Search Results

The Brooklyn Eagle, beginning in 1946, staged its “Brooklyn Against the World” competition at Ebbets Field. The main forces behind the game were Branch Rickey of the Dodgers and Lou Niss, the sports editor of the Brooklyn Eagle. Players from around the United States, Canada, and Hawaii were brought to Brooklyn as part of the […]

All managers think about strategy, but one can argue that no manager this side of John McGraw changed our prevailing understanding of baseball strategy as much as Earl Weaver. In his seminal work, Weaver on Strategy, and in various quotations uttered while holding court, Weaver presented insights that may have long been implicitly understood by […]

At the close of play on July 17, 1915, the American League’s Chicago White Sox led the league by 1½ games, the Federal League’s Chicago Whales had a half-game lead, and the National League’s Chicago Cubs were tied for first. The feat of one city having three first-place teams has not since been repeated, since […]

1951 is remembered as the one and only year that the New York Yankees trained in Arizona. When the Yankees ventured west, the Cactus League was in its infancy. Only two teams were training in the Grand Canyon State—the Cleveland Indians and New York Giants had both moved to Arizona in 1947. The Yankees spent […]

At the SABR 45 convention held in Chicago in 2015, I presented a topic that had not previously been studied under the auspices of the Society for American Baseball Research: “Little League Home Runs in MLB History.”1 A “Little League Home Run” (LLHR) is a play that occurs when a hitter puts a ball into […]

To date, there has only been one woman who played baseball with a team of major leaguers in a big-league ballpark. Her name was Mary Elizabeth Murphy and she played for a team of “all-stars” against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Lizzie Murphy’s team beat the Red Sox, 3-2.1 The year was 1922, […]

A few days after Shohei Ohtani made his major league debut on March 29, 2018, Jay Jaffe wrote, “Ohtani is doing things that haven’t been done at the major league level in nearly a century. … and not since 1919 has a player served as both a starting pitcher and a position player with any […]

Barack Obama’s election last fall to the presidency of the United States is generally regarded as a culmination of the civil-rights movement in this country. Looking backward toward the beginnings of that movement, the eye falls on events in New York City just after the end of World War II and particularly on the career […]

SABR’s phenomenal membership rise is indeed a testimony to the burgeoning numbers of dedicated baseball researchers about the land. However, a menacing schism, one pitting baseball historians against baseball statisticians, bids foul to disturb the tribal unity. As a precipitating cause of this fratricidal struggle, baseball historians point to the distortion of historical records done […]

The 1878 baseball season was not financially successful for the National League. Financial reports for all teams are not available, but it is doubtful that any club made money. According to Harry Wright’s account books, the pennant-winning Boston Red Stockings lost $1,433.31.1 Indianapolis was more than $5,000 in debt and unwilling to continue.2 In late […]

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 […]

Early 1950s Japanese publication featuring Jackie Robinson. (Author’s collection)   There was a saying in Japan during the late 1950s: Kamisama, Hotokesama, Inaosama (God, Buddha, Inao). The 19-year-old Kazuhisa Inao was out there on the mound. The kid wasn’t that big, at least not by American standards – about 5-foot-9, 185 pounds. But he was […]

On the morning of May 11, 1953, the fair citizens of Waco, Texas woke up to a muggy day. Many prepared themselves for the beginning of the work week by downing their daily cup of coffee and reading the latest edition of the Waco Tribune–Herald. Sprawled across the front page were reports of intense tornadoes […]

Fans of the Houston Astros are a long-suffering lot. While the Chicago Cubs have gone over a century without winning a World Series, the “Cubbies” maintain a loyal fan base and a national following. The Houston franchise, however, does not elicit the same national passion as the Cubs. In 2013 the Houston club, after fifty […]

Comics Bud Abbott and Lou Costello perform “Who’s On First” in the film “The Naughty Nineties”. (Library of Congress)   Bud Abbott: Well Costello, I’m going to New York with you. You know Bucky Harris, the Yankees’ manager, gave me a job as coach for as long as you’re on the team. Lou Costello: Look, […]

With the recent success of Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, and other Japanese nationals in the major leagues, American fans are becoming curious about the history of baseball in Japan. There are several good histories of Japanese baseball published in English, but little compares to listening to a player talk about his own experiences. Oral histories […]

Moving into 1909, change was in the wind. All ballparks had been, up to that point, made of wood, but Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, Philadelphia’s Shibe Park, and St. Louis’ rebuilt Sportsman’s Park opened that year as baseball’s first steel-and-concrete facilities.1 More umpires were hired so that the majority of big-league games would now feature two […]

  Several players on the 1919 Chicago White Sox agreed to lose that year’s World Series, earning the nickname “Black Sox.” Their manager William (“Kid”) Gleason said publicly after the Series that “something was wrong. I didn’t like the betting odds. I wish no one had ever bet a dollar on the team.”1 Gleason had […]

With its temperate Pacific Coast climate and rich baseball tradition, San Diego has long been a spawning ground for major-league talent, sending some 121 of her sons to the bigs. The second, and by far the greatest, of these San Diegans was Ted Williams, whose march to Cooperstown began with the 1939 Boston Red Sox. […]

  Chicago White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito trying out VR during spring training in 2016. (ARTURO PARDAVILA III / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)   A NEW KIND OF BATTING PRACTICE Mariano Rivera wasn’t always destined to be the greatest closer of all time. He entered the majors as an old rookie at age 25 and took a […]

When the National Association of Base Ball Players voted unanimously in March of 1860 to shift future conventions to mid-December, they most likely didn’t foresee that the decision would thrust the next gathering into the midst of one of the most troubled periods in American history.1 At the time of the March vote, even the […]

Cover of the May 1927 issue of Yakyukai depicting O’Neal Pullen and Shinji Hamazaki (Rob Fitts Collection)   Kazuo Sayama, baseball historian, author, and member of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (enshrined in 2021), states with great passion and conviction that had it not been for the tours of the Negro Leagues’ all-star Philadelphia […]

This article was selected for inclusion in SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game. In early 2007 major league baseball marked the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first season with the Dodgers, bringing an end to a sixty-year ban on black players in the major […]

Do clutch hitters exist? Not according to the most popular yardstick used to define them, says the author. Clutch hitting, he concludes, is “a mirage at best.” IS THERE SUCH A thing as a clutch hitter? This question has been the subject of endless discussion through the years. Until recently, the evidence on the subject […]