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Read a note from the editor of the BRJ.Are we all on a quest to glean meaning from life around us? Well, maybe not all people are, but I am, and I strongly suspect that many SABR members funnel that urge into their study of baseball. It doesn’t matter what creed you ascribe to — […]

Baseball history is littered with heroic performances by great teams that ran rampshod over their competition, as well as teams that overachieved. Less remembered are the underachievers— teams that, at least on paper, appeared great, but failed to achieve their full potential.

In early February 1985, Alan Wiggins became the newest big-money player for the 1984 National League champion San Diego Padres. With the help of his San Diego-based agent, Tony Attanasio, and Padres general manager Jack McKeon, Wiggins, just 26 years old, signed a guaranteed four-year, $2.5 million contract, making him one of the highest paid […]

Forbes Field was one of the very first classic era ballparks (only Philadelphia’s Shibe Park preced­ed it) to be built in America. It was the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates for 62 seasons after it opened June 30, 1909. Forbes Field has been regarded as a spacious park and a poor park for hitters. Only […]

This article will trace the interest of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), the creator of Sherlock Holmes, in baseball as a sometime-participant, an avid fan, and a zealous promoter of the game in Britain. Doyle’s analysis of its qualities and strategies as compared to cricket provides insights into the way baseball was perceived and promoted […]

“Josh missed immortality and a chance to endorse breakfast food by being born on the wrong side of the social structure.” — Jimmy Powers, New York Daily News, 19371 Josh Gibson was the most dominant power hitter in the Negro Leagues from 1930 through 1946. His production was so prodigious that his Hall of Fame […]

Calbee potato chip baseball card depicting Hank Aaron and Sadaharu Oh during their November 2, 1974 home run contest (Robert Fitts Collection)   For certain kids growing up in Tokyo in the 1970s, three of the most popular sports to watch on television were baseball, pro wrestling, and roller derby. For Hanshin fans, there was […]

In 1763, literary critic Dr. Samuel Johnson said about women preachers, “Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”1 In the early 1900s, that same attitude prevailed when it came to women sports journalists: male […]

Read a note from the editor of the Spring 2017 BRJ.I would like to take this space to express how grateful I am for SABR’s existence. I grew up in a baseball-loving household, with a shrine to Thurman Munson on my wall (I was at summer camp when his plane crashed). But there were occasional […]

A note from the editor of the BRJ.I truly enjoyed SABR’s annual convention this year in Miami. I suppose that goes without saying: baseball is one of my favorite things, and baseball research is one of my favorite things about baseball. But something about the mix of topics and experiences jelled into a delicious melange […]

A note from the editor of the Fall 2013 BRJ.

Five former Yankees players and staff shared their thoughts on working in the renovated Yankee Stadium. I chose them because of the wide-ranging and different perspectives they had working and playing in the Stadium during their careers in baseball. Some of these players and staff were on teams that won the World Series and others […]

During the 1940s National League baseball was largely dominated by the Cardinals and the Dodgers. St. Louis won four pennants in the decade while finishing second five times. Brooklyn took three flags and were runner-ups three as well. Besides a horrendous 1944 season, “dem Bums” were third the rest of the time. It was the […]

Only 21 Border League (1946-51) players made it to the major leagues.1 Of these, only one made it all the way to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Willard Jessie Brown was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1915. In 1934, Brown played with the Monroe Monarchs of the Negro Southern League. He rose to the […]

The Callaghan sisters, Helen (left) and Margaret. (British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame)   The young women gathered on the grass in Chicago shagged flies and fielded grounders. They played scrub games under the watchful eyes of coaches. Even the practice games were not without incident, as Gladys “Terrie” Davis, a batting star in Toronto’s […]

The underlying aggressiveness in rivalries between baseball teams has been recorded in the annals and burned into our memories for decades. Fans hear yarns about Ty Cobb’s boiling temperament and witness bench-clearing brawls. When that explosive competitive spirit spreads from the field to the fanatics in the streets, the result can be drunken fist-fights at […]

Adrian C. Anson, who rose to national prominence as captain of the Chicago White Stockings, was the first of what is now a long list of baseball players who succumbed to the lure of the footlights. Anson made his theatrical debut in 1895 in a production called A Runaway Colt. Arguably the most famous baseball […]

WHAT’s in a name? If it’s a baseball team’s name, there’s a story in it. The story of what to call Washington, D.C., baseball teams (except “last in the American League”) began in confusion and remained that way for almost a hundred years. Professional league baseball began in Washington in 1871, with the Olympic Base […]