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The New York Giants’ four-year wartime run effectively began on December 3, 1941 – a mere four days before the attack on Pearl Harbor – when the iconic Mel Ott was named to succeed Bill Terry as manager.  And his game-time office would continue to be right field. A week later, the Giants pulled off […]

The Cape Cod Baseball League, one of the top summer collegiate circuits, celebrated its first 100 years in 1985. This brought to mind David Q. Voigt’s suspicion of centennials. Writing on the origins of the Boston Red Stockings in the December 1970 issue of The New England Quarterly, Voigt noted that many baseball centennials had […]

I wish that someone had told me when I was 15 years old that Willie Stargell was starting a five-year tear that would transform him from a good home run hitter to one of baseball’s superstars. If they had, I would have taken more mental snapshots of the man who was not yet  “Pops.” While […]

In 1974, the Oakland Athletics signed track star Herb Washington as a “designated runner,” despite his having had very little baseball experience. Keeping on the roster a player whose only purpose was to run was a new idea, but there have been many other real baseball players whose main purpose it was to pinch-run. The […]

Some of the finest small college baseball in the country is played in the Upper Midwest. Here’s a look at the conferences which are home to college programs in Minnesota.  NORTHERN SUN INTERCOLLEGIATE CONFERENCE (NSIC) The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) was formed when the men’s Northern Intercollegiate Conference (NIC) and the women’s Northern Sun […]

Introduction and Context The disquieting year of 1981 featured the worst upheaval in baseball history — to that point in time — due to a players strike that erased roughly one-third of the regular-season schedule.  Play was halted on June 12, and after weeks of acrimonious negotiations between players, club owners, and their respective representatives, […]

In the 1970s, the very time when players and umpires gained wealth and power, baseball’s field managers’ status declined as they became wretched scapegoats to be sacrificed to the bloodlust of victory-starved fans. True, sacking the manager was a time-honored ploy; whenever rumblings of fan discontent erupted, a manager was bumped off as virgins in […]

American League President Leland S. MacPhail (l.) awards the Seattle Mariners’ charter to co-owners Danny Kaye (c.) and Lester Smith. In addition to being a Hollywood star, Kaye co-owned a California-based radio network with Smith. (Courtesy of David S. Eskenazi)   When considering the formation of the Seattle Mariners, one should look to two key […]

The 1985 Winter Meetings had showcased a then-record 62 free agents, but the 1986 free-agent class shattered that mark as 82 players filed for free agency by the deadline.1 Despite the uptick in the number of free agents, however, for the second year in a row none of them signed with a new club at […]

Some of the recent additions to Dodger Stadium include these larger-than-life bobbleheads. (Copyright Vitaly Lozovoy / Dreamstime)   The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of the most popular and influential brands in sports. Walter O’Malley moved his team from Brooklyn to LA despite it clearly not being popular with Brooklyn fans. On April 13, 1958, […]