If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
Ruth Kramer Hartman played for the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1946 and 1947 regular seasons, then with the Grand Rapids Chicks in the 1947 league playoffs. Before playing in the AAGPBL, Ruth was one of the top softball pitchers in her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania. After baseball […]
Billy Hamilton was the greatest base stealer and most prolific run scorer of nineteenth-century baseball, but few recognized his name when he gained admittance to the Hall of Fame long after his death. Bill James, who ranks Hamilton as the ninth-best center fielder of all time in his book, The New Historical Baseball Abstract (1999 ed.), remarked […]
Earl Averill, a 5-foot-10 catcher and outfielder, compiled a career .242 batting average and had 44 home runs mostly in part time roles over seven major league seasons (1956, 1958-1963) with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite clutch performances, such as walk-off home runs and key […]
Only starting in his major-league debut because shortstop Rabbit Maranville missed his morning train to the ballpark, Jeff McCleskey is a peculiar footnote for the 1913 Boston Braves. Jefferson Lamar McCleskey was born on November 6, 1891 in Americus, Georgia, the third of four children of Jefferson Lamar McCleskey Sr. (1862-1895), a railroad brakeman, and […]
Charles Leander ” Bumpus” Jones began his major league career on Saturday, October 15, 1892, when he twirled a no-hitter for Cincinnati against the visiting Pittsburgs. Seemingly emerging from nowhere, Jones caused quite a stir in baseball circles. He was never able to duplicate his success in the majors. Whether it was the change in […]
Jackie Tobin’s older brother, Jim Tobin, pitched in the major leagues from 1937 through 1945, first for the Pirates, mostly for the Boston Braves, and then for the last several weeks of his career for the Detroit Tigers. Though Jackie, an infielder, was a little more than eight years younger, the two played in Boston […]
The headline in the Cleveland Press read, “Scout Doyle is dispatched to see mysterious southpaw schoolmaster pitching phenom perform.” Nowhere in the article is the “phenom” mentioned by name, nor do they divulge where scout Billy Doyle was headed. The article does state that a telegram was received stating “Will pitch Saturday…”1 The mystery was […]
Major leaguers have been blessed (or cursed) with colorful nicknames, such as “Pudge,” “Prince Hal,” “Pops,” “Pie,” “Pee Wee,” “Putt Putt,” and those are just some of the ones starting with the letter “P.” To that list, add Tomás “Planchardón” Quiñones, a Puerto Rican right-handed pitcher whose four games in 1947 with the Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns […]
A onetime budding prospect in the Milwaukee Braves’ organization, Al Spangler drew favorable comparisons to Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn for his speed and pesky hitting throughout much of his early career. Seemingly in spite of the table-setting success of an Ashburn-like talent, Spangler often found himself on teams in search of a power-hitting slugger, […]
When Wally Moon came to bat for the first time in the majors, some of the home fans in St. Louis booed. Others yelled, “We want Eno.” Two days earlier Enos Slaughter, a Cardinal favorite for 16 years—the hustling, hard-nosed, red-necked Country Slaughter, who left the dugout running and kept running until he hit the […]
If somebody claimed that a person could simultaneously throw three baseballs with one hand accurately to three different catchers, or, with one hand could throw two balls, one a curve and one a fastball, accurately to two catchers, it would sound too weird to be believed. How about a claim that a person, suspended upside […]
Literally a son of Fate, Bert Edgar Chapman changed his name to Ed Chaplin because he got caught cheating in 1919, the same year that the Chicago “Black Sox” consorted with gamblers during the World Series. He was player-manager for the Sanford Celery Feds in the Florida State League. (Sanford was known at the time […]
Catcher Hal Wagner spent 12 years on major-league teams, but five of his stints were for five games or less. He did play in over 1,000 games, 672 of them at the big-league level, and amassed a .248 career batting average in the majors. A two-time All-Star, Wagner was something of a sure-handed catcher with […]
No one chooses to become a professional widow, and Eleanor Gehrig derived little satisfaction in being called one. Yet few ballplayers’ wives maintained a level of such prominence so long after their husband’s death as they had when he was alive. Mrs. Lou Gehrig was married less than eight years; she was a widow for […]
Escaping the Pennsylvania coal mines, which claimed the life of his brother Calvin, Jacob Ellsworth Daubert went on to a fifteen-year major league career with the Brooklyn and Cincinnati ball clubs. Frequently compared to the legendary Hal Chase, Daubert was arguably the premier National League first baseman of the Deadball Era. A slashing chop hitter […]
On August 15, 1940, the York Bees defeated the Trenton Senators 3-2 in a Class B Interstate League game. What made this contest noteworthy was that the winning pitcher for York was a 54-year-old former major leaguer by the name of Lefty George. After the game George told the Associated Press, “I’m feeling fine. I’m […]
“Times of adversity make you stronger. And sometimes those times make you so tired that when your son says to you, ‘Dad, I want to be there at the last game you pitch,’ you tell him, ‘Kid, you might have been there already.’”1 — Bret Saberhagen on August 8, 2001, one day after his last […]
The clock didn’t exactly strike midnight for the Chicago Cubs, but when it did strike 6:00 P.M. it was good enough to negate a potential 4-3 win and hand the Boston Braves a 3-0 victory in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader at Braves Field. The Braves won the earlier game as well, 2-1. […]
“From the depths of 17 consecutive second-division finishes,” the Chicago Cubs overpowered the Pittsburgh Pirates in their season opener at Forbes Field.1 In the extra-inning slugfest, Cubs right-hander Larry Jackson, who earned the win with Chicago’s four-run 10th, was kept afloat by his “brash, under-rated” offense.2 While the Pirates’ bats displayed their own power, the […]
If you had mentioned the name Tony Mullane to his teammates and opponents during his baseball-playing days, many differing opinions of his actions might come to mind. For example, Mullane, who came to the United States with his family from Ireland in 1864, was handsome and is said to be one of the reasons that […]
The Oakland A’s ruled the American League from 1988 to 1990, winning 306 regular-season games on their way to three consecutive World Series appearances and the title in 1989. During the first two years of this run, Oakland’s AL West rival Kansas City had two pitchers who had proved to be a thorn in the […]
Nap Rucker spent his entire major-league career pitching for Brooklyn in the National League from 1907 to 1916. He compiled 134 wins and 134 losses, but do not assume from Rucker’s .500 record that he was an average pitcher. To the contrary, Rucker is better described as a good pitcher who labored for bad teams. […]
The 2000 National League Division Series against the NL West champion San Francisco Giants and the wild-card New York Mets was the first postseason series played at Pacific Bell Park. The Bayfront stadium was opened in April of that year. The Giants finished with a 97-65 regular-season record, 11 games ahead of the Los Angeles […]
“When you win that kind, you’ve got to win the pennant. You appreciate that kind of game. The fellows really pulled me through today. It’s been a long time since I’ve won that kind of game.” — Vernon Law after the Pirates had scored three 10th-inning runs to come from behind and defeat the Giants 8-7.1 […]