Search Results

In the 1930s and 1940s famed New York City restaurateur Toots Shor hosted many of the greats of sports and show business. But in the winter of 1947 Shor’s attention focused on a baseball prospect little known outside the environs of New York – Larry Miggins. Informed that the St. Louis Cardinals had snatched the […]

St. Cloud, Minnesota, native Jim Eisenreich retired from baseball in 1998, capping a career that spanned 15 major-league seasons and included two World Series appearances. Still, with all of his success, Eisenreich’s baseball career may be most remembered for how it was almost ended before it ever really started.   Eisenreich was born on April 18, […]

With one extraordinary season Roger Maris secured his place in baseball history. And yet his establishment of the major league home run record in 1961 proved to be more of a personal curse than a professional triumph. It also overshadowed, indeed overwhelmed, the totality of a career characterized at least as much by his consistent […]

In August 1985, The Cosby Show was tops on television, Back to the Future was a box-office hit, and Mike Young was one of baseball’s hottest hitters. That month, Young went deep nine times in a 14-game stretch for the Baltimore Orioles. He finished the season with 28 homers – 20 of which came after […]

“There are those who can, and there are those who will,” an old saying goes. James Paul David “Jim” Bunning was clearly one of the latter. He willed himself to become a great pitcher and then a successful politician through hard work and determination. Though he struggled for almost six seasons in the minor leagues, […]

But for a bucket kick, Bill Werber might reside in the Hall of Fame rather than be remembered as a good major-league ballplayer of the 1930s who helped lead the Cincinnati Reds to National League pennants in 1939 and 1940 and to the world’s championship in 1940. It happened in 1934, toward the end of […]

Acknowledgment to the work of Raúl Porto Cabrales and John Jairo Capella. Cartagena, Colombia, is a city of many charms. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it is known for its historic walled district and Spanish colonial architecture. Cartagena also has a pleasant Caribbean climate and beautiful beaches nearby. Yet it has another less heralded distinction […]

His nickname was “Smoke” – a good nickname for a pitcher. And the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Joe Kiefer had a good long minor-league career with 169 wins to his credit. His career earned-run average was an unimpressive 4.05 and he did lose 146 games, pitching for 15 different teams, but he was good enough to work […]

The tallest player in American League history from his 1939 debut until well after he retired, 6-feet-8-inch “Big Mike” Naymick came to the Cleveland Indians organization with a mountain of potential.1 Delivering his pitches with a high leg kick that disoriented many batters, Naymick was said to throw faster than celebrated teammate Bob Feller, but […]

As confetti filled the sky within Raymond James Stadium on January 9, 2017, Clemson assistant football coach Bill Spiers soaked it all in. The Tigers — representing his alma mater, and the team of which his son Will was a member — had just beaten the Alabama Crimson Tide 35-31 in a dramatic national championship […]

Immersed in a pennant race that would go down to the wire, the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers took the field at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on September 28, 1966, in hopes of putting distance between themselves and their two closest competitors. The St. Louis Cardinals had no intention of making this endeavor any easier […]

The fractured skull Philadelphia Athletics shortstop Skeeter Newsome suffered on April 9, 1938 left a gaping hole in the club’s defense. Ten players, including Newsome after he recovered, attempted to fill the void through the 1939 season. One was Al Brancato, a 20-year-old September call-up from Class-A ball who had never played shortstop professionally. Enticed […]

Editor’s note: This article was selected as a winner of the 2012 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award.   In the early 1880s prosperous tobacco merchant John B. Day re-established the national pastime in New York – operating teams in both major-league circuits with great success. In 1884 Day’s New York Metropolitans were American Association pennant winners […]

Manny Mota never seemed to age. “He’s scary,” said Steve Garvey, his teammate with the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I wish just one spring he would show up with one gray hair.”1 That was in June 1979, a couple of months before the Dominican set the career record for pinch hits. Mota wound up with 150 […]

It was early in the evening on March 9, 1934, as the City Light truck made its way down Fourth Avenue South in downtown Seattle. The driver saw a rotund older man step from the curb to cross the street a short distance ahead. The truck slowed to allow him to cross, but when he […]

Before signing a $100,000 bonus contract with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, John Stephen DeMerit had been a standout athlete since he was a youngster. In the fifth grade he set a record for the 100-yard dash (12.1 seconds) at the Port Relays, an annual event held in his hometown of Port Washington, Wisconsin, 27 miles […]

When Dave Hoskins of the visiting Dallas Eagles warmed up before his start against the Shreveport Sports on the evening of June 9, 1952, he had reason to be apprehensive. Earlier that day, Hoskins, the Texas League’s first Black player, had received three letters threatening his life. At the time Louisiana was not particularly hospitable […]

The most electrifying defensive shortstop of his generation, Mark Belanger set the standard by anchoring a great Baltimore Orioles infield for most of 14 seasons. During this stretch, Baltimore won 90 or more games 11 times with six postseason appearances capped by the 1970 world championship. Belanger and Ozzie Smith are the only shortstops to […]

“Turkey Stearnes — that cat could play and hit. He could’ve made it.” — Thomas “Monk” Favors1 Over the years, the Baseball Hall of Fame’s research department routinely requested retired baseball players to submit a form whose details painted a picture of the player’s birth, family, and early years, and a sketch of his playing […]

It had been a long time. Too long for most, an eternity for some. In fact, it had been 18 long years since the New York Yankees had been in a position to capture ultimate glory and win a world championship.  For Yankees manager Joe Torre, it had been a longer time – forever. His […]

The unusual 1981 season, torn into halves by a players strike and lengthened by a specially added first round of playoffs, ended on a familiar note – a World Series featuring the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. The former New York City neighbors were facing off for the 11th time. The Yankees had […]

Change was in the air in the spring of 1969. As the turbulent Sixties came to a close, even staid major-league baseball went through a much-needed transformation. After a severe lack of offense in the “Year of the Pitcher,” baseball lowered the mound and shrank the size of the strike zone to give hitters a […]

Fenway Park was back in the October sunshine. Winning the 1975 American League pennant was not just a good thing for Boston, for New England; it was a tonic for baseball fans across America. Since the Red Sox had last been in the World Series in 1967, new multisport facilities had proliferated throughout baseball, the […]

Home Runs and Comiskey Park. Those two didn’t mix much for most of the ballpark’s 80-year existence. When it opened it 1910, the Base Ball Palace of the World, as it was known, had dimensions of 420 feet in center field, 363 feet at the foul poles, and 382 feet in the power alley.1 Though […]