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In the baseball season just concluded, Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins, Chris Carpenter of the St. Louis Cardinals, Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros and Bartolo Colon of the Los Angeles Angels were baseball’s only 20 game winners. In 2004, Curt Schilling won 21 games for the Boston Red Sox, Johan Santana won 20 […]
On December 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and the United States declared war. It was only 39 days after the September 28 doubleheader in Philadelphia when Ted Williams went 6-for-8 and elevated his batting average from .3996 to .406, the last time a major-league batter has hit .400. Baseball contined, and […]
George Herman Ruth is probably the most well known of all American baseball players. He may also have been the best. There has never been another player who had such an effect on the sport. He revolutionized it from a pitcher’s game to a hitter’s game, and it has remained that way ever since. Ruth […]
Someone was missing from the 1874 National Association convention, and his absence underscored one of the major weaknesses of the three-year-old organization. The absentee was the president of the NA, Robert Ferguson, who during his two years in office had taken little interest in the management of the association, treating his appointment as more ceremonial […]
Why would you want to squander a few hours taking up space in your behind-home-plate seat at a World Series game? For after all, you’ve been invited to a screening of a spanking new 35 mm print of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Why bother wasting time watching Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Bang […]
A recap of the 1967 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox.The Boston Red Sox were in the World Series for the first time since 1946, matched against the same team that beat them in seven games 21 years earlier. The 1967 Cardinals clinched early, surprising most observers as Red Schoendienst […]
Stan the Man remains a legend in St. Louis and throughout Cardinal nation. (Photograph by Glen Sparks.) Almost exactly five years after Stan Musial made his major-league debut, St. Louis Post-Dispatch sportswriter Bob Broeg wrote an article that forever transformed Musial into Stan the Man. Published on September 20, 1946, the article referred to […]
If a baseball fan scanned the list of National League batting leaders in the New York Times on September 15, 1940, they would note a tight race among the top five hitters. Three points separated them with just two weeks left in the season1: Cooney, Boston, .319 Mize, St. Louis, .318 Hack, Chicago, .317 Gleeson, […]
At the close of play on July 17, 1915, the American League’s Chicago White Sox led the league by 1½ games, the Federal League’s Chicago Whales had a half-game lead, and the National League’s Chicago Cubs were tied for first. The feat of one city having three first-place teams has not since been repeated, since […]
Who deserves to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and who does not? The Hall of Fame electors wrestle with this question every year. The selection process for players causes controversy on an annual basis, but the institution, since its inception, has also grappled with the issue of recognition for non-playing contributors. Some […]
The band struck up “Hail the Conquering Heroes Come,” and cheering Philadelphia fans opened a gauntlet at the depot October 24, 1910, to let their victorious Athletics pass through. The A’s had just arrived from Chicago, where they had whipped the Cubs four games to one to win the baseball championship of the world. At […]
In the run-up to the 2015 All-Star Game, Kansas City Royals fans caused a stir when early rounds of announced vote totals showed a potential American League lineup dominated by their hometown team. Over the course of the remaining weeks of balloting, other fan bases had time to mobilize and counteract the early trends. Though […]
Harold Harris Chase was born February 13, 1883 at Los Gatos, Calif., a small town about ten miles south of San Jose. The fact that years after his death certain baseball reference books listed him as Hal H. Chase or Harold Homer Chase only serves to emphasize the shroud of mystery that surrounded this strange, […]
Introduction and Context The 2002 Winter Meetings were held from December 13 to December 16 at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. This was the fourth time they were held at this venue. Economic conditions in some markets had made contraction — eliminating two or more teams — a concern during the 2001 Winter Meetings. […]
There are a number of approaches one could take to choosing an all-star team from the passing parade of professional ballplayers—some on their way up, some on their way down, most of them going nowhere in particular—who have represented an on-and-off minor-league city like Ottawa since the late 1800s. What we’ve tried to do is […]
More than 65 years have elapsed since Rube Marquard attracted national attention by winning 19 consecutive games at the start of the season for the 1912 National League Champion New York Giants. That was a banner year for streaks by pitchers as Smokey Joe Wood and Walter Johnson both set the American League standard with […]
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in “The Journal of Illinois History” (Vol. 9, No. 4, Winter 2006) and reprinted in SABR’s “The National Pastime” (No. 26, 2006). The version below has been edited for clarity and updated with new information about the Black Sox Scandal that has come to light in the years […]
Editor’s note: This article was published in the April 2018 edition of the SABR Deadball Era Committee newsletter. Pervasive cheating plagued baseball during the Deadball Era. Cutting bases, blocking baserunners, doctored baseballs, lob pitches, indifferent play, bribery, and fixed games found a way into every crevice of baseball. Much of the indiscretion occurred openly, regarded […]
Introduction and Context The 1987 winter meetings were held at the Loew’s Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas, in the middle of the “collusion era.”1 Collusion is a complex tale and, as such, only a brief summary is presented here. Peter Ueberroth became commissioner of baseball in 1984, after concluding his successful management of the 1984 […]
Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published in the SABR Deadball Era Research Committee’s February 2015 newsletter. This article expands upon a well-received presentation at SABR 44 in 2014 in Houston. Supporting documentation and other aspects of the research upon which this article is founded has been posted on the SABR website […]
1920 Baltimore Orioles, International League champions. (BALTIMORE SUN) In 1920, the Baltimore Orioles were champions of the International League (IL) for the second straight year. Baltimore would win seven consecutive pennants (1919–25), and six of the championship teams are ranked in the top 20 of the 100 best minor league teams of the twentieth […]
Billy Harrell has had two careers: his first started in 1952, when he signed with Cleveland and lasted for the next 15 years, during which he played for the Indians, Red Sox, and Cardinals organizations. His second career began immediately after his 1967 retirement from baseball, when he took a position as a juvenile probation […]