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Who was William Holbert? No, not the founder of the National League.  That was William A. Hulbert. We are talking about William H. Holbert, a National League catcher from 1876 to 1888. His claim to fame is that he is the only major league player to go to bat 2,000 times in his career without […]

And now for something completely dif­ferent … With this issue of The Na­tional Pastime we embark upon a new sort of excavation of baseball’s glorious past: the special biographical issue. The first in what we hope will be a continuing series of baseball lives is Jim Murphy’s compre­hensive, affectionate portrait of Napoleon “Larry” Lajoie, a […]

Any avid baseball fan can tell you about the Miracle Braves of 1914-how they rose from eighth place on July 18 to win the pennant by 10.5 games and the World Series in four straight. But who can tell you much about the Miracle-less Boston Braves of 1935? They had the worst record in the […]

This article was originally published in “The Northern Game—And Beyond,” the 2002 SABR convention journal.   On Saturday morning, May 1, 1920, Joe Oeschger looked up from the newspaper and laughed. “Theweather forecast says fair today,” the 6’1”, 195-pound Boston Braves pitcher said to his roommate, outfielder Les Mann. They both glanced out the window. […]

In discussions of baseball records, most observers agree that Joe DiMaggio’s feat of hitting in 56 successive games and Lou Gehrig’s streak of playing 2,130 consecutive games will stand for all time. But what about the record of pitching 26 innings in one game? With a battery of bull-pen relievers now available to step in […]

The three-base hit made a tremendous comeback in 1979 with outstanding leadership totals in both leagues. George Brett led the American League with an even 20, the most since Dale Mitchell of Cleveland hit 23 in 1949. The Kansas City Royals hit 79 in 1979, the most for any team in the majors since the […]

1931 All-Americans in front of the Oriental Hotel in Kobe (National Baseball Library, Cooperstown, NY)   It was a tour initially framed by the dreams of retired fringe major-league outfielder Herb Hunter, the continuing quest of a Japanese newspaper publisher to bring Babe Ruth to Japan before he retired as a player, and the metastasizing […]

Most baseball fans pay scant attention to the waiver list, and, given the lackluster talent appearing on the list, perhaps this is an astute use of their time. However, nineteen future Hall of Fame players have been claimed from the waiver list. Of course, at the time, no one knew that most of these players […]

A SABR member and priest remembers what it felt like to live the Impossible Dream in 1967.Two or three weeks into September 1967, with all of New England absolutely agog over the rekindled, born-again Boston Red Sox, a parishioner gave me a single ticket to the final game of the season on October 1, with […]

Disappearing from the scene along with natural grass, the Polo Grounds, and the Reserve Clause are the colorful nicknames that often identified our favorite players. Other than “Catfish” and “The Bird”, few modern players possess such distinguishing marks. During the early part of this century rosters were dotted with such colorful names as Crazy Schmidt, […]