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In the 1950s, the two American Association teams in Minnesota, the St. Paul Saints and Minneapolis Millers, were playing in ballparks approaching 60 years old. Both cities were considering new ballparks for their teams and were looking beyond the immediate need to having a stadium that could be the home of a major-league team. In […]

Joe Azcue caught just shy of 1,000 major-league baseball games for six different big-league teams — all but his first 14 games played in the American League. An All-Star with the Cleveland Indians in 1968, Azcue was solid on defense with a .992 lifetime fielding percentage. José Joaquín (Lopez) Azcue was born on August 18, […]

Stout left-hander Ed Zmich won only one big-league game, but for a few weeks in the summer of 1910, the Class-D hurler caught the attention of the baseball world, resulting in an unusually fierce bidding war. Edward Albert Zmich was born on October 1, 1884, in Cleveland. His father, Max, emigrated from Germany in 1873 […]

Baseball is no stranger to big personalities. The game has seen colorful characters ranging from Mark Fidrych and his strange mound antics in the 1970s to Adrian Beltre simply being his ridiculous self after the turn of the century. On the opposite end of the spectrum, players like Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens are better […]

“He has a brain in his arm.” – Syd Thrift1 That high baseball IQ was a critical part of Rick Reuschel’s success. It led him to trust a pitch-to-contact approach that was not flashy but required supreme control and unwavering confidence. He defied the stereotypes of a star pitcher. “Big Daddy” was unathletic-looking, with an […]

It took Oscar Judd until he was 33 years old to make the big leagues. When he did, being that age enabled him to stay in the game throughout the Second World War. His talent, though in decline, enabled him to play three more years in the postwar period.   Judd was Canadian, born on […]

He was born Harry I. Dalton on August 23, 1928, in West Springfield, Massachusetts, the same hometown as Leo Durocher. He graduated as an English major from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Historically, Amherst faced Williams in the world’s first intercollegiate baseball game in 1859. He had been accepted to the Columbia University School of […]

It took 72 years for the first Black man to play for the Cincinnati Reds. The second one arrived merely minutes after the first. The franchise, one of the National League’s founding clubs, has a complicated record on racial matters. Despite being very early to appreciate the quality of white Cuban players — Armando Marsans, […]

“Steady as a clock,”1 Abner Dalrymple was a fixture in left field for the 1880s Chicago White Stockings, a powerhouse that won five National League pennants over seven years. Together with Mike “King” Kelly and George Gore, he formed what manager Adrian “Cap” Anson called “the greatest trio of outfielders ever gotten together in one […]

He might not be a household name today, but in 1916 Cliff Markle was called the “Find of the Baseball Season” and touted as one of the best up-and-coming pitchers of his day.1 He was also identified as the first major-league baseball player killed in World War I.2 So, that raises two questions: If he […]

Baseball fans know that scouting is an inexact science. The Detroit Tigers’ scout who signed Frank Naleway out of Class D in 1923 said, “What do I think of Naleway? He’s a great little fielder. He handles himself well in the field, stands properly at the plate, shows a knowledge of baseball – in fact […]

Silas Kenneth Johnson, who pitched for four National League teams over 17 seasons, was born in Danway, in north-central Illinois, on October 5, 1906, the second of four sons of Norwegian-Americans Nels and Tillie Johnson. The family soon moved to the nearby town of Marseilles, where they operated a 460-acre farm. Nels had been a […]

Connie Creeden’s life in baseball was defined by two events seven and a half years apart. The first gave him a solitary moment of major-league glory. The second tarnished his reputation and sent him to prison. On May 2, 1943, at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park, Creeden’s ninth-inning pinch-hit single drove in the winning run in the […]

Earl Randolph Ashby Powbett led a fascinating baseball life. He was a backup catcher for the 1945 Negro champion Cleveland Buckeyes. He was given a chance to replace Josh Gibson as Homestead Grays catcher in 1947. He played in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States and perhaps other lands as well.  But he also […]

Many young boys will ponder the important matters of the day, and some young boys will just daydream as they skip rocks across the surface of a lake. In the case of Fred Lasher, the enjoyment of skipping rocks across a tranquil lake helped transform Fred into a nasty submarine pitcher that minor and major […]

There are many quotes regarding the importance of living life. Just look it up on the internet; it’s a fact! One such quote is “It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.” That quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln … and Adlai Stevenson … and Dr. Edward […]

Billy Bayne, a bricklayer’s son, started playing ball in the Pittsburgh area with the Aspinwall Independents in 1917 and the American Bridge Company team of the Steel League in 1918. He’d been born in Hoboken, Pennsylvania, on April 18, 1899. The town is now named Blawnox, and is situated about 10 miles up the Allegheny […]

Baseball is different from most sports in the United States in this: There’s no clock, and the defense controls the ball. Both of these factors played a huge role in the May 13, 2007, game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles. It was a sunny, cool Mother’s Day in Boston with temperatures […]

Bumpus Jones was the talk of the baseball world at 22, a pitcher whose major-league debut foretold more potential than any other twirler who’d come before him. He was a big-league bust before he turned 24. But for one day on the cusp of two eras, Jones was the best there was in the game. […]

jeter 20The Yankees were glad to have prevailed in Game One of the ALCS. While they had finished first in the AL East in 2004, with 101 wins, three games ahead of the wild-card Red Sox, the Red Sox had won 11 of 19 regular-season games. And after digging themselves into a very deep hole, […]

The 1950 All-Star Game returned to Comiskey Park for the first time since the inaugural game in 1933. A capacity crowd of 46,127 witnessed the most suspenseful All-Star Game to date as the National League prevailed, 4-3, on Red Schoendienst’s 14th-inning home run off Detroit’s Ted Gray to end the American League’s four-game winning streak. […]

“We have jumped from the Class C Border League to Triple-A baseball and great days are ahead,” gushed T.P. “Tommy” Gorman as he delivered the news that the New York Giants were moving their International League affiliate from Jersey City to Ottawa for the 1951 season.1 The deal engineered by Gorman saw the Triple-A team […]

Elly De La Cruz was a reason to come to the ballpark in 2023.1 Called up to the Cincinnati Reds on June 6 after an injury to Nick Senzel,2 the 21-year-old Dominican native entered this June 23 home game against the Atlanta Braves with a .321 batting average, a .923 OPS, 7 extra-base hits and […]

This article is part 1 of a planned multi-part series on the history of the Chicago Cubs franchise. This chapter covers the journey from the White Stockings to the Cubs from 1876 to 1919.   The 1885 National League champion Chicago White Stockings. 1-George Gore, 2-Silver Flint, 3-Cap Anson, 4-Sy Sutcliffe, 5-Mike Kelly, 6-Fred Pfeffer, […]