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Harold Harris Chase was born February 13, 1883 at Los Gatos, Calif., a small town about ten miles south of San Jose.   The fact that years after his death certain baseball reference books listed him as Hal H. Chase or Harold Homer Chase only serves to emphasize the shroud of mystery that surrounded this strange, […]

George Herman Ruth in his heyday was known as the Sultan of Swat. If the Babe were around today, he might be the Shah of Slam or possibly the Ayatollah of Assault. Anyway, when it comes to Home Runs by Decades, the Ruth is mighty and still prevails. Ruth hit 467 of his 714 homers […]

IN 1954, the Washington Senators were an abominable team They finished the season ensconced in sixth place in the American League, with a 66—88 record. The previous year, they were a fifth-place ballclub, completing the campaign at 76—76. In 1952, they also ended up in fifth place, with a 78—76 mark. In mid-decade, Ernest Barcella, […]

Baseball is at one and the same time an idyllic game for children and a gravely serious business for adults. A sport that can be played on a pastoral commons requires, in the world of commerce, space to which some can be admitted and from which others can be excluded—in short, what lawyers call real […]

“Equal parts carnival barker, professional bully, world-class tightwad, and uncanny builder of championship baseball teams, Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley left a stamp on baseball that can still be seen more than 30 years after his departure from the game.”1 So wrote reviewer Alan Moores for the magazine Booklist in his 2010 review of G. […]

On September 28, 1947, the Bambino made an appearance before a game benefitting his Babe Ruth Foundation – later recognized as the first Old-Timers Day. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The story of Yankee Stadium cannot be told without telling the story of Babe Ruth. His home-field exploits during his playing days are well covered, but a […]

Here is the appendix for Pete Palmer’s article “Stolen Bases and Caught Stealing by Catchers” in the Spring 2014 Baseball Research Journal.

Introduction At the 1951 Winter Meetings, the major topic of discussion was the future of the minor leagues. Attendance in the minors was down 20 percent in the 1951 season, a total loss of more than 7 million. In another important matter, for the first time in baseball history, rules that set forth the requirements […]

Recent study has revealed the claim of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York to pioneer status, as well as that of Alexander Cartwright to be the game’s inventor, to be suspect if not altogether baseless. I have taken up the latter claim at length in Baseball in the Garden of Eden and will […]

Pete Rose’s reputation is built on two pillars: he has more hits than any player in history and he helped his teams immeasurably with his hustle. The first is a fact; the second is a complete misimpression. Rose was not much of a hitter and only an average offensive player. He didn’t create runs, he […]