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This article first appeared in the SABR Deadball Era Committee’s February 2016 newsletter. Even with the large number of new books on the Deadball Era published annually, it is worthwhile on occasion to recall prior works which illuminate figures who may have fallen a bit outside of the Deadball Era Committee’s view. One such person […]

Editor’s note: The statistics below were believed to be correct and up-to-date at the time.   When Pete Rose opened the fifth game of the 1972 World Series at Oakland with a home run, it marked the 11th time that a leadoff batter in the World Series has slugged a homer as the first hitter […]

This article originally appeared in the SABR Deadball Era Committee’s February 2017 newsletter. In early 1961, nearly 44 years after the event, Al Laney recalled Ernie Shore’s unique pitching achievement against the Washington Senators with a memorable opening line in the New York Herald Tribune: “On a Saturday in the summer of 1917 at Fenway […]

Babe Ruth (with catcher’s gear) pictured with his team from St. Mary’s Industrial School, and three of the Xaverian brothers who ran the school (in the gazebo). (PUBLIC DOMAIN)   Babe Ruth began his professional baseball career in 1914 as a member of the Baltimore Orioles, a minor-league team in the International League. Long-time Baltimore […]

Babe Ruth calling his shot . . . Gabby Hartnett’s home run in the gloamin’… Ernie Banks’ No. 500. . . These are some of the 6,905 major league home runs hit at Wrigley Field. The first home run was hit by Art Wilson of the Chicago Whales in a Federal League game on April […]

Introduction and Context The disquieting year of 1981 featured the worst upheaval in baseball history — to that point in time — due to a players strike that erased roughly one-third of the regular-season schedule.  Play was halted on June 12, and after weeks of acrimonious negotiations between players, club owners, and their respective representatives, […]

In 100 years of major league’ baseball, there have been nearly 117,000 home runs hit in regulation games. Less than 2 percent of these, or 2150, have been hit in extra innings. Yet, these overtime homers have been very important. About 90-95% of the time they provide the winning margin. In 1975, for example, there […]

Editor’s Note: On this page, Parts One and Two, which were published separately in the Spring 2024 and Fall 2024 issues of the Baseball Research Journal, are combined into one article as the author intended. Sandy Koufax (SABR-Rucker Archive)   American Jews have long had a love affair with baseball. They have played baseball since […]

There are two main objectives for the hitter.  The first is to not make an out and the second is to hit for distance. Long-ball hitting is normally measured by slugging average. Not making an out can be expressed in terms of on base average (OBA), where:       OBA    =  Hits + Walks […]

This article was published in Dominionball: Baseball Above the 49th (2005), the SABR 35 convention journal.   There have now been approximately 200 major leaguers born in Canada. The necessity of using the word “approximately” would seem to imply a lack of research on the subject. In fact, it is precisely because there has been […]

August 28, 1988, Angels vs. Yankees, was Jimmie Reese Day at Anaheim Stadium. Jimmie was then in his 17th year as the California Angels conditioning coach. He was 86 (born October 1, 1901), and still suiting up, still hitting fungoes the way a carpenter drives nails. He could “pitch” batting practice with his split fungo […]

This interview by Ron Anderson was originally published in SABR’s “Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and Their Profession” (2011), edited by Jim Sandoval and Bill Nowlin. Interviews were conducted on January 18, 20, and 29, 2007. RA: You’re a former scout of the Boston Red Sox. GD: Yes. I started with them […]

Most casual baseball fans are familiar with such well-known movies as the Lou Gehrig biopic The Pride of the Yankees, the myth-making twosome of The Natural and Field of Dreams, and the irreverent Bull Durham, but there are numerous films that have been largely forgotten even by diehard baseball and film aficionados. The 1953 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer […]

Frank Shaughnessy (middle, second row) guided the 1913 Ottawa Senators to their second straight Canadian League title, nosing out the London Tecumsehs by a single game. First baseman “Cozy” Dolan (top row, third from left) led the Senators with a .358 batting average. (Alfred Pittaway of Pittaway & Jarvis Photographers, Ottawa)   For Frank Shaughnessy, […]

The famous city of Philadelphia totes the title the City of Brotherly Love for many reasons. One intention might refer to a friendship between a pitcher and a catcher that would last for 19 years. The catcher was Jimmie “Ace” Wilson, a backstop born and bred in the great state of Pennsylvania. In the fateful […]

Introduction In January 1942, one month after the attack on Pearl Harbor had made the United States a combatant in World War II, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in which he had inquired “whether professional baseball should continue to operate.”1 Roosevelt’s famous reply, now known as the “green […]

A summary of the 1951 World Series, won by the New York Yankees in six games over the New York Giants. Game One New York Giants 5, New York Yankees 1 October 4, 1951, at Yankee Stadium With the recurring sounds of “the Giants win the pennant!” still echoing, a World Series – even a […]

This article was selected for inclusion in SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game. Introduction In his December 29, 2005 internet blog, John Thorn, the noted baseball author and SABR member, mentioned that the shotgun that killed Ty Cobb’s father in 1905 had been part […]

Like raging dinosaurs in some prehistoric swamp, the Milwaukee Braves’ Warren Spahn and the San Francisco Giants’ Juan Marichal slugged it out for four hours, 10 minutes, and 16 innings, all through the night of July 2 and into the early minutes of July 3, 1963. Spahn, 42, personified an aging Tyrannosaurus rex defending his […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in “The Journal of Illinois History” (Vol. 9, No. 4, Winter 2006) and reprinted in SABR’s “The National Pastime” (No. 26, 2006). The version below has been edited for clarity and updated with new information about the Black Sox Scandal that has come to light in the years […]

From the Braves to the Brewers: Great Games and Exciting History at Milwaukee’s County Stadium Edited by Gregory H. Wolf Associate editors: James Forr, Len Levin, Bill Nowlin Publication Date: June 27, 2016 ISBN (ebook): 978-1-9438-1622-4, $9.99 ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9438-1623-1, $19.95 8.5″ x 11″, 297 pages This SABR Digital Library book rekindles memories of Milwaukee’s […]