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This article was originally published in The 1939 Baltimore Elite Giants (SABR, 2024), edited by Frederick C. Bush, Thomas Kern, and Bill Nowlin.   By 1939 the Elite Giants had earned the moniker “The well-traveled Elite Giants.” The team’s arrival in Baltimore in the spring of 1938 marked the end of a long search for […]

George Zuverink was a side-arming sinker-baller who topped the American League in relief appearances in consecutive years, including 1956, when he was retroactively recognized as the circuit’s saves leader.1 The righthander pitched parts of eight major league seasons. After breaking in with the Cleveland Indians (1951-1952), he hurled for the Cincinnati Redlegs (1954) and Detroit […]

Theodore Otto Uhlaender was born on October 21, 1939. Although his birth took place in Chicago Heights, Illinois, he was raised in McAllen, Texas. He and his brother Mickey were the sons of Henry and Helen Uhlaender. Henry owned an electronics store. Ted Uhlaender was a superb all-around athlete, lettering in football, basketball, baseball, and […]

Guy Morton reported to New Orleans for spring training in 1914 with Cleveland. After a few workouts his manager, Joe Birmingham, was unimpressed. “He doesn’t know how to stand on the rubber even. He doesn’t know how to hold the ball.” What he did have was a tremendous fastball and Birmingham declared, “[O]nly one pitcher […]

As his nicknames, Speed Boy and Sparkplug,1 suggest, John Edward Reese was a fleet-footed outfielder who put together a 12-year career at the highest levels of professional baseball in the Negro Leagues. Although he spent most of his career as a reserve outfielder, he was talented enough to play in the outfield alongside some of […]

Few men were employed in organized baseball longer than Cy Slapnicka. His career lasted over 50 years from his days pitching in the bushes in 1906 through his days as a major league general manager until his retirement from scouting for the Cleveland Indians in 1960. Today, he is mainly remembered as the man that […]

“I was a character in baseball. I saw it as an interim type of career,” Lou Skizas told Bill Gleason.1 Skizas, known as “The Nervous Greek” during his four-season major-league playing career, was perhaps best known for an unusual ritual that he followed before coming to bat. Before reaching the plate, the right-handed-batting Skizas dropped […]

Sometimes nice guys finish first. Chuck Tanner, an eternal optimist who was known as baseball’s Mr. Sunshine, managed the Pittsburgh Pirates to a World Series title in 1979. He won more than 1,350 games as a manager of four teams between 1970 and 1988. Tanner also played for eight years in the majors, with the […]

Though Galen Cisco pitched in nearly 200 games over his seven-year major league career, his athletic accomplishments were much more substantial than that, appearing in the Rose Bowl as a young man, and still helping major league pitchers four decades later. Galen Bernard Cisco was born on March 7, 1936, to Beryl and Esther Cisco […]

The 1908 Chicago Cubs are remembered by baseball fans for many reasons. The club, managed by first baseman Frank “Husk” Chance, ended the season by capturing its third consecutive National League pennant and defeated the Detroit Tigers for its second World Series crown. The Cubs were widely recognized in this era for being one of […]

“Atta-boy, Frank”1, the slick-fielding Fordham University shortstop shouted to the diminutive second baseman with every successful double play turned on the practice field at Rose Hill. The oft-repeated ritual helped propel the shortstop to a major league contract before college graduation. More than 50 years later, when the shortstop-turned-baseball-coach-turned-Fordham institution had to retire, the keystone […]

“…for if ever a fellow rode to the top the hard way, it has been John Francis Wilson.” — Vic Stout, August 28, 1937 The story of Jack Wilson could be the story of so many players who have passed through professional baseball over the past century. Known for his determination as much as his […]

Henry Schafer was the first major-league player to spend a career spanning eight or more seasons entirely with the same franchise. He was called Harry, probably from early childhood, but had two more colorful baseball-related nicknames. One was Silk Stockings, but he was known best to fellow players as Dexter, the name of the most […]

Rube Walberg was “discovered” throwing chunks of coal at fence posts at his brother’s coal yard in Seattle, Washington, according to Walberg’s son, George Jr. He was throwing those chunks with great velocity and accuracy. He was 25 years old at the time. Fewer than two years later he was in the major leagues. George […]

For a man who spent much of his life on the road as a baseball scout, Patrick Francis “Pat” Colgan was well grounded in his adopted community, Carbondale, Pennsylvania. He served as vice president of Carbondale’s Columbia Hose Company No. 5 for more than a decade. He was also active in many other community organizations. […]

Despite St. Louis’s last-inning heroics the previous day, the fact remained that New York had taken Game One of the 1942 World Series. Going into Game Two on October 1, the Cardinals faced a must-win situation — no team had ever come back to win a best-of-seven Series after dropping the first two contests.1 And […]

The hopes of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of repeating as division champion in 2008 appeared to be derailed by injuries before the season began. As players reported to spring training in Tempe, Arizona, number-two starter Kelvim Escobar suffered a reaggravation of a shoulder injury and was certain to begin the season on the […]

Exhibition games involving major-league teams were once commonplace. Some were staged against other major-league clubs or minor-league or local league teams to warm up for the season or when passing through a specific location. Others were played at special events or as an attraction to draw in revenue for a business. Still others were played […]

Casey Stengel, who had debuted in the majors with 17 games for Brooklyn in September 1912, had initially held out for a better contract in his first full season with the Superbas. On March 13, 1913, Charlie Ebbets “finally sent him a contract he found satisfactory.”1 However, according to the Brooklyn Citizen, Stengel “had been […]

The 1993 Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t win the World Series, the National League pennant, or the NL West Division. Truth is, they were a .500 ballclub. But after a season-ending 12-1 blitzkrieg of the rival San Francisco Giants leveled their record at 81-81, the Dodgers couldn’t help but celebrate as though they had achieved something […]

The Northern Independent League, formerly known as the Northern New York League, was expected to go from four to six teams in 1906 by expanding into two Canadian cities, Montreal and Ottawa.1 But when Montreal’s application was “turned down with a thud,” the league made a curious decision.2 It admitted Ottawa and began the season […]

The 2002 World Series was the first between two wild-card teams.1 This Series had no Cy Young Award winners, 2 and as of 2024, none of the participants had been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. One team, the Anaheim Angels, had never reached the World Series in their 42-year history.3 The other, […]

A headache put Wally Pipp on the New York Yankees bench in June of 1925, opening the door for a young Lou Gehrig to take his position. For Kansas City Athletics shortstop Wayne Causey, it was an elbow injury that provided the opening for future star Dagoberto “Campy” Campaneris to ultimately take his.1 In the […]

Imagine wanting to listen to a baseball game on the radio and having five different choices of a station and five different announcers for the same game. One of those five announcers was Bob Elson, who broadcast for the Chicago Cubs and White Sox from 1929 through 1970 (except for 1943-1945 when he was in […]