He was a good-field, weak-hitting third basemen whose lack of power was glaring even for the pre-Dead Ball era. But while few, if any, people 150 years ago likely realized the significance of the moment, when Esteban Bellan took the field on this day in béisbol, May 9, 1871, the Cuban-born infielder made history as the first Latino to play in a U.S. major league. While it wasn’t yet the MLB we know of today, the 21-year-old Bellan, 21, who was also known as Steve, played for the Troy Haymakers, an upstate New York club that was part of the

Baseball history is riddled with several head-scratching trades of all-stars for also-rans, deals that even decades later are a source of everlasting torture for fans of the team that came out on the losing end.  Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, anyone? On this day in béisbol, May 8, 1966, the San Francisco Giants were guilty of a “What the hell are they thinking?” trade, sending star first baseman Orlando Cepeda to the St. Louis Cardinals for solid but unspectacular starting pitcher Ray Sadecki. While Giants fans were shocked, the team had pretty good reasons for moving Cepeda. Yes, Cepeda was

The old and the new converged on this day in béisbol, May 7, when uber-veteran Julio Franco showed he still had something left and rookie Starlin Castro made a Major Leagues debut for the ages. By 2005 Julio Franco was a grizzled 46-year-old first baseman for the Atlanta Braves playing in his 21st season after breaking into the bigs in 1982 as one of the decade’s initial wave of excellent shortstops from the Dominican Republic. Anyone who might've said Franco had outstayed his welcome thought otherwise after watching him play on May 7 in a game against the Astros. Franco

  As young star outfielders who could do it all, Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays were friendly rivals who were often compared to each other because of the five-tool skills and exciting style of play they brought to the game as it became more integrated in the 1950s. But they were linked in another way: Like the mischievous cousin who blows out the candles on your birthday cake, Clemente had a habit of ruining his pal’s big day through the years.  On this day in béisbol, May 6, 1955 — Mays’ 24th birthday — Clemente was a 20-year-old Pirates rookie

By Robert Dominguez There are a myriad of reasons why former shortstop Omar Vizquel deserves to be in the Hall of Fame already, including but not limited to his nearly 2,900 lifetime hits, 11 Gold Gloves, all-time best fielding percentage, or 24-year career during which he was the standard bearer for defensive excellence at his position. Vizquel also owns the record for most games played at shortstop, and on this day in béisbol, May 5, 2012, the Venezuela native took a major step towards that record by playing his 2,302nd game at short for the San Francisco Giants, tying Hall

By Robert Dominguez Few modern-day pitchers put more fear into batters than L.A. Dodgers righty Don Drysdale, who led the NL in hit batsmen in five different seasons in the 1950s and ‘60s. A Hall of Famer who once said that if a hitter is timid it’s the pitcher’s job to remind him he’s timid — a nice way of saying this next one's headed for your chin, meat — Drysdale had a well-deserved reputation for intimidating hitters. But things have a way of evening out in baseball, and on this day in béisbol, May 4, 1967, Roberto Clemente helped

If Johnny Cash's "I've Been Everywhere" wasn't Bartolo Colon's entrance music, it should've been. On This Day in Béisbol, April 28, 2018, the portly pitcher with a rubber arm and a body built for beer pong tied a rare record when he became the fourth hurler in history to notch a win for 11 different teams. The Altamira, Dominican Republic, native was 45 years old and in his 21st Major League season when he took the mound for the Texas Rangers in Toronto against the Blue Jays. Colon pitched a solid seven innings, giving up three runs for his first

On This Day in in Béisbol, pitcher Ivan Nova muffed a chance to go down in Yankees lore when the young right hander couldn’t come up with the win that would have tied him for the most consecutive victories in franchise history. When Nova, 26, took the mound on April 27, 2012 against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium, he had already won 15 straight decisions for New York going back to 2011, when he was 16-4 and established himself as a solid middle-of-the rotation starter.  Among the Yankee icons the Dominican Republic native passed on his hot streak were