In 1913, millionaire Emory Titman was told by his doctor he had 12 months to live. Pledging to live life to its fullest, Emory set about spending every last nickel on banquets, boxing, broads, and his favorite, BASEBALL! […]
Tag: MLB
Jim Bunning: A Perfect Father’s Day
What’s a better way to celebrate Father’s Day than throwing a no-hit COMPLETE GAME? Phillies ace Jim Bunning did just that back in 1964… […]
Pee Wee Reese: A Shortstop Grows in Louisville
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. […]
Frank “Dins” Makosky: The Johnny Appleseed of the Forkball
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… […]
Doc Sykes: Spitballs, Civil Rights, and Dentistry
Doc Sykes was one of the more interesting men to have played in the Negro Leagues. A star college athlete, Sykes was the ace of the Baltimore Black Sox when not practicing dentistry, and went on to become a Civil Rights hero. […]
Minnie Miñoso: Cuba to Cooperstown via the Negro Leagues
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. […]
Eddie Kazak: Bayoneted, buried and blown up, but not broken
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. […]
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. […]
Mickey Mantle: Got Those Kansas City Blues
Along with the weight of being Joe DiMaggio’s successor, Mickey Mantle also had to endure being labeled a draft dodger, steering clear of shyster businessmen, avoiding exploding fireworks, and most of all, keeping from being sent back to the minors. […]