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Anyone interested in researching the Negro leagues should contact this man. Former player, manager, and historian, he has seen nearly all the great black stars. A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, when there was a vacancy on the National Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee, SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee submitted the names of several candidates who […]

We know it didn’t come to pass, but when Fenway Park was less than 10 years old, there there was discussion of disposing of it. The park was opened in 1912 and at the time had hosted the world champion Boston Red Sox in four of its eight years—1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918. But in […]

It is quite a natural thing to ask, “When was the baseball glove invented?” One answer you are likely to discover is that a glove was first used in the game to protect players’ hands from injury in 1860.1 Early gloves were essentially adapted to base ball from other uses. Compared to the baseball glove […]

The Yankees arrive in Japan on October 20, 1955. (Rob Fitts Collection)   On Thursday, October 20, 1955, the New York Yankees and their entourage landed at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to begin a three-week, 16-game goodwill tour of Japan. There, they were mobbed by kimono-clad young women bearing bouquets, an eager press corps, and a […]

Babe Ruth, hands on bat. Leslie Jones photo, courtesy of the Boston Public Library.   On April 27, 1969, baseball fans learned that “one of the most hallowed statistics of all sports lore” – Babe Ruth’s career total of 714 home runs – would be revised. Leonard Koppett of the New York Times reported on […]

Introduction and Context America was engulfed in the Great Depression when the 1932 Winter Meetings arrived, and like everything else, its greatest pastime was affected negatively. For lack of funds, only 16 minor-league circuits completed the 1932 season, down from the 25 that did so three years prior.1 As a result, many baseball players were […]

Here is supporting evidence for the correction of errors in the official RBI record of Lou Gehrig through 1939.

Scores of professional ballplayers have made their way from the big leagues to the big screen. A few, including Chuck Connors, Bob Uecker, and John Beradino (who played for the Browns, Indians, and Pirates as Johnny Berardino), became successful actors or media personalities. Some, notably Babe Ruth, appeared in movies as themselves, or as thinly […]

Ever the celebrity, Babe Ruth doffs his cap. (Library of Congress.)   Of any athlete from any sport who does double duty on the big screen and the ballyard/gridiron/basketball court, none has been written about, analyzed, and overanalyzed as much as Babe Ruth. Not Jim Brown. Not Michael Jordan. Not Willie, Mickey, or The Duke. […]

Introduction and Context The National Association didn’t just survive during the summer of 1935 — it flourished. “The past season,” recalled promotional department head Joe Carr, “was one of the very best that minor league baseball has experienced in years.”1 For the Association’s 34th annual meeting, about 2,000 baseball people convened in Dayton, Ohio, to […]

Rock and roll is the métier of choice at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (a.k.a. O.co Coliseum since 2011). For example, the Allman Brothers Band’s hit “Ramblin’ Man” can often be heard at the baseball Athletics’ 35,067-capacity home. It is fitting, given the franchise’s peregrination from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955 and then to Oakland […]

When General William D. Eckert was elected to the office of baseball commissioner in 1965, Larry Fox of the New York World-Telegram is reported to have been one of the first to utter the phrase, “They’ve named the Unknown Soldier.” But Eckert, a retired three-star Air Force general, was not the first military man elected to […]

It’s one thing to lead a league in doubles, triples, or homers, quite another to lead in two or three of these categories the same year. It’s truly remarkable-and rare-to hit 20 of each. THREE HALL-OF-FAMERS, one active player who could make the Hall, and one old-timer who probably never will, share an unusual extra-base […]

Organized Baseball’s 1958 Winter Meetings were held in Washington from December 1 to 4, with the major leagues headquartered at the Statler Hilton Hotel and the minors at the Mayflower Hotel, both within walking distance of the White House. As usual, there were many items on the table to be discussed and voted on, including […]

In 1971, the year SABR was founded, the analysis of baseball statistics was still in its infancy, and computers were in the hands of few. Sabermetrics developed alongside the information age, with personal  computers enabling those who did not work where computers were easily  available to develop their algorithms and analyze data at home. In […]

Introduction and Context As World War II seemed to be winding down (even though the Battle of the Bulge in Europe was only days away and the Pacific invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa were still in the future), recovery from the war was the watchword at the 43rd annual baseball winter meetings. The nation […]

“I saw it all happen, from beginning to end. But sometimes I still can’t believe what I saw. This 19-year-old kid, crude, poorly educated, only lightly brushed by the social veneer we call civilization, gradually transformed into the idol of American youth and the symbol of baseball the world over – a man loved by […]

In the early years of the American League, Boston fans had a lot to smile about—World Series victories in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918—but after that, everything changed for the worse. Not only was Babe Ruth infamously sold, but the Red Sox began a string of losing seasons. Faced with teams that seldom left […]

On February 15, 1928, the University of California baseball squad took on a local semi-pro team by the name of the Ambrose Tailors in an early-season exhibition game. Such a contest normally would have generated little interest from the baseball-viewing public, who tended to wait for intercollegiate play before turning out to support the Bears. […]

Jackie Robinson with the Kansas City Monarchs, October 23, 1945 (COURTESY OF RACHEL ROBINSON AND THE ESTATE OF JACKIE ROBINSON)   A brief and often forgotten chapter in the legendary life of Jackie Robinson was the five months he spent as the Negro Leagues batting star for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945. This era […]

  Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito trying out VR during spring training in 2016. (ARTURO PARDAVILA III / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)   A NEW KIND OF BATTING PRACTICE Mariano Rivera wasn’t always destined to be the greatest closer of all time. He entered the majors as an old rookie at age 25 and took a […]

Red Lucas had three strong points as a National League player in the 1920s and 1930s. He had excellent control as a pitcher, the best for any hurler in his era; he completed most of the games he started, having the best record in the NL since 1920; and he was a very good hitter, […]

Why would you want to squander a few hours taking up space in your behind-home-plate seat at a World Series game? For after all, you’ve been invited to a screening of a spanking new 35 mm print of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Why bother wasting time watching Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Bang […]

The 1954 Winter Meetings opened on December 6 at New York’s Hotel Commodore with an agenda filled with issues that had plagued the sport for years. They included the ongoing decline of the minor leagues, the increasing misalignment of major-league franchises with the national population, and player-management conflicts. Owners left the meeting two days later […]