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This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, No. 16 (1996).   He begun thinking about baseball a lot, which he never done before, always treating it before like it was football or golf, not a thing to think about but only play. He said to me, ”Arthur, tell me, if you was […]

The National League started off without too much fanfare in 1876. Only one game was scheduled on its opening day on Saturday, April 22, with Boston playing at Philadelphia. Of course, that was 34 years before a President of the United States attended an opening game, but it wouldn’t have been too difficult for President […]

By any measure 1968 was a year of upheaval. Assassinations, riots, protests, and the decision by the incumbent commander in chief to forgo a reelection bid all pointed to the unrest and instability that wracked the nation, and the bloodiest year of fighting in Vietnam did nothing to soothe the collective angst. The national pastime […]

  Twelve-year-old Billy Heywood has a dream job in Little Big League. Or so he thinks. Billy’s grandfather, Thomas Heywood, owns the Minnesota Twins in this 1994 film. When Thomas dies, Billy inherits the team, fires the volatile manager, persuades the Twins front office to let him take the job, confronts disrespect from players who […]

In addition to the traditional fireworks displays on Independence Day columnist Bill Conlin lit the fuse for a fireworks display that has not yet ended with an article on “Parity Between the Leagues” in the July 4, 1981 issue of The Sporting News. “The Lords of baseball”, wrote Conlin, “. . . had better start […]

The annals of baseball prose include several memoirs and biographies from and about major-, minor-, and amateur-league umpires, well stocked with entertaining war stories from the diamond front, as well as numerous how-to-manuals for those pondering careers in this noble and unappreciated profession; and books inviting fans to offer their own interpretation of baseball’s knottier […]

This veteran observer saw his first big league game at old Columbia Park, Philadelphia, in 1904, and saw the Philadelphia Athletics win the game, 3-0, from the Detroit Tigers. It was the season before the immortal Ty Cobb played his first game in Detroit. But I saw Hall of Famer San Crawford and lesser Tigers […]

At the ballpark, when the home team loads the bases, people stand up and cheer. You don’t see many fans slapping their heads, saying, “Rats, now there’s a force at every base. I wish the bases weren’t loaded.” Yet in a surprising number of 1999’s postseason games, the team in the field chose to load […]

Major League Baseball returned to Baltimore on April 15, 1954, when the city welcomed its new team with a parade, a chest-thumping display of civic pride, and an opening-day crowd of more than 46,000. Fans can be fanatical, but pitchers have to be realists. Right-hander Duane Pillette thought, “How can they be so happy getting […]

I splashed grapefruit juice into the eye of the first Hall of Famer I ever met. I trailed another Hall of Famer into the clubhouse toilet and kept talking to him until he agreed to his first radio interview. Still another Hall of Famer hired me for a fascinating, never-to-be-forgotten publicity job the day I […]