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Baseball is a difficult game to play well for those with two good arms but Pete Gray did it with one. Gray played only one season in the major leagues, 1945, but that was enough to have a lasting positive influence on people with disabilities. His accomplishment enlightened those of us who are perfectly formed, […]

His potential was glimpsed when future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, months removed from his Rookie League debut in 1965, was said to have the ability to “throw as hard as Dick Selma.”1 That fall, Eddie Stanky, who managed Selma in the Florida Instructional League, claimed the right-handed hurler could become “the best relief pitcher […]

To many baseball fans, especially those in St. Louis, Carl Warwick will be best remembered for being a hero off the bench in the 1964 World Series. After spending the regular season as a reserve outfielder and bat off the bench, Warwick excelled in the postseason and whacked a record-tying three pinch hits that played […]

An integral player on the 1971 World Series Championship team in Pittsburgh, a three-time All-Star and Most Valuable Player vote-getter in Philadelphia, Dave Cash spent his 12-year career as a reliable and often stellar second baseman. Cash has been credited with coining the phrase ‘Yes We Can’ as the Phillies ended their 26-year postseason drought […]

On his 17th birthday, José Valentin got a $22,000 present from the San Diego Padres — a $22,000 professional baseball contract. Sandy Alomar Sr., the Padres’ third-base coach, manager of the Santurce Crabbers and San Diego’s chief scout for Puerto Rican talent, convinced the Padres that the kid from Fernando Callejo High School in his […]

No pitcher born and raised in Hawaii has had more wins in the majors than Sid Fernandez, who notched 114 (against 96 losses) from 1983 through 1997. Charlie Hough (216) grew up in Hialeah, Florida. Ron Darling (136) looked the part of a Hawaiian, thanks to his Chinese-Hawaiian mother, but he called Massachusetts home from […]

Tommy Umphlett had a superb rookie year in 1953, finishing second to the Detroit Tigers’ Harvey Kuenn, in American League Rookie of the Year voting. It wasn’t close. Kuenn received 23 first-place votes and Umphlett received the other one. Umphlett drove in more runs (59 in 137 games, compared to Kuenn’s 48 RBIs in 155 […]

On the surface, it’s difficult to imagine a major-league ballplayer with more disappointing statistics — a pitcher with a career winning percentage of .000, a batting average of .000, and a fielding percentage of .500. But Pete Magrini had six very good seasons in minor-league baseball and, after all, attained a goal that most professional […]

Darrell Dean Johnson worked in baseball as a catcher, a coach, a manager best known for taking the 1975 Red Sox to Game Seven of the World Series, and as a scout. He was born in the small community of Horace, Nebraska, on August 25, 1928, but grew up on the West Coast, so much […]

A perennial International League All Star, this “firebrand…of the Eddie Stanky mold”1 made only five plate appearances in the major leagues. Blocked from advancement by notables such as Bill Mazeroski and Dick Groat, Jack Damaska spent 17 years toiling in the minor leagues earning accolades from both teammates and opponents alike while also mentoring other […]

After the Seattle Mariners joined the American League as an expansion team in 1977, the team and its fans endured 14 consecutive losing seasons. However, one player from this era emerged having made such an impact that he earned the nickname “Mr. Mariner.” Alvin Davis was the franchise’s first homegrown star and won the Rookie […]

George Crowe was Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball and became a “Big Daddy” to early black players in major league baseball. “Crowe was the most articulate and far-sighted Negro then in the majors,” Jackie Robinson wrote. “Young Negroes turned to him for advice.”1 Yet this splendid athlete and respected leader chose to spend one-third of his […]

Brandon McCarthy entered professional baseball with great promise. His minor-league performances fast-tracked him to the major leagues, but that promise was undermined by a series of injuries that often paused his career. In spite of injuries, McCarthy had a big-league career spanning 13 seasons in which he played a significant role on several contending teams […]

The elder statesman of the Baby Birds staff that vaulted the Baltimore Orioles into pennant contention in the early 1960s was a mere 22-year-old. He is the only AL pitcher to lead the circuit in wins during a rookie campaign and the only one in either league to do so since Chicago Cubs righty Larry […]

“There are ballplayers who can’t remember the last town they were in, much less the first fellow to ever help them, but Woody Woodward remembers both and also has a habit of remembering to be right there any time someone needs his help. He sees nothing strange about that. ‘That’s the only way to do […]

A 13-year veteran catcher, Mike Scioscia has – through 2015 – managed the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for 16 seasons, the first major-league manager to reach the playoffs in six of his first 10 seasons. He led the Angels to a world championship in 2002. Michael Lorri Scioscia was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, […]

Laurence Albert Pape played his entire major-league career – three seasons – for the Boston Red Sox. He pitched in a total of 51 games in 1909, 1911, and 1912. Twenty-four of his appearances were as a starting pitcher. He appeared in 13 games with the champion Red Sox of 1912 and did not play […]

Cleveland pitcher Walter “Duster” Mails was feeling his oats, and why wouldn’t he be? He was living a dream after he was acquired by the Indians on August 31, 1920, in an effort to shore up the pitching staff. But manager Tris Speaker got much more than he bargained for when in eight starts in […]

“I didn’t like how my baseball career ended, particularly because I was so young. I won only 19 games total. But I realized how fortunate I was to have made it to the majors. Not many make it. And how many guys who played for many years didn’t get to play in the World Series […]

Steve Barber was a wild left-handed pitcher with a cannonball sinker, a chip on his shoulder, and a pain in his elbow. Barber was anointed as the majors’ fastest pitcher before he appeared in a regular-season game. He was the first 20-game winner in the modern history of the Baltimore Orioles, but his arm went […]

The small community of Vinegar Bend, Alabama, provided an unusual nickname to major-league pitcher and US Congressman Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell. Contrary to the belief that he was born in Vinegar Bend, Wilmer was born in neighboring Leakesville, Mississippi, and graduated from high school there in 1949, but the little town of fewer than 200 […]

A wild southpaw, Fred Besana spent the first month of the 1956 season with the Baltimore Orioles, appearing in seven games and winning one of his two starts. Besana also played parts of eight seasons in the minors and starred in semipro leagues around four years of Air Force service. Frederick Cyril Besana was born […]

In 1997 Todd Helton was one of baseball’s most prominent prospects – and a subject of controversy in the Colorado Rockies’ struggle to sustain their early-expansion success. Mundane matters triggered his big-league debut that summer: one player’s looming disciplinary action, another’s batting slump, and a calf injury to a third. But Helton’s takeover of the […]