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Cristobal Torriente, the magnificent Cuban power hitter, was considered by many experts as one of the three best black outfielders of all time. On the afternoon of November 4, 1920, he had the most unforgettable game of his career and surely one of the most memorable games in the history of Cuban baseball as he […]

The 1927 New York Yankees, featuring Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, et al., are generally considered the greatest team ever to play the game. This superb club won the American League pennant by 19 games, then went on to crush the Pittsburgh Pirates in four straight games. Across the Harlem River that year, John McGraw’s Giants […]

With the nation’s colleges playing a greater role in the training of players for the major leagues, it is possible that we may see an increase in the number of stars who bypass the minor leagues on the way up. And since the days have passed when big leaguers go down to the minors toward […]

Anyone researching National and American League playing managers soon realizes that unlike Gertrude Stein’s rose (“Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”), a manager who also played may or may not have been a playing manager. Three examples will make this clear: On September 23, 1930 in a less- than-inspired move the […]

    As perhaps the greatest of all baseball managers, John J. McGraw had proven himself to be a genius at evaluating talent and developing his teams into commercially successful ventures. He even had some success in off-the-field investments, but he got in over his head when he chose to sponsor a large-scale Florida land […]

It was an event The Sporting News said featured “Paul Bunyan hospitality.”1 Bringing nearly 1,200 visitors to the North Star state, the 48th annual gathering of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues was held in Minneapolis December 8-10, 1948. Prior to the convention, Charles Johnson, sports editor at the Minneapolis Tribune, wrote in his […]

Mark Belanger, winner of eight Gold Gloves in the last ten years, received more votes than any other player in SABR’s recent survey to determine the best fielders of the 1970s. The Baltimore shortstop received more than 90% of the nearly 400 votes cast for American League shortstop. Johnny Bench led all National League players. […]

So much emphasis has been placed on home runs in recent years that few fans know or care who collects the most singles.   That may change because players who hit a lot of singles can also wind up with batting titles.   In 1973, for example, both Pete Rose and Rod Carew led their respective leagues […]

Is Henry Aaron a greater player than Willie Mays? Was Joe DiMaggio better than Ted Williams? Those were just two of the tough decisions members of the Society for American Baseball Research were asked to make in a survey of the greatest baseball players born in the different states. Aaron and Mays were matched because […]

The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, comprising 58 leagues, held its 47th annual Winter Meetings in Minneapolis December 7-11, 1948, to engage in, among other things, its yearly “carnival of buying and selling baseball talent.”1 More than 1,200 people in all, 1,100 of them officially registered delegates, attended.2 In advance, there was speculation that […]