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Witnessing thousands of empty seats at Baltimore during the final two games of the 1971 World Series, one starts to wonder if interest in the national game really is at an all-time high, the record attendance figures of recent years notwithstanding. Or could fandom have been more enthusiastic 25, 50, or even 75 years ago, […]

Graveyards are not a significant part of baseball lore. True, the 1919 Cincinnati Reds held spring workouts in a Texas town’s cemetery. Moe Berg, visiting a Baltimore cemetery after dark, is reported to have stood on the grave of Edgar Allan Poe and recited “The Raven” from beginning to end. Edd Roush administered a cemetery […]

On April 25, 1933, the Senators and the Yankees engaged in one of baseball’s most celebrated brawls. As Ben Chapman stood on first base, Buddy Myer, Washington’s second baseman, wondered what Chapman’s next move would be. Chapman, the aggressive outfielder for the Yankees, had spiked him the day before hand once during the previous season. […]

    Minnie Minoso’s appearance in three games for the White Sox in September 1976 at age 53 serves as a reminder that major league baseball has had some pretty old performers over the years. The only distinction Minoso gained in his brief stint was to be the oldest player to collect a hit in […]

The only pitchers who earned their money before the end of the 1930s were the stars. For the others, membership in a major league team was a kind of premature retirement. The pay wasn’t big, but every corner store stocked chewing tobacco, the summers were long, and the living was easy. Life was soft for […]

Is Henry Aaron a greater player than Willie Mays? Was Joe DiMaggio better than Ted Williams? Those were just two of the tough decisions members of the Society for American Baseball Research were asked to make in a survey of the greatest baseball players born in the different states. Aaron and Mays were matched because […]

Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot tosses the ceremonial first ball prior to a World Series game in 1925. (COURTESY OF THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES)   “It was a great day for water polo,” quipped New York Times sportswriter James R. Harrison.1 On Thursday, October 15, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals met in horrific weather conditions to […]

  From a historical perspective, the primary event that took place in 1945 was the conclusion of World War II. But the war was still raging at the end of 1944, and additional manpower was needed to ensure victory over the Axis powers. Because of this, in December 1944, the director of War Mobilization and […]

It was 1977 and I had never been to Connecticut before. I was impressed with the pine-studded hills and small ponds. They looked especially nice with the patches of snow on the ground. What do I know about Al Schacht? I asked myself. He was born November 11, 1892 in New York City. He pitched […]

 Minor-League Winter Meeting The prospect of war cast a long shadow over the National Association meeting for 1941. Europe and Asia had been mired in conflict for more than two years by this time, and just days after the meetings concluded, the United States would be forced to enter the second worldwide war of the […]