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This article was published in Dominionball: Baseball Above the 49th (2005), the SABR 35 convention journal.   There have now been approximately 200 major leaguers born in Canada. The necessity of using the word “approximately” would seem to imply a lack of research on the subject. In fact, it is precisely because there has been […]

For better or worse, leisure and tourism have become big business. In the second half of the twentieth century, the modern concept of spare time evolved greatly. As people became more mobile, they demanded more places to go and things to see. Ballparks that were once shoehorned into old neighborhoods like Flatbush were abandoned in […]

At Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, a 150-foot office tower housed 13-foot clocks on its four sides that could be seen from all parts of the city, making the ballpark the iconic symbol of baseball in Los Angeles for more than 35 years. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   Chicago’s Wrigley Field, known worldwide, […]

A third of a century has passed since the Dodgers commemorated their centennial – 100 years since joining the National League in 1890, the year they consider their founding. The anniversary was highlighted by a midsummer Old-Timers Weekend held at Dodger Stadium, which included a private luncheon for former players and coaches on Saturday, June […]

Yankee Stadium had a long history hosting soccer, both exhibition matches and as a home field. The exhibition games often featured teams reflecting New York City’s historical immigrant communities. The first friendly at The Stadium featured Celtic, a beacon for the Irish community. Since the 1930s, several matches have featured teams of Jewish heritage. In […]

Willie Mays with the Minneapolis Millers in 1951. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The New York Giants purchased the Minneapolis Millers in 1946. It took five years for Minneapolis fans to fully process the impact. A charter member of the American Association in 1902, the Millers had a rich history that extended to the final decades of […]

1908 University of Washington and Waseda teams. (Rob Fitts Collection)   Links between Japan and the Seattle area are nothing new. They were first forged in the late nineteenth century when Japanese began immigrating to the Pacific Northwest, and they’ve strengthened over the years. One of the consequential connections has been baseball. In 1905 a […]

After winning three pennants in a row from 1891 to 1893, the Boston Beaneaters were denied a fourth consecutive championship during the 1894 season when the brawling Baltimore Orioles earned their first National League title. The team’s prospects for 1894 were derailed early that January when veteran catcher Charlie Bennett lost both of his legs […]

  Numerous talents from the Negro Leagues made their way into the employ of the American and National League franchises in Chicago. Integration did not come to these clubs until four seasons after the debut of Jackie Robinson with the Dodgers on April 15, 1947, and even then, the pace of integration was frightfully slow. […]

Historians and scholars of the Big Fix and the Black Sox Scandal often bemoan the endurance of myths about the 1919 World Series and its aftermath.1 Thanks to a complicated interplay between evolving literary representations of the events of 1919-20 and popular films like Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams, mention of “the Black […]

Wilbur Rogan, pictured here second from left in the front row, compiled a 20-3 pitching record for Jamestown in 1932, batting .315 and leading the team in RBIs. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Jamestown, North Dakota, fielded Class D minor-league teams in 1922 and 1923, and again in 1936 and 1937.1 But between those two excursions into […]

Jackie Robinson lifts a pennant to commemorate his being traded from the Brooklyn Dodgers to the New York Giants on December 14, 1956, at his home in Brooklyn. (SABR-RUCKER ARCHIVE)   In October 1956, the Brooklyn Dodgers faced the New York Yankees in the World Series for the sixth time in Jackie Robinson’s 10 years […]

This article was selected as the winner of the 2022 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award. Ad for dead baseballs in the Chicago Tribune, August 17, 1870.   Baseball’s post-Civil War period (1866–70) is vitally important to understanding the sport as we know it today. This era had significant changes in rules and equipment, and also saw […]

The 1887 season saw the American Association and the National League enjoy success on the field. Attendance at American Association games set a league record and attendance at National League games exceeded the attendance of the American Association for the first time since the American Association’s inaugural season in 1882. Still the American Association regular […]

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 […]

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 […]

Editor’s note: This article is from our special issue of The National Pastime looking ahead to the future of baseball in the 21st century, in which  contributors from many fields of study present their predictions and opinions.    What does climate change have to do with baseball? There are various factors: First, the relationship of climate […]

“St. Louis is one of the greatest baseball towns in the country. It has probably turned out more professional baseball players than any other city. … The youngsters of St. Louis know more about big league baseball than the adult fans of the average city.” – Damon Runyon   August 26, 1914, was an improbable […]

As the American League’s pecking order of the 1950s was established, the Washington Senators (or Nationals) suffered greatly from the lack of a strong beak. Even with the 1960 season—the final campaign of the original franchise—tossed in for good measure, teams from the nation’s capital consistently played in a manner that inspired ridicule in an enduring […]

Red Smith wrote of Willard Mullin, the cartoonist: “There is no estimating how many sports columns were inspired by his sketches.” Likewise, it would be difficult to overestimate the influence of sports cartoonists on our memory of baseball from the 1940s and 1950s. The cartoonists created many of the best-remembered images from that era of […]

Jerry Sullivan as a teenager.   The city of Baltimore has hosted a number of historic baseball events. Although this story barely qualifies as such, it is nevertheless an interesting aside involving Jerry Sullivan, a 32-year-old, 3-foot-11 stage actor who appeared in an Eastern League game in Baltimore in 1905. Forty-six years later, the St. […]

Dick Hall’s trade to the Baltimore Orioles — with Dick Williams — on April 12, 1961, for Jerry Walker and Chuck Essegian, was influenced by Charles Finley’s resolve not to trade with the Yankees, a team he despised. Finley once pointed a school bus in the direction of New York and burned it to symbolize […]

The Hollywood Stars baseball club, which was a member of the Pacific Coast League from 1926 to 1935 and again from 1938 to 1957, was “a fun deal” that gave me “the best years of my life,” according to Robert H. Cobb, its last president. The club was truly a civic venture which was both […]

When Jack Zduriencik replaced Bill Bavasi as the Mariners’ general manager, it didn’t take long for the savvy Mariner fan base to realize that changes were afoot. Zduriencik, who apprenticed under the Brewers’ general manager Doug Melvin, had operated in an organization that valued data and analysis as a critical component of their decision-making process. […]