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Matt “The Scat” Alexander holds an odd distinction: He is the foremost pinch-running specialist in major-league history. Over parts of nine seasons (1973-81), he played in 374 games — yet amassed only 195 plate appearances. A favorite of manager Chuck Tanner, Alexander won a World Series ring with the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. Along with his […]

Frank Aloysius McCue had his cup of coffee in the majors, but his baseball life was more illustrative of the hopefuls who struggled in the bushes for years without much more than a sip. McCue’s statistical record is somewhat incomplete, but the infielder kept returning to the Class B leagues. In the nine seasons from […]

Dubbed the “Volga Batman” for his Russian heritage, Mike Chartak seemingly possessed the tools for a long and illustrious career. “He can hit the ball as far as Ruth … [and] has the Jimmy Foxx stride … [the] Joe DiMaggio swing.” But despite such lofty observations by The Sporting News, Chartak managed just four years […]

World Series, 1965. Fetal position, 1989. Alcohol along the way.”1 The words seemingly capture the heights climbed and depths plunged in the life and career of Nick Willhite. Addiction not only ruined the budding baseball career of the once-promising left-handed hurler in the Los Angeles Dodgers pipeline, but everything in its wake as Willhite was […]

It was Game Six of the 1964 World Series. The Mayor and the town Treasurer of Alba, Missouri were relaxing in box seats behind the St. Louis Cardinal’s dugout at Busch Stadium. Both His Honor and the Treasurer enjoyed a singular advantage over all of the other spectators in the ballpark on this autumn day. […]

“There was no better teammate. … He’ll do anything to win.” – James “Cool Papa” Bell1   When legendary pitcher Satchel Paige became the first to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 based on his Negro League accomplishments, he told Afro-American reporter Sam Lacy that he thought there were others […]

A big-league career is often a product of fate, luck, and timing.  Bob Keely would attest to that.  In 1944 the St. Louis Cardinals signed the 34-year-old sandlot star as a third-string catcher. Six months later, Keely was a world champion. Keely was originally signed by the Redbirds in 1936, but a knee injury ended […]

Sandy Nava, the first Mexican-American in major-league history, was quite a bit younger when he entered the major leagues than the encyclopedias indicate, ten years in fact. He was actually 22 years old at the time of his debut with the Providence Grays, as a backup catcher for Monte Ward and Hoss Radbourn in 1882. […]

He was a Furman University pitching ace who rocketed from college state championship to the majors in three months. He was a fellow 1907 Washington Senators rookie pitcher with, and first major league road roommate of, Walter Johnson. Sam Lanford was even spoken of in the same conversation as Shoeless Joe Jackson as among the […]

Hunky Shaw’s major-league career consisted of one at-bat with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1908. Though barely a blip on the national radar, his accomplishments in the minor leagues of the Pacific Northwest made him a local legend. He won the Pacific Coast League batting title in 1910 and helped bring professional baseball to Yakima, Washington, […]

Was the Federal League of 1914 and 1915 a major league? If you answer “yes” to this question, Art Queisser was a major-league umpire, by virtue of having worked a four-game FL series between the St. Louis Terriers and Kansas City Packers from September 2 through 4, 1914. Queisser’s stint as an umpire capped his […]

Gifted with intellect, musical acumen, and athletic ability, Deadball Era pitcher Eddie Higgins deferred a life in dentistry for the opportunity to play professional baseball. Though he pitched in just 18 big-league games in 1909 and 1910, and he was just 22 when he made his final appearance at the top level, he enjoyed an […]

Stan Cliburn became a catcher at the Boys Club. Baseball coach J.D. Rushing1 needed one for practice, so he chose the 7-year-old Cliburn and advised, “If you get good at this position, cherish this position, and work hard, you might be a major league baseball player one day.” Cliburn followed Rushing’s advice. In 1980 he […]

Born on Washington’s Birthday in 1874 in Rochester, New York, William Joseph “Bill” Klem became one of the greatest umpires to ever take the field. “I was born of German parents in the Irish section near ‘Dutchtown’ in Rochester, New York,” Klem later said.1 Both father Michael Klimm and mother Elizabeth were from Bavaria. Bill was […]

Midre Cummings is the ninth of 14 major leaguers (as of 2016) from the U.S. Virgin Islands. He may be as close to a complete player as the territory has ever produced. Thus he was saddled with high expectations as a prospect in the early ’90s. But the young Midre displayed only tantalizing glimpses of […]

The frail young boy was undersized for his age and sickly. His doctor recommended outdoor exercise. Although he certainly did not look like an athlete, the lad took up baseball, despite the objections of his overprotective mother. Though smaller than his teammates (as an adult he stood 5-feet-7 and weighed 140 pounds), he developed a […]

Throughout his 12-year major-league career, Ted Sizemore was known for his versatility and competitiveness, as well as for his love of baseball. When he was playing youth sports, some skeptics told him he was too short to be a major leaguer (sources would later claim he was either 5-feet-9”1 or 5-feet-10”; but in high school, […]

Miguel Tejada was the dream. A kid born into extreme poverty in the Dominican Republic – geographically close to the United States and the means to achieve an entirely new life – but, in reality, light-years away. Tejada beat long odds to be plucked from his small town and placed under the bright lights of […]

Retired prematurely at age 25, Salomón Torres reemerged in his 30s as one of baseball’s most durable relief pitchers, including 84 appearances for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2004. On June 12 of that season at Network Associates Coliseum, the Pirates entrusted him with a four-run eighth-inning lead against the Oakland A’s. Torres, however, was ejected […]

Baseball records are often great fun to contemplate. They are also sometimes arbitrary. Take for example Major League Baseball’s 200,000th regular-season game, played in Houston’s Minute Maid Park between the Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros on Saturday, September 24, 2011. 1 Baseball’s 100,000th regular-season game, played on September 6, 1963, between the Senators and Indians,2 […]

With two aces taking the mound, it was a safe prediction that a pitcher would seize the spotlight. But despite the San Diego Padres’ Yu Darvish lasting only three innings and the Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer getting the hook before the end of the fourth, that prediction still came true, thanks to a rookie reliever […]

The Philadelphia Phillies finished 81-80 in 1962, the franchise’s first winning season in nine years, but by June 23, 1963, they were nine games under .500. The ’63 Phillies’ fortunes turned, however, after a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field, highlighted by right fielder Johnny Callison’s hitting and throwing in a 13-4 […]

“It would be so easy to believe, had you not seen it, that there couldn’t possibly be, ever, such a game as this. Having seen it, you know you never had seen one like it before and that you never could forget it. Never as long as you live.” – Frank Graham1   Writing about […]

Opening Day in 1921 for the Negro National League was a momentous occasion. These were not just Opening Days: these were the first games of the league’s second season. The NNL had survived its first season. And like another league that launched in 1920 — the American Professional Football Association, eventually known as the National […]