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Andy Reese was a versatile utility player for John McGraw’s New York Giants from 1927 to 1930, and he was a star of the Memphis Chickasaws of the Southern Association from 1931 to 1939. He is the “hit king” of the Southern Association: His 1,642 hits were more than any other player achieved in the […]

“[He] is what every boy wants to become and every mother dreams their daughter will bring home,” gushed sportswriter Phil Musick. “Tall, blond, handsome. Bright, articulate and personable. … He is Everyman’s vision of himself if he had been a little stronger, taller, handsomer, luckier, whatever.”1 Add to that list big-league pitcher and surgeon, too. […]

Ask American sports fans about Al Unser, and they’ll probably think of the four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 or his son Al Jr., who won twice in his own right. Yet decades before, another Al Unser – no kin to the race car drivers – played parts of four seasons in the major leagues […]

Archibald “Moonlight” Graham played in only one major league game in his life, and never got a chance to bat. In the movie Field of Dreams, the fictional Moonlight Graham gets a second chance on the mythical Field of Dreams, pinch-hitting and knocking in a run with a sacrifice fly. But for Jack Feller and […]

“For a man who wants to stay in baseball, being a utilityman is the best training he can get. Much better than being a regular. The fellow who’s on the bench, if he applies himself, has an opportunity to study every facet of the game, and to learn more about it than the regular.”1 That […]

During a relatively brief 1880s professional career, pitcher John Fox manned the box for four different major league clubs. Except for catcher, the versatile right-hander also handled every other position on the diamond — a significant capability during an era of limited player rosters. Notwithstanding that, Fox seldom lasted long with the teams that engaged […]

A live bat, good speed, and a solid work ethic should have afforded a substantial major-league career to the World War I-era outfielder who played under the name Jim Kelly. But Kelly was handicapped by a belated start in professional baseball and owed his relatively brief tenure as a big leaguer to forces far larger […]

Texan lefthander Cliff Hill overcame family tragedy to become a stalwart minor league starter from the late 1910s into the early 1920s. He once won 14 straight games, as well as a 20-inning complete game. Hill pitched in one game in the major leagues, for the cellar-dwelling Philadelphia A’s of 1917. Clifford Joseph Hill was […]

Many famous major-league players had their careers interrupted by military service in World War II, and we wonder what records men like Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Pee Wee Reese, Hank Greenberg, and others might have achieved if it hadn’t been for those lost years. Furthermore, a large group of younger men […]

Who was Andy Rudolph? Not much more than an especially rabid fan, really. Or so everyone thought until this fixture at early twentieth-century Detroit baseball games suddenly wasn’t there any longer. Then people realized local games would never be quite the same without him. Little is known about Andrew Rudolph’s early life. His obituaries indicated […]

“If you can’t get fundamentals down for Hal Lanier, you cannot play for Hal Lanier,” declared the native Floridian about his managerial philosophy, nearly a half-century since his professional baseball début in 1961.1 Lanier’s emphasis on the foundations of baseball characterized his longevity as a helmsman and, for 10 seasons, a major league ballplayer. To […]

Eddie Dyer was one of the “Rickey men” who built baseball’s first farm system. He managed the St. Louis Cardinals to their last World Series championship of the Branch Rickey era. Edwin Hawley Dyer was born October 11, 1899, in Morgan City, Louisiana, the fourth of seven children of Joseph M. and Alice Natalie Dyer. […]

Few have eclipsed Lefty O’Doul as a baseball legend in San Francisco. He was known first as a pitcher and then as one of the game’s best hitters. Later, he managed the local Seals club for 17 years. He was always readily identifiable for his attire and was nicknamed “The Man in the Green Suit” […]

Right-hander Claral Gillenwater spent most of the 1920s pitching in mid-level minor leagues without much sustained success. His brief major-league career was no different. Given a late-season tryout by the Chicago White Sox in 1923, Gillenwater lasted barely three weeks on the roster. But before he was released, Gillenwater managed a performance of true artistry: […]

As the Chicago White Sox took the field at Cleveland Stadium on the night of September 22, 1959, the city of Chicago was bracing for a celebration. A victory over the Cleveland Indians would clinch the American League pennant for the White Sox—the first AL crown for the Sox since 1919. That 1919 league championship […]

The New York Mets came into the 2000 National League Championship Series against St. Louis facing a number of challenges. For one, the Cardinals had had an easier time in their best-of-five division series, against Atlanta, than the Mets had against San Francisco. Despite pitcher Rick Ankiel‘s meltdown as the St. Louis starter in Game […]

On June 27, 2024, the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers traveled to Baltimore for a four-game series with the Orioles. It marked the first time the two teams had faced each other since the Rangers swept the Orioles in the 2023 American League Division Series. The home team responded with retribution, winning the first […]

Oakland A’s pitcher Mike Warren showed great promise in his major-league debut season in 1983. The 22-year-old won his last four starts of the season, highlighted by a no-hitter against the American League West Division champion Chicago White Sox on September 29 at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. His performance put him on the path to become […]

A midweek crowd of 15,992 came to Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on May 15, 1991, to watch the Minnesota Twins play the Milwaukee Brewers. They saw Twin Cities native Paul Molitor – a high-school star in nearby St. Paul and a college All-American at the University of Minnesota – almost single-handedly spark the Brewers to […]

“This has a special place right up there with the fifth one because it comes so late in my career,” said Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers after tossing his sixth career no-hitter.1 At 43 years of age, Ryan became the oldest pitcher to hurl a no-hitter and the first to fire one with three […]

The Toronto Blue Jays arrived in Milwaukee for a four-game weekend series at County Stadium on a high note. A so-so 3-3 homestand for the Blue Jays had still allowed them to pull clear of the slumping Brewers to claim second place in the American League East, where they trailed the leading Boston Red Sox […]

Future Hall of Famer Lefty Grove was coming off a 1928 season with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics in which he was 24-8, leading the American League in victories. He had a 2.58 earned-run average and struck out a league-leading 183 batters. His 2.86 strikeouts-to-walks ratio led the major leagues. He was the starting pitcher for […]

Monday, August 10, may well have been the most important day of the entire 1981 baseball season. This was the day that regular season play would resume after a two-month players strike had wiped out more than one-third of the schedule. Furthermore, in Philadelphia that night, Pete Rose would become the all-time National League hits […]

In 1975 Dave Parker became the Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting right fielder and began a half-decade reign as baseball’s best outfielder. His loudest declaration of onrushing superstardom came on May 9 against the defending National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers, when he bashed out run-producing extra-base hits in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings and drove […]