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A note from the editors of Baseball in the Peach State.

A MAGIC SUMMER: FORTY YEARS LATER Now, 40 years after the fact, the “Miracle” has finally become the property of history. Two generations have quickly slipped by. You need to be in your 50s to have a clear recollection of the Legend of the 1969 Mets and what they meant, banked against the futility of […]

Whitey Witt batted .301 as a Yankee, from 1922-1925. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   It was long before the days when the elegant voice of Bob Sheppard introduced the starting lineup at Yankee Stadium. However, if there was a public-address announcer at the Bronx ballpark on the day it opened on April 18, […]

Few single-game achievements are as highly-regarded as the cycle: “A single, double, triple, and home run (not necessarily in that order) hit by a player in the same game.”1 Since 1876, there have been 344 documented regular-season cycles in the history of major league baseball (excluding the Negro Leagues).2 Table 1 breaks down the players […]

While playing for the Cleveland Indians over the course of four consecutive games in July 1920, Tris Speaker got hits in eleven consecutive at-bats, setting both the American League and major league record. Although Speaker is now tied for third on that list, this article’s subject is what happened regarding the hits in consecutive at […]

  Duke Farrell as depicted with the Chicago White Stockings on an Old Judge baseball card, circa 1888–90. (Trading Card Database)   Welcome to nineteenth-century baseball research, where it is not uncommon for the newspapers to have conflicting box score data, and for the box score data to be in conflict with the written article […]

The Caguas Criollos won back-to-back Caribbean Series crowns in 2017 and ’18, beating Mexicali 1–0 in 10 innings on February 7, 2017, and defeating Aguilas Cibaeñas from the Dominican Republic on February 8, 2018. The Criollos’ fifth Caribbean Series title puts them in elite company: Only the Dominican Republic’s Tigres del Licey have won more […]

  When he stepped on the mound at Municipal Stadium to face the hometown Waterbury Giants on September 3, 1967, Dick Such of the York White Roses carried the burden of an 0–16 record. It was his last chance that season to snap his winless streak. The 6-foot-4 right-hander got off to a rocky start […]

In every sport and at every level, the home team wins more games than the visiting team. While this is true in baseball, it is less the case than in other sports. Throughout baseball history, the home team has won approximately 54 percent of the games played. Nearly every aspect of the game has changed […]

  On May 2, 1963, the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Indians completed a swap of starting pitchers. Southpaw Jack Kralick was headed to Cleveland while right-hander Jim Perry was on his way to the Twin Cities. Kralick (34–32, 3.64 ERA) and Perry (52–49, 3.87) had similar career numbers. Perry, however, had been used more out […]

The National League Expansion Committee visited Denver Mile High Stadium after a tour of the metropolitan area in several helicopters. Here, they huddle on the infield grass to exchange information. (Courtesy of Roger Kinney)   The year 1959 was a good one– a very important year for baseball in Colorado. It was the first time […]

Knowing and living in the same household with my grandfather Bob Groom was an accident of fate but a gift of immeasurable value. His was and remains the strongest presence in my life. What I remember of him are the deeply felt, simple memories of a child, so discovering who he was to others took […]

“Television is not only just what the doctor ordered for Negro performers; television subtly has supplied ten-league boots to the Negro in his fight to win what the Constitution of this country guarantees as his birthright.” — Ed Sullivan1   Jackie Robinson appears on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 20, 1962. (Courtesy of Ed […]

The proliferation of professional baseball teams in 1884 provided an historic high-water mark for the sport’s surge of popularity in the early 1880s. Teams and leagues were launched on a wing and a prayer in May, only to crash in August and September. The Northwestern League and its entry from Stillwater, Minn., the team whose […]

Robert “Bob” Addy’s Canadian baseball success story begs a really big question. Why are we only hearing about him now? In the last 10 years, thanks to researcher Peter Morris, Addy’s Canadian roots have been highlighted, but this knowledge has taken its sweet time spreading to all corners of the baseball world.1 Now additional details […]

Buster Keaton’s journey as a physical athlete starring in silent cinema.

This article was originally published in The SABR Review of Books, Volume III (1988). Roger Angell’s office at The New Yorker where he works as senior fiction editor and baseball reporter, has the rumpled busy look of a college professor’s study. Shelves are lined with baseball guides, SABR publications, autographed baseballs, odd wire sculptures of […]

What makes these Detroit Tigers uniform numbers — 2, 5, 6, 16, and 23 — special? Nearly every Tigers fan knows the answer to this question — each of those uniform numbers has been retired, in honor of Charlie Gehringer (2), Hank Greenberg (5), Al Kaline (6), Hal Newhouser (16), and Willie Horton (23). Each of these […]

  There is not a person alive in the industrialized world who has not been touched directly or indirectly by the wonders of medical science. Death-sentence diseases of the past, like cancer, now carry longer and longer commutation periods, thanks to advanced early detection and modern surgical techniques. The twentieth century discovery of insulin has […]

The old ball was perched on a low, dusty shelf in a not very distinguished antique shop in Philadelphia; I spotted the ball only by chance just as I was about to leave the store. Even though I was an impoverished college sophomore who had no business spending $40 on a used baseball, I figured […]

Observing the similarity between two celebrated dynasties — the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s and the Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s — is hardly original, and hardly new. But the comparisons between the two teams are worth exploring in some detail. They were a ballclub well-known then and well-remembered today not just for their victories […]

Lefty George Mogridge entered Game Seven of the 1924 World Series in relief for the Washington Senators, after starter Curly Ogden was pulled in the first inning. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   Atop the right-field stands at Target Field in Minneapolis fly the pennants to celebrate league championships and world titles. The initial one is from […]

August 3, 1988, was a scorching day on the north shore of Lake Ontario; in Imperial-averse Canada, the temperature reached a high of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Playing an evening game offered little relief from the heat for the Toronto Blue Jays and their visitors, the Minnesota Twins. When Jeff Musselman of the […]

George Shuba greets Jackie Robinson at home plate on April 18, 1946. (Courtesy of Greg Gulas, Carrie Anderson, Mike Shuba)   The 1946 Montreal Royals of the International League have received much attention over the years because Jackie Robinson broke Organized Baseball’s historic and shameful color line by playing second base for the Royals.1 But […]