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At the end of 2003 season, national attention was focused on the Detroit Tigers as they attempted to avoid the ignominious label of becoming baseball’s worst team ever. As the season closed, the Tigers were threatening to surpass the all-time games lost mark of 120 held by the famous 1962 “Amazin” Mets. Fortunately for Tiger […]

When Frank Thomas reached base in 15 consecutive plate appearances in May 1997, all the record books were examined to see who was the all-time record holder of this obscure feat. The only book with this entry listed was The Sporting News Complete Baseball Record Book. To no one’s surprise, Ted Williams was listed with […]

It is hard to imagine a more polarizing figure in Philadelphia sports history than Dick Allen. Countless gallons of ink have been spilled in furtherance of trying to capture and explain Allen’s stormy relationship with the Phillies and the city of Philadelphia during his 1963-69 tenure with the club. Much less focus has been given, […]

The objective of the research described in this article is to identify those players who merit recognition as “.300 hitters” even though they did not end up with lifetime .300 batting averages. They are among the former members of the prestigious Career .300 Hitters Club—the Emeritus Members. “At some point in the 1880s,” says John […]

The stolen base is an exciting play which has many supporters in the ranks of managers as well as fans. However, the true effect of base stealing activity, including the negative components of caught stealing and pickoffs, has not received detailed analysis. There are three main reasons for the lack of detailed study. First, the […]

A baseball team would be considered “streaky” if its record exhibits an unusually high number of consecutive wins or losses, compared to what might be expected if the team’s performance does not really depend on whether or not they won their previous game. If an average team in Major League Baseball (i.e., with a record […]

This article was originally published in “Above the Fruited Plain,” the 2003 SABR convention journal.   In San Jose, California, a bronze mural stands as a memorial to the Japanese and Japanese-Americans relocated from their homes on the West Coast during World War II. The memorial, documenting the relocation and subsequent internment in concentration camps […]

    It was in early 1973 that I first began searching for the whereabouts of George Paige, a righthanded pitcher appearing in two games with the Cleveland Americans in 1911. He was among the missing-there was neither a current home address nor a date and place of death for him on file. But the reason […]

Cross-checkers, called regional scouting supervisors by some clubs, work a level between that of the area scout and scouting director. Most organizations now have three to four cross-checkers, each covering a territory – like the East Coast. They work in both directions, being directed by the scouting director to scout certain players and following up […]

With a runner on third base, the pitcher faces a dilemma. Throwing breaking balls is risky because the ball may go past the catcher, thereby allowing the runner to score without a hit. But if the pitcher avoids throwing breaking balls altogether, the batter can anticipate fastballs exclusively, increasing his ability to record a hit, […]

A day after the New York Yankees lost the 1921 World Series to their landlords, the New York Giants, the squad gathered at the Polo Grounds to divide $87,756.67, the losers’ share of the postseason proceeds. During the meeting, each player also received a letter signed by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis reiterating Article IV, Section […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in “Baseball in Pittsburgh,” the SABR 25 convention journal in 1995.   Although Philadelphia was the most prominent center of early African American baseball, the 1887 Pittsburgh Keystones produced the leadership for the era’s most successful (or least unsuccessful) Black baseball league, the League of Colored Base Ball […]

“Death to Flying Things” is one of the all-time great baseball nicknames, routinely included in lists of such things. Indeed, it serves double duty, attributed to two players: Robert Ferguson and John Chapman. Ferguson joined the Atlantic Club of Brooklyn in 1866 and played for various clubs through 1884. He managed clubs into 1887 and […]

One of baseball’s highest-regarded feats is the cycle: “A single, double, triple, and home run (not necessarily in that order) hit by a player in the same game.”1 In the history of major league baseball (1876–2023) there have been 351 documented regular-season cycles, including seven in the Negro Leagues.2 The distribution of the starting defensive […]

On September 25-27, 2015, the Baltimore Orioles visited Boston’s Fenway Park for a three-game series. Bill Nowlin sat down and talked with the umpiring crew: Jim Joyce, Greg Gibson, Chad Fairchild, and Carlos Torres. Conversation in the Umpires Room at Fenway Park on September 26, 2015. Bill Nowlin: I notice that a lot of umpires […]

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 […]

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 […]

Over the years, baseball fans have often debated which record is the most “unbeatable.” At one time it seemed unimaginable that Lou Gehrig’s streak of 2,130 consecutive games played would ever be approached, let alone seriously challenged, but of course Cal Ripken topped that by some 500 games. Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak in 1941 […]

The announcement on November 5, 1946 that Bucky Harris would manage the 1947 New York Yankees was almost a foregone conclusion. Still, the circumstances that led to the hiring were anything but mundane. The announcement on November 5, 1946 that Bucky Harris would manage the 1947 New York Yankees was almost a foregone conclusion. “The […]

Whatever happened to many of the major league stars of yesteryear? Whatever happened to the hundreds of young recruits who came up long enough to don a big league uniform only to quickly fade into oblivion? Are they still among the living or have they been called to baseball’s Valhalla? Historians have been trying for […]

The 1897 Temple Cup series opened on October 4 in Boston exactly one week after the conclusion of the two teams’ dramatic pennant-deciding series. The Beaneaters had won that series, which was played in Baltimore, two games to one, taking the third and deciding game in front of an estimated 30,000 spectators.  But because the […]

In 1983 Dale Berra of the Pirates set a major league record by being awarded first base on interference seven times in one season. There are six categories of plate appearances – official times at bat, sacrifice bunts, sacrifice flies, bases on balls, and hit by pitch are the other five. Being awarded first on […]

For the members of the Toledo Mud Hens, as for most Americans, 1934 was a year to forget. America was beset by flood, drought, and tornado in that Depression year; but for the American Association Mud Hens, disaster took the form of 6’3″, 225-pound slugger Russell (Buzz) Arlett. When Buzz Arlett was obtained by Minneapolis […]