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In 1959, ace Pittsburgh Pirates fireman Roy Face set a major-league record by winning 18 games in relief against one loss. His .947 winning average also established the record for pitchers with at least 15 decisions. Face’s incredible numbers far exceeded those of the Pirates, who went 78–76 and finished fourth, nine games behind the […]
In 1928, the Stanford University baseball team came to Australia with its coach, Harry Wolter, to play a series of games against local teams. Australian newspapers proclaimed that it would “mark an epoch in Australian baseball history.” The Stanford tour, with its inclusion of an ex-major league ballplayer in the role of touring coach, not […]
Vern Stephens was recruited to play in Mexico instead of for the Browns in 1946, but quickly returned to the team after seeing the conditions south of the border. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library) The St. Louis Browns’ American League (AL) Championship in 1944 was followed by a 1945 campaign best remembered for […]
SABR’s phenomenal membership rise is indeed a testimony to the burgeoning numbers of dedicated baseball researchers about the land. However, a menacing schism, one pitting baseball historians against baseball statisticians, bids foul to disturb the tribal unity. As a precipitating cause of this fratricidal struggle, baseball historians point to the distortion of historical records done […]
Frank Baker started in major league baseball as one of those raw country lads so endearing to sports writers of his era, and retired a gentleman farmer. Born on a farm just south of Trappe, Maryland, which had been in the family since before the Revolution, he began to play baseball with his brother Norman […]
From left to right: Takehiko Bessho, Eddie Lopat, Joe DiMaggio, and Tetsuharu Kawakami. (Rob Fitts Collection) In 1951 American troops still occupied Japan, but their mission had shifted. Rather than seeing the country as a former enemy to be subjugated, Japan was now viewed as an ally in the fight against communism. As the […]
The intentional base on balls was a part of professional baseball long before it became a part of baseball’s official statistics. The Sporting News’s Baseball Record Book lists Napoleon Lajoie of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League as the first player to receive an intentional walk with the bases full, in the ninth inning […]
Ebbets Field has been gone for nearly half a century, but the place still has a remarkable grip on our consciousness. Two recent books have been devoted to the lovable old ballpark in Flatbush. Yet even these in-depth works don’t shine much light on what happened after the Dodgers left Brooklyn. They touch briefly on some […]
1960 Toronto Maple Leafs team photo. (Courtesy Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) This is the story of the 1960 Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team. It is a story that is worth telling because this team has been adjudged by Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright to be the 87th best minor-league team of […]
Editor’s note: This article was told to William B. Ruggles, June 15, 1931. Actually, I think the birth of the Texas League in 1888 was due to the fact that a club of minor leaguers defeated the New York Giants. That notable victory aroused the sporting blood of Austin to the patch of enthusiasm necessary […]
When notable hitting streaks are discussed, the first one to come to mind is Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game spree of 1941, and rightfully so, since it is by far the all-time major league high. Willie Keeler’s National League record of 44 games in 1897 and Tommy Holmes’ 20th century senior circuit milestone of 37 straight in […]
Bobby Thomson’s home run in the bottom of the ninth in the third game of the 1951 National League playoff is generally considered baseball’s greatest walk-off home run. Broadcaster Russ Hodges captured Thomson’s shot and froze it in time, echoing it through baseball’s ages. After the ball soared over Dodgers outfielder Andy Pafko’s forlorn face, […]
Advertising billed The Great American Pastime as a comedy that would “keep us all in stitches.” Following the Second World War, the baseball genre film enjoyed considerable popularity with Hollywood filmmakers hoping to recapture the commercial success of The Pride of the Yankees (1942). As that film re-told Lou Gehrig’s life story, many of […]
The first attempt to organize a Negro professional baseball league appears to have been made, surprisingly, in the south in the spring of 1886. In March of that year a number of newspapers in major southern cities carried the following brief item in their sporting news columns: “A call has been issued for the captains […]
A quarter century has passed since Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball. His appearance in a Brooklyn Dodger lineup in 1947 and the outstanding performance which he gave also opened, the door wider for players from Latin America, who previously had never appeared in significant numbers. The Society for American Baseball […]
A note from the editor of the Fall 2012 BRJ.
This article was selected for inclusion in SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game. In the 2011 postseason, David Freese made a name for himself with his spectacular and timely hitting and won both the National League Championship Series and World Series MVP awards. It […]
Introduction In September 2005 the confirmation hearings of John Roberts as the nominee for chief justice of the United States included an unexpected but telling nod to the national pastime when Roberts observed, “Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; […]
Modern baseball analysis has established without a doubt that the longer a pitcher stays in the game, the better the batters will perform against him. Beginning in 1996, analysts evaluated the starting lineup’s plate appearances and later coined an acronym for the rule: TTOP, for the “Times Through (the) Order Penalty.” That is, “As […]
Famed comedian Milton Berle greets Sandy Koufax after the left-hander threw his perfect game against the Chicago Cubs in 1965. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library) In the post-World War II era, New York City was effectively the baseball capital of the nation. Not only was it the home of the commissioner’s office (baseball’s […]