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Early in 1966, when it was still unclear whether the Braves would take root in Atlanta or return to Milwaukee because of a pending court ruling, Ken Johnson was not worried. “If we have to go back to Milwaukee, it will be all right with me,” Johnson said. “I liked it there. I like anyplace […]

Over the years, the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the nation’s leading African-American newspapers, used the following superlatives to describe Pittsburgh Crawfords infielder Chester Williams: Peppy, snappy, aggressive, hustling, scrappy, flashy. He was also referred to as sure-fielding, hard-hitting, a sparkplug, and even an inspired devil. From 1931 through the team’s demise in 1938, Williams was […]

Ruggedly handsome with dark wavy hair, an engaging smile and a boyish grin, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman was equally capable of leading the league in both home runs and pranks. General manager Branch Rickey suspiciously called him the instigator, to which James Anthony Collins remarked: “Rickey always accused me of being the […]

Andrés Mora was one of Mexico’s greatest sluggers. He could easily have been the all-time home run king south of the border, had he not spent time in the United States. By his own choice, he went back home – still aged just 24 – after four unfulfilling partial seasons in the majors. When he […]

By the time Mike Schmidt retired early in the 1989 season, he was regarded as perhaps the greatest all-around third baseman in baseball history. No major-leaguer hit more homers during the 1980s, but he was not a one-dimensional threat: he curbed his tendency to strike out and stole bases when needed. In the field, he […]

James “Red” Moore had a long and distinguished career in the Negro Leagues, from 1936 to 1948. Best known for his fine fielding, Moore held his own at the plate as well. Playing primarily at first base, Moore anchored the infield for nearly two decades in Atlanta, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Newark. Born on November 18, […]

Mel Allen was The Voice: “his boom box of a voice” – Curt Smith “that wonderful, unmistakable voice” – Dick Young “the venerable Voice of Summer” – Sports Illustrated He was the voice of the Yankees from 1939 through 1964 and became the most prominent sports broadcaster in America. His credits include twenty World Series, […]

Eugene Joseph Bremer Sr., sometimes known as Gene, was born in New Orleans on July 18, 1916. He grew up in the city with his parents, three sisters, and grandmother. His father, Joseph, worked as a driver and his mother, Amanda, as a washerwoman. As a youngster he loved all sports and that led to […]

The advent of free agency for players in the 1970s provided hot stove league fodder for baseball fans with news of players, their agents, team owners, and lawyers negotiating multi-million-dollar contracts and perks such as tax-deferred annuities and all sorts of other inducements. Nearly 100 years earlier, all that one particular 19th-century free agent wanted […]

Despite a sensational 1904 season in which he won 14 straight games and set modern records with 41 wins and 48 complete games, Jack Chesbro is best remembered for the wild pitch he tossed to score Boston’s pennant-clinching run on the final day of the season. Broad-shouldered with a sandy complexion, Chesbro normally carried 180 […]

As the Yankees prepared to play the Washington Senators on the evening of August 12, 1953, they were firmly in first place with a six-game lead over the Chicago White Sox. The Senators were having what for them was a decent season with a record of 55-57, 19½ games behind the New Yorkers. The game […]

The Boston Braves played 2,811 regular-season home games at Braves Field between 1915 and 1952, winning 1,378 of them. The very last of those wins, recorded in the first game of a Sunday doubleheader in September 1952, appears in retrospect to rank among the tightest and most exciting wins ever seen by Boston’s National League […]

On a cold September 7, 1911, a gathering of 5,523 Boston National League fans witnessed a pitching duel between two future Hall of Famers.1 Phillies rookie Grover Cleveland (“Pete”) Alexander allowed just one hit and beat 44-year old Cy Young, 1-0. A Boston Post headline caught the moment perfectly: “Old Cy Twirls Great Game, but […]

The 31,278 fans who came through the turnstiles at Ebbets Field on July 30, 1948, saw something to always remember from the unlikeliest of hitters. Pittsburgh’s Wally Westlake hit for the cycle against the Brooklyn Dodgers.1 Westlake had gone 2-for-24 (two singles) in his previous seven games, a stretch that had seen his batting average […]

“This was a hell of a win for us,” said Pirates manager Chuck Tanner after his team rallied in the eighth inning with a pair of solo home runs to beat the Houston Astros 6-5 on July 21 at Three Rivers Stadium.1The win was the Pirates’ sixth in a row and 10th in 11 games, […]

In 1890 a record seven batters in the major leagues hit for the cycle. They were Mike Tiernan of the National League’s New York Giants (June 28), Bill Van Dyke of the American Association’s Toledo Maumees (July 5), Jumbo Davis of the AA’s Brooklyn Gladiators (July 18), Roger Connor of the Players’ League’s New York […]

In the early morning hours of Sunday, July 23, 1967, Detroit police raided an after-hours “blind pig,” an unlicensed bar, at 12th Street and Clairmount Avenue in the center of the city’s oldest and poorest black neighborhood.1 A party at the bar was in progress to celebrate the return of two African-American servicemen from Vietnam. […]

His first time up on August 20, 1960, in the final season of his 19-year career with the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams drew a walk. It was career base on balls number 2,000.1 Only one player had ever walked more – Babe Ruth, who’d earned 2,062 walks.2 Ted got walk number 2,000 in his […]

If Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton were a sportswriter covering the game in which the Montreal Expos’ David Palmer pitched five perfect innings for a 4-0 rain-shortened win, he could have started his story off with the line that he wrote and which Snoopy has made famous: “It was a dark and stormy night.”1 Those immortal words […]

On September 22, 1911, three rookies made their major league debuts for the St. Louis Cardinals, including 21-year-old third baseman Ed “Irish” Conwell, who took over the hot corner in the top of the eighth inning with his team trailing Red Ames and the first-place New York Giants, 3-0. The game was of consequence to […]

On Sunday, October 13, 1946, the St. Louis Cardinals faced the sixth game of the World Series against the Boston Red Sox with their backs, once again, against the wall. They had played that way for the entire bruising 1946 season, and now they needed another win to tie the Series and force a seventh […]

In 1964 Johnny Pesky, longtime Boston Red Sox star, was in his second season as Red Sox manager. According to his SABR biography, Pesky “brought some fire to the position, after years of yawns under the likes of Pinky Higgins.”1 Boston had not posted a winning record since 1958. Since 1961, when the American League expanded […]

Interleague play brought National League clubs to American League ballparks – and vice versa – during the 1997 regular season, an occurrence previously limited to the World Series and exhibitions. The first interleague game at Minneapolis’s Metrodome was played on June 16, when the Minnesota Twins hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mark Smith, the first-ever designated […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. Federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was hired as baseball’s first commissioner in November 1920. He served in that role for nearly a quarter-century until his death in 1944. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   Only in the face of extreme […]