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Installing the lights at Lexington Park, St. Paul, in May 1937. (Minnesota Historical Society)   Although one was a pioneer for night games, the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were the last holdouts when it came to baseball under lights in the American Association. The first night game in the history of the […]

Willie Mays with the Minneapolis Millers in 1951. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The New York Giants purchased the Minneapolis Millers in 1946. It took five years for Minneapolis fans to fully process the impact. A charter member of the American Association in 1902, the Millers had a rich history that extended to the final decades of […]

President Warren G. Harding shaking hands with  New York Yankee Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium. April 25, 1923.  (Leslie Jones photo, courtesy of the Boston Public Library.)   In the wake of the 1919-20 Black Sox scandal, baseball got lucky. Luck’s name was George Herman Ruth, who entered our vernacular in a long-ball way and […]

Baseball and politics are two impassioned national pastimes. In the early days of New York City, they were often intertwined in schemes to ensure huge financial gains. The betterment of the game and the interest of citizenry came second. Highlighted here are some of the personalities and events that played an influential role during these […]

On August 4, 1948, the Roseville Press-Tribune trumpeted the arrival of a new professional baseball team. The Far West League’s financially failing Pittsburg Diamonds were moving ninety miles northeast along what was then US Highway 40 to Roseville, just outside Sacramento.1 The late-season move was bold; although Roseville today ranks among California’s fastest growing cities […]

Major league baseball arrived in South Florida on April 5, 1993, when the Florida Marlins took to the field against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Joe Robbie Stadium. Prior to this momentous day, there existed a long and largely forgotten history of minor league baseball in Miami. On April 6, 1927, Florida State League president […]

One of the theories advanced by opponents of the designated-hitter rule is that, because of the DH, major league baseball will never discover another Babe Ruth. That is, because pitchers in the American League, the minors and college ball have little or no opportunity to bat, we’ll never know how good a hitter the pitcher […]

Baseball has been a recurring subject in the courtrooms of the state of Minnesota. Minnesota jurisprudence has addressed issues relating to the national pastime with cases ranging from injuries to Little Leaguers and spectators to the travails of major league owners, stadiums, teams, and players. Here’s a look at some of the more notable cases […]

John McGraw, seen with Philadelphia Phillies manager Pat Moran, led the New York Giants to a record-setting 26-game winning streak in 1916. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, BAIN COLLECTION)   On a dreary Friday afternoon, September 29, 1916, 43-year-old John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants, stood in the third base coaching box at the Polo […]

By 1920 the idea of matching two high-minor-league teams in a lesser version of the major-league World Series had finally taken root. Informal series had been staged in 1904, 1906, 1907, 1917, and 1919. In 1920, the pennant winners of the International League (IL) and of the American Association (AA) met in the Little World […]

Oscar Charleston is shown here in the uniform of the Santa Clara Leopardos, circa 1923. The 1923-24 Leopardos, for whom Charleston played, were considered the best Cuban team in history—a team so dominant that halfway through the season the league simply declared them champions and then reorganized. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   April […]

At the close of the 1890 baseball season the upstart Players’ League had died, the result of its owners bailing out on the players, leaving the National League and the American Association as the only remaining major leagues. And the climate surrounding those two leagues was far from peaceful. In Boston, in particular, there was […]

On November 8, 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president, ushering in an era of political comity and refreshed vision. Not to be outdone, the major-league owners were busily ushering in their own visionary plans, culminating in the historic Winter Meetings of 1960. On December 7, the final day of the meetings at the Park […]

Across the decades, professional actors and athletes have shared a special camaraderie. Both are paid entertainers, performing for the pleasure of the masses. So not surprisingly, many thespians are vocal supporters of their favorite ball teams. Back in the day, for example, Tallulah Bankhead was a famed New York Giants fan-atic. (“There have been only […]

  Col. Frank Leslie Smith (1867-1950) was a banker, real estate dealer, congressman, and baseball fan. A slender, self-made man, Smith adhered to a simple doctrine that empowered his rise from humble roots into the political sphere: the end justifies the means.1 This motto helped forge formidable business connections and amass political clout on local, […]

Mickey Mantle was turned into a switch hitter when he was “barely old enough to walk.” He remains the only switch-hitter in the history of the game to earn Triple Crown honors. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   Mickey Mantle posted a .353 batting average, slammed 52 homers, and drove in 130 runs in […]

Foreword Please do not tell my umpire assignor this: I conceived of the format of this memoir while I was doing the bases at a somewhat boring freshman high-school game last fall in California. Actually, it was something called a “showcase.” Parents of aspiring high schoolers who feel they can make college teams will know […]

For the Astrodome to be built, many intricate pieces had to fall into place. In describing one of the most important factors, Craig Cullinan Jr. confidently asserted, “Baseball was the heart, lungs, brain, life blood of the whole thing. … Without it, there was nothing – no franchise, no stadium, no hotels.”1 Although Roy Hofheinz […]

Major League Baseball (MLB) is awash in advanced metrics that more reliably describe key aspects of players’ offensive and defensive performance compared to “traditional” statistics. PITCHf/x and Statcast greatly contributed to this. The power of the original Statcast system came from its effective integration of high-definition video cameras and Doppler radar.1 Whereas cameras were useful […]

A great deal has been written about the faceoff between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds in the best-of-nine 1919 World Series. Probably no other baseball World Series has drawn more attention from commentators and historians. However, the vast majority of words written about the Series relate to what has become commonly known […]

Fans packed the Tokyo Dome for Game 1 of the 2006 Aeon All-Star Series. (Photo by Robert Fitts)   In March 2006 the Japanese national team, known as Samurai Japan, surprised the baseball world by winning the inaugural World Baseball Classic. Japan had finished second to South Korea in its pool in the preliminary round […]

From the beginning of professional baseball in the nineteenth century and continuing through the first decades of the twentieth, Georgia was a popular site for major-league spring training. Between 1871 and 1953, more than 20 major-league baseball franchises from 14 cities held their spring training in the state (see table 1).[fn]In order to prepare these […]

By 1942 World War II was already impacting the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training activities as they prepared for the regular season in the soft sands of Miami Beach, Florida. Air corps stunts were observed above Flamingo Park; the players inspected fighters and bombers at a nearby base; and manager Hans Lobert, who had run the […]

Forbes Field on Opening Day in 1909. (COURTESY OF THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES)   Many people regard Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, home of the Pirates from 1909 to 1970, as a quaint, simple ballpark. Some might even consider Forbes Field’s design reflective of an old-fashioned and bygone era. Nevertheless, its construction was very much rooted in embracing […]