Denny McLain and the Raccoon That Changed Baseball History*
*Or did it? One of the more curious, and disturbing, episodes in baseball history came at the end of the 1967 season, during one of the closest pennant races ever. And it occurred in the time without...
View ArticleArmbrister-Fisk and a Tale of Two Collisions
On October 14, 1975 two collisions occurred that held interest for the people of New England. One would be of such gravity and magnitude that it would continue to be discussed with great emotion 40...
View ArticleChemistry 101: Why an Extremely Talented Twins Team Failed to Win the 1967...
Team chemistry is one of those nebulous terms often tossed about by sportswriters. Like industrial chemistry, when it’s good, often no one notices, but when it’s bad, it leads to a huge pile of...
View ArticleSay What You Will About Shoeless Joe, But These Things Ain’t So
News arrived this week that Major League Baseball has once again turned down an appeal to reinstate Shoeless Joe Jackson. This continues a tradition going back to 1951 when Happy Chandler failed to...
View ArticleUnforgettable Ryne Duren
Ryne Duren was one of my all-time favorite baseball characters. His reputation was legendary and has been the basis for several fictional movie baseball players. When first discovered in the tiny...
View ArticlePre-Integration Era Committee Releases 2016 Candidates For Baseball Hall of...
First, let me state categorically that I love the Baseball Hall of Fame; love the history, love the tree-lined streets of Cooperstown in the summer, love the beauty of Lake Otsego, love everything...
View ArticleGee, Thanks Brooks: Robinson Gives Away Fortune in Memorabilia to Charity
In 1971 Brooks Robinson, fresh off the greatest individual World Series domination in baseball history, visited the Massachusetts studio of Norman Rockwell. It was a classic pairing: the man who...
View ArticleRevisiting the Four Greatest Living: Are They Really the Greatest?
I’ll admit that I’m a sappy sentimentalist when it comes to seeing baseball’s old timers. Who could forget Ted Williams’ appearance at the 1999 All Star Game? And so I was looking forward to Major...
View ArticleJoe, You Shoulda Made Us Proud: The Disappointing Baseball Career of Joe...
In the annals of baseball history, one name stands tall and resolute when it comes to futility: Joe Shlabotnik. But surprisingly the Joe Shlabotnik story is not one of failure, but of hope, loyalty and...
View ArticleAll-Time Best Lines From Baseball Movies
Although the weather has started to warm up some places and baseball teams have gathered in camps across Florida and Arizona, we are still awaiting the start of baseball games for 2016. While we wait,...
View ArticleThe Last Ride of Baseball’s Dalton Gang
According to history books, the outlaw Dalton Gang terrorized the old west for several years in the 1890s. Baseball had its own version of the Dalton Gang in the 1950s and early 1960s and–at least...
View ArticleA Conversation With Former Negro League All-Star Ernie Johnson
I had the opportunity and good fortune to interview former Negro League All-Star Ernie Johnson a few years ago. Ernie was one of those guys who was perhaps just a few years ahead of his time. Johnson...
View ArticleReviewing the Pete Rose Literature
Pete Rose frequently said that he wrote more books than he read and that is probably true. He has had more major release books published than any baseball player of his era. With Cincinnati fans...
View ArticleForty Years Ago The Bird Had His Coming Out Party on a Monday Night
Forty years. Does it seem that long? Not to those who witnessed it. They can remember the emotion–and fun–just like it was yesterday. June 28, 1976 Mark Fidrych, aka The Bird, had the biggest coming...
View ArticleMilt Pappas: It Wasn’t His Fault
Milt Pappas: It Wasn’t His Fault Before we discuss anything else about Milt Pappas, know this: it wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t help that the man for whom he was traded went on to hit 49 home runs, win...
View ArticleThe Turbulent Life and High Times of Hank Thompson, Major League Baseball’s...
We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon. Few players in baseball history ever embodied Gwendolyn Brooks’ classic poem–every...
View ArticleSay it Wasn’t So: When Shoeless Joe Jackson Became Baseball’s Number One...
Here’s one you may not have heard: how Shoeless Joe Jackson was briefly turned into America’s most-scorned draft-dodger in World War 1. It’s true, but as with all Shoeless Joe stories, some work is...
View ArticleThe Ballad of Mr. Cub and Leo the Lip
The Ballad of Mr. Cub and Leo the Lip It was one of the most intriguing matchups in baseball history. Ernie Banks and Leo Durocher–thrown together in the same clubhouse. Rarely have two more disparate...
View ArticleHow Ernie Banks Revolutionized the Position of Shortstop
*And where did those home runs come from? One of the unfortunate byproducts of Ernie Banks’ Mr. Cub image being so great is that sometimes it obscures exactly how good of a player he was in his prime,...
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