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Chicago Tribune  sportswriter  I.E. Sanborn confidently predicted that barring injuries to key players, the White Sox would capture the 1917 AL pennant.1 One of the team’s strengths, he opined, was its “great” and “well-balanced” pitching staff, led by Red Faber; however, Sanborn conceded that it lacked a star like Walter Johnson or Eddie Walsh. The […]

“Marvelous. It is the last word in baseball parks. A great thing for baseball.” – National League President John Heydler1   John Heydler was not the only visitor who was in awe of the newly opened Cleveland Stadium. Many dignitaries were on hand as the Cleveland Indians hosted the Philadelphia Athletics in the first ever […]

“There were just seven wonders of the world before this world series broke out and today there are nine,” gushed sportswriter Grantland Rice after the St. Louis Cardinals rode the exploits of Wild Bill and the Wild Horse of the Osage to a convincing 5-1 victory over the Philadelphia Athletics to take a three-games-to-two lead […]

It was Columbus Day and the biggest crowd of the 1916 World Series. The Red Sox led the Brooklyn Robins three games to one. Some 43,620 came to Boston’s Braves Field to see if the Red Sox could win their second world championship in a row. Brooklyn crowds had been only half the size of […]

One of the California Angels’ shortcomings in 1992 was a lack of production from their cleanup hitters. As the season trudged into August and the Angels sat 12 games below .500, interim manager John Wathan thought of a new way to try to get some production from the fourth slot in the lineup—bring up the […]

Entering a summer when the boxing world famously crowned a new heavyweight champion,1 baseball’s powerhouse teams met on May 14, 1919, at Comiskey Park in Chicago for an early-season clash between the game’s two most recent champions. The Boston Red Sox, led by their young hitting and pitching star Babe Ruth, came to town with […]

Walter Hackett spent his major-league career with two Boston teams in 1884-1885, the first with the short-lived Union Association, and the second with the National League. He was a solid defensive shortstop in his day, but it didn’t lead him to a lengthy career. We don’t know which side Walter batted or threw from, or […]

“Santop hit the ball farther than anybody.”1 — Jesse Hubbard   If there is one player who stands out from the early days of the Negro League era—1900 to 1925—it is Louis Santop. He was talented, with the then-rare ability to hit the long ball in what was known as the dead-ball era. He was […]

Many of the umpires of the Dead Ball Era made their mark with style and personality, and Frank “Silk” O’Loughlin was among the most stylish and quotable in a crowded field of colorful characters. O’Loughlin was born in 1872 in Rochester, New York, and spent a good part of his youth playing amateur baseball in […]

Albert Elliott Haywood was born in Whaleysville, Virginia, near Norfolk, on January 12, 1910, the son of Robert E. Haywood and Mary Goodman. He had one older sister, Sarah (White). Albert’s mother was a hospital dietician. His father worked in the shipyards at Portsmouth. His father lost his job when Albert was 16, so Albert […]

Ruggedly handsome with dark wavy hair, an engaging smile and a boyish grin, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman was equally capable of leading the league in both home runs and pranks. General manager Branch Rickey suspiciously called him the instigator, to which James Anthony Collins remarked: “Rickey always accused me of being the […]

Rumor in Town is a very persuasive book. Subtitled “A Grandson’s Promise to Right A Wrong,” Matt Dahlgren’s 2007 book tells the story of the life of first-baseman Babe Dahlgren and how his life in baseball (1934-48) was tarnished by rumors of drug use.1 Murray Chass of the New York Times wrote of grandson Matt’s […]

Not every rookie has a Vice President of the United States attend their major league debut. But eccentric Cleveland Naps pitcher and Brooklyn boy Bugs Reisigl did in late September 1911. Jacob Reisigl (pronounced like ‘bicycle’) was born on December 12, 1887, in Brooklyn, New York. He was the third of six children born to […]

Philadelphia A’s star left-hander and future Hall of Famer Eddie Plank had scattered five hits and had not allowed a run as the Boston Braves batted in the top of the ninth in Game Two of the 1914 World Series. Unfortunately for Plank and his mates, Braves starter Bill James was pitching just as well. […]

There have been more successful players who wore the St. Louis Cardinals uniform — but few more beloved by fans than Willie McGee. A work ethic rooted in his upbringing allowed him to make the most of his natural abilities. The switch-hitter used exceptional bat speed to spray line drives all over the field and […]

In 1957, Valmy Thomas became the first man from the U.S. Virgin Islands to play in what were then classified as the major leagues. Since Thomas was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, some gave Joe Christopher this honor, but it really belonged to Thomas — until December 2020, when the Negro Leagues were recognized as […]

Left-hander Kevin Morton’s time in the big leagues was brief but showed considerable promise. A first-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in June 1989, he debuted in the majors just over two years later with a complete-game 10-1 five-hitter at Fenway Park against the Detroit Tigers. He won six games in the four months […]

In announcing the March 1921 indictments of the players and gamblers involved in the Black Sox Scandal, Cook County (Illinois) State’s Attorney Robert Crowe announced that the World Series fix originated in St. Louis, specifically with Carl Zork and Benjamin Franklin, rather than in Boston and New York by the Eastern clique of Arnold Rothstein, […]

Billy Barnie touched all aspects of baseball before his untimely death in 1900 at age 49. This includes player trades, player contracts, home and away uniforms, three strikes and out, modern schedule making, five-pointed home plates, all-star teams, coaching boxes, overhand pitching, ballpark construction, championship rings, and daily game promotion. Barnie held every conceivable baseball […]

Elizabeth, New Jersey, belongs in the roster of major-league cities (depending on how one classifies the National Association of 1871-75). A section known as Waverly Fairgrounds housed the 1873 Elizabeth Resolutes of that league.1 But one must acknowledge that the fairgrounds property is in the municipality of Clinton, which eventually got parceled to Newark and […]

This article was originally published in “From Shibe Park to Connie Mack Stadium: Great Games in Philadelphia’s Lost Ballpark” (SABR, 2022), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. Black ballplayers first set foot on the field at Shibe Park at the end of the 1919 season when the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey faced off […]

Columbia University went through six baseball coaches in eight years from 1906 through 1913. But in 1914, former big league pitcher Andy Coakley joined the program, handling pitchers and catchers. He became the Lions’ head coach in 1915 and remained in that job for 37 years, stepping down after the 1951 season. Coakley shaped the […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 10: Baseball in History Journals (1980-88) Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1989. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Jim SumnerApril 1989 This guide consists of all the articles I could find on baseball history published in history […]

Here are the SABR Bookshelf listings for Spring 2019. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB […]