Chalmer “Bill” Cissell: The $123,000 Lemon

(Editor’s Note: The following first appeared on this site on October 27, 2009 and an abridged version appears in Baseball’s Untold History: The People) Twenty-four-year-old shortstop Chalmer “Bill” Cissell was so highly regarded by scout Danny Long in 1927 that he convinced White Sox owner Charles Comiskey to send what was estimated to be a […]

From the Archives: Remembering Denny Galehouse

The following was originally published on October 18, 2007. Tuesday night’s game reminded me of another tough decision a Red Sox manager had to make about who to pitch in a crucial game. Terry Francona chose rested, but still not completely healthy veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield to face the Indians in Game 4 of the […]

Happy Birthday, Doc Adams!!!

This morning I am getting ready to attend a celebration of a bicentennial. The last bicentennial I recall that I participated in any type of celebration was the 1976 celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I was nine and that year was the first World Series I remember watching. I bet my […]

Roger Peckinpaugh, Joe Cronin…Ian Desmond?

During the two decades when the Washington Nationals fielded quality Major League teams (1912-1933), the infield was invariably anchored by excellent shortstop. Clark Griffith, as manager and owner of the team during those years, valued the gritty ballplayer who could do it all and his on-the-field leaders included such great players as George McBride, Roger […]

NJBM Kids’ Hot Korner: Ozzie Smith

Hey baseball fans! I just put up my latest post in the Kids’ Hot Korner section of New Jersey Baseball Magazine. This one is about Ozzie Smith, one of the greatest defensive shortstops ever and a Hall of Famer. If you want to read more about Ozzie, just click here.   Thanks for reading the article. I hope you […]

My Top Five Most Notorious Records in Baseball History

Hey baseball fans! There are some records in baseball history that everyone strives to break: Rickey Henderson‘s stolen bases and runs scored records, Nolan Ryan‘s strikeout record, or Cy Young‘s wins record. However, there are some records that no one would ever want to break. With that, I give you my top five most notorious records in baseball […]

Touring The Bases With…Greg Pryor

A two-time All-American at Florida Southern College from 1969-70, Greg Pryor became the first FSC Moccasin to make it to the major leagues when he debuted for the Texas Rangers on June 4, 1976.  Pryor was a sixth round draft pick of the Washington Senators in 1971 and spent parts of six seasons in the […]

Astros Hit Bottom in July

The Astros picked up their first July win on July 3 and closed out the month with an 11-0 win over Baltimore on July 31.  However, they only won four games in between resulting in a 6-18 record for the month, the worst in the major leagues. The Astro finished the month with a record […]

How Is This as Handsome Reward for 19 Indy Grads? They Are on Pace to Top $37 Million in Majors

Does it pay for an aspiring major leaguer who goes undrafted or needs to re-energize his career to play in an Independent league? And how!  Think about earning salaries totaling more than $37 million for the regular 2013 season.  Pay is prorated for most everyone, of course, so if a player is only in the […]

Clearing The Bases

The position of shortstop is traditionally weak, and this year is no exception.  The first 3-4 players are studs, next two I wouldn’t mind having, then everyone else is pretty much a dartboard throw, hoping they help me more than they hurt me.  What I mean by that is that if I take someone like […]

Would Korean War Casualty Carl Tumlinson Have Replaced the Ageing Pee Wee Reese as the Dodgers Shortstop?

