If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
The discussions continue to this day. What would have happened if those denied the opportunity had been given the chance to play at the highest level of baseball before 1947? We have had glimpses of such players, often long past their prime. In 1951, in a barnstorming game in Alabama, Jonas Gaines took the mound […]
A long-time left-handed pitching ace for one of baseball history’s best staffs, Dave McNally was also a legend and hero in his native Billings, Montana, where he lived his entire life outside of baseball. Though a World Series pitching (and hitting) star, he might be best known in some circles for the role he played […]
Joe Schultz, a catcher in his playing days, spent over 40 years in professional baseball. His career included five full seasons and parts of four others as a fringe reserve in the majors. That paved the way for 13 years as a minor-league manager and another 14 as a big-league coach. He was there for […]
Though he played ten years in the majors, when people look back at Ossie Vitt’s career, they tend to remember the player mutiny against him by the team called the “Cleveland Crybabies” when he was manager of the Indians in 1940. He managed the Indians from 1938 through 1940, and 18 seasons in the minor […]
“There is a lot of talk in the Cardinal clubhouse of togetherness … ’a family affair.’ Indeed, after each Cardinal victory, there blares a rendition of “We Are Family,” recorded by Sister Sledge … on the recommendation from reserve outfielder Jerry Mumphrey.”1 — The Sporting News Unknown to many, Jerry Mumphrey’s name emerged to debunk […]
Rich “Goose” Gossage was “the type of relief pitcher that has become extinct,” as Murray Chass of the New York Times put it in 2008.[1] Today’s closer typically has the mission of pitching one inning. In 1978, when the fearsome, hard-throwing righty was the mainstay of the bullpen for the World Series champion New York […]
According to some observers, Steve Evans never took baseball seriously enough to fulfill his great potential, though he did bat .287 over his seven full seasons in the majors (two of them in the Federal League). A light-hearted, cheerful right fielder with a reputation as one of the Deadball Era’s greatest flakes, Evans batted and […]
They called him “Dirty Jack,” but John Joseph “Jack” Doyle never quite understood why. The name was given to him in recognition of his aggressive style of play and of his insistence that the base paths belonged to the runner. “I was a hard base runner,” he later recalled. “You had to be in those […]
Ed Crane was a big, strong guy for his era. He stood only 5 feet 10 inches tall but weighed more than 200 pounds. Much of it was muscle, at least when he was young. His nicknames reflected his stature: Big Ed, Big Ned, and Hercules. He was said to throw harder than any other […]
One of a long line of Cuban players to pass through the Washington Senators organization, Mike Fornieles burst onto the scene as a 20-year-old with a debut nearly unsurpassed in major-league history. He went on to pitch for five teams, primarily as a reliever, spending just over half his career with the Boston Red Sox, […]
In 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates rookie catcher Steve Nicosia watched the 6’1”, 220 lb. right-handed power hitter crowd the batter’s box and wondered, “How are we ever going to get a pitch by him?”1 Nicosia was hardly alone in these thoughts. For much of his 15-year major-league career Greg Luzinski – whose large bat appeared toothpick-like […]
Jorge Comellas didn’t impress during his brief stint in the major leagues at the age of 28, as a right-handed pitcher with the pennant-winning Chicago Cubs in 1945. He was demoted before June 1. However, he pitched for six years in the minors before the war, and at the age of 20 was good enough […]
Duke Maas pitched in the American League during seven seasons from 1955 to 1961, most notably with the New York Yankees. He appeared in relief in the 1958 and 1960 World Series. Maas won the game that clinched the 1958 pennant for New York. In 1959 he started 21 games, fashioning a 14-8 won-loss record […]
In his baseball career, Dolph Camilli experienced the best of times and the worst of times. A fine-fielding first baseman and solid hitter, he was with winners and losers and gave his best to both. Skip Clayton and Jeff Moeller, authors of 50 Phabulous Phillies, rank the Phils trade of Dolph Camilli to the Brooklyn […]
A hard-throwing, spectacularly talented left-hander who posted the best single-season earned run average in American League history in 1914, Dutch Leonard was also one of the Deadball Era’s most controversial figures. At nearly every stop along his journey in professional baseball, Leonard feuded with management over his salary, and at one point was even suspended […]
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitchers Don Sutton and Andy Messersmith began the 1974 National League Championship Series by frustrating the Pittsburgh Pirates’ potent offense in back-to-back wins. With a third standout starter, Tommy John, sidelined after reconstructive surgery on his elbow, the Dodgers turned to Doug Rau to close out the series in Game Three. […]
The Houston Astros were hoping to get off to a good start in 1996. Coming off a 76-68 record and second-place finish in the NL Central in 1995, the Astros opened the 1996 season with a nine-game homestand. It was hoped that a good start on the field would help the Astros at the box […]
Houston was awarded a National League expansion franchise as a result of lengthy lobbying by Houston business leaders. Three in particular, George Kirksey, William Kirkland, and Craig Cullinan, had formed the Houston Sports Association in 1957, and attracted other businessmen willing to invest in a team. Later, in 1959, Judge Roy Hofheinz, then the Mayor […]
It began as a game of no import whatever, the first of a doubleheader, between a pair of teams playing out the string in the dog days of late summer. The Texas Rangers, 54-70, were 18 games out in the AL West, on their way to a last-place finish in their division, and the Baltimore […]
It was a battle for the American Association pennant, but “not a good game from a scientific standpoint,” opined the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.1 The first-place Philadelphia Athletics (63-28) arrived in the Gateway City to kick off a pivotal three-game series with the second-place St. Louis Browns (61-31). On a season-ending 13-game road swing, the Athletics […]
Moping about the lobby of Boston’s luxurious Hotel Statler, Harvey Hendrick began talking about the dreary, pluvian commotion outside. “Boston weather is like this,” he said as he and his Brooklyn teammates watched sheets of rain and sleet blow past the hotel windows. “Sometimes it stays this way for two whole weeks. And then it […]
The Chicago Cubs had not made many visits to Fenway Park since the 1918 World Series. It took until 2011 – the 15th season of interleague play between the National and American Leagues – for the Cubs’ first regular-season appearance at Fenway since the Boston Red Sox closed out their 1918 title by winning Game […]
Twenty-four people attended the December 18, 2012, monthly roundtable of the Bob Broeg St. Louis SABR Chapter, held at the usual location, the Original Crusoe’s in St. Louis. Bob Giovanni reported on the recently published book, Bushville Wins! The Wild Saga of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, by John Klima. Bob said the book offered a […]
Fort Wayne, Indiana, has hosted only 12 major-league games in its long association with professional baseball, including the final game of a ten-game postseason series between Chicago and Providence of the National League in 1882. However, one of those 12 contests was the very first major-league game, played in 1871 at the Kekionga Ball Grounds.1 […]