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In Tribe folklore, Tony Peña will always bring back moments of elation and unbound hope for a world championship after he crushed an early-morning pitch toward left field for a walk-off homer in the 13th inning of Game One of the 1995 American League Division Series. For the Indians, it was their first postseason since […]

Roger McDowell kept his locker stocked with comedy props, costumes, and fireworks, blew bubbles while he pitched, played the notorious “Second Spitter” on Seinfeld and was known to set teammates’ shoes on fire. But he knew a little about pitching too. McDowell racked up 70 wins and 159 saves pitching almost exclusively in relief over […]

A decade before the Ray Chapman tragedy, another infielder from Cleveland met a similar fate. Charles “Cupid” Pinkney was playing for Dayton in the Central League, and just 21 years old, when a pitch from Casey Hageman of Grand Rapids struck him in the head. Pinkney died the next day and was buried in Cleveland’s […]

The once thick and perfectly groomed dark hair grew thin and gray over a professional career spanning a remarkable sixty-nine years. From 1920 to 1989, Johnny Neun served in the capacities of player, coach, manager, instructor and scout. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a great baseball mind, an excellent storyteller, and an […]

Had World War II continued indefinitely, Carden Gillenwater might have fashioned a noteworthy major-league career. As a member of the 1945 Boston Braves, he posted solid offensive numbers and led National League center fielders in several fielding categories. But the return of baseball’s elite for the 1946 season soon relegated placeholders like Gillenwater back to […]

The “Iron Man” of the Texas League1 “A spitter jumping like a West Texas jackrabbit”2   Baseball history is quite familiar with Burleigh Grimes, the last legal spitball pitcher in the major leagues; and maybe Urban “Red” Faber, the final American Leaguer. But what about minor-league pitchers who were grandfathered in? Enter Paul Wachtel (WAH-tell), […]

Southpaw hurler George Henry Upp of the Columbus Senators was on top of the minor-league world in early September 1907. He hadn’t lost since late July and had 10 consecutive victories under his belt. He was dominating batters in the American Association and would end the season leading the league with 27 wins, a .730 […]

The casual fan of the game might know Ron Swoboda for “The Catch“ in the 1969 World Series, or for his home run heroics in a game against Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, or for Casey Stengel’s early summation: “He will be great, super, even wonderful. Now if he can only learn to catch a […]

In his only big league appearance Doc McMahon was the winning pitcher against the New York Highlanders. The date was October 6, 1908. The right-handed McMahon threw a complete nine-inning game, striking out three and walking no one. Despite surrendering 14 hits, he held the Highlanders to three runs. He ended his season (and his […]

“I’m on the bench with two out. My heart was breaking. Just a terrible feeling I had, as well as we played all game. You sit and try to comprehend what we just did. It’s hard to believe. It’s something you sit back and say, ‘Geez, how did we do it?’ I don’t (understand). I […]

Corinth, Vermont, is often featured on calendars and postcards portraying the idyllic Vermont village: quiet, rural and little changed from when Leon Viau was born there on July 5, 1866. Leon’s father, Antoin, was a carpenter. The French tinge to his name invites speculation that he came down from Canada. Corinth town records list no […]

Born into poverty, raised by a single mother, and dead of cholera at age 33, Harry McCormick led a short but eventful life. Some of his accomplishments will endure in baseball lore forever. Baseball historian Lloyd Johnson wrote, “Rarely would a star shine so brightly and burn out so quickly.”1 Patrick Henry McCormick was born […]

Ask any serious Tigers fan over a certain age and they’ll tell you that the sound of Tiger Stadium was always a little bit louder than normal when Gates Brown was announced as a pinch-hitter. And why not? After 13 seasons in Detroit, not only did the “Gator” retire as the American League’s all-time pinch-hitting […]

Tom Butts stood 5-feet-8 and weighed just 142 pounds, but his size was not the reason he acquired the nickname Pee Wee. Rather, the strong-armed shortstop’s defensive prowess reminded observers of his White contemporary, Pee Wee Reese.1 “I’d compare Butts with Reese or [Phil] Rizzuto or anyone I’ve seen in the big leagues,” opined Roy […]

They called him the Sheriff – and not only did he serve as a deputy U.S. marshal in Wheeling, West Virginia, from 1935 to 1947 in real life, but his younger brother Dee Bee Gainer became a deputy sheriff in Randolph County, West Virginia, as well. Law enforcement ran in the family; a 1912 mention […]

Growing up in the shadow of his father – a Los Angeles Dodgers star and the 1962 National League MVP – could be a challenge for Bump Wills. Often referred to as the “son of Maury Wills,” Bump did not let that sway his focus and competitiveness. He spent six seasons (1977-1982) of his own […]

“It’s a thrill not only playing baseball in Milwaukee, but being back in a city which has been like home to me,” gushed Henry Aaron about his return to County Stadium for the first time in 10 years.1 “I’m looking forward to it,” said the 41-year-old Aaron about confronting the challenges of playing a new […]

For more than a century, the correct answer to the baseball trivia question Who was the first player to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat? was Baltimore Orioles outfielder Mike Griffin. The title holder’s record-setting blast came in the top of the first inning of an April 16, 1887, American Association […]

When The Sporting News, a.k.a. “the bible of baseball,” describes a long-ago story as “one of baseball’s stranger episodes,” you know it has to be pretty unusual.1 Indeed, the story of a 44-year-old pharmacist in Hartford, Connecticut, coming off the sidelines during World War II to throw a complete-game win is a memorable yarn—even if […]

Sunday games were the big games for Negro League teams, when Black fans of both genders, often coming from church still dressed to the nines, would head for the ballpark for social as much as athletic entertainment. To see the game, of course, each of them had to buy a ticket, making Sunday games financial […]

If there was a team that needed the proverbial “shot in the arm,” it was the Arizona Diamondbacks. They were in the midst of a five-game losing streak when they visited Turner Field to start a three-game series with Atlanta on May 18, 2004. The Diamondbacks were in last place in the National League’s West […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates “played headier baseball this afternoon than they have at any time in the series,” gushed Smoky City sportswriter Chester L. Smith, as the NL pennant winners beat the Washington Senators, 6-3, in Game Five of the fall classic to stave off elimination.1 The Bucs’ offense, which had scored only seven runs in […]

The Toronto Blue Jays in early May were hovering near .500, five games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees. The Blue Jays had been mired in third place the past two seasons, behind the Yankees and Boston Red Sox during another peak period of the historic New York-Boston rivalry, finishing 14 games behind […]

Cleveland Municipal Stadium (1931-1996) housed millions of sports fans (boxing, baseball, football), music lovers (the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen), a Shriners convention, the Cleveland Orchestra, religious events, and circuses.  Known by Clevelanders as simply “the Stadium,” the steel and concrete behemoth enthused and impaled attendees for parts of seven decades. Its initial sporting […]