When Carl Erskine retired from baseball (read his obituary here), he had a number of business ventures, including the role of Vice President of the Madison County Record, the daily paper of his hometown of Anderson, IN. As such, it put him in a unique position of being an ex-ballplayer and a media professional when … Continue reading Carl Erskine’s Farewell to Ebbets Field
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 As we put a close on the year, it's time to remember the ballplayers and baseball notables that we lost in 2023. As of this writing, about 110 former major-leaguers died in 2023, plus AAGPBL players, umpires, executives and others from around the baseball … Continue reading 2023 In Memoriam (Part 1)
A group of SABR members and baseball fans got together this weekend to dedicate the new grave marker for 19th Century pitching star Bobby Mathews. Read on for more details of the celebration of Mathews’ life and his resting place at New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore.
If you look at Roger Craig's Baseball Reference page, you will see all the usual transactions listed -- signed, drafted, traded, released. Those are the expected parts of a ballplayer's career. You will, however, not see this listing: "October 1969: Hijacked from Los Angeles to Cuba." But it really happened. Craig and several other ballplayers … Continue reading Roger Craig’s Unplanned Trip to Cuba
As part of my exploring and photographing baseball graves, I ended up as the chair of the 19th Century Grave Marker Project, one of the many great committees and offshoots of SABR. Our group's mission is to preserve history by identifying 19th-Century ballplayers, pioneers and other noteworthy baseball figures who are in unmarked graves or … Continue reading Hick Carpenter’s grave is unmarked no longer
We touched a little on the relationship between Bill Dickey and Lou Gehrig in my recent Grave Story on Dickey. Not only were they roommates on the road, but they were also good friends, and Gehrig’s illness and death had a profound affect on Dickey. Though these are events that took place more than 80 … Continue reading From the Luckiest Man to a pariah
The Chicago White Sox have a long and frequently glorious history--with legendary teams, renowned players and memorable moments. But you lose one lousy World Series on purpose, and that's all anybody talks about. There's so much more to the White Sox than the fact that a bunch of their players threw the 1919 World Series. … Continue reading Losing to win: Tony La Russa & the 1981 split season
Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 Mike Sadek, 74 (d. Jan. 20): Mike Sadek spent 8 seasons as a backup catcher for the Giants, from 1973 to 1981. He saw his most action in 1980, when he hit .252 with a home run in 64 games. He joined the Giants front office as a … Continue reading In Memoriam 2021 (Part 4)
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4 Don Leppert, 90 (d. Jan. 5): Second baseman Don Leppert had 8 hits in 70 at-bats for the 1955 Baltimore Orioles. Originally a Yankee farmhand, Leppert was part of a 1954 trade that sent Don Larsen and Bob Turley to New York and Gus Triandos and Gene … Continue reading In Memoriam 2021 (Part 3)
Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 Chuck Dobson, 77 (d. Nov. 30): Chuck Dobson won 75 games for the Athletics and Angels between 1966 and 1975. He had a 15-5 record for Oakland in 1971, but an injury suffered toward the end of the year kept him off the team when it won … Continue reading In Memoriam 2021 (Part 2)
RIP Baseball 