If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
This article appears in SABR’s “Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox” (2019), edited by Don Zminda. As a franchise, the Chicago White Sox have had a colorful history. With all the organization has endured over the years, some may consider them the most literary of professional baseball teams. Great 20th century writers […]
Bob Feller was a 35-year-old veteran of 15 major-league seasons in 1954 when the Cleveland Indians won 111 games and swept to the American League pennant by eight games over the New York Yankees. His fastball had lost a good deal of its luster and manager Al Lopez had reportedly wanted to release him during […]
Willie Murphy was a left-handed hitting outfielder who had an eight-year career in professional baseball, playing one year in the major leagues. In addition to playing with the Cleveland National League club and Washington in the American Association in 1884, early sources (The Baseball Encyclopedia, 7th Edition, Macmillan Publishing Company) indicated that he also played […]
Montana’s Moonlight Graham, Wyman Andrus appeared in a single game at third base for the 1885 Providence Grays. His post-playing days, however, were spent as a distinguished leader of medicine and politics in an old west cattle town. William Wyman Andrus was born October 14, 1858, in the village of Orono, Ontario, Canada. He was […]
When life is over, there are so many places not visited, so many books never read, so much left undone. With John Pardon it was so many people he never had the chance to meet. Born on January 30, 1938, on Long Island, John F. Pardon was the only child of Francis C. Pardon Jr. […]
He was being compared to Eddie Stanky, because of his short, stocky, build. But he also played the game with a reckless abandon like Stanky, and was given the moniker “Scrappy Jack.” He was also referred to as the “The Hammer,” if for no other reason than it was an abbreviation of his surname. But […]
Given the offensive firepower of the Big Red Machine, it is quite easy to overlook the contributions of the pitching staff to the franchise’s success and its two World Series banners. Clearly, a run-scoring powerhouse that featured talents like Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez often simply pummeled divisional, National League, and […]
The pride of Brighton High School, Walter Lonergan played in semipro and company team baseball in the Greater Boston area for several years. In September 1907, Lonergan was the shortstop and captain of the Boston Globe baseball team, which won the “printer’s championship of the world” at a tournament in New York. That resulted in […]
It was a dream come true for 23-year-old Stan Jefferson when he led off against San Diego lefty Dave LaPoint in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium on Sunday, September 7, 1986. He grew up in the Bronx, had been the Mets’ first-round choice in the 1983 amateur draft, and had just […]
Cliff Heathcote spent 14 of the 40 years of his life in the major leagues, and is largely remembered as half of one of the more memorable trades in baseball history; He was swapped for Max Flack between games of a 1922 doubleheader between the Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. That sliver of memory […]
Right-handed pitcher Roy Wilkinson reached the pinnacle of his modest baseball career in only his second major-league game. A capable seven-year minor-league veteran, Wilkinson had been acquired by the Chicago White Sox late in the 1919 pennant chase to provide some respite for a strained pitching corps. Given a September start against the Philadelphia A’s, […]
Right-handed pitcher Cory Bailey was a 15th-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 1991 at the age of 20. His lengthy career ran through 2008 and featured stints in both the American League and National League, as well as Japan’s Central League, Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, and Venezuela’s winter league. In the […]
John Donahue played 1,176 known minor-league games from 1914 to 1927. His only time playing in the majors saw him get into just 10 games as a right fielder for the Boston Red Sox at the tail end of their last-place 1923 season. He was one of just 22 Red Sox players, as of 2014, […]
The last home game of the 1952 season at Braves Field was played before 8,882 fans and nearly 32,000 empty seats on a Sunday afternoon in late September. Under the circumstances, this wasn’t much of a surprise. There are plenty of numbers one can use to describe the ’52 Braves, most of them bad. Boston’s […]
It was a battle for fourth place in the NL East – not the most coveted prize. The Cardinals held a half-game lead over the Phillies. St. Louis’s record was 36-33, Philadelphia’s 38-36. To arrive at a similar, middling place, though, the teams took different paths. The Phillies started well. They had winning streaks of […]
On June 29, 1990, Toronto baseball fans got to witness a bit of history when Dave Stewart of the Oakland A’s threw a no-hitter at SkyDome, beating the Blue Jays 5-0. It was the first major-league no-hitter thrown in Toronto. However, it wasn’t the first professional no-hitter thrown in the city, which has a rich […]
Four thousand fans arrived at Maryland Park on Sunday, August 3, 1924, for a doubleheader between the hometown Baltimore Black Sox and the visiting Brooklyn Royal Giants. The Black Sox were in third place in the eight-team Eastern Colored League (ECL) with a 22-16 record, and the Royal Giants were in sixth place with an […]
The Cubs were playing mostly for pride in Game Four of the 2017 NLCS, the pride of defending world champions not wanting to surrender the pennant without a fight. But they were also playing for plausibility: to nudge the idea of a series comeback back into the realm of the possible. A win would leave […]
The New York City subway system, established in 1904, brings millions of people each day to their respective destinations. New Yorkers are much more dependent on public transportation than residents of other cities. Ballparks including Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Yankee Stadium, and Citi Field were located close to subway stations. The term “Subway Series” […]
A week before the 1999 spring-training season was to begin, Mike Lowell, who just been traded to the Florida Marlins by the Yankees, was diagnosed with testicular cancer. While undergoing treatment, Lowell missed the first two months of the season, but when he returned to the field, he put together a solid campaign, hitting .253 […]
Pedro Guerrero was hitless in 11 consecutive at-bats. In a 162-game season, three games without hitting safely is not atypical, but Guerrero was wrapping up an exceptional month, already having hit 14 home runs, one short of the National League record for June. Entering the final day of the month, the Los Angeles Dodgers trailed […]
The Chicago White Sox were scheduled to open their season on Thursday, April 6, 1972, in Comiskey Park, hosting the Oakland Athletics. Midway Airport reported winds ranging from 9 to 23 mph that day, with some traces of fog, a bit of rain (0.02”), and some thunder, following the 5:25 A.M. sunrise.1 Not that it […]
Baseball fans, tune in this season to SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a new weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer. SABRcast will feature insights and analysis of what’s happening in modern baseball on and off the field, plus compelling interviews with figures from around the game — and music from […]