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During their 11-1 run through the postseason that followed a wire-to-wire regular season for their first World Series title in 88 years, the 2005 White Sox used the same 25-man roster in all three series, and nearly half of the players on that roster became a part of the organization only over the previous year. […]

In 1877 the National League began the season on April 30 with six clubs. However, in mid-June, the Cincinnatis disbanded for reasons only partly related to their poor on-field performance. A second Cincinnati club was quickly organized under different ownership and stronger financial backing. It began play less than three weeks after the first disbanded […]

Ever the celebrity, Babe Ruth doffs his cap. (Library of Congress.)   Of any athlete from any sport who does double duty on the big screen and the ballyard/gridiron/basketball court, none has been written about, analyzed, and overanalyzed as much as Babe Ruth. Not Jim Brown. Not Michael Jordan. Not Willie, Mickey, or The Duke. […]

Here is supporting evidence for the correction of errors in the official RBI record of Lou Gehrig through 1939.

In 1954, the Washington Senators were an abominable team. They finished the season ensconced in sixth place in the American League, with a 66–88 record. The previous year, they were a fifth-place ballclub, completing the campaign at 76–76. In 1952, they also ended up in fifth place, with a 78–76 mark. In mid-decade, Ernest Barcella, […]

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 […]

The history of baseball in America has always been closely tied to the history of race in America. The progression of baseball from an exclusionary sport to a beacon for integration and eventually to a global game has paralleled our country’s movement from slavery to the civil rights movement to modern day multiculturalism. While the […]

The mentor-mentee relationship is a bedrock of Hollywood storytelling: Dr. David Zorba and Dr. Ben Casey. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. Mr. Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso. Mickey Goldmill and Rocky Balboa. Three movies and one TV-movie set in baseball’s minor leagues exemplify the dynamic.   Stud Cantrell (William Petersen) and Dixie Lee Boxx (Virginia Madsen) […]

One of the most famous scandals of baseball history is the O’Connell-Dolan bribe fiasco of September 1924. It was the last of the cycle of “fixes” or attempted fixes that afflicted the game in the period 1917 to 1924. It is distinguished from most of the earlier ones because in those cases we were reasonably […]

From Setbacks to Success: The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes is the eighth in a series of SABR Digital Library books about the great Negro League teams of the first half of the twentieth century. Until the emergence of the Buckeyes in 1942, no Negro League team formed in Cleveland survived more than a year. The timely […]

This article was originally published in The SABR Review of Books, Volume III (1988).   Exactly a hundred years ago, on June 3, 1888, Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat” appeared in the San Francisco Examiner. Baseball and the written word have been on good terms ever since. It was not until 1981, however, […]

Several years ago when the Texas Rangers explored the idea of moving their spring training headquarters from Port Charlotte, Florida, one option they briefly considered was building a spring training complex in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Of course, for the move to be feasible, at least three other teams would have to be […]

Introduction For a number of years, the Research Club of the National Baseball Library, under the leadership first of the late Lee Allen and now of Cliff Kachline, has been involved in a continuing project designed to acquire completed biographical questionnaires for all major-league players, 1871 to the present.  Names of almost 11,000 men have […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in “The Journal of Illinois History” (Vol. 9, No. 4, Winter 2006) and reprinted in SABR’s “The National Pastime” (No. 26, 2006). The version below has been edited for clarity and updated with new information about the Black Sox Scandal that has come to light in the years […]

Brandon Bailey takes immense pride in his Native American heritage. A Chickasaw citizen, he has ancestors who walked the Trail of Tears and attended Indian boarding schools. “My Chickasaw identity is part of who I am every day,” he said. Bailey, pitching coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers Class-A affiliate in Rancho Cucamonga, California, pitched […]

“The greatest pitcher I have ever seen,” whispered John McGraw as he shoved his way through a jostling home­ bound crowd after watching “Cannonball” Jackman strike out eighteen batters in nine innings. That whisper spread from ear to ear and finally developed into a roar, for certainly the famed former New York Giants pilot should […]

Babe Ruth famously stumbled on it. Outfielders regularly cursed it. Fans sat on it. And Houston Astros executive Tal Smith mimicked it. That compilation is only part of the legacy of the Crosley Field terrace, the infamous slope that extended from the left-field wall toward the infield. The terrace also extended into center and right […]

George Herman Ruth is probably the most well known of all American baseball players. He may also have been the best. There has never been another player who had such an effect on the sport. He revolutionized it from a pitcher’s game to a hitter’s game, and it has remained that way ever since. Ruth […]

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 […]

Al Kermisch, who joined SABR in 1971, was a baseball researcher for over 60 years. His paper, “Walter Johnson: King of the 1-0 Hurlers,” appeared in the first SABR Baseball Research Journal in 1972, and in 1975 he debuted “From a Researcher’s Notebook”: seven small stories covering 4½ pages. This became a regular feature and […]

Through 2024, Texas Rangers fans have enjoyed quality relief pitching for over a half century. A look at the careers of the team’s Top Ten career saves leaders reveals both memories and surprises.1     Four of them combined for five All-Star appearances while with the Rangers (and 12 total, Wetteland 2, Cordero 2, Nathan […]

Tigers by the Tale: Great Games at Michigan & Trumbull Edited by Scott Ferkovich Associate Editors: Bill Nowlin and Len Levin Publication Date: May 26, 2016 ISBN (ebook): 978-1-9438-1620-0, $6.99 ISBN (paperback): 978-1-9438-1621-7, $12.95 8.5″ x 11″, 156 pages For over 100 years, Michigan and Trumbull was the scene of some of the most exciting […]