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Director Sergio Leone would have loved Joe DeSa’s face. Swarthy, with tiger-stripe eyebrows and mustache, the Hawaiian had the forbidding look of a Western movie villain. Yet he was a friendly and popular figure everywhere he played — though that included just 35 games in the majors. His uncle, former big-leaguer John Matias, said, “He […]

Perhaps no Virgin Islander made a greater lifetime contribution to baseball than Elrod Hendricks (1940-2005). The native of St. Thomas also embodied Baltimore Orioles tradition; only Brooks Robinson wore the orange and black for even half as many games. Ellie’s major-league career spanned 12 seasons from 1968 to 1979, but he also spent a remarkable […]

“What have you done for me lately?” is a common refrain heard among fans of all sports. Diehard and casual fans are known to be a fickle bunch. Any time a player has an outstanding performance in one game, he or she is the toast of the town. The next day they falter and they […]

If you had to guess, you would say that Warren Cromartie’s lucky number was 3. After all, he played baseball, a game that has three strikes, three outs, and three bases. And he played in three countries (the United States, Canada, and Japan) where the people speak three languages (English, French, and Japanese). Warren Livingston […]

“This guy is a natural. He’s got ideas about what he wants to do and does it. He amazes me.” — Carl Hubbell “No pitcher has made such magnificent use of his God-given equipment.” — Branch Rickey “If you placed all the pitchers in the history of the game behind a transparent curtain, where only […]

Jug Thesenga was sick through the entire flight from Kansas to New York City. This boy from South Dakota was on his way to Yankee Stadium to start for the Washington Senators the next day. That was September 1, 1944, and the Senators were desperate for pitching during those World War II years. Scouts plucked […]

The mere mention of Edgar “Blue” Washington evokes thought and a curious smile, as he is undoubtedly one of the rarest of all Negro League treasures. During the early part of the twentieth century, Edgar flaunted his athleticism as a gallant young prizefighter in open-air boxing arenas in Southern California and on weekend afternoons could […]

Few players have exited the major league stage with more unrealized potential than did Jeff Stone in 1990. Nine years before, the lightning-fast outfielder was being compared to future HOF base stealer Rickey Henderson after setting the professional single-season record for stolen bases with the Spartanburg (South Carolina) Phillies in the South Atlantic League. “Get ready […]

Doctors told Dave Dravecky that outside of a miracle, he would never pitch again. This followed a 1988 diagnosis of cancer in his pitching arm. Yet less than a year later he stood on the pitching mound at Candlestick Park in front of over 34,000 adoring fans, and retired 21 of the first 23 Cincinnati […]

From 1900 through 2003, 952 players appeared in only a single major league game. Of these, 86 were starting pitchers and Dick Bass, at age 33, was the oldest. His career is of special interest because he managed two minor league teams, coached a team to the World’s Amateur Championship, and was a manager in […]

William Richardson was said “to be so far in the background that few knew he owned forty percent of the team and held the title of vice-president (of the Washington Senators).”1 His friends knew him as “Billy” and as a successful Philadelphia businessman. Washington baseball fans knew him as the “silent partner” of Clark Griffith, […]

When Jeff Montgomery took the mound for the Cincinnati Reds on August 1, 1987, he was living out the storybook baseball tale. A three-sport athlete from small Wellston, Ohio, Montgomery grew up a couple of hours down the road from Riverfront Stadium in the era of the Big Red Machine. His idol, Reds manager Pete […]

Son of a great baseball man, scout and executive Mel Didier, Bob Didier has been in the game for more than five decades, almost as long as his father. He was a professional catcher from 1967 through 1976, including one full season and parts of five others in the majors. He has since served as […]

“In my estimation, the greatest black pitcher ever to pitch for Detroit — that’s for the Stars or the Tigers.” — Negro Leagues historian Dick Clark1   Left-hander Andy Cooper, one of the Negro League greats with a Hall of Fame plaque to his credit, ticked nearly all the boxes in his illustrious baseball career. […]

In 1945, The Sporting News reckoned Eddie Mayo as “an excellent example of the Salvation Army adage, ‘A man may be down, but he is never out.’”1 Acquired by the Detroit Tigers a year earlier after he had failed in several attempts to stick in the big leagues, the 34-year-old infielder helped pace the club […]

Lancelot “Yank” Terry played his entire MLB career as a member of the Boston Red Sox. A right-handed hurler, Terry pitched in the big leagues for five seasons (1940, 1942-1945). He’s listed as 6-feet-1 and weighing 180 pounds. Terry was born in Huron, Indiana, on February 11, 1911, to George and Edna (Kirk) Terry. George […]

“A big, hard thrower with a ton of guts, `Sut’ was never mistaken for a wallflower. He had one thing going for him right away too: He wasn’t afraid to challenge hitters and didn’t back away, even if he made a mistake with a pitch. He was a very quick learner.” — Rick Monday, Dodgers […]

A combination of accountant, impresario, and American success story, Russian-born Leonard Koppett wrote with verve and understanding about the personalities, games, and statistics of the national pastime and other major sports for over half a century. Today, he is honored from Israel to Cooperstown. Born Leonard Kopeliovitch in an apartment near Red Square in post-revolutionary […]

Shortstop Craig Robinson retired with 755 fewer career homers than his Braves teammate Hank Aaron. But only six men can say they joined Aaron in the starting lineup on the nights Hammerin’ Hank tied and broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record. Robinson is one of those special six.1 Craig George Robinson was born on […]

Skipper Miller Huggins’s Yankees had rolled over competition all season long and were cruising to their third straight pennant. Owners of the best record in baseball (81-43), the Yankees were 13 games ahead of the second-place Cleveland Indians and shut down opponents with a staff that eventually led the league in team ERA (3.62). Blessed […]

When Pat Gosney shipped off for US Army duty in the summer of 1952, he left with a good story to tell his buddies: Just before entering military service, he’d pitched a three-hit shutout against a major-league team. The story came with a few caveats, which Gosney no doubt admitted by and by. The shutout […]

Solly Hemus’s place in New York Mets history is exceedingly small by most measures. He served as a coach under Casey Stengel for the Mets’ first two seasons, 1962-63, during which the expansion team set a twentieth-century record for losses in a season.1 Hemus, formerly the scrappy player-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, holds one […]

After graduating from Waverly High School in Lansing, Michigan, John Smoltz was selected in the 22nd round of the June 1985 amateur draft by his favorite team, the Detroit Tigers. But Smoltz never took the mound for Detroit. On August 12, 1987, in the midst of a tight American League East race, the Tigers dealt […]

This article was published in “The Stars Shone on Philadelphia: The 1934 Negro National League Champions” (SABR, 2023), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin.   The 1934 Negro National League Championship Series between the Philadelphia Stars and the Chicago American Giants was a closely contested, contentious nailbiter of a series. Not only did […]