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Zanzibar Cats
Thoreau remarked in Walden: “It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.”I delivered this speech at a SABR regional meeting in Boston in 2006 as a stand-in for Bill...
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“I Don’t Know” Is on Third
Harry Steinfeldt was the missing part of the famous infield memorialized in the title of David Rapp’s new bookAdapted from Tinker to Evers to Chance by David Rapp published by The University of Chicago...
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The Dauvray Cup
A question arises about baseball’s long lost first World Series trophy: should it be recreated?The Gorham store, Broadway at 19th Street, New York CityBack in 2011, when I was named MLB’s official...
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Zane Grey, Major Leaguer?
A letter has come to light revealing that Boston NL tried to hire himI have written frequently in this space about Zane Grey, the famous writer of Western stories, his baseball opus, and his personal...
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The Last 19th-Century World Series
Rain, snow, cold, and a “postponed” Fall ClassicBoston rooters outside Huntington Avenue Grounds, 1903 World SeriesCold, damp — even snow — are an annual Spring dilemma for baseball owners and fans. To...
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Sphere and Ash
A rediscovery of sorts; my introduction to a 1984 reissue of baseball’s first history, originally published in 1888Sphere and Ash, original publication in book formI’ve been working this baseball beat...
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Chance Is the Fool’s Name for Fate
An odd harbinger of the Black Sox ScandalFlowers for Frank Chance, Yankees manager, Polo Grounds; home opener at new home, April 17, 1913The title of this story references the wonderful Astaire-Rogers...
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DiMaggio’s Mysterious Plunge
by John B. HolwayJohn Holway is one of my oldest friends in baseball, and not only because he is 88. He wrote the first book in English on Japanese baseball, Japan Is Big League in Thrills, in 1954....
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Abner Doubleday Meets the Mummy
Faux Find of the Day; First in an Irregular SeriesFrom an unknown college yearbook of 1906; note the three straw boaters and other period glyphsI came across this the other day and posted it to Twitter...
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Wide World of Sports
How trading cards might populate a new hall of fame1887 Allen & Ginter ‘The World’s Champions’ Advertising BannerSport matters. So do the individuals or teams of high character and winning ways...
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Baseball in London
Bringing the baby back home, all grown upFirst Nine cigars, marking the 1874 Boston vs Philadelphia TourOn July 16, 1874, the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Stockings of the pioneer National...
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The Great Baseball Rivalry
The Boston Red Sox and the New York YankeesBabe Ruth, 1919For a very long time the Yankees and Red Sox were not bitter rivals at all: when one team was great, the other was not, and no one perceived...
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The Mystery Woman in Ted’s Life
Recalling Louise KaufmanBy John B. HolwayTed’s home in the KeysIn 1981, 41 years after my first, boyhood look at Williams in 1940 and 24 after my first interview with him in ’57, I drove into the...
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The Changing Game
A comprehensive look at “the unchanging game,” in several partsBill Felber wrote this dazzling essay for Total Baseball back nearly thirty years ago, and Gary Gillette updated it for a later edition of...
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The Changing Game, Part 2
A comprehensive look at “the unchanging game,” in several partsBill Felber wrote this dazzling essay for Total Baseball back nearly thirty years ago, and Gary Gillette updated it for a later edition of...
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The Changing Game, Part 3
A comprehensive look at “the unchanging game,” in several partsBill Felber wrote this dazzling essay for Total Baseball back nearly thirty years ago, and Gary Gillette updated it for a later edition of...
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The Changing Game, Part 4
A comprehensive look at “the unchanging game,” in several partsBill Felber wrote this dazzling essay for Total Baseball back nearly thirty years ago, and Gary Gillette updated it for a later edition of...
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The Changing Game, Part 5
A comprehensive look at “the unchanging game,” in several partsBill Felber wrote this dazzling essay for Total Baseball back nearly thirty years ago, and Gary Gillette updated it for a later edition of...
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The Changing Game, Part 6
A comprehensive look at “the unchanging game,” in several partsBill Felber wrote this dazzling essay for Total Baseball back nearly thirty years ago, and Gary Gillette updated it for a later edition of...
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Jim Thorpe, the Vanishing American
Zane Grey’s 1922 novel … and baseballCarlisle’s Jim Thorpe vs. Army, painted in Native American style while recalling Custer; by John D. WolfeZane Grey (1872–1939) was a fabulously prolific and...
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