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  The history of Maple City Park in Hornell, New York, spans everyone from Babe Ruth and Maury Wills to minor-leaguers with a single season’s statistical line. There’s a hefty portion of Brooklyn Dodgers nostalgia mixed into the story, as well as memories of the long-ago days when everyday people could pool their cash donations […]

Set amid concrete parking lots and crisscrossing interstate highway overpasses, Louisville Slugger Field seems a bit out of place. The red brick facade and arched windows overlooking Main Street and Preston Street in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, hark back to a time when railroads, not long-haul trucking, fueled the local economy. In the context of baseball […]

After several years in the military, Long Jim Gilmore spent his life as a successful, if conventional, businessman. For two years in the middle of his life, however, Gilmore was at the center of the baseball world as one of the most visible and quoted men in the industry. As president of short-lived Federal League, […]

Keith MacWhorter was a right-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox who appeared in 14 games during the 1980 season. He was perhaps handicapped by a limited sinking fastball-slider pitching arsenal. A native New Englander, MacWhorter was born on December 30, 1955, in Worcester, Massachusetts, and spent most of his youth in Rhode Island. In […]

Tall, lithe-limbed and broad-shouldered, the 6-foot-2, 180-pound Wally Pipp carried himself with an unmistakable air of confidence and distinction, befitting one of the Deadball Era’s premier sluggers. Whether disembarking from a train, haggling with management over bonus money, scooping up grounders around first base, or swatting home runs, Pipp “was a high-class specimen of the […]

During a professional pitching career that spanned the Deadball Era, right-hander Bobby Keefe won more than 200 games. Regrettably for him, only 16 of these victories came while in a major league uniform. A curveball artist, Keefe’s time in the bigs was sidetracked by untimely health problems, a periodically sore arm, and the perception that […]

By his second year in the majors in 1958, sweet-swinging Harry (The Horse) Anderson of the Philadelphia Phillies was one of the premier left-handed power hitters in the game. But after his fourth year, he was back in the minor leagues, struggling to regain the batting stroke that had abandoned him as quickly as it […]

Before it came to a premature halt, the career of 1870s pitcher-turned-outfielder George Bechtel was not without distinction. Bechtel was a member of major league baseball’s first championship team, the 1871 Philadelphia Athletics of the National Association. Four seasons later, he and teammate Bill Craver became the first players to have their contracts transferred by […]

They called him “The Blazer.” As a minor leaguer he drew comparisons to Jackie Robinson. Don Blasingame wasn’t as talented as Robinson, but he was good enough to play 12 years in the major leagues, with appearances in an All-Star Game and a World Series. He married a Miss America finalist, who was the daughter […]

On March 9, 1914, youthful pitching prospect Harry Juul1 took two giant strides toward adulthood. Within hours, he signed a major-league playing contract with the Brooklyn Tip-Tops of the Federal League, and he married former high school classmate Hilda Marie Johnson. Shortly thereafter, Harry informed his doubtful father, “Yes, Pop. It’s true. Hilda and I […]

It was about a bad a brief outing as a pitcher could have, but at least it was mercifully short. Fortunately, there are other things in life that might have greater meaning than a bad outing on the mound. It was at Comiskey Park, and the Boston Red Sox were already down, 6-2, after 7½ […]

Ramiro Mendoza was signed as a free-agent starting pitcher in 1991 by the New York Yankees, but as his career progressed, he became a bullpen staple and occasional spot starter to support the pitching needs of both the Yankees and Boston Red Sox. The transition from starter to reliever suited Mendoza, who went 23-19 with […]

Right-handed knuckleballer Charlie Zink put in his time, rising through the Boston Red Sox organization. He pitched for seven-plus years in the minors before finally getting the call to the big leagues. He was with the Boston team for only one day and got into just one game, but he did accomplish something that tens […]

Here is a list of all known players to have hit four or more home runs in a single professional game, first published by SABR founding member Bob McConnell in The Minor League Research Journal, Volume 2 (1997), updated in Going for the Fences: The Minor League Home Run Record Book (2009), and now maintained […]

As the 1950s drew to their conclusion, the American League had known no champion other than the New York Yankees for the decade, save for a one-year interlude in 1954 courtesy of the Cleveland Indians. The Yankees had finished in first place every year from 1949 through 1953, then 1955 through 1958. In 1959 another […]

When Alex Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners stretched a blooper down the right-field line into a double in the ninth inning of the Mariners’ 14-6 rout of the Detroit Tigers on June 5, 1997, a Cashmere, Washington, woman “hit the jackpot!”1 Pamela Altazan was announced as the winner of a “Million-Dollar Magic” promotion, in which […]

Derek Jeter entered the 2011 season 74 hits shy of becoming the first player to reach the 3,000-hit milestone while wearing a New York Yankees uniform. Based on his career tendencies,1 it looked as if Jeter would reach that mark during New York’s homestand between June 7 and 16, and sure enough, he entered the […]

Politics and sports collided uneasily before Game Two of the 1992 World Series when a member of the U.S. Marine Corps color guard displayed the Canadian flag upside down; although “American [meaning U.S.] viewers didn’t see the gaffe … it was included on the feed … to Canada.”1 The Globe & Mail’s Stephen Brunt had […]

On a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants finished a four-game series in front of a sellout Father’s Day crowd at Coors Field. The game-time temperature was 78 degrees, and the there was a slight wind blowing out to left field. The first 15,000 fans received a Rockies BBQ spatula […]

Not yet known as “King Carl” or “Meal Ticket,” the New York Giants’ Carl Hubbell tossed the first and only no-hitter in his 16-year big-league career in just his 18th start, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-0, on May 8, 1929. Hubbell joined “that lofty gallery in baseball’s hall of fame,” gushed sportswriter William E. Brandt […]

Walter O’Malley, president of the Dodgers, gives Carl Erskine a $500 check for tossing a no-hitter. Also celebrating are (L-R) Carl Furillo, Preacher Roe, Roy Campanella, and skipper Charlie Dressen. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   Some wondered if the game would even start. It was a hot, muggy Thursday afternoon in Brooklyn with temperatures in the […]

The New York Mets clinched their first postseason berth since 1973 with a win over the Chicago Cubs on September 17, 1986. As the players—19 games up on the second-place Philadelphia Phillies with 17 to play—celebrated around Shea Stadium’s mound, jubilant fans poured out of the stands to celebrate with their heroes. During the festivities, […]

As the Houston Astros entered their final game before the 2017 All-Star break, they were setting new franchise records and dominating the American League for the first time since they joined the junior circuit in 2013. Their 59-29 record put them 15½ games up on the Texas Rangers in the AL West and had them […]

It was “Bloomington Night” at Metropolitan Stadium on August 17, 1976, when the Twins paid tribute to their home community as part of their game against the Baltimore Orioles. The reigning Miss Bloomington – Stephanie Nilson,1 a 19-year-old college student and aspiring opera singer – was invited to sing the national anthem a cappella before […]