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The right-hander stood on the pitcher’s mound in Tucson, Arizona, watching his manager Rocky Bridges walk out for a visit. It was the eighth inning; the bases were loaded with his team in the lead. Bridges grabbed the ball and gave it a good rub. After placing it back in his pitcher’s glove he offered […]

During right-hander Lerrin LaGrow’s final year in the majors, he quipped “Hillerich & Bradsby” when asked to identify his toughest opposing hitter.1 By naming the company that manufactures Louisville Sluggers, he perhaps inadvertently referenced the moment for which he’s arguably most remembered – being the target of Bert Campaneris’s thrown bat during the 1972 AL […]

As of the end of the 2020 season, 789 players born in the Dominican Republic had played major-league baseball. Of the 363 who were primarily nonpitchers, 57 made All-Star teams and 35 appeared in a World Series for the eventual champions, but only 12 completed their careers with exactly one hit.1 Before Orioles rookie Carlos […]

“They say I’m a good pinch-hitter, but maybe if I ever came to the plate 500 times, they might learn I’m a good hitter, period.” — Jim Henneman, The Sporting News1   Terrence Michael Crowley was born on February 16, 1947, in Staten Island, New York, and grew up rooting for the Yankees. Despite his […]

“That crazy kid in Cleveland” is what Rod Carew called Kevin Rhomberg in the early ’80s.[1] Whenever the subject of baseball superstition comes up, this man inevitably stands as the extreme. It’s the main thing for which many people remember him, and that’s too bad. The one-sided portraits call out for balance. The reality is […]

Lloyd Pepper Bassett made his name in Negro League baseball as the “Rocking-Chair Catcher.” If calling a game and receiving pitches while sitting in a rocking chair seems like a gimmick, the reason is that it was one. Bassett began his professional career with the New Orleans Crescent Stars, and low attendance led him to […]

A superb college basketball player, Charles Nash became the University of Kentucky’s career scoring leader in the early ’60s. Yet baseball was his first love. “Cotton” — as he was known for his bright blond hair — was also a slugging first baseman/outfielder. He juggled the two sports as a pro, and though his time […]

Joseph John Brovia, who starred on California sandlots and in high school as a righthanded pitcher and a lefthanded-hitting outfielder, signed his first professional contract before he turned eighteen in 1940. When he joined the San Francisco Seals for the 1941 season, he was already a rising star. By the time his playing days were […]

If Joe Pepitone were a car, he’d be a Ferrari — powerful, Italian, and high-performance. Though his career .258 batting average may not evidence power, Pepitone placed in the American League’s top 10 in total bases twice, in RBI twice, and in home runs thrice in his 12-year major-league career (1962-1973). He also clouted seven […]

Perhaps Joe Simpson was destined to play and describe a game of pitch and catch and hit. For one thing, the holiday baby was born December 31, 1951, at a time when baseball was the only game in town. Imagining the pastime, hearing it on radio, or watching on television, no one needed slow motion, […]

For the 1968 season, the major leagues sought to strictly enforce a rule prohibiting a pitcher from going to his mouth while on the mound. An especially unusual application of the rule took place at Shea Stadium in New York on May 2. Philadelphia Phillies reliever John Boozer entered a game against the New York […]

Paul Snyder was the indispensable man behind the scenes of the Atlanta Braves’ success. If anyone has said a bad word about him, it has not been recorded in the hothouse world of baseball. A baseball lifer since he started his career as a Braves minor-league outfielder-first baseman in 1958, Snyder is a rarity in […]

Imposing, confident, complex, charismatic, and controversial, Dave Winfield ranks as the greatest multisport athlete to emerge from the state of Minnesota. Drafted by five teams in five leagues in three major sports, Winfield chose baseball and compiled a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. At 6-feet-6 and 220 pounds, the powerfully-built right-hander wielded a menacing black […]

Imagine being stationed in center field when your team records the final out of the World Series. To experience that twice is less likely than pitching a perfect game or hitting 500 career homers.1 Even rarer – being in center field for clubs from both the American and National Leagues when they became champions, something […]

On September 16, 1976, Larry Landreth made his major-league debut with the Montreal Expos. In doing so, he became the first homegrown Canadian to play for a big-league team based in Canada.1 The 21-year-old hurler had quickly advanced through the Expos’ farm system, compiling a 44-32 record and a 3.10 ERA in his first four […]

With his spectacles and quiet demeanor, Vic Sorrell gave the impression of a professor or preacher instead of a baseball lifer. After a standout career as a high-school and collegiate star in North Carolina in the early 1920s, right-handed pitcher Sorrell debuted for the Detroit Tigers in 1928. Toiling during some of the team’s leanest […]

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 […]

In September 1970, amid a woeful stretch for Cleveland baseball, a David and Goliath battle played out in front of 7,857 fans in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The 97-win Orioles, who had already clinched the American League East, started Dave McNally in pursuit of his 24th victory. Cleveland gave local flamethrower Jim Rittwage his first big-league […]

In 1964 Johnny Pesky, longtime Boston Red Sox star, was in his second season as Red Sox manager. According to his SABR biography, Pesky “brought some fire to the position, after years of yawns under the likes of Pinky Higgins.”1 Boston had not posted a winning record since 1958. Since 1961, when the American League expanded […]

“We won the game, and we went back to the hotel. I woke up at 4 o’clock the next morning, sat up in bed and screamed as loud as I could. I knew I would never have a chance to do that [pitch a perfect game] again.” – Brian Holman1   In May 1989 the […]

The New York Mets were struggling as they entered July 1996. In fourth place in the National League East, trailing the division-leading Atlanta Braves by 14 games, New York called up Alex Ochoa from Triple-A Norfolk in the middle of June. Mets fans were looking for someone to spark the team and many felt that […]

In the spring of 1975, the Texas Rangers finally did with David Clyde what they should have done from the start: They sent the young pitcher to the minor leagues for seasoning. The Rangers, hungry for a box-office draw, had rushed the hard-throwing Houston-bred lefty to the big leagues just two weeks out of high […]

Hard-hitting first baseman Nate Colbert was the San Diego Padres’ first legitimate star. He was the team’s offensive leader for its first five seasons and a three-time All-Star (1971-73).1 After the 1973 season, general manager Peter Bavasi went to Colbert to get his blessing before he acquired 35-year-old Willie McCovey in a trade with the […]

It takes two to tango and two to mambo But you can do it all with just one Bombo Bombo Rivera will carry us to victory!— “The Ballad of Bombo Rivera”1   Expos outfielder Bombo Rivera sported a career batting average of .224 with no home runs and four RBIs when the game began. Yet […]