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The dictionary defines the word “Elysian” as “something blissful; delightful,”1 and for ballplayers, such a place has existed for 140 years in the city of New York. Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs of New York City and if considered as a separate entity would rank fourth in the country in sending players to […]

The 1949 Drummondville Cubs, Quebec Provincial League champions. Left to right: Gerry Cotnoir, Roy Zimmerman, Roger Bréard, Quincy Trouppe, Len Hooker, Sal Maglie, Conrado Perez, Roberto Vargas, Joe Promowicz (Prom), Joe luminelli, Danny Gardella, Stan Bréard, Vic Power, Ernie Sawyer. (Collection of Daniel Papillon)   George Gmelch, then playing for the Drummondville Royals, recalled a […]

The years immediately following World War II were a golden age for baseball attendance. In 1945, the Major Leagues drew more than 10.8 million, breaking a 15-year old record. The next year, they eclipsed that total by more than 70 percent, attracting more than 18.5 million paying fans. The 1947 season was even better, producing […]

All batters think it’s great to hit a home run. They think it’s even better to hit one as a pinch hitter. And when the bases are loaded and you’re called off the bench to deliver — and you do! There’s hardly anything to match the emotional impact of a pinch grand slam! Here’s a […]

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 the winter of 1961, baseball fans were gearing up for an expansion of the National League — newcomers named the New York Mets and Houston Colt .45’s would play their inaugural season in 1962. Baseball writers around the country, however, were more thrilled by the return of Casey Stengel, hired to manage the Mets. […]

Many baseball coaches, sportswriters, and television announcers have commented on the fact that batting averages are low with two strikes or high with less than two strikes. For example, Thomas Boswell, in an article he wrote criticizing Ted Williams’ theory that you should take the first pitch, noted that “an analysis of nearly 100 of […]

Following the events of Pearl Harbor and in Europe, on January 15, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis: “I honestly feel it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.” Thus, through 1945, the heroic military efforts of Americans in World War II would be complemented and […]

The 2007 Old-Timers Day included Whitey Ford (16), Yogi Berra (8), Reggie Jackson (44), Don Mattingly (23), Ron Guidry (49), Moose Skowron (14), Don Larsen (18), Graig Nettles (9), Bobby Murcer (1), Goose Gossage (54), Paul O’Neill (21), Scott Brosius (18), Joe Pepitone (25), and Chris Chambliss (10). (Jerry Coli/Dreamstime)   The original Yankee Stadium, […]

Among the more noteworthy events in major-league baseball in 2010 were a) the San Francisco Giants winning their first World Series since 1954 (when the franchise was based in New York) when they defeated the Texas Rangers in five games; b) the in-season retirement of several stars, including future Hall of Famers Randy Johnson, Frank […]

During a professional baseball career of 18 seasons spread out over a span of 23 years, Guy Terrell Bush only spent one full season and part of another in Pittsburgh. But with bloody fists and a heart filled with frustration, he left a few marks in the baseball history books while wearing Pirates flannel. In […]

INTRODUCTION Major league baseball teams routinely use analytics to position infielders based on hitter tendencies, but these data do not always provide a complete story. If a hitter always pulls the ball, it is difficult to use that data to assess quantitatively the benefits of balls hit into zones that exploit defensive alignment gaps. The […]

The most important statistic for a baseball team is wins (winning percentage)—the more (higher), the better. And even the most casual fan knows that the essential component for winning is scoring runs—at least one run (more than the opposing team) in a game. Thus, contributing to the scoring of runs can be considered the supreme […]

Babe Ruth is frequently lauded as the greatest player in Major League Baseball history, and arguably the first true superstar athlete. Ruth transcended the game of baseball, and with the aid of agent Christy Walsh, he profited tremendously from that transcendence. Beyond his salary and bonuses paid by the Yankees—which made him the highest-paid player […]

“Heroes get remembered. But legends never die.” So says an apparition of Babe Ruth in The Sandlot. Statues affirm their permanence. Capturing a ballplayer’s essence creates a bond with passersby who stop to absorb the player’s importance to the game and admire the sculptor’s handiwork framing a moment. Ruth’s likeness adorns Oriole Park as a […]

“Hugh Fullerton has a theory regarding left-handed pitchers that their left arms affect their hearts and that affects their brain which is why they’re all eccentric. Waddell is, of course, the synonym for eccentricity in baseball.” — Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 21, 1906   One controversial aspect of Rube Waddell’s career, while he was still […]

In the early 1960s, each of the recent expansion cities played host to the MLB All-Star Game, New York in 1964, Anaheim in 1967, Houston in 1968, and Washington DC in 1969. The 1968 baseball season took place against a backdrop of racial violence. The late 1960s trembled with social and political turbulence, with the […]

Nearly 300 no-hitters have been thrown in the major leagues since 1876, but none of them have been thrown by a San Diego Padre. The closest any Padres pitcher has come to pitching immortality since San Diego joined the National League was on July 18, 1972, when Steve Arlin pitched 8⅔ hitless innings against the […]

The Cape Cod Baseball League, one of the top summer collegiate circuits, celebrated its first 100 years in 1985. This brought to mind David Q. Voigt’s suspicion of centennials. Writing on the origins of the Boston Red Stockings in the December 1970 issue of The New England Quarterly, Voigt noted that many baseball centennials had […]

Yankees owners Jacob Ruppert and Til Huston realized early in their partnership that New York wouldn’t tolerate anything less than a championship team. Ruppert had a championship in mind when he hired Miller Huggins to manage the club in 1918. According to Ruppert: “Huggins had vision. Getting him was the first and most important step […]

  The 2014 Little League World Series left baseball fans everywhere awestruck. With her 70-mph fastball, a 13-year-old girl by the name of Mo’ne Davis pitched a complete-game shutout to lead her team, the Taney Dragons, to a 4-0 victory. In doing so, she was the first girl ever to pitch a winning game in […]

More than two decades ago, Pete Palmer contributed what I think is one of the best baseball statistical analysis efforts ever done. The results were published in The National Pastime in 1985, in an article entitled “Do Clutch Pitchers Exist?” Palmer examined pitchers with at least 150 decisions between 1900 and 1983, accounting for how […]

All baseball fans can attest to the truism that baseball is a game that hinges on timing and inches. To the fans of a team eclipsing 100 victories, a season feels joyous and swift. Other seasons are made interminable by loss after loss. Line drives either just clip the foul line or miss wide by […]

In the relatively progressive state of Minnesota, African Americans were still able to participate on integrated amateur and semi-professional ball teams. Two men in paticular, slugger Billy Williams and crack infielder Dick Brookins, figured prominently on the Midwestern diamonds of the early twentieth century, although their experiences with the color line took radically different turns.