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Olean, New York, sits in a plateau in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. It is surrounded by rolling hills whose forests burst into a rainbow of color in autumn, mimic crystal and silver spires in winter, explode with new life in the spring, and cover the land with cooling shade in summer. Residents and […]

Sandy Koufax posted a career-low 1.73 ERA and struck out 317 batters in his final season with the Dodgers in 1966. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The fact that Sandy Koufax had arthritis in his left elbow was well known for the final two years of his career. He woke up after a spring-training game in 1965 […]

Vin Scully served as Dodgers broadcaster from 1950 through 2016. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   For 55 of his 67 years as a broadcaster for the Dodgers, Vin Scully went to work at the same place: Dodger Stadium. In 2001 the area from which he broadcast became the Vin Scully Press Box. In 2016, his final season, […]

When the United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, one question among the many to be answered was: What will baseball’s place in American society be during wartime? Thanks to a letter written by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1942, baseball’s role became clear. In that communication, known as the ”Green […]

Pete Rose’s reputation is built on two pillars: he has more hits than any player in history and he helped his teams immeasurably with his hustle. The first is a fact; the second is a complete misimpression. Rose was not much of a hitter and only an average offensive player. He didn’t create runs, he […]

Babe Ruth with Japanese students wearing Koshien jerseys. (Courtesy of Yoko Suzuki.)   The American ambassador to Japan stretched out his long legs and put the final touches on the speech to welcome the All American baseball team to the Land of the Rising Sun. Although the ambassador, Joseph Grew, was probably pleased with it, […]

As the annual convention of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) approached in December 1866, the Association faced one challenge, one opportunity, and one threat. These three matters would together dominate the 10th annual meeting of the NABBP. The convention, scheduled for December 12, would extend into the wee hours of the morning […]

The Boston Beaneaters were coming off a disappointing third-place finish in 1894 at 78-54. If that doesn’t sound disappointing, take into account that the team had won three straight National League pennants (1891-1893) and set the bar and the expectations of Boston fans high. In 1894 the Beaneaters didn’t have a losing month or even […]

Second base. It might not have the pizzazz of shortstop. It also might not have the glamour of third base, which is known as the “hot corner.” Fans don’t normally expect the same power numbers from a second baseman that they see in others who play the infield, like the stereotypical slugger who plays first […]

Introduction and Context The National Association didn’t just survive during the summer of 1935 — it flourished. “The past season,” recalled promotional department head Joe Carr, “was one of the very best that minor league baseball has experienced in years.”1 For the Association’s 34th annual meeting, about 2,000 baseball people convened in Dayton, Ohio, to […]

Many different methods exist for projecting the performance of major leaguers in a variety of statistical categories for an upcoming season. These projection systems include Brad Null,1 Bill James Handbook,2 CAIRO,3 CBS,4 CHONE,5 ESPN,6 Hardball Times,7 Hit Tracker,8 KFFL,9 Marcel,10 Oliver,11 PECOTA,12 RotoWorld,13 and ZiPS.14 Despite the availability and prevalence of these systems, there has […]

Roger Kahn and Bob Ryan have highlighted both the excitement and the ulcers of minor league executives who live at best a hand to mouth existence. In Season in the Sun and Wait Till I Make the Show these writers found minor league baseball both fascinating and exasperating, a form of insanity chasing bankruptcy. Yet […]

Babe Ruth calling his shot . . . Gabby Hartnett’s home run in the gloamin’… Ernie Banks’ No. 500. . . These are some of the 6,905 major league home runs hit at Wrigley Field. The first home run was hit by Art Wilson of the Chicago Whales in a Federal League game on April […]

On December 1, 2021, the Texas Rangers spent half a billion dollars on two players. Two years later they were world champions. This series of events prompts the inquiry: Did the Rangers buy a World Series? Well, what does it mean to “buy” a World Series? Every team pays all of their players whether they […]

A natural on the radio, Jackie Robinson spent a fair amount of time behind the microphone. (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)   One of the more impressive aspects of his trailblazing life is that Jackie Robinson had a wide and varied interest in the world, and his career reflected that. As early as college, […]

Jackie Robinson, United States Army. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   The course of history can flip on a dime, the course of one’s life often defined by a series of watershed flash-points. Some we control; others are thrust upon us. On December 7, 1941, Jackie Robinson was two days into his journey from […]

This article was originally published in The SABR Review of Books, Vol. 1 (1986). A person’s first impression of baseball literature usually comes from library books, usually from the juvenile fiction section. Judging from what I see as a librarian, there are no more series of baseball books being published today for 8- to 12-year-olds. […]

In 2001, economist George Akerlof won a Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on the theory of the “market for lem­ons.” The idea is this: suppose in the population of otherwise identical used Chevrolets, some will be defective “lemons,” while some will be very reliable “cherries.” The owner of the car knows, from his […]

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the SABR Deadball Era committee’s April 2016 newsletter. The announcement of the winner of the 2016 Larry Ritter Book Award, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen, provides an excellent opportunity to discuss the origins and history of the award. Now in its 15th year, the Ritter […]

Fans may recall that Boog Powell, while batting in the 1971 World Series, had trouble on at least one occasion fighting off bees or gnats. This was a very minor disruption compared to the many caused by birds or beasts in the offbeat annals of baseball. Down through the years, reports of ball games have […]

Both Chicago and Troy fielded strong baseball nines in the baseball’s post-Civil War pioneer days. With the advent of professional baseball after the 1868 season, the fortunes of Chicago and Troy became intertwined by happenstance and the loosely-knit structure and highly unstable nature of nineteenth century baseball. Both cities played a major part in the […]

It may be the most famous baseball painting of all time. Created by Norman Rockwell, it goes by many different names, including The Three Umpires, Game Called Because of Rain, Tough Call, and Bottom of the Sixth. It depicts a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. […]