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Homer’s Odyssey recounts how Odysseus, conqueror of Troy, overcomes a Cyclops, Sirens, and the six-headed monster Scylla during his perilous 10-year journey home.1 Mickey Cochrane’s odyssey from his breakdown in June 1936 to once again playing for his World Series champion Detroit Tigers took but 10 weeks, yet seemed almost as harrowing. After Tigers owner […]

After finishing July 1991 in second place in the National League East Division, the New York Mets went 8-21 in August and fell to fourth. Things didn’t improve in September, as they lost five in a row from September 4 to 9, including the opener of a two-game home series with the last-place Montreal Expos. […]

Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. had a wonderful day on Wednesday, May 22, 1963. He was feted to a ticker-tape parade in New York City and an audience with President and First Lady John and Jacqueline Kennedy.1 A week earlier, Cooper had commanded the Faith 7 spacecraft and orbited Earth 22 times in the last […]

When it opened in 1928, Montreal’s De Lorimier Stadium was considered the preeminent ballpark of the minor leagues. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis said it was even better than some big-league facilities.1 The luxurious ballpark was also heavily mortgaged, which was a relatively minor concern initially. Everything changed when the stock market crashed in October 1929. […]

As the Kansas City Royals overcame the Oakland A’s for their first-ever American League West Division title in 1976, Royals teammates George Brett and Hal McRae and Minnesota Twins hitting star Rod Carew battled for the AL’s batting crown. The three-way race came down to the regular-season finale between Kansas City and Minnesota on October […]

Like many former players, Dave Stieb was invited to spring training with the Toronto Blue Jays as a guest instructor in 1998. There he would join several teammates and pass along to the next generation of major leaguers the knowledge he had gained during his 15 years in the big leagues. Unlike the other former […]

All-Star week in any city is a celebration of baseball’s history, a recognition of its current and future stars, and a time of pure joy for baseball fans of all ages. This week was no exception in Washington, DC. The stars of major-league baseball had not descended en masse on the nation’s capital in nearly […]

Hideo Nomo threw two no-hitters (one with the Dodgers) and struck out 17 in April 1996 against the Marlins. (Copyright Jerry Coli /dreamstime.com.)   It was a busy night for sports in the Los Angeles area on Saturday, April 13, 1996. The Dodgers had a home game with Japanese sensation Hideo Nomo starting, which usually […]

Pitching a complete-game shutout in the major leagues is a difficult task, but it has been done thousands of times in baseball history. Pitching a complete-game shutout while allowing 10 or more hits is a daunting task, but it has been done at least 260 times.1 Pitching a complete-game shutout while giving up 10 or […]

The Chicago Cubs “swished home run bats that belted big George Munger out of the box within three innings”1 and went on to crush the St. Louis Cardinals 15-3 at Wrigley Field, behind the hitting-for-the-cycle performance of Roy Smalley. The overcast skies “and a few drops of rain”2 before game time did not deter the […]

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Black Sox Scandal Committee’s April 2010 newsletter. Quietly nestled among the renowned sports names charged in the Black Sox Scandal is that of an obscure figure, one Rachael Brown.1 Based on surviving evidence, it appears that Brown was indicted by the Cook County grand jury almost entirely […]

When the Orioles nearly went from worst-to-first in their “Why Not?” 1989 season, Jeff Ballard epitomized their surprising success. Though he struck out fewer than three batters per nine innings, no major league lefty won more games than Ballard in 1989. By the time Baltimore did return to the post-season seven years later, however, Ballard […]

Carlos Beltrán jump-started his terrific career in 1999 by winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award. He rose to national stardom in 2004, when he turned in one of the greatest postseason performances ever, batting .435 with eight home runs in 12 games. Possessing a rare combination of power and speed, Beltrán is one […]

Eddie Foster’s father was a Johns Hopkins-trained doctor, but Eddie eschewed a college education and turned to baseball instead, later running his own metal-welding shop in Washington, D.C. Eight of his 13 years in the majors were spent playing third base and some second base for the Washington Senators. Foster was born in Chicago on […]

In 1978 Cincinnati Reds’ manager Sparky Anderson, referring to the San Francisco Giants’ mound corps, said, “That’s the best pitching staff in baseball and Knepper is their best pitcher.”1 A year later, future Hall of Famer Willie McCovey echoed this sentiment when he compared his club’s rotation to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ fearsome staffs of […]

If it weren’t for two relatively rare events, Cincinnati Reds reliever Scott Brown might not have been a “One-Win Wonder.” One of those events delayed his major-league debut by four months, costing him multiple opportunities to earn more than one win. The other enabled the Reds’ big right-hander from backwoods Louisiana to receive credit for […]

James Gilmore, left, and Charles Weeghman of the Federal League, circa 1914 (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   In the early 1890s “Lucky Charlie” Weeghman descended on Chicago as a teenager seeking fame and fortune. A natural salesman, he soon became one of Chicago’s best-known restaurateurs and a celebrity man about town. Then the baseball bug bit. […]

Popular wherever he played, Bud Sharpe showed great promise on the field and later as a manager, only to die in his prime. A tall and energetic man, the slender Sharpe stood 6′ 1″ and weighed 170 pounds. A right-hander, he was a minor figure in his 165-game major league career, posting a .222 average […]

For decades after they last played together, the Boston Red Sox’ outfield of Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker, and Harry Hooper, who toiled next to each other for six years in the Deadball Era, was often considered the greatest in baseball history. Although all three, especially Speaker, were fine hitters, their reputation was due largely to […]

Professional football or professional baseball? That was the choice for pitcher Steve Renko. At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, Renko also starred as a basketball player at the University of Kansas. He was the school’s last three-sport letterman. The big right-hander ultimately chose baseball. Renko had an up-and-down career in the major leagues from 1969 to […]

On October 4, 1955, outfielder Edmundo Amorós helped “Next Year” arrive at last for the Brooklyn Dodgers. His racing catch off Yogi Berra near the left-field line at Yankee Stadium saved the Bums’ 2-0 lead in Game Seven of the World Series. Johnny Podres held on for the remaining three innings to bring Brooklyn its […]

With two major leaguers, a third brother, Charles, who coached the Villanova University baseball team for more than two decades, and a fourth, Hugh, who coached the Hazleton High School basketball team to three state titles, the McGeehan family of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, built a towering sports legacy in the first third of the 20th […]

Bert Campaneris had a distinguished 20-year major-league career that included six All-Star selections, six American League stolen-base crowns, and a major role in the Oakland Athletics’ three world championships in the 1970s. Dagoberto Campaneris was born on March 9, 1942, in Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba. His father was a mechanic in a factory. Campaneris had three […]

There have been a number of horribly inauspicious rookie debuts over the century and a half of major-league baseball. In 1901 Pete Loos threw 18 consecutive balls to start his only game. In 1945 Joe Cleary surrendered seven runs while recording only one out for a 189.00 ERA. On September 21, 1922, Doc Hamann arguably […]