The Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers were always groundbreakers on the player-development front, and when MLB instituted an amateur player draft in 1965, the Dodgers were ready: by 1968, the disciplined front office and scouting department put together what is still considered today as the greatest draft class in pro baseball history.That year, the Dodgers drafted six future All-Stars-Doyle Alexander, Bill Buckner, Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, and Tom Paciorek, who would be sele...

The story of one of the most significant and overlooked seasons in professional baseball, told through the travails of the Spokane IndiansOn June 24, 1946, a bus carrying the Spokane Indians baseball team crashed to the bottom of a deep ravine in Washington state’s Cascade mountains, killing nine players. To this day, it remains the deadliest accident in the history of American professional sports.In Season of Shattered Dreams: Postwar Baseball, the Spo...

The 1982 St. Louis Cardinals played an entertaining style of baseball built on speed and defense. The roster was constructed and piloted by Whitey Herzog, a baseball visionary who tailored his team for the AstroTurf and spacious dimensions of Busch Stadium. Herzog traded for closer Bruce Sutter, speedsters Lonnie Smith and Willie McGee, and defensive wizard Ozzie Smith, adding to a talented roster that included the likes of Bob Forsch, Keith Hernandez, and George Hendrick. The result was a...