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This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, Spring 1985 (Vol. 4, No. 1).   At their 1983 winter meetings the major leagues instructed their long-range planning committee to consider the feasibility of expanding the National and American leagues to sixteen teams each. I believe the committee should recommend such an expansion, and […]

In 1947, the Pittsburgh Pirates installed an inner fence in a portion of Forbes Field, reducing the distance down the left field line of the ballpark by 30 feet. The purpose of the fence was to assist the team’s newest acquisition, Hank Greenberg, in his ability to hit home runs. The area between the new […]

From left, Harry Heilmann (HOF), George Burns (1926 AL MVP), Ty Cobb (HOF), Bobby Veach, and Sam Crawford (HOF) in front of the grandstand at Jungle Park, Waxahachie in March 1917. The ballpark site is still used by the local high school baseball team. (Courtesy of the Chapman Deadball Collection)   Some might think that […]

In the Spring of 1908 a young songwriter and vaudeville performer named Jack Norworth was riding on a New York City subway (or, in some tellings, an elevated train) when he saw an advertisement for a Giants game at the Polo Grounds.1 Inspired by the image, he pulled paper and pencil from his pocket and […]

Following the events of Pearl Harbor and in Europe, on January 15, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt responded to Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis: “I honestly feel it would be best for the country to keep baseball going.” Thus, through 1945, the heroic military efforts of Americans in World War II would be complemented and […]

Rock and roll is the métier of choice at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (a.k.a. O.co Coliseum since 2011). For example, the Allman Brothers Band’s hit “Ramblin’ Man” can often be heard at the baseball Athletics’ 35,067-capacity home. It is fitting, given the franchise’s peregrination from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955 and then to Oakland […]

As the annual convention of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) approached in December 1866, the Association faced one challenge, one opportunity, and one threat. These three matters would together dominate the 10th annual meeting of the NABBP. The convention, scheduled for December 12, would extend into the wee hours of the morning […]

Mike Donlin played only 34 games for the Reds in 1902. What was the reason? He had hit .341 for the American League Orioles in 1901 and was looking forward to the next season with Cincinnati. But in March 1902 the flamboyant Irishman was arrested for assaulting an actress on a Baltimore street. He was […]

A rainout in the Astrodome? How is that possible? It’s domed, protected from the elements. The Astros don’t even have the traditional rain check printed on their tickets! Yet on Tuesday, June 15, 1976, the supposed impossible happened. A game between the Astros and the Pittsburgh Pirates was postponed because of rain. A powerful thunderstorm developed […]

This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, No. 16 (1996).   As much as any other figure in baseball history, Albert Goodwill Spalding (1850-1915), the Rockford-raised star pitcher, manager, and owner of the Chicago White Stockings (predecessors of today’s Chicago Cubs), and the founder of the sporting goods company that bears his […]

The record for the largest number of participants ejected from one game is 17. The game was at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium on August 12, 1984. The ejections were all made by home-plate umpire Steve Rippley, and one of the men he threw out was his current boss, Joe Torre. In an early 2017 interview, Rippley […]

One Thousand, Nine Hundred, Ninety. Nineteen-Ninety-One. One-Nine-Nine-Five. Nineteen Hundred, Ninety-Six. One can find all these different numbers for Lou Gehrig’s lifetime Runs Batted In (RBIs), depending where one looks. Which, if any, of those numbers—1,990, 1,991, 1,995, or 1,996—is correct? THE PROBLEM The Howe News Bureau served as the official statistician for the American League […]

This article was originally published in The SABR Review of Books, Vol. 1 (1986). A person’s first impression of baseball literature usually comes from library books, usually from the juvenile fiction section. Judging from what I see as a librarian, there are no more series of baseball books being published today for 8- to 12-year-olds. […]

On June 28, 1970, the Pittsburgh Pirates swept a doubleheader from the Chicago Cubs and Forbes      Field’s role in Pirate baseball was over. The park was condemned and doomed to the wrecker’s ball. It was 61 years earlier, almost to the day, that Forbes Field opened, with the Pirates hosting the same Chicago Cubs. Over […]

Publicity photo of Jackie Robinson as an ABC broadcaster for Major League Championship Baseball. Jackie Robinson’s TV credits include being an ABC color commentator for MLB games in 1965. In addition to the appearance on What’s My Line?, Robinson also made the went on talk shows to be interviewed by Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, and […]

On September 6, 1954, more than seven years after Jackie Robinson stepped onto the diamond at Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers, Carlos Paula trotted out to left field at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. He was the first black to appear in a regular sea­ son lineup of the Washington Senators. This event, while […]

As 1869 was coming to a close, baseball and the nation at large were in the midst of rapid change. Americans still had the bloodstained fields of the Civil War fresh in their memories, and the horror of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination on their minds. Reconstruction was ongoing, as attempts were made to restore a divided […]

When the Boston Red Sox recorded the final out against the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series, it concluded the 100th fall classic in Major league Baseball history. The outcomes of these 100 matchups have ranged from boringly predictable to totally shocking, with everything in between. One hundred is a nice round number […]

A team’s season record is massively influenced by luck. Suppose you take a coin and flip it 162 times to simulate a season. Each time it lands heads, that’s a win, and when it lands tails, that’s a loss. You’d expect, on average, to get 81 wins and 81 losses. But for any individual season, […]

This article was published in SABR’s Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 34 (2005).   A team’s season record is massively influenced by luck. Suppose you take a coin and flip it 162 times to simulate a season. Each time it lands heads, that’s a win, and when it lands tails, that’s a loss. You’d expect, on […]

Kevin Costner’s place in the Hollywood-baseball paradigm is as evident as a thunderclap during an Iowa rainstorm. In four movies, Costner uses the national pastime as a cornerstone for stories about love and regret. He’s a retired ballplayer hosting a sports radio show and pursuing love with Joan Allen’s character in The Upside of Anger. […]

The 1922 All-American team (Rob Fitts Collection)   THE PLOT The Polo Grounds. New York’s National League champs were on the verge of beating the mighty Yankees for the second year in a row. The 1922 World Series was once again a series in one park, as each game for the past two years had […]