Chicago’s Role in Early Professional Baseball

Chicago’s first professional baseball club was founded following…

The Cubs Fan Paradox: Why Would Anyone Root For Losers?

Cubs fans raise a fundamental question about the nature of games…
Longtime historian at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and himself a walking encyclopedia of baseball knowledge, spent three decades compiling biographical data on players. David S. Neft and his team of twenty-one researchers took Allen’s accumulated research as the basis of their massive reference work that was published as the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia in 1969.

The Macmillian Baseball Encyclopedia, the West System, and Sweat Equity

There is beauty in finding that beneath a complex system, one…
Crackers first baseman, whose mother, sister, and brother Joe traveled from New York to Atlanta to watch his team in a crucial game against the rival Birmingham Barons on July 8, 1954.

It’s Not Fiction: The Race to Host the 1954 Southern Association All-Star Game

For the first eleven days of July 1954, the Atlanta Crackers,…
With the election of Connie Mack (center) as president of the Athletics in January 1937, the Mack family, including Earle (left) and Roy (right), now controlled all of the senior leadership positions in the club’s front office.

Departure Without Dignity: The Athletics Leave Philadelphia

  With Connie Mack’s election as president of…
The vacant lots around the Brooklyn ballpark accommodated only 700 automobiles. After World War II, city-dwellers flocked to outer Long Island and New Jersey, and the lack of vehicle access threatened to cut ties with the longtime Dodger fan base.

Field of Liens: Real-Property Development in Baseball

Baseball is at one and the same time an idyllic game for children…
received warm praise from New Yorker editor William Shawn for “Hub Fans,” but “the compliment that meant most to me,” Updike wrote, “came from Williams himself, who through an agent invited me to write his biography. I declined the honor. I had said all I had to say.”

Review: Brilliant Specialists

On "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams" Hub…
whose retirement in 1968 rather than his death in 1995 marked what biographer Jane Leavy describes as “the end of America’s childhood.”

Review: The Dark Side of a Baseball Dynasty

Four books on the Bronx Bombers. The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle…
ranked exceptionally low among club owners and presidents on measures of demonstrating respect for members of the organization, according to Steve Weingarden. He was 42 when he bought the A’s. Would the character of his ownership had been better had he been more mature when he entered the “owners’ clique”?

Review: Charlie Finley

On "Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball’s Super…
Fans, he observed, “never blamed their team for a loss, it was always the umpire. A player could have bobbled a ball or made an errant throw and the fans would blame the umpire. ... The fans would always find something that had happened in the game, no matter how badly their team may have got beaten, and find fault with the umpire. As sickening as it sometimes was, I was always impressed by their dedication.”

“No, I’m a Spectator Like You”: Umpiring in the Negro American League

Bob Motley umpired in the Negro American League from 1947 through…

Is There Racial Bias Among Umpires?

Is there widespread racial bias among umpires? In August 2007,…
After studying engineering in college, applied his analytical skills to his job between the white lines. “If there were a pie chart illustrating how players prepare for their opponent,” he writes, “scouting reports would be only one sliver.”

Review: Baseball Memoirs

The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View by…
Helped lead the 1950 Phillies to the NL pennant, but missed the World Series when his National Guard unit was activated. With the Cardinals in 1964, he finally saw his first World Series action, in two fine starts against the Yankees.

The Day the Phillies Went to Egypt

In the spring of 1947, a seventeen-year-old southpaw named Curt…
Joined the Tigers in 1939 as a batting-practice pitcher and wore number 16 ... because it fit.

Who Wore Uniform Number 16 for the Tigers—Before Prince Hal?

Since January 2001, I’ve been engaged in a baseball-research…

The Next Frontier—China

OPENING DAY Vendors sold peanuts, popcorn, and hot dogs, but…
Participated in the Home Run Derby in 1991, 1992, and 1996 — seasons whose first halves were his best, fifth-best, and second-best.

Home Run Derby Curse: Fact or Fiction?

A variety of sources have indicated the existence of a Home Run…
The greatest pitcher of his day had a few stellar seasons (1860–62) for the Brooklyn Excelsiors before dying of a baseball-related injury in October 1862 at age 21.

The Many Flavors of DIPS: A History and an Overview

How much control, if any, does a pitcher have over whether a…

Does a Pitcher’s Height Matter?

In 1993 the Los Angeles Dodgers traded a setup man for a very…
His longest hitting streak in 2004, when he was with the Indians, was 7 games, which may not sound remarkable but is, according to Jim Albert, so statistically improbable as to be actually “impressive.”

Great Streaks: A Response to Trent McCotter

In an article in the 2008 issue of The Baseball Research Journal,…

Hitting Streaks: A Reply to Jim Albert

Do hitting streaks occur more frequently than they would if hitting…

The Georgia Peach: Stumped by the Storyteller

This article was selected for inclusion in SABR 50 at 50: The…

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