Search Results

As we came out of the ferryboat landing and walked to the Port Authority Building, the sky was overcast and a light rain was falling. It was noon, and we had two hours to get to Yankee Stadium. Maybe the doubleheader would be rained out, we thought. The date was June 26, 1955. I was […]

When the lively ball era was launched in 1920 there were few players who displayed the combined ability of speed and power. If a player were to accumulate a lot of extra bases it would be with his bat and not his feet. Thus it was automatic that when we thought of extra bases it […]

This article investigates the 1963 Pepsi Cola Colt .45s Baseball Card Set, documents rarities, and identifies why certain of these cards are rare, drawing attention to this set that is obscure to all except the most sophisticated collectors. In 1963 the Houston Colt .45s were relatively new to the baseball world and Pepsi Cola hoped […]

As a young boy growing up in York, Pennsylvania, Harold Wynegar Jr. emulated Mickey Mantle. “I patterned myself after Mantle,” Wynegar said as a minor leaguer in 1975. “He was a switch-hitter, so I started switch-hitting when I was 9. I’m not saying I’m going to be another Mickey Mantle. He’s one of the biggest […]

What’s My Line? was a popular primetime game show which ran on CBS-TV from 1950 through 1967, with a daytime syndicated version lasting from 1968 to 1975. Its format was simple and clever: a quartet of panelists questioned individuals to determine their often unusual or unlikely occupations, which ranged from the offbeat (safety pin maker, […]

The run is the most fundamental and the most important statistic in baseball. Regrettably, clerical (e.g., transcription) errors have been made in the process of crediting the runs scored by the individual players in MLB’s official records.1, 2 For example, according to the 1961 official American League records, New York Yankees Mickey Mantle and Bill […]

British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once remarked that there are three kinds of falsehoods: lies, damned lies, and statistics. While this may be debated on political and philosophical levels, there are circumstances where statistics (and graphs and charts) can shed some truth and light. Perhaps this is one of those times. In this paper we […]

It’s hard to believe but the ML official averages show that 40-year old Willie Mays had the beat base stealing percentage in 1971. He was thrown out only 3 times in 26 tries. This marks the fifth tine that Mays has led his league in this department since the ML started “caught stealing” records on […]

As part of the National League expansion in 1962, a franchise was awarded to New York City. From 1962 to the current day the Metropolitans’ ownership has been fairly stable. Joan Payson and her family maintained control of the club until they sold the team in 1980 to the publishing firm Doubleday and Co. Nelson […]

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from the following book. The Runmakers: A New Way to Rate Baseball Players by Frederick E. Taylor Johns Hopkins University Press (2011) 272 pages “Hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sport. . . . A hitter . . . is expected to hit […]

When Pete Rose hustled down to first base after rapping out base hit No. 4,192 on September 11, 1985, neither he nor the adoring crowd at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium knew that their hero had already passed Ty Cobb’s revised total of 4,189 career hits. Many baseball records are erroneously regarded as sacrosanct: these historic numbers […]

A subject that animates baseball fans is ranking its greatest players, particularly regarding membership in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (HOF). In the past decade or two, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) has moved to the forefront of this discussion among analytically minded fans. Unlike many “traditional” stats (wins, losses, saves, runs, RBI), […]

The number 11 has a prominent place in human history, both real and imagined. The First World War ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Apollo 11 was the first manned spacecraft to land on the moon. And in the popular Netflix series Stranger Things, the fate […]

One of many things that makes baseball the most enjoyable sport is statistics. Players are considered great because of their statistical achievements. We are all familiar with the records for home runs in a season or career. Career strikeouts. Pitchers winning 20 games in a season. Batters hitting .300. All of these are interesting and […]

The 1957 baseball Winter Meetings, held in Colorado Springs, Colorado, from December 2 to 7, had many issues on the table — the relocation of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively; remuneration to and realignment of the Pacific Coast League; major-league television rights in minor-league territories; minor-league […]

In 1967, Carl Yastrezemski wasn’t just the sparkplug for the Boston Red Sox with his hitting and his fielding. He also posted some stats that no one matched for 45 years, winning the last Triple Crown in Major League Baseball until Miguel Cabrera in 2012. “And if I have my choice between a pennant and […]

Seventy-three home runs in a single season would have been considered absurd only a few years ago, yet Barry Bonds accomplished this astounding feat in 2001. Bonds’ record-breaking season, eclipsing the mark of 70 set by Mark McGwire only four years earlier raises the question of which ballplayers truly own the greatest single-season home run performances […]

Major league baseball parks have changed considerably since 1884. The introduction of the lively ball in 1920 changed the status of parks in relation to home runs. In this article is a listing of the leading home run hitters in the major league parks through 1971.Fans have speculated about how many home runs Ted Williams […]

Amidst the current upsurge of social activism among professional athletes, it is worth recalling the enormous contribution of Jim Bouton, one of the most politically outspoken sports figures in American history. Among professional team sports, baseball may be the most conservative and tradition-bound, but throughout its history, rebels and mavericks have emerged to challenge the […]

May 1, 1951: Minnie Minoso debuts for Sox and homers in first at-bat On April 30, 1951, the Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Athletics, and Chicago White Sox orchestrated a trade. Philadelphia sent Lou Brissie to Cleveland, which in turn shipped Sam Zoldak and Ray Murray to Philadelphia and Orestes “Minnie” Minoso to Chicago. The Athletics also […]

Introduction and History I have taught or co-taught sabermetrics in the mathematics department at the United States Military Academy several times. We covered all the metrics but what always interested me most was the direction student projects took to solve or analyze various issues in baseball. In one of these courses, for example, the group […]

  I was born in a small farming town in the southwest Minnesota prairie. In 1963, when I was 5 years old, our family moved to Milwaukee. Like all our friends and most of our neighbors, my brother and I loved all things baseball. We played catch in the backyard and organized endless pickup games […]

Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, 1907-1958 (Volume 1) Edited by Robert K. Fitts, Bill Nowlin, and James Forr Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers Foreword by Allan H. “Bud” Selig Publication Date: December 14, 2022 ISBN (ebook): 978-1-970159-89-9, $9.99 ISBN (paperback): 978-1-970159-90-5, $32.95 8.5″ x 11″, 288 pages To celebrate the 150th anniversary […]