Search Results

  Wausau, Wisconsin’s Athletic Park opened just three weeks after Fenway Park. Thanks to an eight-foot-tall, New Deal-era granite wall studded with ruby-red boulders, the stadium still stood proudly in 2012. Inside, however, the nearly 100-year-old ballpark groaned with age. Its old-time charm and broad shoulders couldn’t withstand passing years and changing baseball economics. The […]

(Courtesy of The Clemente Museum.)   Long after most of the city has descended into slumber, Roberto Clemente rises again. For Latin American baseball players, a road trip into Pittsburgh often means a midnight pilgrimage to the Roberto Clemente Museum, located, incongruously enough, in a restored nineteenth-century firehouse, a little off the beaten path but […]

  Mike Mussina’s induction was a clear sign that Hall of Fame voters had entered the twenty-first century. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   For an 82-year-old organization, the National Baseball Hall of Fame has remained surprisingly static in some respects. Baseball Writers Association of America members vote on recently-retired players, as the writers […]

  Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito trying out VR during spring training in 2016. (ARTURO PARDAVILA III / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)   A NEW KIND OF BATTING PRACTICE Mariano Rivera wasn’t always destined to be the greatest closer of all time. He entered the majors as an old rookie at age 25 and took a […]

This paper will provide a general comparison of actual pennant winners and Pythagorean pennant winners for the National and American Leagues from 1901 to 2020. In part, this is a presentation of data, but it is also an exercise in what might have been. With Pythagorean pennant winners, many teams that did not reach the […]

(Photograph by Duane Rieder.)   In the immediate aftermath of Roberto Clemente’s New Year’s Eve plane crash while on a mercy mission to Nicaragua, there were calls for him to be inducted by acclamation into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. His qualifications were never questioned; he was only the 11th player to reach 3,000 […]

The Caguas Criollos won back-to-back Caribbean Series crowns in 2017 and ’18, beating Mexicali 1–0 in 10 innings on February 7, 2017, and defeating Aguilas Cibaeñas from the Dominican Republic on February 8, 2018. The Criollos’ fifth Caribbean Series title puts them in elite company: Only the Dominican Republic’s Tigres del Licey have won more […]

Since the dawn of free agency, there has been increasing affection paid to players who spend their entire career with the same team. From the ballpark statues of Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn to the retired numbers of Robin Yount and George Brett, baseball fans in recent years have celebrated star players who rose through […]

This appendix accompanies the article “Player Win Averages” written by Pete Palmer and published in the Spring 2016 Baseball Research Journal. To scroll down to pitchers, click here.   Player Win Averages-Batters Player Games PW RW Barry Bonds 2986 120.3 123.2 Henry Aaron 3298 97.2 94.6 Willie Mays 2992 95.7 87.5 Mickey Mantle 2401 92.4 […]

From SABR member Tony Blengino at FanGraphs on December 22, 2015: Yesterday, December 21, was the deadline for 2016 Baseball Hall of Fame ballots to be submitted. As followers of the process are well aware, quite a logjam has materialized in recent years, due to a confluence of factors, most notably the influx of so-called […]