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Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. New York Yankees captain Roger Peckinpaugh, second from left, and New York Giants captain Dave Bancroft, far right, pose with the umpires at home plate before Game One of the 1921 World Series at the Polo Grounds in […]

He pitched 18 seasons in the major leagues but for Grant Jackson, it all came down to one inning in the final game ever played in the 1970s. It was familiar territory for the left-hander. Eight years before, the Baltimore Orioles took a lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1971 World Series, which culminated with […]

Twenty-four games and 19 plate appearances with two hits for the 1968 Baltimore Orioles were the extent of Lorenzo “Chico” Fernández’s major league action, but he spent over 40 years in professional baseball. After a nearly fatal beaning ended the Cuban-born infielder’s 12-season playing career, Fernández coached in the Orioles and Dodgers organizations for more […]

From 1923 to 1952, the Chicago Cubs had 10 managers but only one head trainer—Andy Lotshaw. He was also the head trainer for the Chicago Bears. Players called him “Doc,” and he indeed doctored them, though he lacked formal education in the medical field. He administered his own homespun remedies for sore arms, charley horses, […]

For a brief period in the mid-1920s, Nip Winters was the best southpaw not just in the Negro Leagues, but perhaps in all of professional baseball. Armed with a bracing curveball, the lanky lefty baffled batters for 11 seasons before fading into seeming obscurity. James Henry “Nip” Winters Jr. was born on April 29, 1899, […]

For nearly 80 years, this stumpy catcher was the only man from the Hawaiian island of Maui to make it to the majors. Even more curious is that Tony Rego was born during the brief period (1894-1898) when Hawaii was an independent republic. The “active little pepperbox” (as the Los Angeles Times described him) got […]

In an era when baseball players were supposed to be upper-class gentlemen and amateurs, Doug Allison didn’t fit the mold. He came from working-class origins and he was one of the first players to turn professional. Allison introduced two innovations that now are universally followed by all modern catchers. Douglass1 L. Allison was born in […]

Newspapers across the nation carried a story in 1908 about a young lady who proclaimed to the handsome, square-jawed, southpaw pitcher of the Dayton Vets, “If you strike him out, I’ll marry you.” The pitcher was Earl Yingling, in his second year of professional ball, the young lady was Georgeana Florine Sausser from Lebanon, Ohio. […]

In a sport where tradition reigns and change may be viewed as heresy, Tony La Russa was considered an insurgent within the ranks of major league managers. Especially with regard to relief pitching, he experimented with innovative strategies, some of which have become standard practice. His most notable contribution was his role in the development […]

Tabbed “the best young catching prospect to try for a major league berth in many years” in the spring of 1948 by Pirates rookie manager Billy Meyer, Ed Fitz Gerald went on to have a 12-year major-league career as a backup catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Senators, and Cleveland Indians.1 The gangly, six-foot, 170-pound […]

Charlie Hartman was the first “cup of coffee” player – a one-game wonder – for the Boston Red Sox, playing in just one big-league game, on June 24, 1908. Hartman is enough of a mystery that before this author began researching him for Red Sox Threads, most standard sources didn’t indicate whether he batted left […]

Dave Ricketts was a bespectacled catcher who looked as much like a math teacher as he did a professional athlete. Indeed, he was a schoolteacher for several years and nearly gave up baseball to teach full-time. The statistics on the back of his baseball cards may give the impression that Ricketts had little impact on […]

You have to love a guy who takes the mound in the House That Ruth Built wearing a Cap That Ruth Wore. David Wells did just that at Yankee Stadium on June 28, 1997, when he took the hill to pitch against Cleveland sporting his Yankee pinstripes and his Yankee cap. The problem was that […]

Steve Balboni played for the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals before he bookended brief stints with the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers around a second tour with the Yankees. He owns four World Series rings, one as a player with the Royals and three as an advance scout with the San […]

Lewis “Buttercup” Dickerson was a stocky little outfielder – 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds – who played in the big leagues for seven seasons (1878-81; 1883-85). When in form, he was a capable hitter, batting .284 overall at the top level and leading the National League in triples with 14 in 1879. However, he was also […]

In 1922, pitcher Karl Schnell became the first graduate of Palo Alto High – a school with several notable alumni in athletics1 – to make it to the majors in baseball. The son of German immigrants had starred in college for the Saint Mary’s Phoenix ball club. Playing with and against future Hall of Famers, […]

Federal League Park in Indianapolis, looking in from the right-field fence. (Indianapolis News, January 27, 1917)   The city of Indianapolis has been home to four short-lived major-league franchises. The first two — the 1878 Indianapolis Blues of the National League and the 1884 Indianapolis Hoosiers of the American Association — were noncompetitive and disbanded […]

The Montreal Expos broke camp in the spring of 1978 with the strongest team in their 10-year history, raising expectations for the team’s first winning season. The dynamic trio of Andre Dawson, Ellis Valentine, and Warren Cromartie were generally considered the best young outfield in baseball, and with five of their eight starting position players […]

If citizens of tiny Gilmore, Ohio, trotted past McKinzie Young’s farm around noon in the late 1870s, they likely saw the family’s oldest son throwing apples or walnuts at a target on the barn door before heading back to work across nearly 200 acres of fields after lunch. “Ah, young Denton,” they probably would say. […]

George Foster experienced American League baseball for the first time in his 18-year career on August 15, 1986, a little over a week after his tumultuous relationship with the New York Mets ended after controversial remarks.1 With 347 career home runs, the 1977 National League Most Valuable Player joined a youthful Chicago White Sox roster […]

On July 27, 1979 the two-time-defending world champion New York Yankees arrived at Milwaukee’s County Stadium to finish their season series with the Brewers.  The Yankees (55-45) came into the matchup 12 games behind the division-leading Baltimore Orioles. The Brewers, led by second-year manager George Bamberger, were only 7½ games behind with a stellar 60-41 […]

As the Indianapolis Hoosiers (63-49) prepared to host the Brooklyn Tip-Tops (54-53) in a doubleheader, the Hoosiers had a 1½-game lead over the Chicago Chi-Feds (62-51) in the first year of the new Federal League. Brooklyn was in fifth place in the standings 6½ games behind Indianapolis. Indianapolis had won seven of its last eight […]

On July 6, 1931, the Brooklyn Robins1 began an extended road trip, playing 32 of their next 36 games away from Ebbets Field.2 After stops in Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago, the second-place Robins traveled to Pittsburgh. The Pirates, in sixth place in the National League, had been home since July 4, and except […]

A sunny, breezy afternoon in Tiger Stadium before a crowd of 41,774 was the setting for the NBC Saturday Game of the Week on June 22, 1985. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola were on hand to broadcast the contest between the defending World Series champion Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees.1 Detroit manager Sparky […]