Roy “Tex” Sanner’s 1948 minor league season was one for the ages: winning 21 games while also taking home the Triple Crown for batting. So why did Tex Sanner not appear in a single major league game? […]
Category: Minor League Home Run Champs
Steve Bilko: The Legend of Stout Steve
The energy-sapping weight loss programs the St. Louis Cardinals’ coaches insisted on seemed to block any success Steve Bilko hoped to achieve in baseball – that is until a minor league manager left him alone to do what he did best: hit the ball. […]
Fran Boniar: The greatest hitter you never heard of
Of the 15 players who recorded the highest single-season batting averages in the minors, more than half made it to the majors, and only one name appears twice – yet, he is not one of the players who got the call to The Show…
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Nick Cullop: Triumph & Tragedy in Atlanta
Anyone who’s done their share of baseball research by culling through old newspapers knows how easy it is to get sidetracked by an interesting article totally unrelated to the thing you’re looking for. That’s what happened when I was going through a 1925 Dallas sports page and stumbled on an Associated Press article that caused me to abandon what I was originally searching for and set my artistic sights on an obscure outfielder whose major league career totaled just 173 games spread over 5 mediocre seasons with 5 different teams. […]
Shags Horan: Challenging Ty Cobb, and living to tell the story
The rest of the Yankees were content with baiting Ty Cobb from their dugout – all except a 29 year-old rookie named Shags Horan. The big, gold-toothed Irishman scooped up a handful of Navin Field turf and threw it in Cobb’s face. Both teams braced themselves for Cobb’s retaliation… […]
Bunny Brief: The Long Story
I figured of all the players in my Minor League Home Run Champions Series, Bunny Brief would be the easiest to research. Since the guy is co-owner of the record for most minor league home run crowns in a career (8), I had assumed that someone would have written a book, or a chapter in a book, or for God’s sake at least an extensive article on the guy – but sadly, no one has – until now. […]
Mose Solomon: The Rabbi of Swat
Mose Solomon’s popularity with baseball historians stems not just for his tremendous 1923 season with Hutchinson in which he belted 49 homers, but also from his being one of the first baseball stars who openly acknowledged his Jewish faith. This combination of power and religion earned him the unforgettable nickname of “The Rabbi of Swat.” […]
Jack Kloza: Home Runs, Mosquitos, Hats and the Rockford Peaches
Like so many of the players I write about, I found Jack Kloza while searching for something else. And, like so many of the outsiders I write about, what at first just seemed like a marginal career highlighted by a brief cup of coffee in the majors, turned out to be a very interesting tale on so many levels. I was drawn to this fella because the grainy 1936 newspaper article I found showed a guy who looked remarkably like a young Charles Bronson. […]
Buzz Arlett: Another Babe Ruth of the Minor Leagues
Today there would never be a “Babe Ruth of the Minor Leagues.” Once a player starts making headlines in AA or AAA he’s called up before the ink dries on the sports page. However, back in the 1920’s and 30’s, it was a different game and many guys like Buzz Arlett were doomed to spend their career just shy of the big time, remembered only as another “The Babe Ruth of the Minor Leagues.” […]
Ollie Carnegie: The Bambino of Buffalo
A late start to his career and appendicitis kept Ollie Carnegie firmly entrenched in the minor leagues. Accepting that he’d never be a big leaguer, Carnegie finished in the top five in home runs four out his first five seasons in Buffalo, cementing his reputation as “The Bambino of Buffalo.” […]