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Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the SABR Deadball Era committee’s April 2016 newsletter. The announcement of the winner of the 2016 Larry Ritter Book Award, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen, provides an excellent opportunity to discuss the origins and history of the award. Now in its 15th year, the Ritter […]

It was a hot summer day in 1897 when hundreds of fans of the Federalsburg Club in Maryland gathered for a game. This small town of barely a thousand people was proud of their team. Little did they know that three of the young teenagers taking the field for them that day would soon be […]

Olean, New York, sits in a plateau in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. It is surrounded by rolling hills whose forests burst into a rainbow of color in autumn, mimic crystal and silver spires in winter, explode with new life in the spring, and cover the land with cooling shade in summer. Residents and […]

Unlikely as it may seem, a careful reading of Louisville’s two major daily newspapers in January 1978 does not reveal a single article of local origination announcing that one of the city’s former sports cornerstones had passed away in upstate  New York. Perhaps it was a mark of shame to Louisville’s sense of  history that […]

Much more than a booster of baseball locally, V. Jamison Jr., prominent Hagerstown industrialist and civic leader, was a moving spirit of professional baseball for most of the first half of the twentieth century. His influence reached not only his hometown and the state of Maryland, but the country. Jamison was born in Luray, Page […]

When Jim Bunning stepped to the mound in Shea Stadium on June 21, 1964, perhaps the last thing on his mind was pitching a perfect game. When Jim Bunning stepped to the mound in Shea Stadium on June 21, 1964, perhaps the last thing on his mind was pitching a perfect game. After all, no […]

In 1944, even the Browns were able to win an American League pennant, having previously come close only when the George Sisler-led 1922 assemblage barely lost out to Babe Ruth and the pre-Lou Gehrig Yankees. But it could have turned out quite differently. Missing from the action The 1944 Red Sox were missing three of […]

One of the most unusual baseball games in Amer­ican League history took place at Shibe Park, Philadelphia, on May 18, 1912. Nominally a contest between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Detroit Tigers, the men who suited up for the Tigers that day were locally recruited ballplayers, while the real Tigers players bought tickets to sit […]

Two of America’s most important sports figures were dissimilar men, who impacted the development of the national pastime in Philadelphia and set new standards for the emerging sporting goods industry. Al Reach was a pioneering second baseman for the original Philadelphia Athletics of the 1860s, and was possibly the game’s first professional ballplayer. Later, he […]

Washington, D.C., is primarily known today as the home of our nation’s central government and for its wealth of great museums. Very few people are aware that the city helped give the game of baseball its rich national identity over 150 years ago. A thorough review of the recent “find” of baseball materials, known simply […]

As the 1867 baseball season drew to a close, the sport was meeting and exceeding the goals that were anticipated by players and journalists alike. The anticipation that the “game of nines” would become the pastime of the United States had been predicted, and even perhaps prematurely proclaimed, for close to a decade. Now, with […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: We were informed by Mike Lackey’s family that Mike passed away before he could see his article in print. It is our honor to publish it here in his memory.   Frank Shellenback was the last legal spitball pitcher when he retired in 1938, but it took several more years for the “wet […]

Back in the mid-1990s, I published Great Baseball Films (Citadel Press), which charts the manner in which the sport has been depicted onscreen from the late 1890s to early 1990s. Twenty years ago as today, even the most obscure films with obvious baseball themes were readily accessible to researchers. However, seeking out films in which […]

Pete Rose’s move from left field to third base in early May 1975 often receives credit as a pivotal moment in the success of the 1975 Reds — and with good reason. That’s when the team began to win consistently, surging to the National League West Division title. Pete Rose roamed around the diamond during […]

In Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 9, 1939, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues conducted its celebration of baseball’s centennial. A brief announcement in the March 2 edition of The Sporting News outlined what was to be the minor leagues’ part in the 100th anniversary observance. The program was to consist of the dedication of a research […]

This appendix accompanies the article “Player Win Averages” written by Pete Palmer and published in the Spring 2016 Baseball Research Journal. To scroll down to pitchers, click here.   Player Win Averages-Batters Player Games PW RW Barry Bonds 2986 120.3 123.2 Henry Aaron 3298 97.2 94.6 Willie Mays 2992 95.7 87.5 Mickey Mantle 2401 92.4 […]

This is the appendix for “Quasi-Cycles — Better Than Cycles?” by Herm Krabbenhoft.Editor’s note: This is the appendix for “Quasi-Cycles — Better Than Cycles?” by Herm Krabbenhoft.   DISCREPANCIES Comparison of Joseph Donner’s “Full List of Players with Five and Four Long Hits in a Game” [The Baseball Research Journal (1993)] with Joseph L. Reichler’s […]

Most baseball fans, and nonfans for that matter, would consider Beaneaters to be among the most interesting major-league team nicknames with longevity (i.e., multiyear usage as opposed to short-term fad). In 1883 the Boston NL team became unofficially recognized by various sportswriters as the Beaneaters, though like most major-league teams they were generally referred to […]

Thomas Francis Qualters was a bonus baby whom the Philadelphia Phillies signed on June 16, 1953, for an estimated $40,000. He was a star pitcher at McKeesport, Pennsylvania and once struck out 21 batters in a seven-inning high school game and 24 in an eight-inning high school game, allowing only one hit in each contest.1 […]

A quick perusal of the performance of the Boston Braves during the war years of 1942-45 might lead one to conclude that the team’s destiny suffered few, if any, ill effects from the loss of ballplayers to military service.  The Tribe had been mired in the National League’s second division since 1935 and finished in […]

When the 2003 Boston Red Sox reported to Fort Myers, Florida, for spring training, state-of-the-art facilities, a battery of instructors, and a full staff of physical-training specialists awaited them. The minor league facility at City of Palms Park, where the team trains before the exhibition season begins, includes eight batting tunnels and sixteen pitcher’s mounds. Every […]

On September 12, 1992, in the fifth inning of a game between the Dodgers and the Giants at Dodger Stadium, Michael Joseph Piazza hit his first major league home run and his road to the catcher career home-run record began.1 This first four-bagger was a hard shot to right center with men on second and […]