The Dodgers Hall of Fame shortstop, Pee Wee Reese, played his last full season at that position in 1956, aged 37. Charlie Neal (1957) then Don Zimmer (1958) were his immediate replacements. Not until the emergence of Maury Wills in 1960 did the Dodgers have a shortstop who, in any way, resembled the great Pee […]

Chatting with the Royals’ Christian Colon

A long spate of losing seasons has put the Kansas City Royals in the position of drafting high in the MLB drafts over the past two-plus decades. However, it has only been recently that the organization has been recognized for accumulating one of the best collections of prospects in the game, with the hope that […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1910 & 1911 Negro Leagues

This week we’ve added the 1910 and 1911 Negro leagues to the DB.  This gives us the pleasure of presenting statistics for one of black baseball’s great teams, the Chicago Leland Giants of 1910.  Led by Pete Hill and John Henry Lloyd, both in their prime, a 37-year-old Grant Johnson, and the brilliant pitching of […]

A New Beginning for Astros in April

While the Astros 9-14 record in April was a disappointment, it was better than the last 2 Aprils and there were some encouraging signs.  The Astros outscored their opposition104-100 which should have equated to a record of about 12-11. It is still too soon to determine if young players like Jose Altuve, J.D.Martinez, Jordan Schafer, […]

When Is The Fan Going To Think About These Things?

“They are governed by private associations or corporations by a minimum number of promoters or sports clubs or both classes, to promote, sponsor and organize a sport and will boost programs of public and social interest”. The above is the concept of “League”, so it cannot include the Negro Leagues as this kind of association—simply […]

Produced Before Steroids: Happy Felsch’s Great Clouts in 1914

Oscar “Happy” Felsch was a Milwaukee boy who came to the American Association Brewers in August 1913, after playing with the Milwaukee/Fond du Lac Mollys of the Wisconsin-Illinois League. In the W-I League Felsch had hit .337, including 10 home runs, in 49 games—mostly as a shortstop. He only managed to hit .183 in for […]

Not With a Bang

It is over: Alan Craig squeezes the fly in his mitt and at the mound the Cardinals, the team from out of nowhere, (yes, the Cardiac Cardinals, and why hasn’t someone used this tag already?) pile on. They are the champions of baseball for 2011. I had thought that the Cardinals might win Game Seven.  […]

Roy Smalley, Jr.—A Baseball Classic

This past week baseball lost Roy Smalley, Jr., another member of the World War II generation that has been rapidly slipping away in recent years. He was a player, a manager, an armed services veteran, and the father of Roy Smalley III, also a major leaguer. He was part of a vanishing generation that played […]

A Conversation with Oakland A’s Prospect J.C. Menna

Baseball requires a player to master a lot of athletic skill and precision. Most successful players focus on a specific position, either as a hitter or pitcher, so they can consistently improve on the necessary abilities.  Thus it must be daunting for those about to enter professional baseball to be asked to completely change what […]

The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 4

In this article (the last in this series), I will present the Level 5 players who posted Hall of Fame numbers during the 20th century.  In Levels 1 through 4, there were eighty-eight (88) position players who had a CAWS career score of at least 280.  In Level 5, we have the other twenty-eight (28) […]

You Can Bank on It

In 1967, Louis Armstrong recorded “What a Wonderful World.” Do you think Armstrong naturally believed that about everything? Most likely not, but he made a decision to view life with optimism. While Armstrong dazzled the jazz circuit, Ernie Banks shared a similar view on the baseball diamond. “Let’s play two,” Banks said. A combination of […]

19th Century Overlooked Base Ball Legends Project — And the 2011 Candidates are…

The Nineteenth Century Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research conducted its annual election to name the 19th Century Overlooked Base Ball Legend for 2011. Previous elections were won by Pete Browning (2009) and Deacon White (2010). There were seven holdovers from the 2010 ballot and three newcomers, George Gore, Paul Hines and Dickey […]

Clearing The Bases: Shortstops

Today, or tonight depending upon when you are reading this, we will finish up our look at the middle infielders with a look at our top 15 shortstops.  There is not a lot to like here as this position has two outstanding players, then maybe three or four other players you wouldn’t mind having, then […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: NL West – San Francisco Giants

2010 NL Rookie of the Year, Buster Posey San Francisco Giants (2010 record: 92-70) Notable additions: SS Miguel Tejada Notable subtractions: SS Edgar Renteria, INF Juan Uribe The offense: Catcher: Buster Posey Infield: Aubrey Huff (1B), Freddie Sanchez (2B), Miguel Tejada (SS) and Pablo Sandoval (3B) Outfield: Mark DeRosa (LF), Andres Torres (CF), Cody Ross […]

New Years, Hak-Ju Lee, & Resolutions

I like to kick off each season with a “Bucket List.” This list gets posted in my home office for the entirety of the season – sometimes I’ll even add to it as the season goes and as I find new adventures to fulfill. With the new year just beginning and watching everyone try to adhere to […]

“It’s Not Personal, Sonny. It’s Strictly Business”

Much has been written about the Derek Jeter situation. I was talking to my brother-in-law last week about it, and I brought up some relevant and relatively obscure illustrative points. One, that I love, is Tom Seaver’s incredulity at ownership’s shock that players, the most competitive people on Earth, were equally fierce at the bargaining […]

Yankees & Jeter: Where Business Meets Baseball

Pretend for a moment that you are the general manager of a Major League Baseball team. You have a bunch of money coming off the books this offseason, and your job is simple: Get your team to the World Series. As you enter the offseason, you have your priorities. In your particular situation, you need […]

Boulter and Guilmette garner league honors

Dave Brust knows baseball talent when he sees it. The Yankee skipper saw plenty of talent clad in pinstripes this summer. That being said, there are only so many post-season awards to hand out. Those getting the honor represent a team of quality players. 

Part Two: The Story Of The 1888-1889 New York Giants

Every player was smiling when the New York Giants departed the bus that had brought them home from St. Louis, where they had just captured the franchise’s first World Series. Even President John Day, who was feeling the effects of a flu he’d contracted on the trip, was in a talkative mood about the series. […]

Part One: The Story Of The 1888-1889 New York Giants

March 8, 1888 was the day the New York Giants arrived in Jacksonville, Florida to begin preparation for the upcoming National League season. The team, entering its sixth year of play in professional baseball, was coming off an 1887 season which saw them finish 4th in the National League. There was, however, plenty of reason […]

César Gutiérrez bateó de 7-7 el 21 de junio de 1970. A cuarenta años de siete inspiraciones. (Forty years ago Cesar Gutierrez hit 7-7 in an MLB game)

Mientras observaba el juego desde la cueva de los Tigres, César Gutiérrez ajustaba los cordeles de su guante. Un fuerte olor de alcanfor lo transportó por un momento al otoño de 1969. Estaba preparando su equipaje para regresar a Venezuela. Había terminado la temporada en AAA con el Phoenix de los Gigantes de San Francisco. En ese momento llamó el gerente general de los Gigantes. “Fuiste vendido a los Tigres de Detroit. Quieren que viajes allá cuanto antes”.

Webster Pounds The Power

Maybe Dave Brust’s Webster Yankees just needed some rest. A recent scheduling irregularity idled the pinstripes for three of four days between Tuesday and Friday. The home nine made good on the time off and put their recent woes in the rear view mirror.

A Father’s Day Salute

I suppose this is the perfect time to thank my father for turning me on to baseball, for taking me to Fenway Park when I was a kid, and for not only teaching me how to play the game, but also how to appreciate the game.  I remember the time when I was younger when […]

Washington Is a Baseball Town (Again)

At the top of the seventh inning the crowd began the chant, “Let’s Go Stras-burg” to the same cadence that fans in DC have grown tired of listening to from Philly, Dodger, Red Sox and just about anywhere fans.  But this chant was all DC and it grew and built.  “Let’s Go Stras-burg” the entire […]

Another Brick in the Wall

Is Strasburg’s looming debut next Tuesday more important for the future of the Nationals, or Roy Oswalt’s admission on Tuesday of this week, that he would accept a trade to Washington? The two are inextricably linked.  Oswalt’s view that there are good things going on in Washington redounds to the excitement Strasburg is generating, but […]

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