Of all the one-and-done players in the Baseball Encyclopedia, no one, not even Moonlight Graham, has as good a story as Jesse Baker. Underworld prizefight connections, Hollywood stunt doubles and Ty Cobb – Baker’s tale has it all! […]
Author: Gary Joseph Cieradkowski
Carl DeRose: Absolutely Perfect
After blowing out his arm, doctors told Carl DeRose that his baseball career was finished. Undaunted, the pitcher begged for one last chance to prove himself. On June 26, 1947 he did, and in doing so made baseball history. […]
Alta Weiss: The Wonder Girl
In 1907, a teenage girl defied the standards of the day by pitching for a men’s baseball team. A year later she was barnstorming across the Midwest, with 3,000 fans filling Cleveland’s League Park to see “The Girl Wonder” play ball. […]
George H.W. Bush: Farewell to Yale’s “Fancy Dan”
The freshman who tried out for the Yale baseball team in the Spring of 1947 wasn’t your typical college kid. The 22 year-old just left the U.S. Navy where he spent the last 3 years on an aircraft carrier flying torpedo bombers against the Japanese. Upon his discharge, he married his long-time girlfriend Barbara and entered Yale University. […]
A Paul Gillespie Signature Model Louisville Slugger
One of my best friends is a nephew of Paul Gillespie, catcher for the 1942-45 Chicago Cubs. Though he had a short career due to war service and then injury in the ’45 Series, Gillespie has his own special place in baseball history as one of just 2 players to hit home runs in their first AND last career at bats. And speaking of bats, look at what just came in the mail today… […]
Coming Attractions
I just wanted to say that I know it has been a month since I have posted a brand new story. It’s not that I have run out of material, or have gotten bored with The Infinite Baseball Card Set – both of those things are very, very far from the truth. The reason behind […]
Ralph Branca: Because he was strong enough.
No other moment in sports history comes close to that single game in October, 1951. Countless non-fiction books have been written about the ’51 pennant race, the game, what happened to the home run ball, and the players after the cheering died down. Thomson’s home run has been employed as a plot device for shelves of fiction novels and TV shows, and hardly an autobiography of a person alive in 1951 could escape mentioning where they were on that day. […]
Cy Malis: The best friend we dope fiends have
Cy’s single game for the 1934 Phillies earned him place in baseball history, but it is the rest of his story that makes him so much more interesting – navy veteran of World War II, survivor of an accident that almost rendered him paralyzed for life, Hollywood bit actor and, most intriguingly, a man who was affectionately called “the best friend we dope fiends have.” […]
Walt Malmquist: Correcting a Baseball Record
Since 1913, the name Walter Malmquist has sat atop the list of highest single-season batting averages. His .477 has become one of baseball’s iconic numbers as well as a record that has never been topped. But did he really hit .477? […]
In the On Deck Circle…
I’m just putting the finishing touches on my next story and illustration – a new look at Walt Malmquist’s 1913 Nebraska State League season. Who the heck is Malmquist and why should you care about his season in an obscure and defunct bush league? Well, for more than a century Walt Malmquist’s .477 has been touted as the highest recorded single-season batting average in professional baseball. Problem is, Walt Malmquist didn’t hit .477. […]