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On baseball’s biggest stage, Chicago Cubs right-hander Claude Passeau tossed the game of his life: a one-hit shutout against the Detroit Tigers in Game Three of the 1945 World Series. Though often overlooked in discussions about the best pitchers of his era, Passeau was a durable workhorse and five-time All-Star who averaged 15 wins and […]

Best known as the third baseman banned from Organized Baseball for his knowledge of the 1919 World Series fix in which he did not participate, Buck Weaver spent most of his nine-year major-league career as a shortstop, only converting full time to the third sack in 1917. Initially a right-handed batter, Weaver learned to switch-hit […]

Baseball is a game in which one or two numbers can become burned into collective memory, ultimately defining a player’s career. In the case of Babe Ruth, the numbers are 60 and 714. In the case of Ty Cobb, they are 4,191 and .367 (even though those numbers were shown to be inaccurate more than […]

Right-handed pitcher Bill Butland developed a sore arm his first year in the majors, 1940, and pitched with it for a full decade, fighting against the pain to do the only thing he’d ever wanted to do as a youngster – play baseball. He’d started baseball early and bore the responsibility of caring for a […]

Speed and power made switch-hitting outfielder Junior Félix a top prospect, but his career was derailed by defensive deficiencies, injuries, and concerns about his real age. Félix was believed to be just 21 when he hit the first pitch that he faced in the majors for a home run in 1989. By 1994, however, when […]

Escobar family reunions could pass for baseball clinics. Since patriarch Oscar Santiago Escobar founded a team in 1963, seven descendants have reached the major leagues: José Escobar, Ángel Escobar, Vicente Campos, Alcides Escobar, Kelvim Escobar, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Edwin José Escobar. Others, like Oscar Jr. and Elvis Escobar, enjoyed long careers in the Venezuelan […]

Before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders made “two-sport athletes” a vogue term in the 1980s and ’90s, there was Dick Groat. Groat lacked the power of Jackson or the speed of Sanders. But what he lacked in physical gifts he more than made up in guile and spirit. His collegiate career at Duke University earned […]

In the 1920s, Harry Kincannon left the coalfields of southern West Virginia and headed north to Pittsburgh, where he developed into a right-handed curveball specialist in the city’s sandlot leagues. He began his professional career in 1929 with the Pittsburgh Crawford Giants. Kincannon remained with the Crawfords organization through 1936, but did not make an […]

New York Giants manager John McGraw considered Bugs Raymond one of the greatest pitchers he ever managed—or tried to manage. “What a terrific spitball pitcher he was,” teammate Rube Marquard later reminisced. “Bugs drank a lot, you know, and sometimes it seemed the more he drank the better he pitched. They used to say he […]

After a rough rookie season with the lowly St. Louis Browns in 1933, Jack Knott emerged as a rubber-armed swingman-reliever. He appeared in more games over a four-year stretch (1934-1937) than any other AL hurler, and later transitioned into a once-a-week-type starter for the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Athletics. Like those of many players […]

The US Soccer Hall of Fame credits Dick Spalding with scoring the first goal for America in an international soccer tournament, in 1916.1 Newspaper articles at the time indicated that it was John Heminsley, not Spalding.2 Regardless, Spalding was considered one of the best soccer players in America while at the same time honing baseball […]

John Park Henry, nicknamed “Bull,” was a catcher for the Washington Nationals from 1910–1917. The team was often called the Senators prior to, during, and after Henry’s career. Henry was recognized for his excellent fielding, throwing arm, and ability to call a game, eventually becoming Walter Johnson’s preferred catcher. The weakest part of Henry’s game […]

Peter Patrick “Padney” Gillespie was one of the original New York players whose height suggested a name for the team that today plays in San Francisco. With three fellow Troy players, he signed with John B. Day’s New York franchise for the 1883 season, and the group formed that would become known as the Giants. […]

In an issue published a few days after the grand opening of Forbes Field, Sporting Life extolled Pittsburgh team owner Barney Dreyfuss: “[he] had the mind to conceive and the courage to execute the plans which have given the world the grandest and most costly ball park in existence, deserves the greatest credit, highest praise, […]

Press previews of the opening game of the 1968 World Series understandably focused on the two starting pitchers.1 In what by midseason had been called the “year of the pitcher,”2 Detroit’s Denny McLain finished with a 31-6 record to become the first 30-game winner in 34 years,3 while Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals […]

Cincinnati and Cleveland were headed in opposite directions as the Reds hosted the Indians for the start of a three-game series on Friday, June 30, 2006. Cincinnati had finished the 2005 season at 73-89, fifth in the National League Central Division, 27 games behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals. The offseason acquisitions of catcher David […]

In 1972 the Minnesota Twins’ attendance hit a low of 797,901. In late June of 1973, the Twins were on pace to draw less than that of 1972. On June 27 the Twins played the Texas Rangers in Arlington before a crowd of 35,698, far above the average Rangers crowd of 8,470. The stimulus for […]

Ed Delahanty, one of baseball’s most feared sluggers and most tragic figures of the 1890s and 1900s, appeared in what turned out to be his final game on June 25, 1903, seven days before his death in the Niagara River at age 35. It was fitting that Delahanty’s last game was in Cleveland, his hometown, […]

The Atlanta Braves came to Montreal for a three-game series in late June of 1994 with a 2½-game lead in the NL East over the Expos and every reason to be confident. The Braves team was a juggernaut; they had finished first in their division for three consecutive years and had made it to the […]

1986 Sportsco Living Legends baseball card featuring Harmon Killebrew, Al Kaline, Warren Spahn, and Hoyt Wilhelm (Trading Card Database)   “Give me an Old-Timers Classic over the All-Star Game any day,” wrote Tom Boswell in the Washington Post on the eve of the June 29, 1987, game. “I’m trying to remember the 1986 All-Star Game. […]

Baseball can be a cruel game. Just ask the members of the Batavia Trojans of the Class A New York-Penn League, who lost both a close-fought game and a chance at a sensational triple play on a single wayward throw on the night of August 7, 1974. The Trojans, a New York Mets farm team, […]

With 15 minutes until game time, the tarp was still on the field under dark skies at Griffith Stadium, and the first pitch of Game Three of the World Series was uncertain. Detaining the 25,727 eager fans braving the elements to witness the return of the World Series to the nation’s capital after nine years […]

When the New York Yankees took the field against the Cleveland Indians on June 8, 1921, Babe Ruth was not among them. He was not anywhere to be found in the Polo Grounds. He was instead nine miles downtown, at 300 Mulberry Street, formerly New York police headquarters but then home to the city’s traffic […]

On September 28, 1983, the Philadelphia Phillies were on the verge of clinching their fifth National League East Division title in eight seasons. That afternoon they were scheduled to play the rubber match of a three-game series at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. A victory against their division rivals would secure the title, and […]