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Fred Downer led an interesting life, one that included being friendly with major league legend Ty Cobb. Downer was a star baseball player at a historically Black college who spent about seven years playing semipro ball in the segregated South and in the Midwest during the 1910s and 1920s. During his career, he was a […]

Anton Asbjornson worked as a janitor at a private school in 1910. He’d immigrated to the United States from Norway in 1904 and met Anna Nelson, a 1901 arrival from Sweden. The two married and their first-born, Robert Anthony Asbjornson, was born in Concord, Massachusetts on June 19, 1909. The couple later had two daughters, […]

Being born in Germany and playing major-league baseball is not as rare a thing as one might imagine. There have been 42 major leaguers born in Germany, 21 of them pitchers. One of the pitchers was Tony Welzer, born somewhere in Germany on April 5, 1899. Given the changing borders over the years, one might […]

Catcher Russell “Hack” Ennis played in one major-league baseball game. Though he did not get to bat, he was behind the plate when Ty Cobb got his last hit in a Detroit Tigers uniform. On September 19, 1926, with his Washington Senators ahead, 7-6, Ennis entered in the bottom of the ninth inning of the […]

It is an oft-told story that legendary manager John McGraw, who led the New York Giants for 30 eventful years, had photographs of only two former players on his office wall: Christy Mathewson and Ross Youngs, today an almost forgotten Hall of Fame outfielder.1 Youngs personified the type of all-out hustle and will-to-win ballplayer that […]

In the early years of the 21st century, the name of Joe Dobson, a right-handed pitcher who toiled for 10 years with the Red Sox, rarely crops up in discussions of the better Boston players of the past. Nonetheless, his 106-72 record places him ninth (through 2012) on the Red Sox all-time team list for […]

A superb college basketball player, Charles Nash became the University of Kentucky’s career scoring leader in the early ’60s. Yet baseball was his first love. “Cotton” — as he was known for his bright blond hair — was also a slugging first baseman/outfielder. He juggled the two sports as a pro, and though his time […]

Eddie Bressoud played over 1,000 big-league games as a shortstop in a 12-year career, primarily for the New York and San Francisco Giants, and the Boston Red Sox. He played 10 or more games at each of the other three infield positions, and one inning in left field. He was a .252 career batter who […]

On June 23, 1931, sportswriter Walter W. Smith encountered George Watkins, the St. Louis Cardinals right fielder, in the lobby of Philadelphia’s Franklin Hotel, where the team was staying for a series against the Phillies. Both men were relatively new to their jobs; Smith had begun covering the team for the St. Louis Star the […]

Overshadowed on the diamond by the antics and accomplishments of his younger brother Patsy, George Tebeau was little more than a journeyman late-nineteenth century outfielder-first baseman. The lasting impression that he made on the game came only after his playing days were behind him. For almost two decades, George was arguably the most powerful force […]

“Rarely has there been a baseball player as good as George Grantham whom it was so difficult to settle in one regular position.” — James J. Long, Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph 1   George Grantham, 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds in his prime, was tough and durable. A perennial .300 hitter despite frequent nagging injuries, he had unexpected […]

Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Prince was a man of paradox. He was often brash and loud, but tender and caring around the disabled children who meant so much to him; a carefree playboy who enjoyed a drink or two (or three), but a devoted family man who raised two children with his wife of […]

“He’s been hotter than the weather, and in the Midwest, that’s torrid.” Les Biederman of the Pittsburgh Press, discussing Ernie Banks who during the final four games of a five-game series between the Cubs and Pirates went 11-for-19 with five home runs and 13 RBIs.1 Ernie Banks, in his second full season with the Chicago […]

The Boston media had a veritable field day when the Braves’ affable right-hander, Jim Tobin, belted three consecutive home runs while pitching a complete game to defeat the Chicago Cubs, 6-5, at Braves Field on May 13, 1942. “One of the most astounding feats of baseball history,” exclaimed Howell Stevens of the Boston Post.1 An […]

A crowd of 45,774 attended the 57th All-Star Game, held at the Astrodome in Houston on July 15, 1986. The American League’s Roger Clemens (Boston Red Sox), a hometown boy, faced off against the National League’s Dwight Gooden (New York Mets). They would see each other again in Game Two of the 1986 World Series. […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates were one win from capturing the 1908 National League pennant. All they had to do was beat the Chicago Cubs on October 4 in the last scheduled regular-season game for both teams.1 But a Pittsburgh loss would put the Cubs in the driver’s seat and keep the idle New York Giants, who […]

The Boston Red Sox (12-9) hosted the Chicago White Sox (11-9) in the first of a two-game series at Fenway Park. Chicago had just been swept in a home doubleheader by the Detroit Tigers, 10-0 and 6-1, and the team was looking to rebound against Boston. For Chicago, 34-year-old right-hander Johnny Rigney started the game. […]

Acquired in an offseason trade with the Philadelphia Phillies, hard-throwing Kirby Higbe tied teammate Whit Wyatt for the NL lead in wins (22) to help lead the Dodgers to the NL pennant in 1941. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   The 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers got their season started on the wrong foot – and to add insult, […]

By the dawn of the 1955 season, the New York Yankees were one of only four teams that had yet to integrate.1 Jackie Robinson had debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers eight years earlier, and several Black players had established themselves as stars with teams in the American and National Leagues – particularly Larry Doby in […]

Earle Combs began a string of Hall of Fame players who were starting center fielders for the Yankees. After Combs, who played from 1924 to 1935, was Joe DiMaggio, who played from 1936 to 1951, and after DiMaggio was Mickey Mantle, who played in center field from 1952 until 1966.1 Combs became the regular center […]

Scipio Spinks and Gary Nolan never faced off as starting pitchers in the major leagues during the five seasons, 1969 through 1973, when their careers overlapped in the National League. That’s a shame, because when the pitchers started against each other in the short-season Class A Northern League one night in August 1966, they combined […]

Mention the name of Billy Pierce and smiles cross the faces of older Chicago White Sox fans. The affable southpaw, whose No. 19 is retired and whose statue resides in the left-field bleachers at Guaranteed Rate Field, was the darling of the Sox starting corps in the 1950s. Whenever Billy took the mound, White Sox […]

On June 11, 1995, the 22,392 fans on hand to watch the Montreal Expos battle the San Francisco Giants for 13 innings at Candlestick Park saw it all: lots of runs by both sides, the home side making a seemingly impossible comeback only to blow it in extra innings, and a player hitting for the […]

It’s hard to imagine big-league baseball without a series at the end of the season that decides which team claims the title of “World Champion.” But in the early years of major-league baseball there was only one league, and winning the pennant was the crowning achievement. From 1876 to 1881 the National League reigned as […]