Search Results

The 1924 Red Sox were entering “doubleheader season” with seven of them scheduled in the couple of weeks following June 20 (because of postponements, they actually played 10 in 21 days). Manager Lee Fohl said his team was playing better ball but still not winning. He was pleased that George Murray was starting to pitch […]

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 […]

When fans watched the Montreal Expos in the early 1980s, it was sometimes hard for them to determine if they were at a baseball game or a track meet. Players like Rodney Scott, Andre Dawson, and Jerry White ran roughshod over National League catchers. But no Expos player turned the tools of ignorance into tools […]

A practicing dentist in the offseason, pitcher Ed Lafitte was a lanky, square-jawed journeyman in the American and Federal Leagues during the Deadball Era. No one knew just what to expect when righty Doc Lafitte took the mound. His hurling was often wild and occasionally brilliant, sometimes both in the same game. His historic contributions […]

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 […]

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 […]

In the sandy soil of Carteret County, North Carolina, young boys were schooled in a tough brand of baseball. They emulated their fathers, uncles, and community leaders who held regular jobs during the week in the whaling and fishing community of Morehead City and played baseball in leagues on the weekend. The spirited local nine was […]

For nearly eighty years, Hub Kittle loved and studied pitching. He first realized that this was his calling when he was eight years old. He could outthrow all the neighborhood kids. “Something clicked there, that I had something the good Lord must have gave me. I don’t know why, I couldn’t outfight ’em and I […]

Life isn’t always a fastball down the middle. Sometimes it is unpredictable, with all the ups and downs and erratic sharp curves of a Wiffle Ball thrown into a still breeze. An original Seattle Mariner, Danny Meyer experienced the full gamut of life’s changes both on and off the field. Through it all, Meyer adjusted, […]

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 […]

There were 21 people present at the April 18, 2011, monthly roundtable of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter at its usual location, the Original Crusoe’s restaurant in South St. Louis. Barbara Sheinbein, a member of the chapter’s historical ballparks marker committee, reported on the upcoming April 20 ceremony (read more about it here) to […]

The first World Series game on the South Side since 1959. Attendance 41,206. (Courtesy of Ron Vesely / Chicago White Sox) Game One of the 2005 World Series featured a matchup between two strong right-handers: José Contreras of the host Chicago White Sox and Roger Clemens of the Houston Astros. Contreras finished the regular season […]

On an overcast Sunday afternoon during the Labor Day weekend – September 2, 2012 – over 19,000 fans gathered at Cleveland’s Progressive Field to watch the home team Indians take on the Texas Rangers. The Rangers came in with an American League-best record of 78-54, leading the West Division by three games over the Oakland […]

The last Saturday in August of 1963 brought an afternoon match at the Met between the Minnesota Twins and the visiting Chicago White Sox. An announced crowd of 23,415 came out to the ballpark for this, the second of a three-game series. Minnesota, at 75-58, had won three in a row and six of its […]

“I was surprised (manager Herman Franks) called on me, but I would do it again, if needed. My best pitch was the home run ball.” – Cubs first baseman-outfielder Larry Biittner after yielding three homers in his major-league pitching debut.1   In the first game of a Fourth of July doubleheader at Wrigley Field that […]

In 1987 Candido “Candy” Maldonado was in his second season with the Giants. After five years with the Dodgers, Maldonado had been traded to rival San Francisco after the 1985 season (for catcher Alex Trevino). Maldonado quickly became the everyday right fielder for the Giants. In 1987 he had arguably his best year in the […]

The Saturday afternoon affair at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull seemed insignificant to most baseball fans. Despite being 24 games above .500 (89-65), the second-place Chicago White Sox had been mathematically eliminated and were 11½ games behind the runaway American League-leading New York Yankees. The homestanding Detroit Tigers were 75-79 and clinging to fifth […]

It certainly felt like mid-summer to the 39,578 fans attending this 4:10 Saturday-afternoon game as it was 87 degrees and humid. This was the third game of a four-game series with Atlanta taking the first two. Coming into Atlanta, Washington (33-24) had led the NL East by one game, but after the two losses, Atlanta […]

Four months into another season of mashing American League pitching, Jimmie Foxx led the Philadelphia Athletics against the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Stadium. The two clubs were close together in the league standings, with Philadelphia (53-53) 16 games behind the league-leading Washington Senators, one game ahead of Cleveland (55-57). In this Monday afternoon contest on […]

Mother Nature and Old Man Winter were not yet in a “base ball” mood when the Red Stockings were supposed to begin their season in late April 1874. Two officially scheduled dates were snowed out and rained out respectively before May 2, when the Reds could finally open their season against the Mutuals of New […]

Jim Manning’s career as a big-league pitcher lasted only 17 days from first game to last. What makes it noteworthy was Manning’s age at the time. He was 18 years and 268 days old when he first took the mound for Minnesota on April 15, 1962. Sixty years later, he remained the youngest player in […]

Rich Hill had bounced around professional baseball for 10 years before he arrived in Los Angeles in 2016. He began his major-league career as a starter with the Chicago Cubs, debuting in 2005 and compiling an 18-17 record in four seasons there. Over the next six years, he struggled with several injuries, never pitching more […]

On his first day as a pro, he was listed in the box score as “Y’trzy’ski, ss.” Carl Yastrzemski was just 19, his lengthy last name not yet familiar to sportswriters and official scorers, when he played his first professional game with the Raleigh Capitals of the Class B Carolina League. He’d left the University […]