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He was a lanky, crew-cut 21-year-old newcomer called up from the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons for a brief four-game trial with the 1960 Philadelphia Phillies. For the ensuing 50-plus years Bobby Wine played important full-time major-league roles. He was a classic shortstop with a great glove who struggled at the plate. After his playing career ended, […]

Vince DiMaggio, Joe DiMaggio, and Dominic DiMaggio were his sidekicks. He and Joe wore their first uniforms while playing with the San Francisco Boys Club team. He played with Joe at Francisco Junior High. Joe played shortstop and Dario was his double-play partner at second base. When he moved on to Galileo High School, Dario […]

“Everyone dreams about playing in the majors, but I never thought I’d get the chance. Almost no one else from there had ever done it, so I didn’t think about it. Baseball was just for fun.” — Kevin Tapani1   When he was growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Kevin Tapani didn’t expect […]

Tom Veryzer got into 996 big-league games from 1973 through 1984, mainly as a shortstop. He didn’t provide much offense, hitting just .241 with 14 homers, but in those days, one could still hold down a starting job at short at the top level on the strength of sound fielding. Veryzer was solid enough to […]

From the late 1970s to the mid-1990s, a visitor to Detroit’s Tiger Stadium would hear many crowd noises. One noise in particular could confuse spectators unless they were attuned to the Tigers stars of this period. Often, after the visiting team had been retired in the top of the first inning, a distinctive “ooooooooo” sound […]

Catcher Johnny Riddle had one of the more unusual careers in major-league history. His big-league career spanned 19 years, from his debut with the Chicago White Sox in 1930 until his final game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1948. He played for five major-league teams, but he also spent long stretches of time in the minors, the […]

From the moment he was born in the back seat of a car in the parking lot of the East Orange (New Jersey) General Hospital, during a snowstorm on December 21, 1948,1 Elliott Maddox showed a knack for doing things on his terms. He was a premier defensive outfielder who had just begun to show […]

Steve Garvey was the epitome of the Southern California cultural icon in baseball spikes. Photogenic, fan-friendly, and media accessible, he projected the image of an All-American success story and devoted family man. As a Los Angeles Dodger in 1974, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award after starting the All-Star Game at first […]

The flake – “an odd or eccentric player; a kidder or comic”1 – is an all-but-vanished species in major-league baseball these days. In 2003, writer Dave Joseph lamented, “Sadly, there are fewer creative thinkers these days in baseball. There are fewer flakes, if you will, who break up the monotony of an endless season played, […]

The word “grinder” is used to define a player who may not have great natural ability but succeeds through hard work and perseverance. “He grinded out a career” or “he was a real grinder.” Jeff Torborg was that type of player. Noted as a defensive catcher who could handle a pitching staff, Torborg’s offensive capability […]

From 1984 to 1989, Walt Terrell was one of Major League Baseball’s most durable starting pitchers, averaging more than 32 starts and 210 innings per season. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound right-hander did not possess an overpowering fastball, but his credible sinker and change-up usually allowed him to keep his teams in games. During his 11-year career […]

Los Angeles native Archie Wilson was a 1942 graduate of the city’s Franklin High School (where he also starred in football and was a first-team halfback in the city’s All-Northern League) and spent three years at the University of Southern California. In 1951 and 1952, he played outfield for three different teams in the major […]

Before the Yankees-Athletics doubleheader on September 27, 1919, New York pitcher Bob Shawkey had won 20 games in a season once. In 1916, his first full season with the Yankees, the man known as Sailor won a league-leading 24 games. Shawkey was 24-14 and retrospectively had a league-leading eight saves. Entering the doubleheader, the third-place […]

The 1959 White Sox were noteworthy for getting maximum results out of minimal offensive production. That was never truer than on April 22 against the Kansas City Athletics. With the season in its infancy, the White Sox entered the game at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium tied for third place in the American League standings with […]

Dee Gordon slipped as he accelerated out of the batter’s box. The speedy Miami Marlins’ second baseman had just laid down a bunt in an effort to spark a late-game rally. His team trailed the Atlanta Braves, 2-1, in the eighth inning on Opening Day of the 2015 major-league season. Gordon, slowed by the slip, […]

The Saturday night game of the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) Pool D in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico, started at 8:40 on March 11, a little under two hours after the end of the 10-inning Venezuela-Italy game.1 Crews had to hustle to let the stadium empty out and then refill, and […]

Federal League Park, also known as Handlan’s Park, was first used for professional baseball in 1914, providing a home for the St. Louis Terriers of the newly formed Federal League.1 Like other professional ballparks of the day, it included no stadium lighting, a fact that required games to be conducted during daytime, sometimes held hostage […]

Terry Francona raised the art of self-deprecation to a new level. Decades after his playing career ended, the man who had become one of the most successful managers in big-league history loved to downplay his talents as a ballplayer. He claimed that the last thing he wanted was his players to hit like he did. […]

Bill Mazeroski’s Baseball yearbook gave a blunt assessment of the Montreal Expos’ chances for the 1987 season: “If they think they can win with these imposters, they’ve got another think coming.”1 Sports Illustrated had more tact in its season preview, although it predicted that the Expos would lose 98 games and finish dead last in […]

Willie Stargell, left, hugs his Pittsburgh Pirates teammate Al Oliver, center, as Roberto Clemente looks on during the 1971 season. On September 1, 1971, the Pirates fielded an all-Black lineup of African-American and Latino players, a first in the history of Major League Baseball. (MLB.COM)   The 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates were a special team in […]

“If you pitch long enough with good enough stuff,” said Tom Seaver, “you are bound to pitch a no-hitter sooner or later.”1 But even Tom Terrific probably did not think it would take 396 starts and 211 victories into his Hall of Fame career to toss his first and only no-hitter. Seaver’s masterpiece was “more […]

The New York Mets were playing out the 1971 season. They had stayed in contention through the first half but fell out of the National League East race after going 21-37 in July and August.1 When the Pittsburgh Pirates showed up at Shea Stadium in late September for the next-to-last series of the season, the […]

In the second of a two-game series at Griffith Stadium, Bob Meusel and the Yankees “brought about the downfall of the Nationals”1 with the use of the long ball. Former President Woodrow Wilson “drove out to the game and witnessed the contest from the shelter of his automobile, which was parked near the right field […]

“You kept looking in right field, and he wasn’t there,” said Pittsburgh Pirates manager Bill Virdon on Opening Day in 1973. “I kept looking out there.”1 It was the dawn of a new era for the Pirates. Immensely popular Roberto Clemente had died about three months earlier, on New Year’s Eve, when his plane crashed off the coast of […]