What he did: Here’s another interesting player I doubt many modern baseball fans have heard of. Maisel played in the big leagues from 1913 through 1918 and retired with largely unremarkable stats: a .242 lifetime batting average, 510 hits, and a career slugging percentage of .299. Supposedly, the New York Yankees turned down a chance to [...]

Here is the latest from Wednesday and Saturday contributor Joe Guzzardi. __________________ You may not believe it (I know I didn’t) but on April 22, 1959 , the Chicago White Sox on its way to a 20-6 triumph scored 11 runs on one hit against the Kansas City Athletics at the old Municipal Stadium .  A sparse crowd of 7,446 witnessed history. During [...]

Claim to fame: Browning was one of the first great stars of the game with his career that spanned 1882 to 1894. Among his numerous accomplishments, Browning won three batting titles, hit .402 in 1887, and finished with a career batting average of .341. That lifetime clip is 13th best all-time, and his career OPS+ of 162 [...]

Bob Usher is 85 and hasn’t played professional baseball in more than 50 years, but he hasn’t forgotten an infamous moment in Pacific Coast League history. On August 2, 1953, while with the Los Angeles Angels, Usher participated in a legendary brawl. I met Usher at the 16th annual Pacific Coast League reunion, held Saturday [...]

Here’s the latest from Joe Guzzardi, a regular Wednesday and Saturday contributor. Every Saturday, Joe writes “Double the fun,” looking at one memorable doubleheader each week. Today, Joe recounts a few famous performances from Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell. __________________ Venue: The Polo Grounds Date: Sunday, July 2, 1933 Teams: St. Louis Cardinals versus New York Giants Starting Pitchers: Game [...]

There are many paths in baseball to the Hall of Fame. A man can be enshrined as a player, a manager, or an owner, among other things. Interestingly, though, candidates who both played and managed don’t have these achievements judged together. Were rules different, a few more men might have plaques. Currently, a backlog exists [...]

What he did: Killebrew won six American League home run titles in an eleven-year stretch, on his way to smacking 573 lifetime bombs. He’s been supplanted on the career leader board in recent years by a variety of suspected and admitted steroid users, though Killebrew still at least rates as perhaps the greatest American League slugger [...]

Here’s the latest from Wednesday and Saturday contributor Joe Guzzardi. _________________ In my August 18 post about Lou Piniella , I wrote that during the 1978 season the tumultuous New York Yankees provided me with more entertaining moments than I ever experienced as a baseball fan. How could I have forgotten about the 1977 New York Mets ? During the summer [...]

Claim to fame: Quietly, Oliver may have been one of the best hitters of the 1970s and ’80s, amassing 2,743 hits and a .303 lifetime batting average, hitting above .300 eleven of his 18 seasons. Oliver had perhaps his best year in 1982 when he led the National League in hits, doubles, runs batted in, and [...]

I recently got an email from a regular reader worth sharing here. He wrote:

Do you know if anyone has done any research into the effects of the strength of schedule in evaluating teams and how good or how not so good they may be and the effect it has on individual player statistics? Think of [...]

Here is the latest edition of Double the fun , a Saturday feature here on famous doubleheaders by Joe Guzzardi. __________________ The Pittsburgh Pirates have baseball’s worst record. As of August 20 th,the Pirates with a 40-81 record are three games behind the resurgent Baltimore Orioles and, in the National League, trail the Arizona Diamondbacks by seven. Accordingly, we Pirate fans revert to our [...]

Game of Shadows: With Moneyball in production, one has to wonder what great baseball book may next become a film. My vote is the best work on the Steroid Era which documented the rises and falls of Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Marion Jones, while introducing characters like showboating steroid dealer Victor Conte and dumpster-diving IRS agent Jeff [...]