1929 All-Star Game: Junior Loop Wins Second Straight All-Star Tilt

JUNIOR LOOP WINS SECOND STRAIGHT ALL-STAR TILT, REGAINS LEAD IN SERIES Combs, Foxx Lead Swatsmiths  TEAMS COMBINE FOR 17  RUNS AND 32 SAFETIES ST. LOUIS, July 9.—The Americans and Nationals battled to a 5 to 5 tie through four and a half frames before the juniors pushed four more across the dish in the bottom […]

Hardly a Miracle

Even before the Boston Braves completed their historic comeback from a 15-game deficit on July 4 to overtake the New York Giants, win the National League pennant going away and sweep the heavily-favored Philadelphia Athletics in the 1914 World Series, manager George Stallings was being called the “Miracle Man.” After only 13 games, 10 of […]

Wamby Pulls a Dandy

Hey baseball fans! I’m pretty sure you’ve all heard of a triple play before, but have you also heard of an unassisted triple play? If you haven’t, let me explain: an unassisted triple play is when one player on the field makes all three outs of a triple play without any help, for example no […]

Off the Beaten Basepaths #5: Lefty Grove’s Home Town

Lefty Grove was born in the mountain town of Lonaconing, Maryland which is the focus of this installment of Off the Beaten Basepaths. Lefty was the American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1931 and his trophy resides in the George’s Creek Library in Lonaconing. It’s the only MVP trophy not in private hands or at […]

The Powerful Pachyderms

Hey baseball fans! Here’s the next blog about one of the greatest rosters in baseball history: Have you ever heard of the great manager Connie Mack? In case you haven’t, Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901 to 1950! During that span, he led the A’s to nine AL pennants and five World Series victories. Mack has […]

A Grooved Pitch—Hall of Famer vs. Three Game Cup of Coffee Youngster

On Sunday, May 26, 1912, the sixth place American Association Milwaukee Brewers opened a series against the second place Minneapolis Millers, facing future Hall of Fame member Rube Waddell. The eccentric Waddell is known to most baseball fans. Although on the downside of his career, he was still a pitcher to be reckoned with. During […]

The Glory Days: Stocking the Angels and Senators

On December 14, 1960, an expansion draft was held to stock the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators. The eight American League teams were required to pull seven players apiece from active rosters (as of August 31, 1960) and eight additional players from their 40-man rosters and make them available for the draft. The Senators […]

A Best Of Collection of Favorite Obscure Baseball Players

A year ago I started a project on my blog of asking people to name their favorite obscure baseball figure from the past: not exclusively players, but anyone employed by the game. The volume of responses (many came from the now-defunct Baseball-Reference blog) surprised me, and led me to start the project up again this […]

19 to 21…Life Imitates Baseball

Volume 9, #19 About 30 years ago, the Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell brought out his first book, “How Life Imitates the World Series.” Boswell had a good point, but he stopped short of the essential truth. While life DOES imitate the World Series, it would be more comprehensive, and accurate, to say that life imitates […]

The Memorial Day Brawl of 1932

Administrative duties have kept me from writing much lately, so I thought I’d dust off an article I wrote for Memorial Day 2009. Enjoy! Twelve years after the Black Sox scandal decimated the White Sox and led to lifetime bans of eight players, a postgame brawl with umpire George Moriarty on Memorial Day 1932 could […]

Only a Friend Would Know

Learned. The dictionary defines the adjective “learned” as “having much knowledge”; “acquired by experience.” Yep, I’d say 95 years of life qualified Elden Auker. This week, read the righty’s take on baseball’s biggest stars along with proud and humbling moments from his years around the game. “Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms“ by Elden Auker with […]

Strat: ’94 Expos Dominate Fall Classic, Sweep the ’31 A’s

The 1994 Montreal Expos will go down in history as one of the ultimate “What If?” teams after jumping out to a 74-40 record through their first 114 games, a .649 winning percentage, 105-win pace and a possible date with destiny before a work stoppage kept them from finishing what they started. Thanks to the […]

Marvelous Mack

Connie Mack, “The Tall Tactician”, Major League Baseball’s longest-tenured manager for 50 seasons with the Philadelphia A’s, employer of the $100,000 infield. If ever you wanted to discover something about Mack or the dawn of baseball, chances are you will find it in “Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball“ by Norman L. Macht. […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Four

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.”  Part two featured an […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Two

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers.  This time around, I’m traveling back to the Deadball Era when pitchers still dominated the game and runs were hard to come by.  It wasn’t until the “Roaring […]

Black Ball, Both Real and Imaginary

I’ve never been a huge fan of baseball fiction. The game’s natural mythology and unforgettable luminaries since the turn of last century is so rich and entertaining by itself that I never felt a need to delve into stories and characters separate from the real ones. I did make an exception for W. P. Kinsella’s […]

An All-Star Team of ex-Major Leaguers in Their 90s

A recent quick visit to Wikipedia produced a list of the ex-major leaguers who are 90 and up, and from there it was an easy process to put together an All-Star lineup for these guys, practically all of whom starred in the ’40s. I’m offering it for consideration and debate: Catcher: Mike Sandlock, who spent […]

More Interesting Research Finds

One of the pleasures of doing research for a book or article is the discovery of interesting facts that have nothing to do with what’s being researched, but demand attention.  Here are more interesting and odd research finds that I’ve discovered over the years. Famous Last Words October 19, 1912: When Philadelphia Athletics magnate Connie […]