If Catfish Hunter was going to pitch a perfect game, Minnesota Twins manager Cal Ermer was going to make him earn every out.1 Hunter, a 22-year-old right-hander in his fourth season with the Athletics, had retired 24 straight batters going into the top of the ninth inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, on May 8, 1968, […]

The year 1959 was one Ted Williams may have wished he could forget. He suffered a really bad crick in his neck during spring training in Arizona. It turned out to be a pinched nerve and he was in traction for three weeks.1 He didn’t get into a game until May 12, when he went […]

It was a dark, damp, foggy, gloomy day. Up until noontime, the playing of World Series Game Five was still in question. Down two games to one, Giants manager John McGraw had ace Christy Mathewson up his sleeve, at least even money — if not a sure bet — to tie the Series. Matty took […]

If you were a fan of semipro baseball in New England in the late 1920s, you knew who Will “Cannonball” Jackman was, and you couldn’t wait for the Philadelphia Colored Giants to come to town, so that you could watch him pitch. Jackman’s semipro career began in 1921 with the Houston Black Buffaloes.1 He joined […]

The St. Louis Cardinals were operating at a deficit as the 1946 World Series unfolded, having won Game Two with a 4-0 shutout but losing Games One and Three to the Boston Red Sox. They scored only a total of five runs over the first three games. The Cardinals batters faced Tex Hughson in a […]

“A baseball season’s never ended. You play ’em all over during the winter, awake or asleep. The only difference this winter is that they’ll be pleasant dreams instead of the nightmares I used to have at Boston and Brooklyn.” – Casey Stengel1   Before the story of the 1949 World Series could unfold, the drama […]

Using an apparatus they’d devised themselves, industrious J. Wallace Page and his younger cousin, Charles Lamb, began manufacturing woven wire fencing in the 1880s as a low-cost, livestock-friendly alternative to barbed wire.1 By 1894 their business had grown into a thriving enterprise, the Page Woven Wire Fence Company, with 100 employees manufacturing fencing for farms […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project.   What was the greatest season by a hitter in major-league history? In his book with the provocative title The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs, Bill Jenkinson argues the case for the Babe’s 1921 season. The […]

Why would you ever call it Baker Bowl, When all Baker did Was despoil its Soul! — Seamus Kearney   Fans enter the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, circa 1915. (Library of Congress)   The Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds, a.k.a. National League Park, a.k.a. Baker Bowl, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1887 to 1938, […]