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Without his unforgettable name, Eppa Rixey might be one of the more forgotten members of the Hall of Fame. His 266-251 won-lost record doesn’t stand out, yet his win total stood as the National League record for left-handers until Warren Spahn surpassed it in 1959. Rixey greeted the moment with characteristic humor, saying he was […]

In the American criminal justice system, and under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, a person accused of a crime is considered innocent until proved guilty. But often the mere fact that he is accused can deprive him of his chosen profession and forever alter his life. So it was with Jesse Levis. A […]

The Mick Each scout is typically associated with his top signee, that marquee player no one else took note of but him. For Tom Greenwade that player was Mickey Mantle. How the two became forever linked has been retold many times, but the most accurate recollection can be found in an October 1952 letter from […]

Three months removed from high school, hard-throwing right-hander Joe Coleman burst on the national scene by tossing a four-hit complete-game victory in his debut with the Washington Senators in 1965. Among the most durable pitchers of his day, Coleman averaged 15 wins and 252 innings over an eight-year span (1968-1975) for the Senators and Detroit […]

Burt Hooton is one of a few quality pitchers who parlayed the use of a devastating signature pitch into a long and effective major league career. Hurlers who relied on a distinctive pitch include Christy Mathewson (“fadeaway”); Carl Hubbell (screwball); Roy Face (forkball); Mariano Rivera (cutter); and Hooton, who baffled big league hitters with a […]

Suggest today to Costen Shockley that judging by the newspaper headlines of 50 years ago he must have been quite a high-school baseball player, and he replies with a prideful chuckle that conveys barely a trace of conceit, “Yeah, I was pretty good.” Indeed he must have been. After dominating on the baseball diamond for […]

A preview of the pitching staff of the 1902 Chicago White Sox included a brief profile of right-hander “John Katoll, known to his teammates as ‘Big Jack’ … a blacksmith from Detroit … who has been a steady and reliable man if not brilliant in his work. He has great speed with fair control, and […]

Catcher Dave Criscione spent one month with the Baltimore Orioles in the summer of 1977. Though he appeared in just seven games, he made the most of them, receiving three standing ovations in one and connecting for a game-ending home run in another. David Gerald Criscione (pronounced KRUH-shone) was born on September 2, 1951, in […]

A Gold Glove shortstop but perennial weak hitter, Edwin Albert Brinkman played 15 seasons in the majors, the first 10 of them with the expansion Washington Senators. Traded to Detroit in October 1970 in the infamous Denny McLain deal, he led the Tigers to a division title and was voted Tiger of the Year in […]

According to his obituary in 1891, Bill Crowley was “at one time, one of the best ball players that donned a uniform.”1 A 5-foot-7, 159-pound right-handed outfielder, Crowley often played bigger than his size, and was considered one of the heaviest and hardest hitters of his time.2 Crowley was known primarily for his defensive prowess, […]

The obituary published in The Sporting News when Gene Moore died centered on his having made his only World Series appearance because of “a weird circumstance.”1  Although accurate, the article overlooked the fact that Moore was a player of All-Star caliber, the type of player any manager would want on his team.  Statistics did not […]

Baseball suffered during the depression years of the 1930s and was further affected by the player shortage during World War II. The war ended and veterans returned to a free country with a robust economy. Peace and prosperity meant it was time to fill rosters and take in a game. Joe Mayer was a young […]

Given future Hall of Famer Ray Schalk’s mastery of the catcher’s position with the Chicago White Sox for nearly two decades, Byrd Lynn had little chance to land the starting job during his short major-league career. His prospects likely became even slimmer once the 1919 Black Sox Scandal episode went public. Although no evidence has […]

“He scares you to death. He’s scowling and gnashing his teeth, and if you try to dig in on him, there goes your Adam’s apple. He’s gonna win if it kills you and him both.” So the Cincinnati Reds’ Danny Litwhiler described the unnerving experience of batting against Sal Maglie. Between 1950 and 1956 Maglie […]

Curt Simmons left the visiting dugout and was moving through the bowels of Yankee Stadium toward the visitors’ locker room when a roar erupted from the Yankee Stadium crowd. Simmons knew the third game of the 1964 World Series was over, but he had given the St. Louis Cardinals eight solid innings, allowing only four […]

There have been many brother combinations in baseball, including the Nixons (Otis and Donell), the Fords (Gene and Russ), the Sherlocks (Monk and Vince), and the Moriartys (Bill and George). Rene Lachemann was part of a rare brother combination (with his brother Marcel) that both played and managed in the majors.1 Rene Lachemann was born […]

José Antonio Zardón Sánchez played just 54 games in the majors during a single season, 1945. However, his career also took him to Venezuela and Mexico, in addition to 11 years in the US minor leagues (1944-54) and five seasons of winter ball in his homeland. The outfielder was known most for his speed and […]

Eight major-leaguers died while serving in World War I.1 The third of these casualties, Eddie Grant, had the longest playing career and is also well remembered because he received a plaque in center field at the Polo Grounds. The shortest career on this list belonged to Alexander Thomson Burr, a pitcher who played just one […]

The New Bedford, Massachusetts, area is home to one of the largest Portuguese-American communities in the United States. Known as the Whaling City due to its pre-eminence as a whaling port during the nineteenth century, New Bedford attracted many immigrants from Portugal and its dependent territories to work in the whaling industry and later to […]

“I’m not a strikeout pitcher,” said rookie right-hander Bill Gullickson of the Montreal Expos after he whiffed 18 Chicago Cubs in a dominant complete-game victory, 4-2, to establish a new record for most strikeouts by a rookie (since broken by the Cubs’ Kerry Wood in 1998).1 “He was just awesome,” said his batterymate, Gary Carter, […]

The play sparked immediate controversy and remains one of the enduring questions in World Series history. Did Sam Rice catch Earl Smith’s deep fly while falling into the stands to preserve the Washington Senators’ 4-3 victory in Game Three of the 1925 World Series? Sportswriter Chester L. Smith described Rice’s feat as “one of the […]

The Yankees and Dodgers have met more times in the World Series than any other pairing in postseason history.1 This World Series rivalry is punctuated by moments that have become as much a part of baseball history as the games themselves. Two of the plays in the historic 1955 World Series are recalled. Jackie Robinson […]

Nearly a half-century after its publication, one does not encounter much negative criticism of Ball Four, Jim Bouton’s 1970 journal mainly recounting his previous season pitching in the major leagues. A best-seller at the time of its publication, the book fundamentally changed sports literature and journalism, and the way we view our sports heroes. In […]

Pitcher Gordon Zabasky winds up on the mound at Montgomery Field, April 1957, in Carlsbad, New Mexico.   In the spring of 1984, the decaying remains of Montgomery Field – a former minor-league ballpark in Carlsbad, New Mexico – were removed to make way for a multi-field youth soccer complex.1 It symbolized the way America’s […]