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In the typical telling of the Jackie Robinson life story there are two acts. The leading figures in both acts are White men. Act I is the run-up to White baseball: Pasadena, UCLA, the United States Army, the Kansas City Monarchs, the scouting of Clyde Sukeforth. This Act concludes in Branch Rickey’s Ebbets Field office […]

The Winter Meetings of 1999 were held at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim, California, just down the road from Disneyland. However, “I’m not coming to Anaheim to go to Disneyland,” Reds GM Jim Bowden said, stating that his sole goal for going to the winter meetings was to acquire Ken Griffey Jr.1 Indeed, Griffey was […]

The 2010 draft was broadcast nationally in prime time, the third year in a row that Major League Baseball had put its draft on TV. Its top talent, Las Vegas sensation Bryce Harper, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated when he was just sixteen. As that draft approached, the star of the 2009 draft, […]

The most important statistic for a baseball team is wins (winning percentage)—the more (higher), the better. And even the most casual fan knows that the essential component for winning is scoring runs—at least one run (more than the opposing team) in a game. Thus, contributing to the scoring of runs can be considered the supreme […]

This interview by Ron Anderson was originally published in SABR’s “Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and Their Profession” (2011), edited by Jim Sandoval and Bill Nowlin. Interviews were conducted on January 18, 20, and 29, 2007. RA: You’re a former scout of the Boston Red Sox. GD: Yes. I started with them […]

Floyd County, Georgia, in the northwest corner of the state, once supported eight different textile mills, each with a baseball team composed of mill workers. These teams became the formally organized Northwest Georgia Textile League and flourished between the 1930s and 1950s, providing Floyd County with three decades of industrialized community recreation that has not […]

Atlanta’s baseball history is dominated by names such as Hank Aaron, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Dale Murphy, and Chipper Jones. The Braves also dominated their division in the 1990s, but that is only a small part of Atlanta’s long and storied baseball history. Anyone can look up the history of the Braves and their players […]

Defiance College in northwestern Ohio has fielded a baseball team since 1905. Like most small colleges, Defiance places academics ahead of athletics, and the baseball team generally loses more games than it wins. The 1961 baseball season, however, was a shining exception. That season the Defiance College baseball team was invited to the NAIA national […]

From SABR member Jason Turbow at The National Pastime Museum on July 31, 2017: In 1889, the National League, entering its 14th year of existence and looking for a better return on its owners’ investments, enacted a salary structure that capped player salaries at $2,500 per season. Even though such a move had been talked […]

Add a classic baseball book from the SABR Digital Library to your collection: Base-Ball: How to Become a Player By John Montgomery Ward ISBN (e-book) 978-1-933599-61-8, $4.99 150 pages Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward (1860-1925) tossed the second perfect game in major league history and later became the game’s best shortstop and a great, […]