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Fort Hood’s Student Regiment Team, from the September 23, 1943 issue of The Hood Panther. (Courtesy of tankdestroyer.net)    When searching “Camp Hood Baseball,” three words come up often: Jackie, Robinson, and court-martial. Numerous articles have been written about Robinson’s time at Camp Hood—many about his August 1944 court-martial after refusing to move to the […]

The problem of measuring batting skill is as old as baseball itself. The earliest statisticians were content to count the hits and runs scored by each batter, but the unfairness of this simple method to the stars of weak teams soon prompted invention of the batting average. Since then statistics have proliferated to the point […]

Background The 1971 baseball Winter Meetings took place in Phoenix, Arizona, from Saturday, November 27, through Friday, December 3. As was the custom, the National Association meetings took up the first few days, while the major-league meetings got going on Wednesday. Rule 5 Draft In the annual major-league draft, the big-league clubs claimed 13 players […]

INTRODUCTION Pitchers are a breed apart. On average, they are taller and heavier than most players; contrary to their fielding brethren, they do not play every day; even the most resilient of relievers have to sit out half of their team’s games or risk burning out their arms, and most starters will work only every […]

And there used to be a ballpark Where the field was warm and green And the people played their crazy game With a joy I’d never seen And the air was such a wonder From the hot dogs and the beer Yes, there used to be a ballpark, right here.1   Yes, there used to […]

Most modern-day fans see a close connection between large numbers of home runs and equally impressive runs-batted-in figures in a given season. There are certainly sound reasons for this perception, based both in the ancient rules (a four-base hit scores all runners ahead of the batter) and six decades’ evidence parading Ruth, Gehrig, and their […]

The number 11 has a prominent place in human history, both real and imagined. The First World War ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Apollo 11 was the first manned spacecraft to land on the moon. And in the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, the fate […]

Dollar Disputes The twin specters of collusion in the recent past, and an expiring deal between the owners and players in the near future (on December 31, 1989), cast the shadow of a seasonal shutdown over the Nashville winter meetings. According to some owners, increasing salaries and revenue differences threatened competitive balance. The eccentric Marge […]

After a World Series appearance in 1965 and finishing second to the Baltimore Orioles in 1966, there were many reasons to believe the Minnesota Twins had a good shot at the American League pennant in 1967. Decades later, this remains one of baseball greatest and most historic pennant races. On September 30, 1967, a Saturday […]

For the first time since 1941, major-league baseball was able to conduct its winter meetings without having to adjust to World War II, which had decimated rosters and affected the quality of play over the previous four years. After the war ended in August 1945, the commissioner, league presidents, and team owners met in Chicago […]

In 1877, an auburn-haired 20-year-old from St. Louis, Missouri, took the field for George McManus’s St. Louis Brown Stockings. The career of baseballist Thomas Joseph “Tom” Loftus parallels the story of the first 35 years of pro ball. Born on November 15, 1856, Loftus was a minor- and major-league baseball player, team captain, scout, manager, […]

Merle Harmon interviews Herb Score. The 1955 American League Rookie of the Year winner later joined the baseball broadcasting fraternity after his career ended prematurely. (COURTESY OF MERLE HARMON)   He was a sports broadcaster and former college football player from the Midwest. Tall and gray­ haired, he sported a crooked nose as a football […]

The Minneapolis Millers’ 1933 home opener featured three-seat bicycles during the pregame parade to the team’s venerable but odd-shaped Nicollet Park. The bikes weren’t the only unusual sight as the Millers began to defend their first American Association title since 1915. That gloomy late April day, with temperatures in the 50s, locally made product, Wheaties, […]

The National League winter meetings of 1897-1898 were conducted during a period of good feeling among club owners, with Cincinnati Reds boss John T. Brush at the height of his influence. The gatherings were highly productive in terms of the adoption of new legislation and policy, although some initiatives, particularly the player-conduct commandments known as […]

The slugger stands at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, the score tied. The crowd rises in anticipation. The windup. The pitch and…there it goes! We’ve all seen them. Game-ending or “walk-off” home runs are shown on SportsCenter almost every night and many fans consider them to be among the most exciting plays […]

One day in the late summer of 1947, my mom and I were listening to Harry Caray on the radio describe a very exciting play at the plate during a game between the Cardinals and Dodgers. My mom, who had been clipping sliding action photos from the newspapers for many years, said to me: “That […]

As 1945 dawned, World War II was winding down toward its conclusion – even if that wasn’t apparent as the year began. After repelling the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge, Allied troops were moving through Europe, making their way toward Berlin – and presenting the question of how to defeat the Japanese in […]

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, […]

Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy are together on the wall in Cooperstown that honors all recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting greatness. Between Murphy and Nelson is Bob Wolff, who was considered for the inaugural Mets booth. (Courtesy of MetSilverman.com)   The New York Mets were born in sin, cleansed by pain, […]

On September 28, 1947, the Bambino made an appearance before a game benefitting his Babe Ruth Foundation – later recognized as the first Old-Timers Day. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The story of Yankee Stadium cannot be told without telling the story of Babe Ruth. His home-field exploits during his playing days are well covered, but a […]

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth on July 4, 1939 on Lou Gehrig’s last day at Yankee Stadium. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.)   Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig weren’t exactly best friends or worst enemies, weren’t exactly master and pupil, weren’t exactly equals on or off the field. Half a generation apart in age1 […]