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Harry McIntire played professional baseball from 1900 through 1913. After spending five years in the minor leagues, he ascended to the major leagues with Brooklyn in 1905. Over the next five seasons McIntire toiled in futility with Brooklyn. In 1910, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs. Though pitching in a diminished role, he had […]

The older half of an obscure Deadball Era brother act, left-handed pitcher Herb Juul was a two-game member of the 1911 Cincinnati Reds. Younger brother Harry Juul,1 a right-hander, appeared in nine games for the 1914 Brooklyn Tip-Tops of the Federal League. Possessed of good breaking stuff, Herb was likely the more talented Juul. But […]

In June 1950 Jimmy Bloodworth, one of the oldest players on the Philadelphia Phillies youthful roster, quipped, “It took me 34 years to become a Whiz Kid.”1 In truth, Jimmy was soon to turn only 33 but that didn’t prevent him from another of the many wisecracks that endeared him to fans and teammates alike. […]

Bobby Maier would have been forgiven for harboring some bitterness toward manager Steve O’Neill and the Detroit Tigers. For most of 1945, the 29-year-old rookie had started at third base for the Tigers, doing a consistent if unspectacular job at the plate while proving perhaps less reliable with the glove. But as Detroit entered the […]

When Johnny Cash sang the Shel Silverstein song “A Boy Named Sue,” he was telling the fictional story of a boy given a girl’s name by a father who was about to leave him, so that the boy would grow up tougher and able to weather what life might throw at him. In researching Johnny […]

Dan Morgan was inducted into the University of Minnesota “M Club” Hall of Fame for athletic achievement on September 20, 2012. It had been over 35 years since his last baseball game for the Golden Gophers, yet he “is remembered as one of the Gophers‘ all-time great pitchers.”1 He was the only right-handed pitcher in […]

Though Thomas Austin Brewer Jr. was a lifelong resident of Cheraw, South Carolina, he was born in North Carolina on September 3, 1931.1 Cheraw lies in the northern part of South Carolina and was a town of a few thousand inhabitants in 1931 so it happens that the nearest hospital was in Wadesboro, North Carolina, […]

John Leo ‘Paddy’ Driscoll went directly from the purple uniform of Northwestern University to the Chicago Cubs in 1917. The diminutive infielder had been a three-sport star at Evanston (Illinois) High School before lettering in two sports at Northwestern.1 He played one season with the Cubs before entering the Navy during World War I. Back from […]

Some pitchers are more intense than others. Randy Johnson hit 190 batters in an era when brushbacks were frowned upon. Lefty Grove threw furniture in the clubhouse after tough losses. Among the fiercest competitors in history, Johnny Allen took his frustrations out on anyone who barred his path to victory. Allen’s temper was so notorious […]

At age 18 Larry McKeon lost 41 games in 1884, just seven short of John Coleman’s all-time major league rookie record for losses set in 1883. Two years later, still just 20 years old, McKeon threw his last big league pitch, and long before he turned 25 his pro career was over. McKeon was born […]

Michael “Fancy” O’Neil was a boxer and ballplayer who stepped on the field with four future Hall of Famers in his only major league game. He also had to be institutionalized multiple times and his death details were a mystery until 2019. O’Neil was born in Hudson, New York, to Irish parents Michael and Sarah […]

A pitcher whom the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first identified as Charles “Lefty” Bell posted a 3-0 record for the Homestead Grays in 1948. The fact that Bell’s first name was likely James, rather than Charles, is only the first obstacle in attempting to identify this player, whose life and career provide a prime example of the […]

It has become almost legend, though in reality there are a few different versions of the story: In March of 1966, three New York Mets farmhands, all going by the name of Jerry, set out from Atlanta on their way to minor league training camp in Homestead, Florida. Jerry Johnson sat between the driver, Jerry […]

Although he spent just two full seasons in the major leagues, Dave Pope played in one of the most memorable games in baseball history. It was the game that featured “the catch,” Willie Mays’s spectacular play on a ball hit by the Cleveland Indians’ Vic Wertz in the eighth inning of Game One of the […]

“It would be hard to say I am not a typical minor leaguer.  I’ve spent 11 years in the minors, practically my whole career. It doesn’t feel good to say I am a typical minor leaguer. It doesn’t feel good to say it at all, but I suppose it’s the truth. I still keep hoping […]

By the time Ray Knight leapt down the third-base line on the night of October 25, 1986, landing on home plate and forever cementing his legacy in New York baseball history, he was already an 11-year veteran. He had seen much in his professional career, including a trip to the postseason in 1979, but he […]

The game of baseball attracts all types of personalities, from the angry to the stoic to the eccentric to the comedic and everything in between. William M. “Big Bill” Brown, who played in the majors from 1887 through 1894, definitely falls into the comedic category, though he was also quite serious about the game. Though […]

After several trials as a starter with the Atlanta Braves in the 1970s and out of the big leagues in 1980, southpaw Jamie Easterly emerged as a dependable reliever for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1981, helping them to their first-ever postseason berth. He suffered a strained knee in 1982 and was not on the pennant-winning […]

Don Werner played 18 seasons of professional baseball and appeared in 118 major-league games, backing up one Hall of Famer and catching the only no-hitter pitched by another. Though he batted just .176 during limited opportunities in the major leagues, Werner grasped enough of the finer points of the art of catching to stay employed […]

Bob Ojeda had no love lost for the Boston Red Sox, and the feeling was mutual. The free-thinking and independent southpaw had not always fit in when Fenway was his home park, and his hard-line pro-union stance leading up to the previous year’s two-day strike had not endeared him to all of the team’s veterans. […]

The 1949 World Series opened with Allie Reynolds facing Brooklyn’s best pitcher, Don Newcombe. Yankees manager Casey Stengel wanted the 1950 World Series to start that way as well. Reynolds against Philadelphia’s best pitcher. But it did not work out that way as Jim Konstanty rather than Robin Roberts started Game One. Eddie Sawyer’s gambit […]

It was quite a homestand for the Boston Red Sox. From June 2 through June 11, 1950, they played 11 games and scored 127 runs, an average of more than 11½ runs per game.1 They had just come off the road, where they had dropped their last three games. The Cleveland Indians came to Boston […]

After a tragic spring training that saw the deaths of Steve Olin and Tim Crews in a boating accident, the Indians opened the 1993 baseball season at home with the Yankees. The opener on April 5 attracted 73,290 fans who witnessed a Yankee victory. Cleveland earned the win on April 7 to set up the […]

The Washington Senators line up on the field for Opening Day festivities, April 5, 1971, at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington, D.C. (Library of Congress, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection.)   Related link: Click here to read Part I of the Washington Senators team ownership history, on the original team from […]