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The date was October 14, 1972. Families across North America gathered around their wood-paneled television sets to watch Game One of the World Series that Saturday afternoon.  Many fans in the televised audience had not seen the Oakland A’s or the Cincinnati Reds in a regular-season contest.  There stood the Reds along the first-base line […]

Following the demise of the Canadian League after the 1915 season and departure of the Montreal Royals of the International League in 1917, baseball promoter Joe Page dreamt of a baseball league that would cover Quebec, Ontario and even further west.1 That the Canadian Pacific company, his employer, would provide transportation for these teams probably played […]

Welcome to the Spring 2021 issue of the Baseball Research Journal. It’s been a banner year for baseball research and writing. Why? Because during the lockdown(s) of 2020, when folks couldn’t go anywhere or do anything else, a lot of SABR members spent their time researching and writing. The result was a bumper crop of […]

Granted, numerous screen biopics have charted the lives of ballplayers from Hall of Famers to major leaguers with unusual, marketable life stories.1 One legend – Lou Gehrig – has been portrayed twice, in 1942’s The Pride of the Yankees and A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story, a 1977 made-for-television movie. Another – […]

In 1944, three years before he broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, Lieutenant Jack Roosevelt Robinson was court-martialed at Fort Hood, Texas. Robinson had volunteered for combat with the segregated 761st Tank Battalion. Although he had signed a waiver for a previous football injury, he was required to undergo extensive medical tests before being transferred […]

Among the many statistical analyses of baseball that have been published during the last four decades, the single most important in my opinion is The Hidden Game of Baseball (1984) by Pete Palmer and John Thorn. Their research, based on a large-scale regression analysis of baseball statistics, led to the development of summary measures for […]

Parkway Field, with the iconic Ralston Purina grain silos visible past the right field wall, was the site of benefit game between the Bustin’ Babes and Larrupin’ Lous in 1928. Ruth and Gehrig are flanked by some of the top local amateur ballplayers from Epps Cola and Beck’s Lunch who comprised their teams. (Used with […]

  The Washington Post described the so-called significance of the August 12, 2021, matchup between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox played in Dyersville, Iowa—where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed—this way: “Thursday night, 30 years and a pandemic after the release of that movie, the state will host its first […]

Stars of Soul of the Game, Mykelti Williamson (l.), Blair Underwood (c.), and Delroy Lindo (r.) at an event honoring the film at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. (Courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum)   Soul of the Game premiered on April 20, 1996, on the Home Box Office (HBO) cable network. The docudrama […]

In the history of New York baseball broadcasting, Sid Loberfeld is as far removed from Red Barber and Mel Allen as Crash Davis is from Babe Ruth. He was a downtown Brooklyn lawyer, and his place in baseball circles came through his decades-long contacts with local sports stars. But Sid holds a distinction that he […]

This interview by Ron Anderson was originally published in SABR’s “Can He Play? A Look at Baseball Scouts and Their Profession” (2011), edited by Jim Sandoval and Bill Nowlin. Interviews were conducted on October 12, 2006 and March 3, 2007. RA: When we talked before you had mentioned that when you first discovered Hank Aaron […]

Of the major league teams that trace their history before 1960, most started out with several short-term unofficial nicknames or even no nickname at all. Although several reputable sources provide a history of these nicknames, there are numerous contradictions between the available sources, and sometimes even when these sources agree, they conflict with the original […]

There is an expression in baseball that refers to a player “having a cup of coffee” in the majors. The inference is that he was with a team such a short time about all he had time for was a cup of coffee. In that parlance, the “shortest cup of coffee” is appearance in one […]

Though they lacked such modern tools as an amateur draft that drew from high-school, college, and amateur team rosters, and free agency for veteran players, Roy Hamey and John Quinn put together a winning team in Philadelphia using the means at their disposal.The 1964 Phillies were the handiwork of two general managers, Roy Hamey and […]

For two days in the summer of 1971, Tom Seaver dueled with another dominant hurler, splitting the games by scores of 1–0 and 2–1. Red Foley, writing for the Daily News, rhapsodized about this matchup, comparing it favorably to legendary contests between Dizzy Dean and Carl Hubbell, Mort Cooper and Whit Wyatt, and Christy Mathewson […]

Amidst the current upsurge of social activism among professional athletes, it is worth recalling the enormous contribution of Jim Bouton, one of the most politically outspoken sports figures in American history. Among professional team sports, baseball may be the most conservative and tradition-bound, but throughout its history, rebels and mavericks have emerged to challenge the […]

If an official MVP had been chosen for the 1918 World Series, the laurels would almost certainly have been placed on the brow of Red Sox outfielder George Whiteman. And what a way to wrap up his time in the majors: the 35-year-old’s last big league game was the clinching game of the 1918 Series. […]

On August 4, 1948, the Roseville Press-Tribune trumpeted the arrival of a new professional baseball team. The Far West League’s financially failing Pittsburg Diamonds were moving ninety miles northeast along what was then US Highway 40 to Roseville, just outside Sacramento.1 The late-season move was bold; although Roseville today ranks among California’s fastest growing cities […]

The Baltimore Orioles have been the most successful team in baseball since the major leagues began divisional play in 1969. The Orioles have played at a near-.600 clip in the 16 years of regular-season play in the 1969-84 period and have never had a losing season in that span. The 0’s have won more divisional […]

It was a summer day in Brooklyn when the spectacular winning streak finally came to an end. On June 14, 1870, the Brooklyn Atlantics defeated the mighty Cincinnati Red Stockings, 8-7, thus halting the most remarkable string of victories in baseball history. Over the past 100 years different accounts have given the 1869-1870 Cincinnati skein […]

The Twenties were still “Roaring,” Lindbergh was in Paris, Coolidge in Washington and Prohibition was the law of the land as Americans celebrated Decoration Day in 1927. It was the “Golden Age of Sport” and newspapers heralded the exploits of Grange, Dempsey, Tilden and Jones. In baseball the New York Yankees were hammering their way […]

When it came to his involvement in the corruption of the 1919 World Series, Shoeless Joe Jackson rarely told the same story twice. When the fix first came to light in late September 1920, Jackson, along with teammates Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams, abjectly admitted that he had agreed to join the conspiracy to throw […]

SABR Salute: Stan Grosshandler Editor’s note: The SABR Salute, first bestowed upon writer Fred Lieb in 1976, was designed as a manner of recognizing the contributions of some of the older members of the Society. Subsequent SABR Salutes appeared in the SABR Membership Directory and honored members who had made great contributions to baseball historical […]