Monty Stratton, Jimmy Stewart, and Hollywood

When The Stratton Story premiered in 1949, movie audiences without even a tangential interest in baseball became engrossed in the story of a champion whose determination serves as a model of courage.  Monty Stratton played a key role on the pitching staff of the...

The Saga of Eddie Gaedel

On August 19, 1951, Eddie Gaedel strode to home plate in a St. Louis Browns uniform adorned with the fraction 1/8 rather than a whole number, signifying his physical stature similar to that of the folks who set Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road. Gaedel’s cup of...

The Black Sox: Fact vs. Fiction

Eliot Asinof’s 1963 book Eight Men Out provided the source material for the eponymous 1988 movie written and directed by John Sayles, who also played sportswriter Ring Lardner.  Starring Charlie Sheen, John Cusack, Bill Irwin, Gordon Clapp, Clifton James,...

The 18-Inning Game

From 1928 to 1943, Carl Hubbell, a New York Giants pitcher who enjoyed the nickname “The Meal Ticket” because of his prowess on the mound, built a Hall of Fame career on his left arm.  Pitching against the St. Louis Cardinals on July 2, 1933, Hubbell added...

The Midnight Massacre

Not since 1957, when the Dodgers and the Giants vacated Brooklyn and Manhattan, respectively, had baseball in New York City suffered an emotional blow equivalent to the impact on June 15, 1977, when the New York Mets committed an unpardonable sin in the eyes of the...