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Phil Morrison’s baseball career is indelibly connected to that of his older brother Johnny, known as Jughandle because of his quick-dropping curveball. Johnny’s glowing recommendation led directly to the professional baseball career of Phil, who was three years younger. Just as Johnny started out with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1920, Phil began pitching for his […]

At age 25, after becoming the best hitter in three different minor leagues – preceded by two-years’ service as an officer in the US Navy – Frank Saucier was the St. Louis Browns’ most sought-after and anticipated post-World War II rookie since the club signed future 20-game-winning pitcher Ned Garver and slugger Roy Sievers, the […]

Jack Sanford got his start in baseball with a push from his big sister. Sanford was named National League Rookie of the Year, won sixteen straight games one season, and started three times in the World Series, but he never got over being labeled “no prospect” when he was a teenager. John Stanley Sanford was […]

Dick Fitzgerald’s left arm should be put on display in a glass case, if not donated to science. It’s known as the ultimate innings-eater. It has Satchel Paige wear-and-tear. It has an expiration date on it somewhere, doesn’t it? Doing a complete inventory, the Pennsylvania native has served up more than a million pitches, encompassing […]

Pat Collins, back in the minors in 1925 after six frustrating seasons with the St. Louis Browns, found himself in the right place at the right time in 1926. Collins saw his playing time bottom out with the Browns in 1924 and the 28-year-old was relegated to the American Association. His response to playing more […]

Skip and Pete. Two names forever etched in the history of the Atlanta Braves and in the history of baseball on television. Just the mention of their names brings back warm memories and a smile to many baseball fans, and not just those in Atlanta. Rarely is one of them ever mentioned without the other […]

Speedy Everett Booe was one of a multitude of major-leaguers who played only a year or two in the big leagues, and then spent the majority of their careers in the minors. Booe was a rookie flash in the pan for the Pirates in 1913, and then jumped to Indianapolis and Buffalo of the upstart Federal […]

The first player from “The Big Island” of Hawaii to make it to the major leagues was pitcher Onan Masaoka. The lefty’s 1999 Bowman baseball card aptly described his ability and his nemesis, command: “Pure power southpaw . . . Lively low-to-mid 90s heater . . . Gets outs with breaking stuff, too, when mechanics […]

The Joe Vosmik story is the classic American tale in which the scion of an immigrant family falls in love with the national game of the family’s adopted country. Vosmik’s tale has all the required elements: precocious skills, early passion, an indulgent father, a disapproving mother who later relents and shares her son’s ardor, obsession, […]

Lefty pitcher Tom Bolton played professional baseball for 19 years (1980-1998). He was in the majors for three full seasons and parts of five others from 1987 to 1994. The sinkerballer was at his best in 1990 for the Boston Red Sox, going 10-5 with a 3.38 ERA and helping Boston win the American League […]

A far-from-giant Giant, pitcher Mickey Welch formed a cornerstone of the celebrated National League franchise founded in New York. Generously listed in baseball reference works as 5-feet-8 and 160 pounds, the undersized right-hander pitched and won the Giants’ [then Gothams’] inaugural NL game in 1883. Two years later, he compiled 17 consecutive pitching victories on […]

With two minor-league seasons under his belt and the 1969 Midwest League campaign rapidly approaching, Leo Mazzone, then a starting pitcher with the Decatur Commodores, sought clarity about his short-term pitching prospects. The young hurler split his first two seasons in the San Francisco Giants system, a total of 56 appearances, between the Medford Giants […]

The first American to win both a World Series ring and an Olympic gold medal, Pat Borders played parts of 17 major league seasons (1988-2005) for nine different teams.1 When the Blue Jays won consecutive championships in 1992 and 1993, he caught more innings than any American Leaguer both years and earned 1992 World Series […]

Shortstop Jackie Hernandez glided behind second base, smoothly picked up Merv Rettenmund’s ground ball and with one easy motion flipped it across the diamond to first baseman Bob Robertson for the final out of the 1971 World Series. “[The] catcher is running toward the camera at full speed, his upraised arms spread wide. His body […]

“He is a major leaguer if ever one was born.” That was Branch Rickey’s scouting report on 17-year-old Bill Bell. To underline Rickey’s point, the tall right-hander pitched back-to-back no-hitters in Class-D ball the next spring. Then he pitched a third one later in the same season. Bill Bell couldn’t miss. Until he did. Even […]

A fleet-footed flycatcher with a rifle arm, World War I-era outfielder Walter Mattick had his major-league career abbreviated by a common failing: the inability to hit top-quality pitching. Weakness with the bat limited his big-league time to parts of three seasons. Still, Mattick parlayed other assets into a long association with professional baseball, mostly as […]

Of the two Skinny Grahams who played major league ball, at more or less the same time, it’s Arthur William Graham of Somerville, Massachusetts (born there on August 12, 1909) who is the subject of this biography, not the pitcher from Alabama, Kyle Graham. Arthur Graham’s father was the original “Skinny” and a contemporary of […]

If any player could be called Mr. Brewer it is Robin Yount. He played his entire 20-year major-league career with the Milwaukee Brewers, debuting as an 18-year-old shortstop in 1974, and helped reinvigorate and re-energize a fan base that had been reeling since the Braves abandoned Milwaukee for Atlanta in 1966. Yount led the Brewers […]

One day in the mid-1930s, in the New York City borough of Staten Island, teenager Karl Drews anxiously watched as older boys of his small community of Eltingville climbed into a truck to go to a baseball team tryout. As the truck was about to depart, Drews pleaded with the older boys to take him […]

Urban “Red” Faber’s Hall of Fame pitching career took off in 1915. After posting a 10-9 record as a rookie the previous season, the Chicago White Sox spitballer went 24-14 with a 2.55 ERA in 1915, tying for second place in the American League in wins and ranking first in games pitched with 50.1 He […]

“Another dazzler,” raved Los Angeles Dodgers beat writer Frank Finch about Sandy Koufax’s six-hit shutout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 27, 1959, Koufax’s first whitewashing in almost four seasons.1 “He can beat any team and strike out anyone,” declared Dodgers pitching coach Joe Becker about his young emerging ace whose midseason transformation was as […]

Lyall Smith, sports editor of the Detroit Free Press, made a surprisingly detailed prediction early in 1954 spring training. In one of his columns, Smith “guessed” that 36-year-old outfielder Pat Mullin, the senior member of the Detroit Tigers in both age and service time, would be cut from the team and become a player-coach with […]

Barely more than one square mile in size and with about 15,000 residents, Harrison, New Jersey, was an improbable site for the construction of a new major-league ballpark in early 1915. But timing, circumstance, and geography were all the impetus needed for the erection of spacious Harrison Park. In its maiden year, the new ballpark […]

Why would you ever call it Baker Bowl, When all Baker did Was despoil its Soul! — Seamus Kearney   Fans enter the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, circa 1915. (Library of Congress)   The Philadelphia Base Ball Grounds, a.k.a. National League Park, a.k.a. Baker Bowl, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1887 to 1938, […]