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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

Commissioner Ford C. Frick presided over 14 of the most turbulent years in the game’s history: the first franchise moves in half a century, expansion of the major leagues, the near-death of the minors, growing unrest among players, the rise of television, and the exploding popularity of football. With change swirling around him, Frick often […]

Through the 2021 season, 29 of the 30 major-league teams have started a shortstop from the Dominican Republic on Opening Day at least once.1 Fifty-two different Dominican-born shortstops have achieved the feat, including 15 who became All-Stars the same year, four Gold Glove winners, and one MVP.2 Only Rafael Robles of the 1969 San Diego […]

John I. Taylor is one of the most controversial figures in Boston Red Sox history. After Boston won the first 20th-century World Series in 1903, American League president Ban Johnson faced a dilemma. The Boston championship team was owned and operated by Midwestern interests. Johnson wisely decided that the team should be sold to a […]

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 […]

Herm Winningham’s professional career lasted 13 seasons. Yet only after the third time that he was a first-round draft pick did the speedy outfielder sign and turn pro. He played in the majors with four teams from 1984 through 1992. A skillful defender and bunter, Winningham got into 868 games at the top level, starting […]

Tommy Moore was drafted as an outfielder but made it to the majors as a pitcher. He appeared with four teams in parts of four seasons from 1972 through 1977, posting a won-lost record of 2-4 and an ERA of 5.40 in 42 games, largely in relief. “He would have been a great candidate for […]

When the Houston Astros signed Andújar Cedeño out of the Dominican Republic in 1986, their manager, Hal Lanier, said what many were thinking: “He’s got a lot to live up to.”1 After all, Dominicans Joaquín Andújar and César Cedeño (no relation) had each been big-league standouts. Although Andújar Cedeño never became an All-Star like his […]

“Gary [Bell] has come up with a good nickname for Freddy Velázquez,” wrote Jim Bouton in Ball Four. “Freddy just sits there in the bullpen, warming up pitchers, and he never gets into a game and just looks sad. So, Gary calls him Poor Devil.”1 Although Velázquez saw action in just 21 major-league games for […]

Eldon John “Rip” Repulski was a major-league ballplayer from Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, who enjoyed storytelling. This was especially true after his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox came to a close in 1961, and Rip eventually opened a cocktail lounge on St. Germain Street in St. Cloud, […]

Hub Pruett was an unassuming lefty with a screwball so good that Babe Ruth once told him, “If all pitchers were like you, no one would have heard of me.”1 But Pruett’s peak was brief. It served merely as the prologue to a lengthy and remarkable career outside the game. Hubert Shelby Pruett was born […]

The Minnesota Twins have called Target Field home since 2010. (COURTESY OF STEW THORNLEY)   The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have long been a baseball mecca. The Minneapolis Millers and St. Paul Saints were Triple-A mainstays, and each had a long and distinguished history, being the two teams with the most wins […]

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 […]

Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller): “What the hell did you trade Jay Buhner for?! He had 30 home runs [sic], over 100 RBIs last year. He’s got a rocket for an arm. You don’t know what the hell you’re doing!!” George Steinbrenner (Larry David): “Well, Buhner was a good prospect, no question about it. But my […]