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Many baseball historians credit the New York Yankees with being — historically — the greatest team in baseball. When you ask them why the Yankees were so good, the first reason they give is the team’s dominating home run power year after year. After all, the Yankees hit more than 100 home runs a record […]

Pitching, as the old cliché goes, is somewhere between 75 and 90% of baseball. The official averages issued each year provide us with a record for each pitcher. This article will present a summary of data compiled on 14 different measures for a group of 46 pitchers active in the 1957-78 period. The pitchers selected […]

Baltimoreans strolling on Eutaw Street outside Oriole Park before a home game may stop for a bite to eat and kibbitz with owners of the establishments. It’s not an unusual sight. But one owner happens to be a civic icon—John Wesley Powell. Boog. The slugger who bashed 339 home runs in the majors does more […]

Pitchers have contributed significantly to the grand slam story. It was a National League hurler, Bill Duggleby of the Phils, who was the only player ever to hit a bases loaded home run in his first at bat in the majors. This feat was accomplished on April 21, 1898. It was also a pitcher who […]

This article was originally published in The SABR Review of Books, Volume V (1990).   Two of the most whimsical, delightful baseball novels of the 1980s, The Curious Case of Sidd J. Finch and Shoeless Joe share enchanting as well as technically interesting qualities. Each book recounts a magical fantasy, a story that the reader […]

Mickey Mantle’s wife, Merlyn, and eldest son Mickey, Jr. attended the first Mickey Mantle Day on September 18, 1965. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Mickey Mantle stepped up to the microphone not far from where he had stepped up to the plate for 18 seasons, but it was no use. The 60,096 adoring spectators who had gathered […]

Now that Greg Maddux has won his 300th game, an obvious question arises. Will any other major league player reach that exalted level of pitching proficiency? There is, of course, no conclusive answer. But the question is one of particular interest as baseball continues to undergo changes while it moves deeper into the 21st century. […]

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 […]

By the end of the 1963 season, the jury will have been out on the 1964 rookie crop for 20 years. Sole remaining exhibits in the majors as of the end of ’83 were pitcher Tommy John and infielder Bert Campaneris. The ’64 rookies may or may not be judged the best ever, but if […]

The intentional base on balls was a part of professional baseball long before it became a part of baseball’s official statistics. The Sporting News’s Baseball Record Book lists Napoleon Lajoie of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League as the first player to receive an intentional walk with the bases full, in the ninth inning […]