Frustrated with his loyalty being rewarded by being replaced with a bonus-baby college kid who couldn’t hit the side of a barn with his fastball, Tommy Lasorda’s frustration erupted into what became known as “The Fight of ‘57.” […]
The first Mexican-born player to make the major leagues had it all: blazing speed, flashy fielding, and a hot bat. But a bad head beaning and non-stop brushback pitches ended his big league career almost as soon as it began. […]
In the summer of 1951, a fireballing right-hander imported all the way from Costa Rica helped pitch a small-town team deep in the Kentucky mountains to an unforgettable minor league pennant […]
Five years ago, he was the National League’s strikeout king. Now Van Lingle Mungo was in a warehouse hiding behind cases of Ron Stacola Rum waiting to be smuggled out of Cuba on a seaplane. What the hell happened? […]
78 years ago today, Jackie Robinson stepped up to the plate in Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium and broke the minor league color line that had stood since 1899…
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Lt. Robinson roamed the athletic fields of Camp Breckinridge, wondering what he would do after he was discharged from the army. Fortunately, a chance encounter with a fellow soldier held the answer… […]
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. […]
It seemed like some crazed pulp magazine story, but it was really happening. The co-pilot was no match for the crazed passenger who now hammered on his body with ham-sized fists until he slumped to the cabin floor. Now nothing stood between him and the pilot. […]
He was bombastic, flamboyant, a genius when sober, brilliant when he had one drink and a raving lunatic when he had too many. With the energy and recklessness of a Category 5 hurricane, Larry MacPhail got stuff done. […]
From semipro sandlots to the big league World Series, if your ball club needed a victory you put out the call for Win Ballou. For more than a quarter century this quirky relief pitcher from Appalachia consistently lived up to his name. […]