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Whitey Lockman and Willie Mays made Giants manager Leo Durocher a happy man. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   The ties linking superstars and managers follow patterns often beginning as mentee-mentor before changing into relationships of equals, then deference to the player based on his status, and, finally, awkwardness as the star’s skills (but not […]

Punctuated by Enos Slaughter’s mad dash around the bases in Game Seven of the World Series, the 1946 season saw major-league baseball back on the upswing. Total attendance had climbed to more than 11 million, a 71 percent increase over the previous season. The total also well exceeded the prewar 1941 figure of 9.7 million. […]

Photographic evidence has emerged that disproves the oft-cited narrative that the 1925 American Association was the first baseball league at any level to consistently number their players’ uniforms. This article will present the photographs along with a brief history of uniform number usage in baseball. The practice of using jersey numbers, which was in use […]

The salary arbitration process is not well understood and it is frequently described in a negative way by media, as well as the clubs and players. I hope to improve the understanding of the process and how it works in this article. Salary arbitration was instituted as part of the collective bargaining agreement between the Major […]

1874 had been a banner year for “Base Ball” in the small river town of Saugerties, New York. The local newspaper accounts told often ball clubs from the central village and surrounding rural hamlets, playing “matches” among themselves and against opponents from as far distant as 70 miles. That excursion, a significant trip in those times, […]

As tensions between owners, general managers, and players mounted, the winter meetings of 1993 featured battles over the commissioner’s chair, the free-agent process, revenue sharing, and the salary cap. These points of contention collided over four months of meetings that began in early November, when the general managers met in Naples, Florida. The National Association […]

Alex Gordon was held at third instead of sent home with the potential tying run in Game Seven of the 2014 World Series. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   No sooner had Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez popped up for the last out in the 2014 World Series, the pundits, second-guessers, arm-chair managers, […]

This article was originally published in “St. Louis’s Favorite Sport,” the 1992 SABR convention journal.   There was a time in baseball history when exhibition games meant something. There was a time when rival teams met each other on the field of play, and even though the exhibition contests did not figure in the regular […]

Columbia University’s Society for Baseball Research group includes the following contributors: Anthony Montes, Anthony Argenziano, Brian O’Sullivan, Charles Orlinsky, Drew Posner, Matthew Chagares, Anna Flieder, Bennett Bookstein, Jack Chernow, and Teddy Brodsky.   The shift has been a part of baseball for as long as the sport has existed. From a crisp “give me two […]

This article was selected as the winner of the 2022 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award. Ad for dead baseballs in the Chicago Tribune, August 17, 1870.   Baseball’s post-Civil War period (1866–70) is vitally important to understanding the sport as we know it today. This era had significant changes in rules and equipment, and also saw […]