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Hector Headley Lopez, the Panamanian-born third baseman for the Kansas City Athletics, saw his solid career shift to a better team when the A’s traded him to the New York Yankees on May 26, 1959. After more than four seasons in Kansas City as a regular infielder, mostly at third base, Lopez continued to play […]

When Phil Rizzuto went to his first Major League tryout, a New York Giants coach told him he was too small to play in the big leagues and suggested he should make a living by shining shoes.1 But in a later tryout with the Yankees, Rizzuto impressed scout Paul Krichell, who recommended they sign the […]

He owned and operated the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics for 20 years. Nearly everyone, including fellow owners, players, the fans of his teams, the media, and the baseball commissioner, disliked or even despised him. When his team lost, he blamed everyone but himself. When they won, he was apt to call the radio booth […]

In a nine-year career spent with three teams, outfielder Tito Landrum never received more than 205 official at-bats in a season. Yet he earned two World Series rings and was a League Championship Series hero for both the 1983 Orioles and 1985 Cardinals. Terry Lee Landrum was born on October 25, 1954 in Joplin. Missouri. […]

Juan Francisco Herrera Villavicencio played three years for the Philadelphia Phillies (1958; 1960-61). Yet that accomplishment just scratches the surface of Herrera as a ballplayer and a man. “Pancho” – or, as he was typically known in Cuba, “Panchón” – was a childhood idol to many who grew up in his homeland. He also played […]

Hawaiian reliever Ryan Kurosaki was the third American of Japanese Ancestry (AJA) to play major-league baseball — but the first of 100% Japanese descent.1 His time at the top was brief — seven games with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1975 at age 22. The Cards called up the righty from Class AA early in […]

Many baseball greats have ended long careers without either playing in a World Series or earning a coveted championship ring. In contrast, Ed Mierkowicz, who appeared in only 35 major-league games, achieved both feats. As a 21-year-old rookie he was a late-inning defensive replacement for Hank Greenberg in the seventh game of the 1945 World […]

“We have a prize shortstop coming,” Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith exclaimed in November 1953. “His name is Lyle Luttrell . . . He played a year for us in Orlando and I expect him to be playing for us by opening day next spring.”1 A sportswriter said the 23-year-old was “the talk of scouts […]

Johnny Lucas played for the McCook Generals of the Nebraska State League in 1929 and 1930. McCook was the county seat of Red Willow County, not far north of the border with Kansas. Lucas played center field and some right field. He appeared in 83 games in 1929 and hit .308 with five homers. He […]

The 1969 Chicago White Sox didn’t fare well in other teams’ ballparks. En route to an American League-worst 27-54 road record, the team went 1-8 in Minnesota, 1-5 in Washington and New York, and 3-6 in Oakland, Seattle, and Kansas City.1 The White Sox did find one travel stop where they not only emerged undefeated […]

On the first Saturday of summer in 1986, Bo Jackson gave the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers a stiff-arm that would’ve made John Heisman proud. In a long-anticipated press conference held in Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson, the former Auburn University running back who six months earlier had won the trophy bearing Heisman’s name and iconic pose, rejected […]

In the 30-year period from 1957 to 1986, the Baltimore Orioles compiled the best record in the major leagues, collecting three World Series championships, six American League pennants, and eight division titles along the way. And then suddenly, after winning the 1983 World Series, the team went into a rapid decline, winning progressively fewer games […]

Residents of Wampum, Pennsylvania, and neighboring towns cheered hometown hero Dick Allen at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field during his 1964 National League Rookie of the Year season with the Philadelphia Phillies, even honoring him in on-field ceremonies before three games against the host Pittsburgh Pirates. But Allen scuffled in Pittsburgh in ’64, batting .182 in nine […]

On the night of July 22, 1978, a future Hall of Famer’s career ended in sudden and disputed fashion – and at the time, nearly no one noticed. Of course, not being noticed was part of this Hall of Famer’s agenda from the beginning. Nestor Chylak, an American League umpire since 1954, embodied the classic […]

It’s a storyline practically as old as baseball itself: An aging veteran goes back down to the minor leagues to prove himself, convinced against the evidence that his bat, arm, glove, and legs still have enough left to help a big-league team. In the spring of 1967, it was a future Hall of Famer’s turn […]

“I’ll never pitch a no-hitter,” Paul Splittorff told reporters matter-of-factly in August 1975, and he was right.1 The bespectacled, high-kicking left-hander won 166 games and set enduring Kansas City Royals franchise records2 in his 15-season major-league career.3 But he never achieved a pitcher’s ultimate feat of skill and luck. Three complete-game one-hitters were as close […]

Allowing five runs in the top of the ninth inning, the Kansas City Royals wasted a quality start from Zack Greinke and blew an 8-3 lead in front of 13,621 fans at Kauffman Stadium. Veteran right-hander Liván Hernández, pitching his lone season in the American League, opposed Greinke and threw six innings, allowing 13 hits […]

The two-time world champions were in town. The Oakland A’s were “Kings of the Mountain” atop all of Major League Baseball. The A’s toppled Cincinnati in 1972 and the New York Mets in 1973. Many of that core group of players were on the 1974 squad: Vida Blue, Ken Holtzman, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Sal […]

“To encounter Walter Johnson even one time during a series is considered misfortune for any ball club,” lamented the New York Times, “but to inflict him on an opposing ball club twice in the same afternoon verges on downright cruelty.”1 The Big Train, the Washington Senators’ hard-throwing right-hander, proved to be the hero of the […]

Shea Stadium was packed for Game Two of the 2006 National League Division Series. The Mets had won the first game behind two “rookies.” John Maine was in his first season with the Mets. He stepped up and pitched 4 1/3 solid innings in the Mets victory. The other “rookie” was Carlos Delgado. The 34-year old finally played in […]

Believe it or not, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. had been in somewhat of a slump in the early part of the 1984 season. Although he started the season well, hitting safely in all but four of the Orioles’ first 23 games, in early May his batting average dropped from .352 on April 30 […]

Entering the 1977 season, expectations were low for the Baltimore Orioles. After they won 88 games the season before and finished second behind the pennant-winning Yankees, many experts were picking the Orioles to finish in the lower half of the American League East. The lowered expectations were primarily due to major-league baseball’s first year of […]

In his first at-bat after three years of military service during World War II, Ted Williams grounded out to first base unassisted on April 16. More befitting his legend was his second time up after returning to civilian life and the Red Sox lineup: a homer off Roger Wolff of the Washington Senators in the […]

  Wahconah Park: an outdated barn or a precious relic? A swamp or a hallowed slab? A money pit or a landmark? After well over a century, the dichotomy persists. Baseball players were facing off there before Babe Ruth was born, before “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was written, before architects sketched the […]