If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
New Cathedral Cemetery in southwest Baltimore is of some interest to baseball historians because it is the final resting place for six prominent baseball personages. Baseball greats are enshrined at Cooperstown, N.Y., but they do not live there, or die there, or are buried there. Their memorial stones are scattered throughout the nation. Therefore, it […]
Examining the life span of a baseball stadium by profiling its first and last games is an interesting exercise—even more interesting when it becomes a number of different stadiums. This is the case with the Polo Groundses, four or five—depending on how one counts them—samely-named stadiums. Taking a look at ten different games over an […]
Baseball’s 1950s are remembered by different people in different ways: stagnant, brilliant, racist, progressive — it all depends on the perspective of the fan. But one thing is certain and incontrovertible: baseball during the ’50s became a contest of raw power. Sixteen players have hit 500 or more career home runs. Seven of them played […]
Interview with Kevin Gregg conducted by Bill Nowlin on September 8 and 22, 2015. Red Sox Director of Media Relations Kevin Gregg (since 2013) is son of former National League umpire Eric Gregg, who first worked in the majors in 1976 until the umpire strike in 1999. Eric Gregg’s autobiography, Working the Plate, written with […]
DAN SWEENEY WAS A SMALL MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYER Trying to determine who was the smallest player in major league history is a difficult task. In the old days statistics on the height of major league players were usually inaccurate. Of course, Eddie Gaedel, the 3 foot, 7 inch midget who was used in one game […]
“Skip and Pete” — Caray and Van Wieren — broadcast Atlanta Braves games together for 33 years.I first met Skip Caray on a December day in 1975, when he and I were introduced as the new members of the Atlanta Braves broadcast team. Little did we know that it was the beginning of a 33-year […]
Happy Birthday, Mr. K! Royals pitcher Moe Drabowsky presents a birthday cake to Ewing Kauffman as his wife Muriel and ‘Royal Lancer’ Lester Milgram look onwards, September 1969. (Courtesy of the Kansas City Royals) Charles O. Finley never seemed to connect with the people of Kansas City after acquiring ownership of the Athletics in […]
On September 23, 1908, as I wrote in The Unforgettable Season, “the Giants and Cubs played the most celebrated, most widely discussed, most controversial contest in the history of American sports. The game was declared a 1 to 1 tie.” This was, of course, the game of the “Merkle blunder.” As Kurosawa’s film masterpiece Rashomon beautifully illustrated, the same event may be […]
Baseball didn’t just develop into the national pastime in the late 19th century. Baseball also developed into one word at that time from its roots as a two-word phrase. The one-word term “baseball” developed into its compound form from its previous spelling as two separate words, the adjective “base” preceding the noun “ball,” and an […]
Sandy Koufax speaks at the Baseball Writers Association of America dinner in 2014. (Photo: Arturo Pardavila III from Hoboken, New Jersey.) Just two years after Sandy Koufax’s shocking retirement from baseball, the headline in The Sporting News on April 20, 1968, read: “New Koufax? It Could Be Cubs’ Holtzman.”1 “Holtzman is regarded by many […]
In 1902, a 19-year-old, 110-pound Johnny Evers tried out for his home town professional baseball team. Probably smaller than every player in the league and definitely younger than most of the professional players, Evers was given a tryout along with other hopefuls. He was not on the partial Troy roster published in The Sporting News […]
This article was originally published in “The Empire State of Baseball,” the 1989 SABR convention journal (Albany). In 1902, a 19-year-old, 110-pound Johnny Evers tried out for his hometown professional baseball team. Probably smaller than every player in the league and definitely younger than most of the professional players, Evers was given a tryout […]
At the ballpark, when the home team loads the bases, people stand up and cheer. You don’t see many fans slapping their heads, saying, “Rats, now there’s a force at every base. I wish the bases weren’t loaded.” Yet in a surprising number of 1999’s postseason games, the team in the field chose to load […]
The first night game in the history of Organized Baseball took place in Independence, Kansas, on April 28, 1930. The Independence Producers, a Class C team in the Western Association, had installed permanent lights on their field, Producers Park. They played a total of fifty-five night baseball games at home in 1930.1 One part of […]
Editor’s note: All statistics presented below were believed to be correct and up-to-date at the time. Last year’s Journal presented material on batters hit by pitch dating back to 1909. This year we present the other side of the picture, the hurlers who have hit the most batters since 1900. Much of this information is […]
1951 is remembered as the one and only year that the New York Yankees trained in Arizona. When the Yankees ventured west, the Cactus League was in its infancy. Only two teams were training in the Grand Canyon State—the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants had both moved to Arizona in 1947. The Yankees spent […]
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. One of the longest droughts in baseball history came to an end in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918. With that victory, a new age was dawning. One in which even the Chicago Cubs could start […]
A few days before the 1879 season closed, the Chicago Inter Ocean reported the local White Stockings (who would finish fourth in the National League standings) would probably generate $2,000 to $3,000 profit for the season. Pennant-winning Providence would “make a trifle.” Fifth-place Cincinnati was estimated to lose not less than $8,000. First runner-up Boston […]
When you ask a Miami Marlins fan today, “Who is Mr. Marlin?” without hesitation you will get the response, “Jeff Conine,” who starred with the team for eight seasons. However, old-timers, who harken back to the days when minor league baseball ruled Miami, will give you a different answer: Woody Smith, a sure-handed third baseman […]
Michael Kelley played only briefly in one major league season. Despite this lack of major league success he was a highly respected minor league player and manager. However, he found himself in extremely hot water with Organized Baseball for three years, starting in 1905. From being a part of a sham sale of the St. […]