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Jim Leyland spent more than two decades in professional baseball as a minor-league catcher and manager and major-league third-base coach before getting his first big-league managing job with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986. In the third game of a career that spanned 22 seasons and resulted in his 2024 selection for the National Baseball Hall […]

After three seasons as a Cleveland Indians coach, former big-league catcher Wally Schang was looking for a challenge. It had been almost eight years since his last major-league game, and he was itching to get back into active duty.1 The 49-year-old Schang made an unorthodox move. He signed on to become the player-manager of the […]

Written in blue ink on his minor-league questionnaire was Wayne Granger’s ambition in baseball: “To be a steady starter in [the] major leagues.”1 In a major-league career that spanned nine seasons and seven teams, the right-hander never started a game. But his sinkerball and lanky, 6-foot-2 build helped Granger become the model of durability as […]

Chris Welsh was a prodigal son who returned as a journeyman southpaw pitcher for his hometown club. When his days on the mound ended, he ventured into the booth and gradually transformed himself into a broadcast fixture in Cincinnati. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, on April 14, 1955, Welsh was the third of four children and […]

Despite three separate injuries that cut three years out of his professional baseball career, pitcher Stan Spencer persevered, making it to the majors for 23 games from 1998 through 2000. His best friend growing up, Tom Mattice, saw this quality at a young age, writing in his high school senior tribute, “Stan…proved to me that […]

Red Barber described how Graham McNamee helped break the ground for him and other great baseball voices, starting in the early 1920s. “There was no lamp of experience for the pioneer broadcasters. They had no past by which to judge the future. This is what made McNamee and the others so great. Nobody had ever […]

There may have never been a more prepared baseball player to enter the professional ranks than Will Clark. He had participated in World Series competition at the Babe Ruth, American Legion, and Division I College levels, as well as the Olympics. During his first five major-league seasons starting in 1986, he helped restore the San […]

Picture this: You are standing in a dugout in St Louis. It is the seventh game of the World Series. The team you have managed for most of the year is nursing a 3-2 lead over the home Cardinals as you enter the bottom half of the sixth inning. Your ace pitcher, the eventual Cy […]

At the baseball field in Memorial Park, in Middletown, Maryland, a rural community about fifty miles northwest of Washington, D.C., stands a monument that townspeople erected in honor of Charlie Keller. It’s a bronze plaque affixed atop a waist-high, circular concrete pillar. Beneath a raised profile of Keller is a legend: “Charlie Keller … Middletown’s […]

The stage was the fifth game of the World Series, on October 15, 1970. The Baltimore Orioles had taken a three games to one Series lead over the Cincinnati Reds. Brooks Robinson had already delivered a game-winning home run in the opener, robbed Tony Perez and Johnny Bench of base hits with a pair of […]

Luis Clemente Tiant y Vega, a charismatic right-handed pitcher whom Reggie Jackson called “the Fred Astaire of baseball,” won 229 games over parts of 19 seasons in the major leagues.1 His midcareer comeback, dramatic family reunion, and World Series heroics inspired a region, likely leaving him one of the most beloved men ever to play […]

A child approached Baltimore Oriole third baseman Brooks Robinson seeking more than an autograph. The bold youngster peppered the Hall of Famer for fielding tips as well. “Keep [your] glove down, near the dirt [and always practice]”1 was the sage counsel, and the “Human Vacuum Cleaner’s” advice was heeded. By 1970, the former child, Jim […]

Don Wheeler was an outstanding athlete from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who had a nine-season career in professional baseball over a period of 12 years. A catcher, Wheeler spent his first years in pro ball in the shadow of another Minnesota catcher, Wes Westrum, but Wheeler got his chance to play in the major leagues after he […]

When the 1959 Milwaukee Braves shuffled eight second basemen in a game of musical gloves, Casey Wise was Mr. June. Wise was born into a baseball family, but his big league career was short and disappointing. His baseball earnings paid his way through dental school, launching a successful second career. Kendall Cole Wise was born […]

Cookie Rojas is one of a handful of major leaguers who played every position in his career including pitcher. Of that group, he is the only one to make both the American and National League All-Star teams. Rojas worked in the major leagues as a player, coach, manager, and broadcaster for more than five decades. […]

“If after five years in the Yankee chain, I still am not eligible for major league baseball, what’s the use of kidding myself?  If I can’t make the big leagues in this war situation, I should go into something that has a better future.”1  Those were the words of Joe Buzas when directed during the […]

Jon Zuber was never able to make a permanent home in the major leagues, despite an unquestioned ability to hit a round ball with a round bat. After his playing career ended, the engaging and articulate Zuber could speak with knowing candor about life on the major-league bubble, the steroid era, and the struggles of […]

In retirement, former major leaguer Johnny Romano took up flying radio-controlled model airplanes near his retirement home in Florida. He liked to fly them high and far. There was a time, though, when those terms — high and far — also referred to his ability as a hard-hitting All-Star catcher for the Cleveland Indians and […]

Jeromy Neal Burnitz, who was with the Indians during 1995 and most of 1996, was known for his enthusiasm (which on occasion crossed into temper), dogged persistence, and a true love for the game. During his 14-year major-league career, he also played for the New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies, Chicago […]

In the summer of 1919, the year the Black Sox threw the World Series, 30-year-old sportswriter Irving Vaughan joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune. It wasn’t his first newspaper job, but it would be his last. When he retired 38 years later, having covered more than 7,000 baseball games during a career that spanned […]

“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 […]

As of 2021, Baseball-Reference reports that there have been over 232,000 professional baseball games played since the establishment of the National League in 1876. Therefore, it is a significant accomplishment to be the sole holder of any single-game record. Shawn Green is one of the few players with that distinction. Playing for the Los Angeles […]

Imagine you’re playing word association with a baseball nut. Mention Commerce, Oklahoma, and the fan will respond, “Mickey Mantle!” Shout out Donora, Pennsylvania, and the fan will bellow out, “Stan Musial.” And if your next term is Puerto Armuelles, the fan is likely to shout … “Say that again?” Small though it may be, Puerto […]