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For decades, Hugh Duffy was a franchise fixture in Boston, a small white-haired man who over the years had served the Red Sox as manager, scout, occasional first base coach and batting instructor, tryout camp supervisor, and all-around good will ambassador. To the younger Sox faithful, Duffy seemed to have been a club functionary forever. […]

Louis Leroy was a Native American who almost became a charter player for the Boston Red Sox franchise. Leroy was born on February 18, 1879, in Omro, Wisconsin, as a Stockbridge-Munsee Indian, a group of Mohicans who relocated from New York’s Hudson River Valley and Delaware to Wisconsin at the beginning of the nineteenth century. […]

Left-handed pitcher Bill Wight spent twelve seasons in the Major Leagues with eight different clubs. He appeared in 347 games, compiling a mediocre 77-99 won-lost record and a 3.95 earned run average. Wight does hold one record; however, it’s for batting, and it’s one he never took pride in. Pitching for the Chicago White Sox […]

The Hall of Fame second baseman is not the only significant figure in New York baseball history to have the name Joe Gordon. Decades before Flash was anchoring the infield of great World War II-era Yankees teams, an earlier Joe Gordon was helping to put the franchise on the map, serving as the first president […]

Indians fans in Cleveland awoke the morning of May 23, 1957, to the musings of columnist James E. Doyle of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Doyle often wrote a small poem at the beginning of his column, and this spring day was no exception. Soxcess with Cal “That stuff served up by Cal McLish,” The Red […]

After spring training tryouts with the Philadelphia Athletics and Phillies and seven years in the minors, Ed Cole caught on with the St. Louis Browns in 1938. Pitching primarily in relief, Cole won his only big-league game that season in a grueling start against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The rubber-armed pitcher, however, […]

This righty pitcher’s big-league career consisted of just one game with the 1968 Chicago Cubs. His baseball days ended after the following season because of a rotator cuff injury – but the Grambling alumnus then turned to an exciting new life as one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen. Jophery Clifford Brown was born on January 22, […]

Hardrock Johnson: it’s one of the great tough-guy names. Roy Johnson got the monicker as a minor-league manager in Arizona, circa the late 1920s, because “he was a stickler for hard playing.”1 Johnson, a righty pitcher, was in the majors for part of just one season, 1918. He posted a 1-5 record in 10 games […]

“Ripley’s Believe It or Not” featured Charley Gelbert in 1941, noting that he “played 239 major league games with a broken leg.” Shortstop Gelbert put in four full seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and played in back-to-back World Series, losing one and then winning one. And then an offseason hunting accident nearly ended his […]

Tony Fernández was all limbs. At shortstop, the gangly fielder scuttled after groundballs before pirouetting to make an underarm throw with a slight flick of the wrist. At the plate, he slashed at the ball before scurrying around the bases. Tall and lean at 6-feet-2 and 165 pounds, the infielder enjoyed a 17-season major-league career. […]

The road to the major leagues can be a long haul for some. Others find it much easier and, of course, thousands never make it at all. Certainly, in all cases the player must have more than a modicum of talent. But there’s another important factor that Steve Biras recognized. When asked how he broke […]

Greg Lee Walker was born in the south-central Georgia town of Douglas on October 6, 1959. He was the youngest of three children. His father Billy was a feed salesman and then a vocational agriculture teacher. During his free time he was a well-known local softball player. Greg credits inheriting his work ethic from his […]

The Cleveland Indians were supposed to open the 1939 season on the road against the St. Louis Browns, but that three-game series was postponed after St. Louis was deluged with rain and, in some places, sleet.1 The return to Cleveland promised no better weather, with frigid temperatures and precipitation. In fact, it was a game-day […]

To paraphrase a newspaper account of the July 10, 1941, game between the New York Yankees and St. Louis Browns: It was Johnny Niggeling’s birthday, but Joe Gordon, Joe DiMaggio, and the Yankees got the gifts.1 Niggeling, the Browns’ knuckleballer, started against the Yankees on his 38th birthday and held them to three hits in […]

It seemed that every time St. Louis Cardinals fans clicked on the television or flipped open a newspaper in the first six weeks of the 1997 season, they learned that another player was headed to the disabled list. By the time the Cardinals took the field on May 14 to conclude a two-game series at […]

When the Shaughnessy playoffs began after the 1958 American Association season, the chances of the Minneapolis Millers were viewed only as fair. The Shaughnessy playoff system was named after International League President Frank Shaughnessy, who promoted the plan in the 1930s. It paired the first-place team with the fourth-place team and the second-place team with […]

In the days leading up to one of Yankee Stadium’s most surprising comebacks, it was the visitors’ ballpark that was making headlines. The previous week, the New York Yankees dropped a two-game series to the Minnesota Twins, and placed the blame on the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome’s roof. After New York fielders lost some routine […]

It would be very understandable to think that 26-year-old first baseman Jay Gainer would welcome a trade to another team while playing in the Texas League for the Wichita Wranglers, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, considering how his path to the majors was being blocked by perennial All-Star and future Hall of […]

They spent nearly three weeks walking a tightrope. By losing eight of nine in a crucial late September stretch — including five times to Atlanta — the Mets went from one game behind the Braves in the National League East standings to eight back. And with it came an unwelcome sense of déjà vu. In […]

Jason Bay of the Pittsburgh Pirates had eight RBIs in a game twice in his career and both within a year of each other: September 19, 2003, and July 2, 2004. Bay may not have realized it, but he just missed the all-time Pirates single-game record of nine in a game set by Johnny Rizzo […]

Vermont is one of the least-represented states on Baseball-Reference’s state-by-state register of minor-league and independent teams. At the end of the 2020 season, the Green Mountain State had hosted just 62 professional teams, trailing only Alaska, Wyoming, and Hawaii among US states.1 You can imagine, then, that the arrival of a new pro team in […]

While playing for the Oakland A’s in 1976, Reggie Jackson once commented that if he played in New York, they would name a candy bar after him.1 Jackson must have been prescient because that is exactly what happened, and that confectionery treat would make a big contribution to the dramatic lore of Yankee Stadium. A […]

Citi Field has been home of the New York Mets since 2009. (COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK METS)   As part of the expansion of the National League in 1962 a franchise was given to New York City. From 1962 to the current day, the Metropolitans’ ownership has been fairly stable. Joan Payson and her […]

Editor’s note: This article was published in the Baseball Research Journal #15 in 1986. In December 2013, longtime SABR member Joe Garagiola was named as the recipient of the 2014 Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Board of Directors. By W.G. Nicholson Joe Garagiola has been a […]