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Baltimore left-hander Mike Cuellar pitched a shaky first inning in Game Five of the 1970 World Series. The Cincinnati Reds touched him for three runs on four hits — a single and three doubles. The Orioles bullpen was active as the inning ended. Cuellar came into the dugout, grabbed a towel, wiped his face. His […]

“This game is tough to play,” said 11-year major-league infielder Doug Flynn in an interview with the author.1 Progressing through the Cincinnati Reds’ system in the early 1970s, Flynn was a utilityman on the Reds championship teams in 1975 and 1976 before being traded to the New York Mets in 1977. A Gold Glove winner […]

He could be considered one of the most reluctant, or perhaps contradictory, players to have ever walked on to a ball field. In July 1942 Buddy Rosar wore out his welcome with the New York Yankees after bolting the team to sit for a police department entrance exam (anticipating postcareer employment) and to visit his […]

Dante Bichette is one of the most important figures in Rockies history. Though his major-league career began with the Angels, and included stints with the Brewers, Reds, and Red Sox, it was in Colorado that Bichette made a name for himself as one of the game’s great sluggers in the mid-1990s.   Bichette holds a unique […]

In many situations, an injury or a trade can end up being a setback to a player’s career. Hal McRae turned both of them into an opportunity. After being traded to the Kansas City Royals when an injury reduced his defensive skills, he became one of the best designated hitters of all time. Harold Abraham […]

Left-hander Bill Walker overcame two life-threatening heart attacks by the age of 15 to become a big-league pitcher. He debuted with the New York Giants in 1927 after a mentally taxing seven-year journey in the minor leagues. With two National League ERA titles in three years (1929 and 1931), it appeared that Walker was headed […]

Though Galen Cisco pitched in nearly 200 games over his seven-year major-league career, his athletic accomplishments were much more substantial and longer-lasting than that: He played in a Rose Bowl game as a young man, and was still helping major-league pitchers four decades later. Galen Bernard Cisco was born on March 7, 1936, to Beryl […]

Tall, powerful, and fleet-footed, Burnis “Wild Bill” Wright was one of the Negro Leagues’ brightest stars for nearly a decade before embarking on a lengthy and successful Hall of Fame career in the Mexican Leagues. A towering 6-foot-4, 220-pound switch-hitter who slashed for average and slugged with power, he bunted effectively, ran like the wind, […]

Brother against brother? The brothers united as batterymates? Les freres Gaston faced both scenarios. They played against each other in 1926 when Alex Gaston was a catcher with the Red Sox and brother Milt was a pitcher for the St. Louis Browns, and they were batterymates after Milt was acquired by Boston and brother Alex […]

Reflecting on the life and career of Pud Galvin, a writer commented that a proper accounting of Galvin’s achievements “would be a task of time and would … require a volume in size almost equal to the dictionary.”1 Galvin pitched for 16 years during a career that spanned three decades, four major leagues, and countless […]

Some people called him Smiler. His daughter said he was known as the Clark Gable of Dallas. Because he came from North Carolina, some called him Tarheel.i George King Murray was a right-handed pitcher from Charlotte and his father, William, was a railwayman. The Murrays – William and Mary Lee – lived in Charlotte, and […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 12: A Checklist of Leaves From A Fan’s Scrapbook in The Sporting News  Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1989. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Bill Hugo April 1989 About six months before that marvelous series, DAGUERREOTYPES, […]

Johannes “Joe” Blyleven, the youngest of seven Blyleven siblings,1 admitted that he didn’t have his older brother Bert’s legendary curveball. Perhaps as a result, Joe didn’t have his brother’s Hall of Fame-level professional success, either. Pitching in the lowest reaches of the California Angels’ minor-league system in 1977 and 1978, he posted a 6-8 record […]

Since the beginning of professional baseball, players were assigned to and thus played a specific position. There have always been a few instances when players have switched (among the outfield or infield), but not until 1911 did fans see the true exception. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Jimmy Walsh was the first major leaguer to play all […]

On Monday night, May 19, 1986, the Boston Red Sox hosted the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park. The first-place Red Sox had defeated the Texas Rangers on Sunday in a stunning 10-inning finish. As Yogi Berra once said, it was déjà vu all over again on Monday, as Boston again rallied and won in walk-off […]

The 92-70 Anaheim Angels finished atop the American League West in 2004, one game ahead of the Oakland Athletics. On the morning of September 28, with only six games remaining, the Angels were in second place. They hadn’t been in first place since early June. They were tied for first on September 30. For the […]

The minor league American Association was formed in 1902, mainly from teams in the Western League, predecessor of the American League.1 The Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints (often referred to as the “Apostles” in the early twentieth century) were charter members of the league, which eventually attained Triple-A status. The Millers and Saints had […]

The 39,170 spectators who packed Wrigley Field on September 12, 1998, weren’t so much interested in the visiting Milwaukee Brewers (70-78 and 25 games behind the Central Division-leading Houston Astros. Their focus was on the Cubs, who with an 82-66 record were tied with the New York Mets in the National League wild-card race and […]

Every team has comebacks. Miraculous rallies from seemingly insurmountable deficits litter the historical landscape in every major sport. Whether a club ultimately needs that special comeback on their way to a championship, or merely uses it as a springboard for success later in the season, it’s often remembered in team lore as a landmark victory.  […]

Monday, September 6, 1993, was Labor Day in Canada and the United States. The Expos were at home, and for the first time since Opening Day more than 40,000 patrons (40,066) had spun through Montreal’s Olympic Stadium turnstiles anxious to take in the game. It was the last month of the season and the red-hot […]

It was the final All-Star Game of the twentieth century. On a mid-July night at Fenway Park, the greatest living players in baseball history were in the ballpark for the game between the best of the National League and the best of the American League. And, appropriately, two Red Sox legends stole the show. The […]

The baseball gods were smiling down on the Cubs (31-31) when the Cleveland Indians (29-39) came to town on June 19, 2009. For the second straight afternoon, the Cubs scored four runs in the eighth inning and one in the ninth. In the first comeback, the Cubs beat their crosstown rivals, the White Sox. Although […]

On Saturday, August 18, 1956, the Cincinnati Redlegs and Milwaukee Braves combined to hit 10 home runs, tying a major-league record (at the time) as the Redlegs came away with a 13-4 victory at Crosley Field in front of a crowd of 30,244, fans, including 8,772 ladies night guests. It was an early-arriving crowd; the […]

On ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, a national cable audience watched the Baltimore Orioles set a few records as they pounded the Texas Rangers, 15-6. A crowd of 40,516 packed Oriole Park at Camden Yards to celebrate a promotion called Texas Barbecue Night, and they were treated to Baltimore batters “grilling a couple of Texas pitchers.”1 […]