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What’s New, Old Sport?
Some things don’t come back — hair follicles, love — but are old-time sports ready for a revival?Vintage baseballists in Columbus, Ohio, posed before the Capitol Building designed by Thomas ColeI wrote...
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Baseball Roundup
A century ago, sportswriters had little to fear from libel suits or fact checkers.Harry Steinfeldt with CubsGood stories, unsullied by truth, from Hugh Fullerton in the Chicago Tribune. What did Jake...
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Magician’s Blood
Not baseball, but a story close to my heartI wrote this for my “Play’s the Thing” column in the Woodstock Times, back on August 11, 2005. I have updated it significantly now, especially in a...
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Every Picture Tells a Story
Left to right: Sharon Robinson, Rachel Robinson, Marty Lurie, David Robinson, yours truly; Otesaga Hotel, Cooperstown, July 29, 2017. Photo by Barry Bloom.This was, for me at least, the highlight of...
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Otis Shepard
Baseball’s Greatest Graphic ArtistChicago Cubs program, 1962If this were not a Wrigley Field program from 1962 it could be displayed at the Museum of Modern Art. It was one of the last Chicago Cubs...
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Spalding’s Bluff: The Game’s Crucial Moment
“I informed the bearers of the truce that ‘unconditional surrender’ was the only possible solution of the vexed problem.”The Players’ League Guide to its only year of operation“There was a time,” wrote...
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Searching for the Father of Baseball
Might it be James Fenimore Cooper?On the question of who might properly be termed the Father of Baseball if not Cooperstown’s favorite son, Abner Doubleday, Hugh MacDougall, Historian of that bucolic...
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“I Am Honest, Harry”
Jim_Devlin, 1876; portrait study courtesy of Graig KreindlerThe final weeks of the 1877 National League season witnessed a mysterious collapse of the Louisville club, permitting Boston to take the...
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Zane Grey’s Redheaded Outfield
Yes, it was real.JOSEPH M. OVERFIELD (1916–2000) was a frequent contributor to SABR journals and was my personal friend. He wrote The 100 Seasons of Buffalo Baseball, published in 1985, one of two...
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Honus Wagner’s Rookie Year, 1895
He played with two African Americans at Adrian, MichiganPaterson Silk Weavers, Atlantic League, 1896; Honus Wagner (top, third from left), Ed Barrow (middle, second from left)Last week I published...
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A Base Ball Puzzle from 1889
Can you solve it? Respond today; look for answer tomorrowLast card (№15) of the exceedingly scarce Puzzle Card set Duke Sons & Co. issued in 1889 to promote Honest Long Cut TobaccoCard №15, versoAn...
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A Base Ball Puzzle from 1889: Answers
The team is New York (the Giants), encrypted in red.The bats on the left contain (Jim) O’Rourke and (John) Ward, respectively. Note that the large red letters are required to fill out their names.Nick...
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Kelly’s Last Trip: The King of Players Put Out by Death
The Once Great Player Succumbs to Pneumonia — His Parting Remarks to His Friends — His Last Illness — History of His Career, Etc.King Kelly’s Allen & Ginter’s card, 1887This obituary notice...
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A Great Event: A Baseball Game in Hell
“A ball game gotten up by a picked nine of American sinners against the world,” by Art YoungA Base Ball Game in Hell, by Art YoungMy friend Rob Edelman wrote this in the 2015 number of Base Ball: A...
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The Glory Days
Once upon a time in New York…The Giants went to San Francisco, the Dodgers to L.A.What was it like, to be alive then? When New York City was the capital of baseball, with three of its five boroughs...
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Home Run Heaven
Chicago’s new Lake Front Park; Harper’s Weekly, 1883We are now concluding the most prolific season for home runs in all baseball history — even if we are not crowning a new home run king. Arguments...
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The Life of Reilly
Home Run Hero … and ArtistLong John Reilly, Cincinnati scorecard, 1880sLong John Reilly was a great ballplayer in his day, with a knack for hitting home runs. In 1888 his 13 home runs not only led the...
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The Dopester: fie on statisticians
A message for statistical analysts, from long ago: Clarence Patrick McDonald, in the San Francisco Call, March 2, 1913O, dopester, we grow weary of your tables.Of your compilations and your “batting...
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10 Things I Think I Think for Thursday, October 12, 2017
First, it’s not me thinking anything today except Wow … a great day of baseball, and for baseball. The ten things in today’s post are thought by Elliott Kalb, Senior Editorial Director of MLB Network,...
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10 Things I Think I Think for Friday, October 13, 2017
Washington, DC; Swampoodle Grounds, 1886–89First, it’s not me thinking anything today except: an odd, ugly, yet glorious night of baseball in the nation’s capital; no one has ever seen anything like it...
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