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At approximately 3:15 p.m on Monday, October 8, 1956, Babe Pinelli’s right arm shot upward ending Game 5 of the World Series. Pinelli did more than punch out Brooklyn Dodgers pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell to conclude a 2-0 New York Yankees victory; his called third strike completed Don Larsen’s perfect game, the first in World Series […]

The run is the most fundamental and the most important statistic in baseball. Regrettably, clerical (e.g., transcription) errors have been made in the process of crediting the runs scored by the individual players in MLB’s official records.1, 2 For example, according to the 1961 official American League records, New York Yankees Mickey Mantle and Bill […]

Baseball is called America’s national pastime, but in Cuba baseball is a way of life. In the late 1890s during the war of independence, baseball unified the Cuban people in opposition to Spaniards, who looked down on the sport and preferred traditional European bullfighting. Sixty years later when Fidel Castro came to power, he knew […]

Sherman Institute, the new federal Indian boarding school at Riverside, California, as it appeared in the popular national Leslie’s Weekly in 1902. (COURTESY OF TOM WILLMAN)   On May 3, 1905, much of California discovered that Native Americans really could play baseball. On that day the team from Sherman Institute, the three-year-old federal Indian boarding […]

The Designated Hitter has been the way of life in the American League since 1973. With this extensive history, it prompts the question “Why has no true DH been elected to the Hall of Fame — yet?” Naturally, the next is “Will there be a DH in the Hall, and when and who will that […]

Small-market teams often complain about the unfairness of baseball’s financial structure, contending that teams in large markets have disproportionate access to money to spend on players, giving them an unfair competitive advantage. Big-market teams disagree. But when it comes to the movies, there can be no argument. At the cinema, big-city teams such as the […]

The summer of 1947 was like few others before it in the annals of New York baseball. The month of August welcomed a heat wave as well as young men (ages 16–18) from all over the United States for two events: the Hearst Sandlot Classic and Brooklyn Against the World All-Stars. Each of the contests […]

Billie Barnie had taken the reins of the Baltimore Club of the major league American Association in March of 1883. He was determined that the fans not suffer through another dismal season like the previous one. That aggregation, led by Henry Myers, had been hammered in local newspapers with headlines like “BAD GAME OF BALL—DISBAND […]

On October 14, 1965, the Minnesota Twins lost a heartbreaking World Series Game Seven to Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers, 2–0. While the disappointment was palpable, there was every reason to believe the Twins would soon be back in the Series. The team had won the pennant convincingly with a record of 102-60, […]

Stan Musial held several business interests, including a popular restaurant in St. Louis. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Stan Musial arrived rather anonymously at Sportsman’s Park on the afternoon of September 17, 1941, the day he slipped into the St. Louis Cardinals lineup for the first time as the starting right fielder during the second game of […]

Black ballplayers first set foot on the field at Shibe Park at the end of the 1919 season when the Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey faced off against the Hilldale club of Philadelphia on September 8.1 The Bacharachs, behind the pitching of Dick “Cannonball” Redding, won the game 10-0.2 It was the ninth […]

Henry Aaron posing for a pre-game portrait in Puerto Rico. (Courtesy of Jorge Colon Delgado.)   Henry Aaron arrived in Puerto Rico as a teenager, a poor defensive infielder, and a minor leaguer. A few months later, he left a bona fide star, a father, and a major-league-ready outfielder. The Milwaukee Braves wanted him to […]

Boston can now boast of possessing a first-class professional Base Ball Club,” declared the Boston Journal, “as all the efforts tending to establish an institution of this kind here culminated yesterday.”1 Professional baseball in Boston began on January 20, 1871, through the efforts of Ivers W. Adams, who had been working toward this achievement for […]

Kenichi Zenimura (right) with his cousin Tasumi Zenimura (left) in 1928. (Rob Fitts Collection)   Few baseball fans know the story of early twentieth-century Nikkei (Japanese American) baseball. Despite this lack of awareness, the Nikkei impact is still visible in today’s game. It’s subtle, though, visible only to the well-informed. The legacy is not a […]

1953 Eddie Lopat All-Stars (Rob Fitts Collection)   Eddie Lopat was a fine, soft-tossing southpaw during a 12-year baseball career with the Chicago White Sox and most famously the New York Yankees. Called the Junkman because of his assortment of off-speed pitches, Lopat was also something of a baseball entrepreneur. He not only ran a […]

  This essay will explore the subject of racial and economic integration during the period of approximately 1945 through 1965 by studying the subject of Negro League baseball and the African American community of Kansas City, Missouri, as a vehicle for discussing the broader economic and social impact of desegregation. Of special import here is […]

Editor’s Note: On this page, Parts One and Two, which were published separately in the Spring 2024 and Fall 2024 issues of the Baseball Research Journal, are combined into one article as the author intended. Sandy Koufax (SABR-Rucker Archive)   American Jews have long had a love affair with baseball. They have played baseball since […]

Michael Kelley played only briefly in one major league season. Despite this lack of major league success he was a highly respected minor league player and manager. However, he found himself in extremely hot water with Organized Baseball for three years, starting in 1905. From being a part of a sham sale of the St. […]

The 1976 season saw the revival of a rare custom-pitchers who work with the catcher of their choice. The success of Steve Canton and Mark Fidrych, who had personal catchers by request, may initiate other partnerships in the pitch-and-catch fraternity. Carlton, a 20-game winner for the Phils, had Tim McCarver behind the bat for 32 […]

For an eager baseball fan, there’s nothing quite like the crack as bat meets ball. But it’s that sharper crack—and maybe a few splinters flying through your field of view—that signals that a wooden bat has broken in the line of duty. It’s not an unusual sight to anyone who watches professional baseball, but in […]

Ottawa enjoyed a five-year fling with professional baseball between 1936 and 1940, fielding teams in the Class-C Canadian-American (Can-Am) League, which stretched across New York, Vermont, Quebec, and Ontario. While their tenures were brief and met with mixed success, these teams left their mark on baseball in the nation’s capital. 1936 OTTAWA SENATORS: A PROMISING START […]

From SABR member Eno Sarris at FanGraphs on November 2, 2017: When the accolades are being given out for this 2017 Astros championship, they’ll deservedly go to the club’s young core. They were spectacular. World Series MVP George Springer led the way in the final seven games with an OPS over 1.400, five home runs, […]

From SABR member Jerry Crasnick at ESPN.com on July 2, 2016: Someday, an enterprising baseball writer will break new ground with the book, “Great Moments in Intentional Walk History.” It will be a relatively short work, in the mode of “Yordano Ventura’s Guide to Baseball Etiquette” or “Great Icelandic Baseball Heroes.” People who enjoy their […]