Today Vince Jankoski returns with an interesting essay setting the record straight on who actually is the record holder for strikeouts in a major league game. It's not someone I ever would have guessed!...
This past Friday, January 19, 2024 was the sixty-first anniversary of Don Newcombe’s release from the Indians, bringing to a close his remarkable twelve-year major league career...
When my son Gordon and I began our Almost Cooperstown podcast nearly four years ago, we set out to put nine players in the Hall of Fame who had not been elected. This was in our very first episode, and Gordon put out Vern Stephens, a player with whom I was completely unfamiliar...
Forty-six years ago today, January 13, 1978, Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy passed away in a Buffalo hospital at age 90. We’re all familiar with Joe McCarthy’s success as the winningest manager in Yankee history from 1931-1946...
As I’ve said many times, whenever you look closely into a major leaguer's career, you'll invariably discover something interesting and/or unusual — something more other than just the bare statistical information found on the Baseball Reference website...
I recently had an interesting email exchange with Sue Tebbetts Mitchell, the daughter of baseball lifer, Birdie Tebbetts. I’m sure many of our “senior” readers will remember Birdie very well...
Today Bill Schaefer returns with a long-overdue tribute to slugger Ralph Kiner. If you ever had any doubts that Kiner is a legitimate Hall of Famer, as I once did, I think you'll be in for a surprise...
"Nobody liked our manager Rogers Hornsby. There was a real pr**k. Except for his racing forms, there was no newspapers, no movies, no beer, nothing. Women and horses, that was his downfall." - St. Louis Browns pitcher Les Tietje...
Today Michael Keedy takes us back into my favorite era, the Dead Ball Era, with his excellent essay featuring Mystery Player Number Six. As usual, the "Mystery" won't be too hard to solve for all our many astute baseball history aficionados...but I think you'll have some fun with it anyway...and you'll learn a lot about this often-overlooked, outstanding player to boot!...
With today being the 102nd anniversary of the birth of Warren Sphan (April 23, 1921), I thought it would be a good occasion to turn our baseball spotlight on the great left-hander...
As I’ve mentioned many times, we always love it when we’re contacted by a relative of a former major leaguer. It makes no difference if the player was a star or a sub...
I was recently reading about baseball oddities (including “The Most Unusual Home Run Ever!”) and it got me to thinking about some other unusual occurrences on the baseball diamond...
In perusing the National Pastime This Day in Baseball History website recently, I came across this interesting tidbit involving the great pinch-hitter Smoky Burgess...
Today we welcome back to the fold Michael Keedy with an interesting essay covering the long career of Charlie Grimm, calling him the original "Mr. Cub."...
I love going through the 1930s-'40s looking for stars who’ve been largely forgotten over the passage of time. And believe me, there’s plenty of them!...
I’ve learned over the years that whenever I write an essay for my website, Baseball History Comes Alive, it goes out to a wide audience. I never know exactly who it might reach or how it might affect someone...
I loved watching Don Mattingly play baseball. A flawless fielder and an imposing figure in the batter’s box: powerful sloping shoulders, intense concentration...