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A poll of the Society’s members fills the void in the selections made by The Sporting News and the BBWAA. Pitchers are named for almost half the years; the Cards, Indians lead in new choices with 11 each.   The tradition of selecting a Rookie of the Year in the major leagues dates back to […]

In the early 1960s, each of the recent expansion cities played host to the MLB All-Star Game, New York in 1964, Anaheim in 1967, Houston in 1968, and Washington DC in 1969. The 1968 baseball season took place against a backdrop of racial violence. The late 1960s trembled with social and political turbulence, with the […]

Mark Belanger, winner of eight Gold Gloves in the last ten years, received more votes than any other player in SABR’s recent survey to determine the best fielders of the 1970s. The Baltimore shortstop received more than 90% of the nearly 400 votes cast for American League shortstop. Johnny Bench led all National League players. […]

The recent disclosure that Lou Brock had never stolen home in his 900 successful thefts came as quite a surprise. Modern players are still stealing home — Rod Carew has done it more than a dozen times in his career — but Brock, the greatest base stealer of this century, has never done it. Get […]

Fielding has been a long-neglected area in player evaluation.  To remedy this, the Sporting News began issuing gold glove awards in 1957.  But what about all those earlier years?  SABR thought some effort should be made to establish just who were the great fielders by position since 1900.  This would be done for each decade […]

The Chicago Cubs’ latest pennant near-miss continues to deny Sammy Sosa, a certain Hall of Famer, an appearance in the World Series. Sammy may yet share the dubious distinction of fellow Cub Ernie Banks, the best-known example of a Hall of Fame player who never played in the World Series. Actually, there have been 31 […]

This article was originally published in “Unions to Royals: The Story of Professional Baseball in Kansas City,” the 1996 SABR convention journal.   There was no bounce in Lou Gehrig’s step as he walked into the depot dining room of Union Station in Kansas City. His roommate, Bill Dickey, carried two equipment bags, his and […]

There can be few more satisfying things in baseball, for players and fans alike, than defeating the New York Yankees. This was as true in the 1920s as it is today. In the case of the historically inept St. Louis Browns, it was even more so. The Browns’ best-known dominance of New York occurred at […]

There are two main objectives for the hitter.  The first is to not make an out and the second is to hit for distance. Long-ball hitting is normally measured by slugging average. Not making an out can be expressed in terms of on base average (OBA), where:       OBA    =  Hits + Walks […]

For an all-around spectacular debut in major league baseball, it would be difficult to surpass the one enjoyed by Russ Van Atta on April 25, 1933. A 26-year-old rookie pitcher with the New York Yankees, Van Atta broke into the big leagues by hurling a five-hit shutout over the pennant-bound Washington Senators in Griffith Stadium […]