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Al Richter had a memorable debut, though it wasn’t the kind anyone would want to remember: He was asked to pinch-hit for Les Moss in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was September 23, 1951, facing the New York Yankees. Richter hit into a double play. The Red Sox lost the game, 6-1, to […]

The expansion Washington Senators had little to cheer about at the end of their inaugural season in 1961. They had lost 100 games and finished in the cellar, tied with the Kansas City A’s. Their hitting was dead last in the league. If there were any bright spots to look forward to in 1962, they […]

“Willie Foster was the greatest left hander that I ever played with and he was a gentleman on and off the field.” — Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe   If there was a signature moment for a baseball player, Willie Foster’s complete-game victories in both ends of the doubleheader for the Chicago American Giants to decide […]

Editor’s note: This article was selected as a winner of the 2012 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award.   In the early 1880s prosperous tobacco merchant John B. Day re-established the national pastime in New York – operating teams in both major-league circuits with great success. In 1884 Day’s New York Metropolitans were American Association pennant winners […]

The only thing a team with players named Dizzy, Ducky, and Daffy needed to become truly legendary was a dash of Pepper.  And that’s exactly what the famed Gas House Gang St. Louis Cardinals got in their sparkplug extraordinaire, Pepper Martin. Johnny Leonard Roosevelt Martin was a leap-year baby, born February 29, 1904, in Temple, […]

“Hit in the air . . . Yount . . . makes a GREAT CATCH! Juan Nieves has thrown the first no-hitter in Milwaukee Brewer history!” That was broadcaster Jim Paschke’s call on April 15, 1987. More than 30 years later, the masterpiece by Nieves remained the only no-hitter in franchise history, and only one […]

Both Ray Grimes and his brother Roy broke into the majors in the same year, 1920. Ray and Roy were twins, both born in Bergholz, Ohio, on September 11, 1893. Ray played in just one 1920 game, with the Boston Red Sox on September 24. Ray was properly Oscar Ray, and Roy was Austin Roy. […]

When Case Patten filled out his player questionnaire at the request of the Hall of Fame, he declared his heritage as “Scotch, Irish, English, Dutch, and Indian” — the Native American part perhaps coming from his mother Mandana’s side of the family. As far as can be determined, he was one of the first players […]

Cal Ripken Sr. spent 36 years in the Baltimore Orioles organization as a player, manager, coach, scout, and minor league instructor. Hundreds of Oriole prospects benefited under the tutelage of the man who once said, “Don’t just practice. Practice right, and you’ll do things right in the game. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes […]

Hardworking, spirited, and optimistic are all apt descriptions of Jim Lefebvre. The switch-hitter spent more than 40 years in professional baseball, including eight years (1965-72) as a Los Angeles Dodgers infielder and six seasons managing the Mariners, Cubs and Brewers. Perhaps determined would be the best adjective of all for the former National League Rookie […]

“Handsome Hal, the Hoboken Hercules” – such was said to be the Brown University characterization of Hal Neubauer.1 Once he had his Ivy League degree in hand, the young graduate went almost straight to work for the Boston Red Sox. The right-handed pitcher debuted in the major leagues on July 12, 1925, pitching in relief […]

Catcher Johnny Riddle had one of the more unusual careers in major-league history. His big-league career spanned 19 years, from his debut with the Chicago White Sox in 1930 until his final game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1948. He played for five major-league teams, but he also spent long stretches of time in the minors, the […]

Cap Anson, baseball’s first superstar, was the dominant on-field figure of nineteenth-century baseball. He was a small-town boy from Iowa who earned his fame as the playing manager of the fabled Chicago White Stockings, the National League team now known as the Cubs. A larger-than-life figure of great talents and great faults, Anson managed the […]

“I think I was playing third base at the time, and he hit a ground ball by me…. It dug a hole about a foot deep on its way to left eld. … In those days Torriente was a hell of a ballplayer. Christ, I’d like to whitewash him and bring him up.” — Frankie […]

After a slow start for the first four weeks of the 1944 season, the Detroit Tigers jelled as a club, climbed into pennant contention, and finally fell one game short of winning the American League flag. In the end, the pitching of a tall recruit right-hander, James Ruffus Gentry, helped fuel Detroit’s pennant run. Speaking […]

Where the nickname Tony came from is unclear, other than a likely play on his last name. In all the research done for this biography, the nickname never came up once. When any nickname was employed, he was universally called Charley. We’ll call him Charles Tonneman here. He was a right-handed catcher. He had a […]

A boisterous crowd of 33,137 filled Fenway Park1 on Friday evening, June 28, 2002, ready to see their homestanding Red Sox take on the Atlanta Braves, invading from the National League. The teams had nearly identical records at this point in the season, both 18 games over .500 and atop their respective divisions.2 But this […]

Many of the Athletics faithful in the crowd of over 10,000 who watched the final exhibition game of the spring between their American Association heroes and the new Philadelphia team in the National League must have left the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia not knowing quite what to make of their team’s prospects for the […]

The Boston Red Sox battled throughout the 2000 season, seeking their third straight berth in the playoffs. They’d been first in the American League East Division for a few days in the latter half of June but had slipped to second place. They were four games behind the first-place New York Yankees when the Tampa […]

As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Jim Bouton had approached Seattle Pilots pitching coach Sal Maglie and asked why reliever Diego Seguí had been selected to start the first game of their July 18 twin bill instead of him.1 Bouton wasn’t satisfied with Maglie’s answer, but after Seguí won his start […]

Sean Doolittle, the Washington Nationals closer, was sitting in the bullpen when, by the top of the fourth inning, the Nationals were losing 9-0 to the Miami Marlins. Some thoughts that could have been going through his (and the other relievers) mind: “I feel sorry for Helly — he’s sick and he’s out there getting […]

“Nasty weather outside … thank goodness there’s a dome.” — Chip Caray, TBS1   Fans in Minnesota were not always thankful for indoor baseball, but on a 44-degree, rainy October afternoon, the 54,088 that jammed the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome were glad to be inside as the Minnesota Twins squared off against the Detroit Tigers […]

In late July of the 1973 season, Royals third baseman Paul Schaal suffered an ankle injury that sidelined him for 19 games.1 Utility infielder Kurt Bevacqua filled in at the hot corner during Schaal’s absence. Searching for a replacement, the Royals placed a call to their Triple-A team in Omaha, Nebraska. Around noon on August […]

“You Called That a What . . . ?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) January 2017, Volume 2, Number 1 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley Howdy Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) Scoring the Shift Interview with Ben Trittipoe Guest Column: Alan Cohen Obstruction: Error […]