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Dave Roberts stole that base in the ALCS. Doug Mientkiewicz caught the last out of the World Series. Trot Nixon was a perennial Red Sox fan favorite whose dirty uniform symbolized an unrestrained style of play. Nomar Garciaparra’s sweet swing won consecutive batting titles (1999, 2000) and made the Fenway faithful swoon. Super-utility César Crespo, […]

Wilbur Good was a Deadball Era pitcher (5 games) and outfielder who posted pedestrian statistics (.258/.322/.342) in 749 games for six major league clubs. He left the majors as that era ended and became a feared hitter in the minors where he posted a career .335 average while playing into the 1930s. When his playing […]

“He’s wild, his fast ball isn’t fast, his curve ball is just a wrinkle, he gives up a lot of walks, he weakens in the eighth or ninth inning, and we knock him out of the box —but we can’t beat him.  He must live right.”1 So exclaimed Chicago White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes after […]

Second base was a revolving door for the Oakland A’s during their 1972-74 dynasty – the team used 17 players at that position. The closest thing to a regular was steady veteran Dick Green. Though he missed most of 1972 after surgery on a herniated disc in his back, he recovered in time for the […]

At 6-feet-2 and 225 pounds, Jeff Tesreau was big and strong, just the way John McGraw liked his pitchers. With a steady personality and solid work ethic, Tesreau quickly leaped to stardom after developing a devastating spitball, which he threw with the speed of a top fastball. Over the course of his seven-year career he […]

Frankie Frisch, the 35-year-old manager and second baseman of the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals, was an infielder for 19 years, spent 16 years managing NL teams, and put in some time as a broadcaster, all in the National League. His playing and managing exploits won him election to the Hall of Fame. Frank Francis Frisch […]

“As the son of former major league player, manager and [front-office executive Bob Kennedy]…Terry grew up among baseball…and had the privilege of learning about hitting from the likes of Stan Musial and Ted Williams.”1 This privileged education undoubtedly contributed to Terry Kennedy’s selection as the youngest player on the 1976 College All-America baseball team. He […]

Pea Ridge Day was a big, strong Arkansas farmboy. If he hadn’t already had a colorful nickname denoting his hometown, he surely would have been dubbed Rube. Despite his entries in the baseball encyclopedias, Clyde Day wasn’t born in Pea Ridge, or Arkansas for that matter. Day grew up in Pea Ridge, though, and brought […]

On May 6, 1887, the American Cornet Band led a parade down the streets of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, to Recreation Park, home of the Alleghenies ball club of the National League.1 Two teams, neither of which belonged to the Senior Circuit, took the diamond that day. The Pittsburgh Keystones—a squad entirely made up of Black […]

Chris Von der Ahe, owner of the St. Louis Browns in 1892, was known for his irrational and confrontational behavior. Rookie Frank Genins had a puzzling run-in with Von der Ahe to start his career. According to a 1913 Baseball Magazine article by William A. Phelon, Genins was acquired from Omaha over the winter, but […]

Juan Pizarro was a talented, durable Puerto Rican pitcher. The lefty pitched in all or part of 18 major-league seasons, starting as a rookie with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. The Braves rushed him to the big club after one eye-opening season in Class A, yet their very deep pitching staff limited Pizarro’s opportunities. He did […]

There have been few shorter major league careers, but minor league lifers would surrender a fortune to have had Walt Kellner’s cup-of-coffee experience. Kellner’s short stay in the majors was preceded by boundless expectations appended to the hard-throwing right-handed hurler. Most of those forecasts were rose-colored projections based on the 1949 rookie success of Walt’s […]

Was it nature or nurture? Plenty of both figured in the life of Milton Joseph Bolling III, a former Red Sox shortstop who spent 43 years with the organization. He was born on August 9, 1930, in Mississippi City, Mississippi, while his parents were on vacation; but he grew up in a baseball town – […]

Right-hander Chuck Rainey was a first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox, the 19th pick overall in the January 1974 draft. A little more than five years later, he broke into the big leagues with Boston, pitching for the Red Sox, Cubs, and Oakland Athletics in a major-league career that lasted six seasons. Red […]

Javier Torres “Javy” Lopez was born on November 5, 1970, in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Lopez was a right-handed-hitting catcher who played for the Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, and Boston Red Sox over his 15-year major-league career, though he is primarily known for his time with the Braves. Lopez was a three-time All-Star […]

Dee Moore’s major-league career consisted of less than 100 games with three teams, spread over four seasons spanning 11 years. A career .232 hitter, he was characterized not by his ability but by his versatility. During his 98 major-league games, Moore pinch-hit, played left field, first base, and third base, and pitched and caught. Other […]

Selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the second round of the 1983 MLB amateur draft, Bob Milacki garnered little attention with a pedestrian record of 16-21, 3.79 in his first 290 innings in the minor leagues. “I’d been in the organization [three] years and never impressed anybody,” the right-hander later acknowledged.1 In 1988, as the […]

Herb Welch played in almost 1,000 games in the minor leagues, but his time in the majors was limited to 13 games in 1925 for the Boston Red Sox. Welch was a shortstop and committed eight errors in the 13 games, which likely doomed his chances for further work at the big-league level despite a […]

Charlie Small’s time in the major leagues consisted of 22 times he was asked to pinch-hit, twice he was asked to pinch-run, and once he was asked to play center field. He wasn’t particularly successful hitting–he sacrificed twice, walked twice, and hit safely three times in 18 at-bats. One of the hits was for extra […]

Right after the Shibe Park public address system announced, “Now batting for the Philadelphia Phillies, number 14, Del Ennis, left field,” either Gene Kelly or later Byrum Saam — both of whom did radio play-by-play for the Phillies — would say, “It’s Ding Dong Del” or “Here comes Ennis the Menace.” The radio listener could […]

After outscoring the New York Yankees 12-6 to take two of the first three games of the 1951 World Series, the New York Giants’ offense dried up after a rainy Sunday led to Game Four’s postponement. As historian Frank Graham observed, “it rained and it was as if the rain cooled the Giants off, for […]

It’s unlikely that any of the 16,936 fans attending a mid-August night game in 1960 between the visiting San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals would have guessed they were witnessing the two winningest pitchers of the new decade, facing each other for the first time in their careers.1 Juan Marichal, San Francisco’s 22-year-old […]

On September 3, 1985, 21-year-old righthander Troy Evers capped a dominant season in fitting style, pitching a postseason no-hitter in the Class A New York-Penn League. Evers’ 2-0 no-no enabled the Oneonta (New York) Yankees to eliminate the Geneva (New York) Cubs in the first round of the league playoffs, sending Oneonta to the championship […]

The New York Yankees had every reason to feel confident. They had won three consecutive World Series championships, 1949-51. When they arrived for a five-game series, July 25-28, 1952, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, they were again in first place in the American League. And they had won eight of their last 10 games against […]