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The Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York (PONY) League was a Class-D (entry-level) minor league that operated from 1939 through 1956 before becoming the New York-Pennsylvania League. (Ontario no longer hosted any franchises.) The successor league operated from 1957 through 2020, when Major League Baseball restructured the minor-league system. As an entry-level league, its role as a pipeline to […]
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 […]
Michael Joseph Donlin was born May 30, 1878, in Peoria, Illinois, the sixth child of railroad conductor John Donlin and his wife Maggie (Clayton) Donlin. He grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania. When Mike was eight, his parents died in a bridge collapse. Young Mike had to hustle for a living and worked as a machinist. […]
John Drebinger once wrote of Eddie Brannick, “He has legions of friends, remembers the birthdays of many of then, yet once couldn’t recall the date of his own. A gourmet of rare taste, he knows how and where to dine and will order a meal of excellence only to touch scarcely any of it because […]
Mark Belanger, winner of eight Gold Gloves in the last ten years, received more votes than any other player in SABR’s recent survey to determine the best fielders of the 1970s. The Baltimore shortstop received more than 90% of the nearly 400 votes cast for American League shortstop. Johnny Bench led all National League players. […]
The Ottawa Senators sport their unique tartan uniforms, custom-made by local tailor J.R. McNeil in 1898. While these outfits were a source of pride in Ottawa, they received mixed reactions elsewhere. Though the photo is dated 1897, it was actually captured in 1898 during the team’s first and only season in the city. (National Baseball […]
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the April 2018 edition of the SABR Deadball Era Committee newsletter. On April 24, 1901, the American League’s inaugural day as a major league, Cleveland Blues second baseman Erve Beck collected the loop’s first extra-base hit when he led off the top of the ninth inning with […]
It’s tough enough to throw a shutout in your final season – fewer than 300 pitchers did – and almost impossible to zip the opposition in your final game. In 1901, Bill Cristall, a rookie left-handed pitcher and a native of Odessa, Russia, started six games for the Cleveland Blues of the new American League. […]
INTRODUCTION Major league baseball teams routinely use analytics to position infielders based on hitter tendencies, but these data do not always provide a complete story. If a hitter always pulls the ball, it is difficult to use that data to assess quantitatively the benefits of balls hit into zones that exploit defensive alignment gaps. The […]
On July 23, 1972, Leo Durocher stepped down as manager of the Chicago Cubs. Durocher had taken over an underachieving Cubs team in 1966 and in two years, turned them into a contender, but Durocher’s abrasive style of managing alienated many of his players. There were also run-ins with umpires, health problems, and several unexcused […]
(Courtesy of The Clemente Museum.) Long after most of the city has descended into slumber, Roberto Clemente rises again. For Latin American baseball players, a road trip into Pittsburgh often means a midnight pilgrimage to the Roberto Clemente Museum, located, incongruously enough, in a restored nineteenth-century firehouse, a little off the beaten path but […]
Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance — the defensive heart of the 1906–10 Chicago Cubs dynasty. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY) Once upon a time, the Chicago Cubs dominated the world. They were the best team in baseball not just for the one incredible year of 1906, but for five years, winning […]
A great deal has been written about the faceoff between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds in the best-of-nine 1919 World Series. Probably no other baseball World Series has drawn more attention from commentators and historians. However, the vast majority of words written about the Series relate to what has become commonly known […]
This story tells the tragic tale of Michael “Doc” Powers, a catcher who played primarily for the Philadelphia Athletics and whose baseball career was cut short by his untimely death. Misconceptions about what caused his demise abound, but can be laid to rest by this article. Ultimately, “Doc Powers Day” was organized by the American […]
1931 All-Americans in front of the Oriental Hotel in Kobe (National Baseball Library, Cooperstown, NY) It was a tour initially framed by the dreams of retired fringe major-league outfielder Herb Hunter, the continuing quest of a Japanese newspaper publisher to bring Babe Ruth to Japan before he retired as a player, and the metastasizing […]
“Blue heaven on earth” – Tommy Lasorda on Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is the third oldest ballpark in major-league baseball. Only Fenway Park and Wrigley Field have been hosting games longer than the House That Walter O’Malley Built. The iconic venue that sits atop a hill just north of downtown Los Angeles, with views of […]
“It was my first spring training ever, at Jackson, Tennessee, in 1927, when I went up with Toledo. Casey Stengel, our manager, was trying to teach me how to turn and throw to first base in one motion. Well, we were playing Chattanooga later in the day and there was a man on first. I […]
Prince Edward Island native and H&D League alumnus Vern Handrahan with the Kansas City Athletics in 1966. (Prince Edward Island Sports Hall of Fame) The Halifax and District (H&D) Baseball League was a postwar offspring of the Second World War when Nova Scotia, and Halifax in particular, served as a major debarkation point for […]
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 […]
Introduction In the months following the first year of play in the Federal League, the two established major leagues showed different approaches to this new rival. While a desire for peace persisted throughout the winter months, it was tempered by fervent desires for one entity to be a clear loser in any compromise. Though the […]
Babe Ruth was one of the most iconic players in baseball, and Runs Batted In are one of the most revered statistics in baseball. Not surprisingly, Ruth was one of the most prominent RBI men in the history of Major League Baseball. He topped the Junior Circuit in ribbies in several seasons. But how many? […]
Beginning in 1921 the New York Yankees embarked upon one of the great stretches in American sports. Through 1964 the Yankees captured 29 pennants and 20 World Series championships. There are many ingredients that go into a winning team, but most obviously a team needs good players. Today a major-league front office has many avenues […]
Atlanta’s baseball history is dominated by names such as Hank Aaron, John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Dale Murphy, and Chipper Jones. The Braves also dominated their division in the 1990s, but that is only a small part of Atlanta’s long and storied baseball history. Anyone can look up the history of the Braves and their players […]