If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
Unlike most other sports, baseball has no clock, so a team never has to “beat the clock” as well as an opponent. There are very few times when actual minutes are measured instead of outs in baseball. When a relief pitcher is not yet ready to come into a game, a manager will come out […]
Wayne Twitchell was making his first start of the season since having knee surgery.1 His last start had been on September 18, 1973, versus the Chicago Cubs. Twitchell recalled his recovery: “It seems in memory, to be the shortest winter I ever spent. Two months went by, there were no high points, nothing to remember. […]
The Colorado Rockies had played the first six games of their 2002 season on the road, earning only two wins. On April 8, a sellout crowd of 50,392 came through the turnstiles at Coors Field, full of excitement in celebration of the Rockies’ home opener against the Houston Astros. Left-hander Denny Neagle was making his […]
On June 11, 1914, the Federal League’s Indianapolis Hoosiers swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Terrapins and began a winning streak that propelled the team from seventh place to first. The string reached 15 wins on June 24 when star outfielder Benny Kauff and rookie pitcher George Kaiserling sparked Indianapolis past the Kansas City Packers, […]
On February 21, 1945, the major-league baseball All-Star Game for that year was canceled at the “request” of the Office of Defense Transportation.1 World War II was on in earnest in both Europe and the Pacific. The game was to have been held at Boston’s Fenway Park on July 10, 1945.2 The loss of the […]
Hall of Famer Johnny Mize could hit a baseball. Author Joe Posnanski suggests of Mize, “He was Lou Gehrig good. He was Stan Musial good. He was Mel Ott good, Frank Robinson good, Joe DiMaggio good, Albert Pujols good.”1 So good, in fact, that in 1947 with the New York Giants Mize became the only […]
Each baseball season’s early summer games take on a mystical quality in cities that endure longer, darker winters. Near June solstice, night patiently awaits dusk’s extended loitering, humidity is tolerable, and the schedule is still young enough to keep fans of even the most dismal teams buoyant for revelation. Such was the setting on a […]
Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente was no stranger to baseball’s big stage when he was selected for the National League’s starting lineup in the 1961 All-Star Game. He had previously participated as a substitute outfielder with one at-bat in the 1960 All-Star classic and was a key contributor to the Pirates’ dramatic win over the New York […]
Many Atlanta Braves fans were apprehensive as new management rebuilt after a disappointing second half in 2014.1 The front office seemed to be willing to write off at least the 2015 season in anticipation of moving into a new state-of-the art ballpark2 for the 2017 season. General manager John Hart, who replaced Frank Wren on […]
On July 8, 1952, it rained all morning in Philadelphia. It rained the previous night and more rain was predicted for the afternoon. It was not a day for baseball. Commissioner Ford Frick had a dilemma. The 1952 All-Star Game was scheduled for that day. Since the inaugural contest in 1933, no All-Star Game had […]
On a clear, 71-degree October night in the hills above downtown Los Angeles, the Atlanta Braves, one loss from postseason elimination but also one win from forcing a winner-take-all game on their home field, lined up to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Four of the 2013 National League Division Series. The Dodgers’ manager, […]
In the second of a two-game series at Griffith Stadium, Bob Meusel and the Yankees “brought about the downfall of the Nationals”1 with the use of the long ball. Former President Woodrow Wilson “drove out to the game and witnessed the contest from the shelter of his automobile, which was parked near the right field […]
“There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries,” wrote William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. The line, spoken by Brutus, might well have been spoken about Al Weis. The self-described “journeyman ballplayer” […]
“Mothell was the greatest utility man in the game of baseball. He could step in at any position, except pitcher, and you’d never notice that the regular player was missing.” – Cool Papa Bell1 Playing a variety of positions over the years, the versatile Dink Mothell was a member of three Kansas City Monarchs […]
John Mahlon “Jack” Ogden played in the major leagues for fewer than five unremarkable seasons but he left his mark on baseball in other capacities: as the pitcher with the most victories in International League history and as an executive and scout for four decades. In an era when unaffiliated minor-league teams paid their star […]
Had you stopped at the Phillips 66 gas station in Leesburg, Florida sometime in the 1960s or the 1970s, perhaps your gas would have been pumped by former major-league pitcher Frank Barrett. Maybe an oil change? Check your brakes? Maybe you wanted a bite to eat sometime in the middle to late 1950s to the […]
It would have been fun to see Gene Brabender wrestle with Frank Howard: “a polar bear versus a grizzly,” suggested his old teammate, Jim Bouton. At 6 feet, 5 1/2 inches and 225 to 240 pounds, “Bender” gave away roughly two inches and 30-40 pounds to “Hondo.” Yet the big man from Black Earth, Wisconsin, […]
The baseball lifer has been around almost as long as the professional game itself. The lifer profile usually begins with a decent, but rarely superabundant, degree of natural playing ability. Thereafter added to the mix are variables like baseball intelligence, leadership skills, a keen eye for judging talent, perseverance, and the ability to function without […]
Only 20 years old when the Washington Senators broke camp in spring 1914, right-hander Jim Shaw was deemed a can’t-miss pitching prodigy. The youngster had impressed the previous September during a brief late-season audition with the club, and his spring work had left some onlookers near-swooning, with favorable comparison to renowned staff ace Walter Johnson […]
In December 2020, the Negro Leagues were recognized as major leagues. The Amaro family might thus have retroactively become the first to send three generations of players to the top level,1 ahead of the Boones, the Bells, the Hairstons, and the Colemans.2 Their worthy heritage started with their big Cuban patriarch, Santos Amaro, who had […]
The southpaw from Wasseralfingen? The German suburb is now part of the city of Aalen, in the Swabian Mountains, today about an hour’s drive from Baden-Württemberg’s state capital, Stuttgart. That’s where one of the pitchers for the 1902 Boston Americans was born on October 10, 1877. He pitched in only two games, and not that effectively. […]
At the end of the 1972 season, rookie pitcher Steve Lawson’s stat line looked very promising. The Texas Rangers’ left-hander pitched 16 innings in 13 games, struck out 13, and had an ERA of 2.81. Not bad for a 21-year-old on a last-place team. Unfortunately, fate didn’t smile on Lawson and those numbers would remain […]
In 1939, Yankee Stadium hosted the seventh All-Star Game between the American and National Leagues. (SABR-Rucker Archive) The New York Yankees did not have an auspicious beginning as a franchise. Starting as the New York Highlanders, they played their home games at Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan from 1903 to 1912. In 1913 the […]
Twenty-two people, including a couple of new faces, attended the July 16, 2012, Bob Broeg SABR Chapter meeting at The Original Crusoe’s in South St. Louis. Chapter president Norm Richards encouraged those present to keep their SABR membership current. Chapters recently received lists of current and former members. While the Bob Broeg Chapter doesn’t make […]