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It was a series between cellar dwellers in the American League’s East Division as fifth-place Washington came to Cleveland for a five-game set starting on July 6, 1970. The Senators had spent their holiday weekend taking three out of four games in New York while the sixth-place Indians were licking their wounds after getting swept in […]

Steve Balboni played for the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals before he bookended brief stints with the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers around a second tour with the Yankees. He owns four World Series rings, one as a player with the Royals and three as an advance scout with the San […]

During a 16-year professional baseball career spanning 1959 to 1974, Roberto Peña was a stalwart shortstop in his homeland, the Dominican Republic. He played for two winter league champions and earned posthumous retirement of his uniform number by the Santiago-based Águilas Cibaeñas. Over parts of six big-league seasons (1965-1971), Peña broke in with the Chicago […]

Following a promising rookie year in 1989, pitcher Kevin Ritz found his career on shaky ground after struggling with extreme control problems for the Detroit Tigers over his next couple of seasons. This was exacerbated by a serious elbow injury suffered at the end of his tenure in Detroit that sidelined him for a full […]

Today’s multimillionaire players probably don’t know Danny Gardella or the impact the wartime New York Giants outfielder had on their high salaries. Gardella’s brief adventure in the Mexican League and his challenge to baseball’s reserve clause was one of the first steps toward modern-day free agency. At a “not much taller than a fire hydrant” […]

In 1970 sportswriter Ted Blackman quipped, “If John Bateman bought a pumpkin farm, they’d cancel Halloween.”[fn]“Hustling Bateman Frets in Hospital Bed,” The Sporting News, April 18, 1970, 24.[/fn] The luckless reference was to the cursed timing of a kidney injury that hospitalized the Montreal Expos starting catcher two days before the start of the 1970 […]

The baseball career of Bartolo Colón might be impossible to believe if it wasn’t true. He overcame a humble upbringing in a foreign land, rebounded from a career-threatening injury, and survived scandals and controversies to become an almost mythical cult hero in his final seasons, beloved for his cheerful demeanor and a roly-poly physique that […]

In 1957, Valmy Thomas became the first man from the U.S. Virgin Islands to play in what were then classified as the major leagues. Since Thomas was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, some gave Joe Christopher this honor, but it really belonged to Thomas — until December 2020, when the Negro Leagues were recognized as […]

A classical pianist who played at Carnegie Hall by 16, a World Series champion baseball player with one of the major league’s glamour franchises by 23, and an actor sharing screen time with Tallulah Bankhead and Zsa Zsa Gabor on a top-rated television series before he turned 30, Al “The Bull” Ferrara has had enough […]

In spring 1941, at the age of 31, “Lefty” Mills’ career seemingly was finished just seven years after he signed his first professional baseball contract. Six years later, after he served in the military during World War II, Mills attempted a comeback. It was short-lived. Mills was scratched from a scheduled start for Charley Pedrotti’s […]

“You automatically go all out, regardless of pain or what.”1 This was the guiding principle of New York Yankees pitcher Bill Stafford’s baseball career. Never had his philosophy been more tested than on the afternoon of October 7, 1962. After a screaming liner off the bat of San Francisco Giants outfielder Felipe Alou smashed into […]

No one was going to give Trot Nixon a speeding ticket. Not for the inspirational leader of the Boston Red Sox, the left-handed outfielder with the dirty uniform and the grinder spirit who became a fan favorite for wanting to win just a little bit more than most. His country was under attack, his wife […]

“If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases, and performed a miracle in the field every day, I’d still look you right in the eye and tell you that Willie was better. He could do the five things you have to do to be a superstar: hit, hit with power, run, throw and […]

Mayo Smith was a baseball lifer who served the game in many ways in his 38-year career. Except for being the manager of the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers, he was not well-known by the public. However, within the game, he was a very well-known and well-liked figure who had the nickname “America’s Guest” […]

Catcher “Oil” Smith, a bench-jockey and brawler extraordinaire, played on five World Series teams in the 1920s. Behind the plate, he perfected tactics that distracted and intimidated hitters. A potent left-hand batter himself, he finished his 12 seasons in the majors with a .303 lifetime average. “He probably was involved in as many fights as […]

Dennis Lamp was a right-handed pitcher who racked up 96 major-league wins over the course of a 16-year career that saw him work for six different ballclubs. Three of his first four wins were shutouts. He worked most of his last 10 seasons as a reliever, with exactly half (48) of his wins coming in […]

Signed to the Boston Red Sox by Frank “Bots” Nekola, the same scout who signed Carl Yastrzemski, outfielder Joe Lahoud faced some stiff competition trying to break into the majors. At the time, his path intersected with those of both Yaz and local Boston favorite Tony Conigliaro. Lahoud came from Danbury, Connecticut, born there on […]

Smoke. That’s what they called him. He was respected and admired, but first he was humiliated and discarded. Down to his last chance, Dave Stewart had a stunning rebirth in his hometown and became a four-time 20-game winner, a two-time ALCS MVP, a World Series MVP, and a three-time World Series champion. But before all […]

Sinclair Oil’s dinosaur logo is as powerful a brand identifier as Exxon’s tiger or Mobil’s Pegasus. When Harry Sinclair died at the age of 80 in 1956, his obituaries in the Los Angeles Times1 and the New York Times2 highlighted his oil exploits—but did not mention his baseball interests.  In the early 1900s, Sinclair was […]

In 1978 Cincinnati Reds’ manager Sparky Anderson, referring to the San Francisco Giants’ mound corps, said, “That’s the best pitching staff in baseball and Knepper is their best pitcher.”1 A year later, future Hall of Famer Willie McCovey echoed this sentiment when he compared his club’s rotation to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ fearsome staffs of […]

At first glance, Adrian Beltré’s path seems predictable. Sought after at a young age, he instantly became a highly touted prospect who plowed through the minor leagues and reached the majors before he turned 20. Over the course of 21 seasons (1998-2018), he earned more than $200 million through multiple multi-year contracts. In 2018, The […]

Editor’s note: During our Stay Home With SABR initiative, enjoy these light-hearted Dispatches From the Mudville Bureau by Joanne Hulbert of SABR’s Boston Chapter to stay engaged with baseball until the games return. Check out what’s new and keep up with all the news in the Boston Chapter on Facebook at BostonSABR or on Instagram […]

Sportsman’s Park was home of the St. Louis Browns from 1902 to 1953. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.)   Introduction Achieving on-field success has often proved elusive to owners of the Baltimore Orioles and its predecessor teams, the St. Louis Browns and Milwaukee Brewers. The franchise, dating back to the inception of the American […]