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This article was originally published in The SABR Review of Books, Volume IV (1989).   Good afternoon, students. I am Professor Hailey, and this is Industrial Organization 162, “Baseball as a Business Enterprise” — which is better known around campus, I understand, as “Bats, Balls, and the Bottom Line.” In 1914 a New York court […]

Gold Glove Awards, first presented in 1957, are given annu­ally to the best defensive players at each position in each league. Guidelines for Gold Glove Award voting now state that coaches and managers may vote for players in their league, but not for players on their own team. The guidelines do not suggest what characteristics […]

This undated publicity photo (circa 1944–49) of the Clowns includes Edward “King Tut” King and in the lower right inset, “baseball clown” Ed Hamman in full clownface. Hamman would eventually become sole owner of the Clowns. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   Found almost exclusively in black newspapers, box scores for Miami Ethiopian Clowns […]

Sports officials have long possessed a less-than-desirable reputation in the eyes of the general public. Negative images of baseball umpires—and the conflicts that arise between them as arbiters of the rules and others—have been promulgated for well over a century. For example, Voigt described the umpire of the late nineteenth century as “…America’s manufactured villain.”1 […]

Since 1931, Earl Webb has held the major-league record for the most doubles hit in a single season – 67. It is one of the longest-lasting records in baseball, despite the fact that when it was set, the season was eight games shorter than today’s 162-game schedule. As it happens, Earl’s team that year – […]

As a sportswriter for the Boston Globe, Melville Webb reported on major-league baseball in Boston for nearly half a century before he retired in 1951. He was a member of the Old-Timers Committee at the Baseball Hall of Fame from 1944 to 1953, where he participated in the selection of 24 inductees. Webb is most […]

Del Webb’s father was a native-born Californian who spent his youth playing baseball before becoming a construction executive. Del followed a similar path. After washing out as a ballplayer, Webb spent several years as a carpenter before starting his own construction company. By landing a number of large government contracts during the Depression and World […]

Timothy Dean Birtsas, a pitcher whose only major-league hit was a home run, spent five years pitching for Oakland and Cincinnati. He was born on September 5, 1960, in Pontiac, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. He grew up in nearby Clarkston, where, outside of his baseball career, he has spent most of his life. He attended […]

The only image of John Brown we could find is this cartoon from the July 10, 1942 St. Louis Argus.   John Wesley Brown came by his nicknames of “Lean Man” and “Slim Man” quite honestly. He stood 6-feet-1-inch tall and tipped the scales at less than 160 pounds. He was a right-handed pitcher who, […]

Dale Alexander, the hard-hitting first baseman who was Boston’s first American League batting champion, began and ended his playing career in his hometown of Greeneville, Tennessee. David Dale Alexander was born and raised on a 117-acre farm in Greene County on April 26, 1903. He had four brothers and four sisters. His two sons, Don […]

The 2021 National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants was tied at two games each. The first two games were in San Francisco, followed by two in Los Angeles, with this deciding game on October 14 at Oracle Park in San Francisco before an enthusiastic, albeit chilly,1 crowd of […]

On August 5, 1932, Tigers pitcher Tommy Bridges sent the Navin Field crowd of 7,500 home with a terrific tale to tell their friends, colleagues, and families throughout subsequent decades. They almost saw a perfect game. Bridges got close to breathing the rarefied air previously enjoyed by Lee Richmond, John Montgomery Ward, Cy Young, Addie […]

This game is tied as the second longest in big-league history in terms of innings.1 Fifty players took part — 26 Cardinals and 24 Mets — and nine stayed in throughout. 12 other records were set or tied.2 The seesaw between monotony and intrigue lasted 7 hours and 4 minutes and ended at 3:12 A.M. […]

“With an unmistakable defeat about to engulf them,” the Chicago White Sox “set the wheels of victory in motion in the ninth and kept going until a six run rally had provided enough to knock off Boston’s Red Hose.”1— Irving Vaughan, Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1931   Spring is a time for optimism. After finishing […]

Baseball fans love to say when they go to the ballpark that there is always a chance that something may happen that they have never seen before. Those among the announced crowd of 9,614 who stayed to the end of the matchup between the University of Arkansas and the University of Central Arkansas on April […]

It was the “most astonishing piece of pitching,” gushed sportswriter John Drebinger about New York Giant Cliff Melton’s 13-strikeout performance in his major-league debut.1 The New York Daily News commented that Melton’s “fireball had plenty of zip, but the Giants bats had no zing,” as they lost a heartbreaker in the final frame.2 The reigning […]

Shortstop Jimmy Cooney’s rare defensive play highlighted the Chicago Cubs’ come-from-behind 10-inning, 7-6 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 30, 1927. The 32-year-old Cooney, known as Scoops for his outstanding fielding during a seven-season career with six major-league teams,1 turned an unassisted triple play in the fourth inning, denying the Pirates a chance to […]

In mid-September of 1931, the Philadelphia Athletics were running away with their third straight American League pennant. On the morning of Saturday, September 12, the Athletics had a 13-game lead over the second-place Washington Nationals with just 15 games to play. The Boston Red Sox were dead last of eight AL clubs, 44½ games behind […]

The Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox were heading in different directions as September arrived. The 90-45 Athletics were leading the American League by 6½ games, while the Red Sox were struggling in the basement with a 44-86 record. The Athletics had won the 1929 AL pennant by a whopping 18 games over the New […]

Over the first four games of the 2020 National League Championship Series, the Dodgers had scored 25 runs and the Braves had scored 26. Without further information, a fan might think the series would be tied at two games apiece. It was not: The Braves led, 3-1. The overall scoring was close because the Dodgers’ […]

On July 12, 1938, approximately 10,000 fans entered Griffith Stadium to see their Washington Senators take on the league-leading Cleveland Indians. Just six days earlier, the 1938 All-Star Game had been held at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. Washington’s third baseman Buddy Lewis and Cleveland’s center fielder Earl Averill had started in the midsummer classic for the […]