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On a comfortable 72-degree evening on July 17, 1965, at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, Bob Sadowski held an equally comfortable 4-1 lead going into the top of the eighth. He also was throwing a no-hitter against his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates with a lineup featuring three future Hall of Famers including the great Roberto Clemente. Another of […]

Jim King started in left field for the San Francisco Giants in the first major-league game played in California. His best seasons, however, came after he was selected by the expansion Washington Senators, with whom he remained for 6½ years, longer than any of the other 27 players the team drafted in December 1960. King […]

Roy White was a quiet, graceful leader on the New York Yankees during a transitional period in the club’s history. His strength of character and remarkable versatility enabled him to survive, and even excel, in the shark tank that is so often New York Yankee baseball. At a time when the great careers of Mickey […]

Dick Schofield spent 19 years in the big leagues working for seven teams as a versatile utility player. Born on January 7, 1935, in Springfield, Illinois, to John and Florence Schofield, John Richard “Dick” Schofield was the second in a succession of four generations of professional baseball players. His father, John “Ducky” Schofield, played ten […]

Jack Rothrock, a solid outfielder for the 1934 Cardinals, played every position there was for the Boston Red Sox in 1928, a year in the middle of a good long run (1925-1932) for a really bad team. The versatile outfielder played 639 games in the outer garden in his eight major-league seasons, and more than […]

When the Houston Astros signed Andújar Cedeño out of the Dominican Republic in 1986, their manager, Hal Lanier, said what many were thinking: “He’s got a lot to live up to.”1 After all, Dominicans Joaquín Andújar and César Cedeño (no relation) had each been big-league standouts. Although Andújar Cedeño never became an All-Star like his […]

“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 […]

On October 10, 2008, the University of California at Berkeley honored the legendary Japanese author Haruki Murakami with the inaugural Berkeley Japan Prize, presented by the Center for Japanese Studies. Speaking to the university students earlier in the day, the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Murakami was asked about “the revelation which led him to writing” at […]

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 […]

Del Rice was a major-league catcher for 17 years, primarily with the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Braves. While he was not a good hitter, his longevity was attributable to his excellent defensive skills and his ability to work with pitchers. He also knew how to win as a member of two World Series champions, […]

From 1993 through 2010, Trevor Hoffman recorded 601 career saves. That was briefly a major-league record until Mariano Rivera surpassed him in 2011. Through the 2017 season, nobody else had as many as 500 — or will get there soon. It was enough to get Hoffman into the Hall of Fame in 2018, when he […]

An article in the Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor said of catcher Matt Tupman, “He once played with a roaring fire inside, fueled by a hardboiled youth that created a chip on his shoulder the size of second base. That fire made for hustle on the field, but led him to challenge authority off it.”1 The […]

When thinking of multi-sport athletes from Toronto, the first name to come to mind is likely Lionel Conacher. Conacher was voted Canada’s top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, and excelled in hockey, baseball, and football. He also played lacrosse, wrestled, and boxed. However, another versatile athlete was unjustly lost in his […]

Walter William Beck looked like a pitcher. At least that’s what Casey Stengel thought. “When you see a guy as big and strong and who looks like an athlete, then watch him throw without the slightest suggestion of strain, you just gotta go for him.”1 Beck stood 6-feet-2 and weighed 200 pounds with broad shoulders […]

Al Blanche pitched only 33 1/3 innings in the major leagues, all in relief for the woeful Boston Braves/Bees of 1935-36. A star at Providence College who attracted no major league scouts, the tall, slender Italian right-hander pitched batting practice for the Braves until given his own opportunity. While having a short baseball career, Blanche […]

Ask the average major-leaguer if there was a particular at-bat when it all started to click for him and he’d probably be hard-pressed to come up with the answer. Bob Bailey, on the other hand, would be able to tell you the date, the location, the inning, the pitcher, the pitch, and even the Canadian […]

Alonzo Perry had a successful Negro League career primarily as a pitcher but also as a first baseman and outfielder, and even pitched in the last Negro League World Series. Although he had two brief stints in the minor leagues, he became a baseball star in Latin America while playing in the Dominican Republic and […]

Robert Francis “Bob” McKinney, best known as a member of the 1901 Philadelphia Athletics during the inaugural season of the American League, was born on October 4, 1875, in McSherrystown, Pennsylvania. His father, Joseph Gregory McKinney, was of Irish descent and served in the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil War. After the war McKinney […]

The St. Louis Cardinals’ chances of making the 2011 postseason looked bleak in late August. They were 10½ games behind the first-place Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central Division and 9½ games off the wild-card pace on August 28. But the Cardinals went 20-8 down the stretch to edge out the Atlanta Braves for […]

Clint Hurdle was the longest-tenured manager in Colorado Rockies history as the team entered the 2009 season. In 2007 he’d led the franchise, which debuted with major-league baseball’s 1993 expansion, to its greatest success — two series sweeps in the National League playoffs and a World Series matchup in which a not-to-be-denied Boston Red Sox […]

At a time when the St. Louis Browns were sorely lacking for talent and ticket sales, club executives saw a two-in-one solution to address both problems. Three days after drawing a mere 478 fans to Sportsman’s Park for a Monday afternoon game against the Washington Senators,1 the Browns made a surprising announcement on July 17, […]

On a miserably raw Wednesday afternoon in the first full year of the Great Depression, with two second-division ballclubs playing in front of a few thousand fans, a legendary pitching career reached an ignoble end. Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander was on his second stint with the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he’d won 190 games in […]

The Minneapolis Millers of the American Association were the Triple-A minor-league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for two stretches, 1937-38 and 1958-60.1 Ted Williams had won the Triple Crown for the Millers in 1938 and, as it happens, “The Kid” was with the Boston Red Sox from 1939 through 1960, including this game in […]

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 […]