Feb 28, 2018
Like the rest of America, Major League Baseball was overrun in the early 1980s by cocaine, culminating in a massive trial in Pittsburgh where seven players testified against their dealers. Thirty-two years ago this week, on February 28, 1986, Peter Ueberroth suspended all seven, and four others, to prove the league was...
Feb 21, 2018
Major League Baseball rarely faces a realistic challenge to its hegemony, but, 72 years ago this week, Danny Gardella became the first American-born player to sign with Jorge Pasquel's Mexican League, touching off a short war that challenged the reserve clause, increased salaries at home and abroad, and wound up...
Feb 14, 2018
In 1946, 72 years ago this week, Edith Houghton walked into the Phillies office with a binder of press clippings and asked for a job. Team owner Bob Montgomery reportedly hired her on the spot, making her the first professional scout in Major League history who also was a woman. Mike and Bill welcome special guest Meg...
Feb 7, 2018
On February 7, 1898, St. Louis Browns owner Chris von der Ahe left to dine at a local hotel. He never arrived, instead spirited away to Pittsburgh. Mike looks at von der Ahe's strange and inspiring life from his early days as a German immigrant to his kidnapping/arrest to his ultimate downfall. It's a story...
Feb 1, 2018
In 1951, Bill Veeck bought the Browns and tried to run the Cardinals out of St. Louis, but was thwarted. The reason why? Cardinals owner Fred Saigh's impending jail term for tax evasion. Mike and Bill go through the truly weird story of how the Cardinals almost left the city for Houston or Milwaukee, and how the...