Clik here to view.
PIONEERS: Dummy Hoy
Tenth in a season-long seriesDummy Hoy with Washington, 1888In baseball, deaf players are no longer called Dummy, as they once were, almost invariably. As I wrote of One Arm Daily, earlier in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mark Rucker
A Henry Chadwick Award winnerI wrote this for the Spring 2023 Baseball Research Journal of the Society for American Baseball Research. Neither Mark nor I, friends and colleagues for more than four...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jim Bouton, Seattle Pilot
Created for the 2023 All-Star Game Media GuideJim BoutonI first met Jim Bouton in April 2004. What brought us together at the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, New Jersey was an ESPN mock trial...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Baseball in the Garden of Eden
The Secret History of the Early Game: IntroductionThis book was first published in 2011I suppose Simon & Schuster will not mind if I share this Introduction to Baseball in the Garden of Eden with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Steve Bellán
Eleventh in a season-long seriesEstevan Enrique Bellán, at Fordham in the 1860s; modern pastiche by Ars LongaA while back in this year’s Pioneers series, I identified Luis Castro, born in Colombia in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jefferson T. Burdick
Hero to a hobby that he may be said to have createdJefferson T. BurdickI wrote this brief profile of Burdick for SABR’s Baseball Research Journal in 2018, the year he was honored with the Henry...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Frank B. Wood
Twelfth in a season-long seriesFrank B. Wood, “Old Well-Well,” photography by Byron 1897Who was the first fan? For me that is an interesting question, once we move beyond the earliest unknown...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Benjamin K. Edwards
Thirteenth in a season-long seriesBenjamin K. Edwards in 1923As promised in my last post, about baseball’s first fans, it seemed wise to distinguish them from pioneer collectors, though certainly they...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Harry M. Stevens
Fourteenth in a season-long seriesHarry Mosley Stevens, New York Clipper, June 27, 1896From a story on pioneer fans to one on early collectors, we conclude our little trilogy of the grandstand with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Ozzie Virgil
Fifteenth in a season-long seriesOzzie (“Ossie” for Osvaldo) Virgil’s first baseball card, Topps 1957In the third entry of this season’s series, I identified Lou Castro, born in Colombia in 1876, as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Henry Chadwick
Sixteenth in a season-long seriesHenry Chadwick, baseball reporter for The Clipper, ca. 1868The Base Ball Writers Association of America (archaically named to preserve its venerable acronym) has...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Dan Okrent
Seventeenth in a season-long seriesDan OkrentBaseball is best enjoyed outdoors, in the sunshine. Next best is under the lights, still outdoors. But sometimes it rains or snows, and that’s when fantasy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: Candy Cummings
Eighteenth in a season-long seriesWilliam Arthur “Candy” CummingsWho threw the first curve ball? This was a matter of dispute 150 years ago and, despite the Hall of Fame plaque controversially awarded...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PIONEERS: William Hulbert
Nineteenth in a season-long seriesWilliam Hulbert, the once forgotten pioneer; sketch by Homer DavenportIn 1871 the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NA) was created to give...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Pioneers: Branch Rickey
Twentieth and last in a season-long seriesBranch RickeyThe baseball heroes of our youth seemed larger than life, even when constrained to a trading card or a television screen. We knew all of their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John “Pop” Watkins
The “Greatest” Scout In Baseball HistoryPop Watkins, from Sol White’s History of Colored Base Ball (1907)My friend Larry Hogan has made great contributions to our appreciation of the Negro Leagues that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
World Series Centennial Review: 1923
My twelfth annual recap (since 1912)The 1923 World Series program featured the managersThis story, like the annual recaps that preceded it, first appeared in MLB’s World Series Media Guide.After two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lost and Found: Sleuthing for Slivers the Clown and Marceline the August
Lost and Found: A Story of Sad Clowns Slivers and MarcelineBaseball history, silent film, and show-biz stars of a former ageFrom True Comics, May 1947: “The World’s Funniest Clowns”I wrote the story...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Base Ball Boy
Studying the game’s patentsThe Base Ball Boy, a rare statuette at auctionAt the big Christie’s baseball auction last week, I won a fine Willard Mullin sketch, one that Ann Meyerson and I had included...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Base Ball Statuettes
The trio that sold at Christie’s, and one that didn’tThe Muller-Deacon pairing, photographed by Frank Pearsall after 1872 (dated by studio address)Last week I dug up the patent for the “Base Ball Boy,”...
View Article