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Ask the average American to name a Jewish athlete. For many, the first to come to mind will be Dodgers great Sandy Koufax, even though it’s been nearly six decades since his retirement from major-league baseball. Like many of his sport’s all-timers, Koufax maintains an almost mythic status–especially among Jewish baseball fans, as well as […]
There is not a person alive in the industrialized world who has not been touched directly or indirectly by the wonders of medical science. Death-sentence diseases of the past, like cancer, now carry longer and longer commutation periods, thanks to advanced early detection and modern surgical techniques. The twentieth century discovery of insulin has […]
In the Best Interests of Baseball? The Revolutionary Reign of Bud Selig by Andrew Zimbalist John Wiley and Sons (2007) $14.95, paperback. 250 pages. Photos, notes Allan H. “Bud” Selig has nominally been in charge of the national pastime longer than any commissioner since Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Needless to say, the game has expanded […]
Imagine a newspaper that contains no sports section. Imagine a sports page that contains no stories on baseball. Imagine a story on baseball that contains no statistics. What you are imagining is a newspaper prior to the era of Henry Chadwick. Baseball historians recognize Chadwick as the first newspaperman to report on the game of […]
North America is dotted by cities with unique histories, industries, landscapes, ethnicities, religions, and dialects. Just as political campaigns analyze the unique behavioral tendencies of geographical regions, Major League Baseball clubs could benefit from applying the same principles. The 30 MLB fan bases are as individualized as the towns they inhabit and MLB franchises would […]
For the past six-plus years, since before the 2011 season, Rick Rieker has been director of umpire development for Major League Baseball. Rieker umpired his first major-league game in 1992, and worked as both a National League and then major-league umpire through the 2001 season. In 2002 he began work as an umpire supervisor. For […]
When I approached Robin Roberts in 1992 about writing a book on the famous Whiz Kids team that won the 1950 pennant on the last day of the season, he was immediately all in. Since I’d never written a baseball book (although heaven knows I’d read enough of them), I felt a little like the […]
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. Each season, baseball fans and journalists alike identify which players are in the final years of their contracts because a lot rides on how the players produce in their “contract year.” […]
Creative heckling is one of the more interesting features of a baseball game. Fans yell things at many sports events, but baseball’s timing and pace make it more congenial for heckling than do other team sports; so does the focus on the individual performance. Creative heckling—educated yelling—can be entertaining, even an art form. True, some people […]
JOHN DEWAN has spent his career bringing sports statistics to baseball fans and analysts starving for information. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, Dewan developed his interest in baseball and statistics while listening to White Sox games on the radio with his father and playing Strat-O-Matic with friends on his front steps. Dewan […]
For decades, baseball fans have debated who was the better center fielder, Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays. (SABR-Rucker Archive) Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were both born in 1931 and reached the majors almost simultaneously in 1951, competing against each other as rookies in the World Series. Together with Duke Snider, they appeared in […]
Mid-game refreshment break for Cuban umpires. Mártires de Barbados Stadium, Granma, March 4, 2015. Perhaps one of the most difficult umpiring jobs in the world is the one carried out in Cuba, where verbal abuse can come from the stands when a call is blown, or when a close play that has been called […]
South Shields is a coastal town in Northern England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne, downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne. The town boasts an economy built around shipbuilding and coal mining, and produced the director Ridley Scott and actor/comedian Eric Idle. The main sports are rugby and soccer.1 So it may seem strange […]
Scouts and managers extoll as a kernel of truth: “Experience will trump the value of youth”; That theory is touted at the most crucial times, When pressure is greatest, with so much on the line. One team turned that thought on its ear With a measure of fame that lasts to this year; In baseball’s […]
Rubén Amaro Sr. made a unique contribution to how the history of the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies was recorded. His letters to his parents (as first described in a 1965 article for Sports Illustrated, “The Rise and Fall of the Fabulous Phillies”) were a contemporaneous internal view of the club.Rubén Amaro Sr. made a unique contribution to how the history […]
Tom Seaver scouting report, 1965. (Click to enlarge.) Just as an iceberg reveals only a small part of its mass, the public face of baseball shows only a fraction of the work required to assemble clubs and stage games. The nonplayer personnel are, in many ways, the unsung heroes of the game. For years, […]
Jerry Kindall retired as University of Arizona’s head baseball coach in 1996 after an illustrious 24-year career. Kindall led the Wildcats to three national championships (in 1976, 1980 and 1986) and finished with a 861-580 career record. Twelve Kindall-coached squads reached the post-season and.five played in the College World Series. Kindall, who starred collegiately at […]
To the serious historian, tracking trends is the passion that spurs his working life. Successful trend tracking is the skill that sets the trained historian apart from analysts, antiquarians, reporters, and other commentators on the human past. It is the logical outcome of research. A baseball historian’s daily routine might find him gathering facts, filing […]
Visiting Cuba is like tripping in a time machine. We’re not talking about a beach vacation at Varadero, but a visitation to the living, working Cuba. A Cuba where baseball is woven into the shirts they wear, is the caffeine in their coffee, and the excitement in their voices. When you are there, you’ll find […]
All-Star Football Game program, 1941. (COURTESY OF BRYAN STEVERSON) “There but for the grace of God” is an expression used when someone avoids a very serious situation, possibly life-threatening, and gives credit to the Almighty.1 In the life of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, this thankfulness applied on December 7, 1941. After a disappointing 1940 football […]
Darrell Porter got hot in 1982’s postseason, but his work with the pitching staff may have also been crucial to the championship. (SABR-Rucker Archive) Darrell Porter’s second season as a St. Louis Cardinal was difficult. He was playing on an incredibly talented team with great fielding at every position, solid starting pitching, and a […]
George Davis, one of the turn of the century’s finest ballplayers, remains an enigma with regards to his personal life and character. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library) Of the more than 300 individuals enshrined in Cooperstown, perhaps the most enigmatic is George Davis. Despite an outstanding 20-season playing career—and twice being manager of […]
In 1969, the New York Mets became the first 1960s-era expansion team to win a World Series. En route to that championship, after overcoming a 9½ game mid-August Chicago Cubs lead, Gil Hodges managed his “Miracle Mets” to the National League East title over Leo Durocher’s Cubs. In Chicago, that season has been called the […]
SABR Salute: Bill Deane 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 […]