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From SABR member John Thorn at Our Game on May 18, 2020: Just the other day I stumbled upon an old file in which I had gathered notes from my reading of the old, today ignored Base Ball Guides from 1860 to perhaps 1885. (Let me note that there was an earlier “guide” — The […]

From SABR member Rob Mains at Baseball Prospectus on January 2, 2020: Retrosheet is an absolutely invaluable tool. It powers many of the publicly-available baseball data sites. It’s done 100% by volunteers and everything on the site is free. It’s amazing. Retrosheet has catalogued line scores for games going back to 1871 and play-by-plays going […]

From SABR member David Laurila at FanGraphs on July 10, 2013: Bob Tewksbury had a lot of success in 1992. Pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, the right-hander went 16-5 with a 2.16 ERA. A control artist, he walked 20 batters in 233 innings. He had less success against the Chicago Cubs. In five starts, […]

From SABR member Paul Edwards at Pointstreak.com on May 22: Every spring and summer, dreams live on the diamonds of the Canadian-American League. Young players who have been ignored by scouts or recently released by affiliated clubs find a second professional baseball life in independent baseball. Driven to succeed and to prove the experts wrong, […]

This article was originally published in “The SABR Book on Umpires and Umpiring” (SABR, 2017), edited by Larry R. Gerlach and Bill Nowlin. Bernice Gera, center, makes a call at the Jim Finley umpire school in 1967. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   “Are you blind?” is a familiar cry for fans sitting in […]

In a scene from the Marx Brothers’ “Animal Crackers”, Chico and Harpo attempt to switch a priceless painting with a copy. After the usual mayhem, the duo turns to exit, stage left. When they open the French doors, there’s a caterwauling of thunder, with lightning and sheets of rain. The pair close the doors, head […]

Buster Keaton’s journey as a physical athlete starring in silent cinema.

Chicago’s first professional baseball club was founded following the 1869 season. Prior to that season, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) had changed its rules from mandating exclusively amateur play to allowing clubs to declare themselves professional. A dozen or so organizations took advantage of this. The Cincinnati Base Ball Club (widely called […]

Dodger Stadium hosted the Olympic baseball tournament in 1984. Japan beat the USA in the championship game. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   Though baseball’s history as an “official” Olympic event is short and fragmented (1992-2008, 2020, 2028), the sport was on the roster as an “exhibition” game for various decades. Although a dozen […]

August 3, 1988, was a scorching day on the north shore of Lake Ontario; in Imperial-averse Canada, the temperature reached a high of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Playing an evening game offered little relief from the heat for the Toronto Blue Jays and their visitors, the Minnesota Twins. When Jeff Musselman of the […]

The Red Sox were coming off back-to-back World Championships in 1915 and 1916. From 1910 through 1916, the American League pennant had either been won by Philadelphia or Boston. No one else. Early in January 1917, and after several entreaties that he stay, manager Bill Carrigan reaffirmed his earlier announcement that he would not be […]

In July 1999, as part of Richie Phillips’ strategy to gain bargaining leverage against the leagues, 57 of 68 major-league umpires signed resignation letters and Phillips announced the resignations at a press conference on July 15, 1999.1 Although many of the umpires attempted to rescind their resignations, the Leagues had been busy hiring replacements and […]

Forbes Field was one of the very first classic era ballparks (only Philadelphia’s Shibe Park preced­ed it) to be built in America. It was the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates for 62 seasons after it opened June 30, 1909. Forbes Field has been regarded as a spacious park and a poor park for hitters. Only […]

It was the best of a bad season, it was the worst of a good season. This is the tale, not of seven castaways stranded on a tropic isle, but of two pitchers. One went 6-0, the other, 0-6, and therein lies the story … The year: 1971. The team: the Pirates. The man: Bob […]

Lou Gehrig, born 101 seasons ago, would never have made the claim, but let’s credit him with the best 10-season batting record in major league history if you don’t mind. It happened from 1927 through 1936 when baseball offense had a heyday. In a compilation of the finest 10-season performers from 1901 through 2003, Gehrig places in seven of […]

Jeff Bagwell, Mike Bordick, Pie Traynor, Carlton Fisk, Mickey Cochrane, Tino Martinez, Eric Milton, Mark Mulder, Frank Thomas, and Mo Vaughn all have something in common. They are just a few who competed in the Cape Cod League, the premier amateur baseball program in the nation since 1885. In 2002 there were over 180 former […]

Undoubtedly, the best beginning (from the batting team’s perspective) to a baseball game is when the leadoff batter belts a home run. While the result is “only” one run, it is an instantaneous run which gives the batting team an immediate opportunity to win the game—“Ya can’t win if ya don’t score!” So, which players […]

One could make a case that, between 1941 and 1953, the Montréal Royals were the gold standard for minor-league teams in North America. After becoming part of the Brooklyn Dodgers chain in 1939,1 they followed much the same path as their parent club, going from perpetual also-rans to perennial contenders. In those 13 seasons, they […]

The cartel that ruled the national pastime was called Organized Baseball, but its second round of expansion in 1969 turned into a model of disorganization. The American and National Leagues could not agree on whether, when, or how to expand. The result was a radical restructuring of both leagues that abolished the traditional pennant races. […]

A portrait of the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League. Jackie Robinson batted .375 in 34 games for the Monarchs before he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in October. (SABR-RUCKER ARCHIVE)   Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough with the Brooklyn Dodgers was a triumph for the integration of baseball and a death sentence […]

My first contacts with baseball scouts occurred in 1955 during my junior year at Tucson High School in Arizona. These were always casual meetings — a scout might “happen” to bump into me after one of our games, introduce himself, and toss an off-handed compliment such as, “That’s some fastball you have there, kid.” The […]

More than two decades ago, Pete Palmer contributed what I think is one of the best baseball statistical analysis efforts ever done. The results were published in The National Pastime in 1985, in an article entitled “Do Clutch Pitchers Exist?” Palmer examined pitchers with at least 150 decisions between 1900 and 1983, accounting for how […]

Introduction and Context By the time the National and American Leagues had held their winter meetings in New York and Chicago, respectively, the internecine trade war that had transpired between the two had been over for three years. Though formal conflict between the two leagues had been extinguished, rivalries between the individual team magnates still […]