“BOYS OF SUMMER” SERIES Harry Staley Henry Eli Staley was born on November 3, 1866 in Jacksonville, Illinois and went on to lay baseball from 1888-1895 for four different teams. As a pitcher he was 136-119 with a 3.80 ERA along with 746 strikeouts. On June 1, 1893, Staley had nine runs batted…
BOB TURLEY Robert Lee Turley (September 19, 1930 – March 30, 2013), known as “Bullet Bob”, played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a pitcher from 1951 through 1963. He was raised in East St. Louis, Illinois. He attended East St. Louis Senior High School in East St. Louis, and played for…
Earl Hamilton Earl Andrew Hamilton was born on July 19, 1891 in Gibson City, Illinois He was a left-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Browns (1911–16, later in 1916–17), Detroit Tigers (1916), Pittsburgh Pirates (1918–23), and the Philadelphia Phillies (1924). He played his first major league game on April 14, 1911. Through…
Born as Edwin Elliott Carnett on October 21, 1916 in Springfield Missouri, he went on the be a major league pitcher/outfielder for three different teams. He made his major league debut on April 19, 1941 as a pitcher in the second game of a doubleheader. He pitched 1.1 innings and allowed four hits and…
Continuing my series on Illinois Born Players- “Boys of Summer” Series William George “Billy” Rogell was born in Springfield, Illinois on November 24, 1904. He played in the Southwestern League for 2 years and ws discovered and signed by the Boston Red Sox in 1925. They liked his bat and convinced him to…
Cloyd Victor Boyer Jr. was born on September 1, 1927 in Alba, Missouri. He played for the Cardinals from 1949-1952 and then the Kansas City Athletics in 1955. He has a career record of 20-23 with a 4.73 ERA and has fanned 198 batters in just over 395 innings. He completed 13 gmes…
Emil Matthew Verban was born in Lincoln, Illinois on August 27, 1915 and became a second baseman who played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1944–1946), Philadelphia Phillies (1946–1948), Chicago Cubs (1948–1950) and Boston Braves (1950). Verban batted and threw right-handed. Verban was a second baseman noted primarily for his fielding with four National League…
A bit of a deviation from players but this manager from Springfield has some really cool things in his background. Legacy Barrow was the first executive to put numbers on player uniforms. He also announced the retirement of Lou Gehrig’s uniform number, the first number to be retired. Barrow was also the first executive to…
Continuing on with the Illinois born major league players takes me to a Logan County small town of Elkhart. I found an interesting tidbit that I didn’t know in the story of Jake Stahl. Here are two players born in Elkhart. Here is a link to previous Illinois Born players. …
TABLE OF CONTENTS for Previous Articles Al Papai born May 7, 1917 in Divernon, Illinois. He made his first appearance in the major leagues on April 24, 1948 with the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher. In that game he came in to pitch the 9th inning with the Cardinals trailing…