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Abe Saperstein created the Harlem Globetrotters and is widely credited with pioneering the three-point shot. (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History)   Abe Saperstein is best known as the founder of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, but he also was deeply involved in baseball. During the 1930s, Saperstein worked as a promoter, publicist, and agent […]

Let me propose a hypothesis: The Cubs and Pirates are each other’s biggest rival. A few years ago I mentioned the idea to Cubs expert Art Ahrens (we were both in our cups), and he looked at me as if I were crazy. But I was researching the Cubs and the Pirates—my two favorite teams—and […]

Before the first game of the 1911 World Series, legendary managers John McGraw (left) of the New York Giants and Connie Mack (right) of the Philadelphia Athletics are pictured shaking hands. Also shown are the pitching aces of the two teams, Hall of Famers Christy Mathewson (left) of the Giants and Charles Albert Bender (right) […]

Introduction and Context Now fully invested in the Great War taking place in Europe, the United States was burdened by a shift in its political and economic conditions that demanded a sharp focus on a mobilization of the nation’s armed forces.  On the home front, Americans were implored to sacrifice for the good of the […]

The Harrisburg Giants joined the Eastern Colored League in 1924 with a powerful lineup centered around player-manager Oscar Charleston, a future Hall of Famer.1 But the Giants faced a problem: Pennsylvania’s blue laws prevented baseball from being played on Sundays, a significant hit to the team’s fiscal prospects.2 Yet a solution stood just 40 miles […]

Shifty. That’s a good word for Walter Dilbeck, the huckster who launched the Global Baseball League in 1966. And launched it again in 1968. And crashed it in 1969. The barely believable saga of Dilbeck and his self-styled third major league involves 11 Hall of Famers, a former vice president of the United States, a […]

Editor’s note: Reprinted courtesy of the Oakland Tribune. Research by Paul J. Zingg, author of Harry Hooper: An American Baseball Life, contributed to this article. An earlier version ran as a column in The Oakland Tribune on April 9, 1995.   Fans of professional football hear incessantly of the collegiate connection to their game. Jerry […]

This spring, baseball attention will be focused on Henry Aaron as he strives to reach and pass that magic number in the home run summit of fame — 714.   There is another historic home run number that is being approached and soon some one will be achieving that milestone.   That will be the 100th home […]

The 1912 Ottawa Senators Baseball Team. (City of Ottawa Archives, MG946-3)   In the early decades of the twentieth century, baseball was by far the most popular sport in North America. By 1911 about 400 cities in Canada and the United States had professional baseball. But not Ottawa. Ottawa, pop. 87,000, was reportedly the only city […]

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 […]

MOE BERG One day when the senators were on the road, Al Schacht called Moe Berg in his hotel room to tell him he was with two ladies who wanted to meet him. “Moe, this is Al. I’ve got a couple young ladies down here in the lobby. I’ve been telling them about you being […]

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 […]

A day after the New York Yankees lost the 1921 World Series to their landlords, the New York Giants, the squad gathered at the Polo Grounds to divide $87,756.67, the losers’ share of the postseason proceeds. During the meeting, each player also received a letter signed by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis reiterating Article IV, Section […]

The 1874 Guelph Maple Leafs, George Sleeman center. (Harper’s Weekly, September 12, 1874)   Baseball’s rise in the nineteenth century featured a storied cast of characters in a variety of locales. It is perhaps a reflection of the prototypically humble Canadian persona that the early “dynasties” north of the border were not from the larger metropolitan […]

On September 24, 1919, Shoeless Joe Jackson stepped up to the plate at Comiskey Park in the bottom of the ninth inning with a chance to make history for the Chicago White Sox. The score stood at 5-5 with one out. The winning run — the American League pennant-clinching run — stood on third base […]

Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick, hosting a meeting on August 24, 1953, with Emilio de Aldrey of the Puerto Rican League, Bobby Maduro of the Cuban League, and Luis Alejandro Blanco Chataing of the Venezuelan League. The baseball executive council agreed to permit 48 major-league players to participate in 60 games with Caribbean Confederation-affiliated clubs. (Getty […]

This story tells the tragic tale of Michael “Doc” Powers, a catcher who played primarily for the Philadelphia Athletics and whose baseball career was cut short by his untimely death. Misconceptions about what caused his demise abound, but can be laid to rest by this article. Ultimately, “Doc Powers Day” was organized by the American […]

This article was originally published in The SABR Review of Books, Volume V (1990).   On October 15, 1988, with a runner on first, Kirk Gibson of the Los Angeles Dodgers jerked a slider from the Oakland A’s Dennis Eckersley into the stands for a 5-4 victory. Newspaper reports noted that it was the first […]

This is the musical score to one of the songs devoted to Mays in 1954, written by Willard Robinson and performed by Johnny Long and His Orchestra. (Courtesy of KeyMan Collectibles)   James S. Hirsch, a biographer of Willie Mays, wrote that even before his Rookie of the Year Award, his MVPs, batting title, numerous […]

Four members of the 1935 Detroit Tigers were later elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Three of them were among the finest players of their era, while the fourth was a very good player whose election was the subject of debate. All were instrumental in the Tigers’ winning the 1935 championship, their first.Four members […]

Fans may recall that Boog Powell, while batting in the 1971 World Series, had trouble on at least one occasion fighting off bees or gnats. This was a very minor disruption compared to the many caused by birds or beasts in the offbeat annals of baseball. Down through the years, reports of ball games have […]

In Babe Ruth’s first year with the Yankees in 1920, he hit 54 homers to break his own American League record set the year before with Boston. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   On the morning of January 6, 1920, New Yorkers awoke to a headline in The New York Times that screamed “Ruth […]