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Don Werner played 18 seasons of professional baseball and appeared in 118 major-league games, backing up one Hall of Famer and catching the only no-hitter pitched by another. Though he batted just .176 during limited opportunities in the major leagues, Werner grasped enough of the finer points of the art of catching to stay employed […]

Called “too small for a pitcher” by his high-school coach, Billy Johnson switched to the outfield, and eventually to third base, where he played well enough to be given a “day” at Yankee Stadium. It took place before a crowd of 42,267 on July 25, 1948, between games of a doubleheader. The day was hot […]

Tall, powerful, and fleet-footed, Burnis “Wild Bill” Wright was one of the Negro Leagues’ brightest stars for nearly a decade before embarking on a lengthy and successful Hall of Fame career in the Mexican Leagues. A towering 6-foot-4, 220-pound switch-hitter who slashed for average and slugged with power, he bunted effectively, ran like the wind, […]

Mild temperatures and the consistent sunshine of Southern California have helped young baseball players gain an advantage over prospects from other areas of the country. Yet, the accommodating weather comes with a cost as baseball competes with many other outdoor activities that attract young prospects. For 18-year-old Tom Thobe of Huntington Beach, surfing and skateboarding […]

New York’s Penn Station was all hustle and bustle on the sunny afternoon of June 12, 1941. The Brooklyn Dodgers were gathering to board a train bound for Pittsburgh. The trip would then continue west to St. Louis, where a crucial series with the Cardinals awaited the two early rivals in the National League pennant […]

Perhaps Gene Oliver was born too soon. With the advent of the designated hitter in 1973, he was already four years removed from his ten-year major-league career. He was a power hitter who drew favorable comparisons to sluggers Frank Howard and Joe Adcock. His glove work was often (and unfairly) derided – making him a […]

In June 1970 Ted Williams, then managing the Washington Senators, reminisced for a reporter about the first time Williams had ever seen Dick Hall pitch. Hall, Williams recalled, “was taking his warmup throws, having come in to relieve somebody. I was kneeling in the on-deck circle and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, boy, he’ll be […]

During the mid-1930s, the Detroit Tigers fielded one of the most potent infields in the history of the American League, known to many as the Battalion of Death. A key member of that team was a hawk-nosed, sure-handed, scrappy shortstop named Billy Rogell, who later continued his hardnosed character as a city councilman for Detroit for […]

For three years in a row, Jud McLaughlin tried to win a game for the Boston Red Sox. He never did. He pitched in 16 games from June 23, 1931, to May 18, 1933, all in relief, finishing 11 games but never starting a game. Looking on the brighter side, he never lost a game, […]

The Washington Senators played in Griffith Stadium for 50 years (1911-1960). But only once, on August 8, 1931, did a Senators pitcher toss a no-hitter in the nation’s capital. The author of that gem was southpaw Bobby Burke, who fashioned a 38-46 record in parts of 10 seasons as a spot starter and reliever (1927-1935, […]

Right-hander Bob Welch pitched 10 years for the Dodgers and struck out Reggie Jackson to end Game Two of the 1978 World Series. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The path to the 1978 World Series was not an easy one for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and there was speculation that an August 20 clubhouse brawl might hurt […]

The Milwaukee Braves expected a lot from 21-year-old Wade Blasingame, a “fireballing southpaw” set to start his first full big-league season in 1965.1 Four years earlier, the club had showered the highly-touted prospect from Fresno, California, with an unimaginable bonus of $125,000.  Blasingame progressed through the Braves’ farm system, had a cup of coffee in 1963, and […]

At the end of the 1876 National League season the Philadelphia and New York teams failed to travel west for scheduled road trips. Both teams were expelled from the league and those cities would be without National League base ball for the next six seasons. On May 1, 1883, under hazy skies with a temperature […]

To say that the Montreal Expos faced some adversity on the road to their first-ever playoff appearance would be an understatement. In their first decade of existence (1969-1978), the Expos never finished higher than in fourth place in the National League East standings and their record was below .500 in each of those years. Although […]

When it opened in 1928, Montreal’s De Lorimier Stadium was considered the preeminent ballpark of the minor leagues. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis said it was even better than some big-league facilities.1 The luxurious ballpark was also heavily mortgaged, which was a relatively minor concern initially. Everything changed when the stock market crashed in October 1929. […]

“I can’t say enough about it, or savor it enough,” said inspirational team leader Gary Carter after his New York Mets clinched the NL East crown by defeating the Chicago Cubs.1 While hard-throwing Dwight Gooden buoyed the team with a sparkling six-hitter, September call-up Dave Magadan, making his first big-league start, supplied the offensive fireworks […]

The first Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game of 1946 took place before 16,268 fans at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. This was the first time the East game would be played in the nation’s capital, inspiring sportswriter Sam Lacy to hope it also would be “the first time to put on an Eastern version of […]

Steve Woodard proved to be just what the doctor ordered for the Milwaukee Brewers when other doctors were ordering Milwaukee pitchers to the disabled list in late July of 1997. Woodard made a historic debut at Milwaukee County Stadium on July 28, outdueling his boyhood hero, Roger Clemens, in a 1-0 win over the Toronto […]

The New York Yankees still had hopes for an American League wild-card slot when they hosted the Boston Red Sox in a four-game weekend series at Yankee Stadium in September 2013. As the series began, the first-place Red Sox were 7½ games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays and 10 games ahead of the Yankees […]

In 1977 New York City was a bleak place. It was slowly emerging from near-bankruptcy. Earlier in the summer, widespread looting occurred during a 25-hour blackout. The serial killer known as Son of Sam terrorized residents. However, inside the recently renovated ballpark in the Bronx, the Yankees were in contention to repeat as the American […]

Cleveland fans were optimistic heading into the 1993 season. The team had won 19 more games in 1992 than in the prior year, the second largest year-over-year improvement in the majors, and the Indians were selected as the “Organization of the Year” for 1992 by Baseball America.1 To bolster a pitching staff lead by starter […]

As October 1915 approached in the nation’s capital, 20,000 Civil War veterans were marching through Washington city streets as veterans and residents alike reflected upon events from 50 years earlier.1 Across the city, the Washington Senators and Philadelphia Athletics were nearly finished with their disappointing 1915 seasons. The fourth-place Senators (81-65) were 18½ games behind […]

Zack Wheat, more than four decades after playing his last major-league game, experienced a revival of fame in 1969 thanks to another Dodgers slugger who put on a hitting clinic against National League hurlers. Willie Davis tied Wheat’s 29-game streak on September 1, 1969, in a game against the Mets; it ended two games later […]

In a game characterized by lots of hits (27) and lots of errors (7), an unknown St. Louis rookie made history. The Washington Senators hosted the St. Louis Browns in the second game of a four-game series at Griffith Stadium. The attendance was reported to be a mere 2,500 fans.1 Veteran Walter Johnson took to […]