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In 1913 baseball’s popularity was unchallenged in America. It seemed as if every town had multiple amateur and semipro teams vying for local bragging rights. Given that baseball was a segregated sport at the time, it is a wonder that a professional, independent Black team like the Schenectady Colored Mohawk Giants would thrive in an […]
Babe Ruth was hammering the final stamp onto one of baseball’s most remarkable seasons but hardly anyone was paying attention. The newspaper headlines on September 29, 1920, trumpeted the indictment of eight Chicago White Sox players on charges of conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. Even in the New York Times the scandal was […]
As they made their way down I-94 to Comiskey Park for this Monday night game, the 12-0 Milwaukee Brewers and their fans were in a celebratory mood after their dramatic win on Sunday against the Texas Rangers at Milwaukee County Stadium. Yes, they were still one game shy of tying the major-league record set by […]
“It was not a contest to contribute to the peace of mind and self-approval of pitchers.”1 In a game featuring an absence of pitching talent by the home team in the ninth inning, the New York Giants came from behind, scoring nine runs on 11 hits, nine of them in a row, in their last […]
Major League Baseball introduced the wild card with the hope of allowing more teams to compete for a playoff spot and therefore sustain fan interest.1 That goal was succeeding in spades in 2003, during one of the wildest of wild-card races in baseball history; as eight National League teams were within three games of each […]
On Independence Day of 1833, two groups of town ball players from Philadelphia met in Camden, New Jersey.1 One group was a loose collection of friends who had been playing together in Camden for two years. The other, bearing the classical name Olympic, was formed to hold Fourth of July games. The 1833 game was […]
In 1946, 11 years after the Cincinnati Reds had hosted the first night game in major-league history, the Boston Braves and New York Yankees installed lights in their home ballparks. Just three teams would continue to play all of their home games during the day that season: the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago […]
“Dukes can be the proverbial five-tool player. His swing is … I daresay, kind of like Albert Pujols.” – Joe Maddon, who managed Dukes in 2007 with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays1 “He will snap in a minute.” – Richie Hebner, who coached Dukes in 2006 with the Durham Bulls2 Hillsborough County in Florida’s […]
Canadian Rhéal Cormier had two distinct major-league careers. Through most of the 1990s he was a middle-of-the-rotation starter for the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos. After Tommy John surgery, however, he reinvented himself as a successful late-inning, short stint, relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds. Along the way […]
Hank Behrman was a minor contributor to the golden age of baseball in Brooklyn. His career was all promise and little delivery. Yet the five-feet-eleven, 174-pound right-hander did have one sterling season for the Dodgers. In 1946, his rookie campaign, he appeared in forty-seven games and posted an 11-5 record with a sparkling 2.93 ERA. […]
In a major-league playing career that lasted only seven seasons, Bill Lange made an indelible impression on those who saw him in action. A star outfielder on the also-ran Chicago Colts of the 1890s, Lange could do it all: run, throw, field, hit for average, and hit for power by the standards of his time. […]
Pitcher Jim Hannan appeared in 276 major-league games as a starter and reliever from 1962 through 1971, winning 41 of his 89 decisions. During both his playing days and post-playing days, he participated in and had an impact on several historic baseball moments. On the field, he was a senior member of the Washington Senators […]
In the early 21st century, Jerry DaVanon is probably best known as the father of eight-season big leaguer Jeff DaVanon, but he played as many years in the majors himself, starting in 1969. In contrast to his son, who played somewhat regularly for four years, Jerry appeared in just 262 games at the top level, […]
Over the years, the Boston Red Sox have featured a number of philosophers or other intellectuals among their ranks. They’ve had Aristotle, Archimedes, Beckett, Cicero, Dante, Darwin, Emerson, Euclides, Godwin, Jonson, Hobson, Pascal, and Webster.1 They also had someone who might have been confused with Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of Beyond Good and Evil: an […]
The year 1959 was Jerry Mallett’s best year in baseball. He had his best year in minor-league baseball and he also had the opportunity to play four games of major-league ball for the Boston Red Sox. Mallett later earned a doctorate and became a successful educator and school administrator, and worked his way up to […]
“And in no field of American endeavor is invention more rampant than in baseball, whose whole history is a lie from beginning to end. … The game’s epic feats and revered figures … all of it is bunk, tossed up with a wink and a nudge.” — John Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden […]
Central Indiana proved a fertile spawning ground for late-nineteenth-century baseball talent. Among those from the region making their mark in the game were future Hall of Famers Amos Rusie and Sam Thompson. Soon thereafter, early Deadball Era standouts, including Cooperstown-bound Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown and 204-game winner Al Orth, joined their ranks. The subject of […]
In real estate the mantra is “Location, location, location.” The same can be true in baseball. Take the case of catcher Mike Hopkins. He lived in the Carnegie district of Pittsburgh and played for one of the local semi-pro teams, McCarthys. Honus Wagner also lived in Carnegie and when word came out that Jack O’Connor […]
Few if any baseball men have worked harder for longer than Mel Didier. He pitched just two years in Class D, but he spent more than 60 years in professional baseball as a scout and executive. As former Los Angeles Dodgers GM Fred Claire said, “I don’t know of anyone who has been in more […]
Mention the corner of Michigan and Trumbull to baseball fans in the Motor City, and they will immediately think of Tiger Stadium. While it is true that the Detroit Tigers played in that storied park, at that location, from 1912 to 1999, the history of professional baseball at “The Corner” actually dates back to 1896. […]
On Monday, March 18, 2024, at the Spaghetti Western Italian Restaurant, thirty-nine members and guests of the Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston met in-person or via Zoom for the February Larry Dierker SABR chapter meeting. For those who were not able to attend our March 18 chapter meeting, a recording can be found on the […]
The first Larry Dierker Chapter in-person meeting of 2024 was a great time for all in attendance. On Monday, February 19, 2024, at the Spaghetti Western Italian Restaurant, thirty-five chapter members and guests met in-person or via Zoom for the February Larry Dierker SABR chapter meeting. Chapter President Joe Thompson welcomed the nine new members […]