There was no more famous Baltimore Oriole than Babe Ruth. The 19 year-old got his start with Jack Dunn’s Birds, and between Dunn and catcher Ben Egan, Ruth quickly developed into the hottest pitcher in the minor leagues. However, competition from the Federal League led Jack Dunn to sell his greatest find, causing a lifetime of resentment and the reason why he would hold on to so many of his stars long past the time they should have gone to the major leagues. […]
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? […]
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. […]
When Jackie Robinson integrated the International League in 1946, there were 52 minor leagues operating in North America. It was up to 51 other strong individuals to be the first in the other 51 leagues. Mickey Stubblefield was one of them. […]
Among the 200,000 U.S. Army soldiers that stormed ashore on the Philippine island of Leyte in November of 1944 was a 24 year-old staff sergeant named Milt Rosenstein. Just three years earlier he had a spectacular first season in professional ball, winning 20 games, led his league in strikeouts and pitched the Miami Beach Flamingos to the Florida East Coast League Championship. […]
In 1938, a teenage shortstop straight out of a city church league emerged as the best shortstop in the minors, a prospect so highly regarded that the Boston Red Sox bought the entire Louisville Colonels franchise just so they could have him. […]
Yankees manager Joe McCarthy knew the only way to win the 1936 World Series was by neutralizing Carl Hubbell’s screwball. None of his players had faced a screwballer all year, and that was a problem. Fortunately, McCarthy had the answer… […]
When the teenage Orestes Miñoso approached the manager of the Ambrosia Candy Company baseball team for a tryout, little did he know that it would be the beginning of a career that would span four countries and last seven decades. […]
One can almost hear the voices of 10 year-old boys repeating the name “MEMO LUNA!” as they expectantly thumbed through a freshly opened pack of the new 1954 Bowman bubble gum cards. While coming across a Ray Katt, Gil Coan or Mel Hoderlein would have merited merely a grunt or groan, even the most jaded 10 year-old boy had to admit that “Memo Luna” had an alluring ring to it. […]
Baseball’s great for providing examples of how to overcome adversity and succeed – some are well-known like Jackie Robinson and Pete Gray – but I’ve always drawn my inspiration from a now-forgotten ballplayer named Eddie Kazak. […]