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Black Ball, Part 4
1905 Ohio Wesleyan University; Rickey (back row, right). Part 4 continues from: http://goo.gl/qYBaHb. Raised in rural Ohio in a strict Methodist family, Rickey, nicknamed by sportwriters “The Deacon”...
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Black Ball, Part 5
Roberto Clemente at Ebbets Field, 1955. Part 5 continues from: http://goo.gl/8pVEEF. The desegregation of organized baseball opened the way not only to blacks in the United States but to those in other...
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Baseball Integration Timeline
Time, 9/22/47. A colleague in the Commissioner’s Office asked me to work up a Jackie Robinson timeline, which soon extended to a timeline of baseball’s integration.This endeavor interested me and I...
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Baseball Reporting
Jack Lang When Total Baseball made its debut in 1989, the critical response was universally and lavishly favorable. One dissenting voice was that of Jack Lang, recently retired from the press box after...
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The Most Dominant Home Run Season Ever
Buck Freeman, Boston, 1903 Old friend Bill Felber is the author of many baseball books–most recently Under Pallor, Under Shadow: The 1920 American League Pennant Race That Rattled and Rebuilt Baseball...
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Babe Ruth’s Autobiography, as Written in 1920
Babe Ruth and ghostwriter It is a little known fact that Babe Ruth finished his autobiography before finishing his first season with the Yankees. That he got a little help with this will not be...
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Babe Ruth’s Autobiography, as Written in 1920; Section II
Ruth in last year at St. Mary’s. Part 4: Babe’s Home Run-less Year Disappointed Him Babe Ruth spent only part of his first year in professional baseball as a minor leaguer. Five months after leaving...
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Babe Ruth’s Autobiography, as Written in 1920; Section III
Babe Ruth, 1920. Part 7: 500 Feet Babe Ruth’s Longest Home Run Hit Caught One of Al Mammaux’s [sic] Fast Ones and Lost It Over Center Field Fence—Boston Park Is Tough One. Babe has hit a home run out...
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Babe Ruth’s Autobiography, as Written in 1920; Section IV
Ruth, March 1920, spring training. Part 10: Ruth Winning Out by Using Natural Swing Home Run King Tells How He Became Convinced That “Scientific” Game at the Bat Was Not Suited to His Ability. “I am a...
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Ghosting for Babe Ruth
Westbrook Pegler. This is an excerpt from an article in the Augusta Chronicle of Augusta, GA, dated November 12, 1946. Written by Westbrook Pegler, it was originally titled “Some Points About Incomes...
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The PCL and the Color Line
Clarence “Pants” Rowland This is a guest column by my friend Ronald Auther, who joined the SABR community in 2014. He holds a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. He writes a...
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The Hidden Game of Baseball, 2015
Three decades ago, Pete Palmer and I wrote The Hidden Game of Baseball (Doubleday, 1984), aided greatly by the editing skills of our friend David Reuther. This month The Hidden Game has been reissued...
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A Peek into the Pocket-book
John Newbery, Base-Ball. This article by David Block, that incomparable scholar of the early game and its bibliography, appeared in Base Ball, Volume 2, Number 1 (Spring 2008). While most students of...
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1914 Hubbard Giants with Jimmy Claxton
Jimmy Claxton, 1916 Zee-Nut. Here is a snappy offering by friend Brian Campf, prompted by his discovery of a new baseball image of one of my favorite players, Jimmy Claxton, who passed for Native...
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Old News in Baseball, No. 1
Trying something new, and old, beginning this week: a review of baseball events from the past. This week’s offerings, like the others to come, will run from Friday through the following Thursday (in...
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Why Is the National Association Not a Major League … and Other Records Issues
Ross Barnes, 1876. On Twitter last week (on May 2, to be precise) I posted: “On this day in 1876 Chicago’s Ross Barnes hits first MLB homer, off Cherokee Fisher at Cincinnati.” In response I was asked,...
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Paul Hines and the Unassisted Triple Play
Paul Hines, ca. 1887. In the last edition of Total Baseball (2004), Lyle Spatz persuaded me to add this note to a segment on unassisted triple plays in the larger essay titled “Streaks and Feats,”...
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Old News in Baseball, No. 2
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. “Old News” is back, this time focusing on events from the week of May 8-14. I’ll relate what happened, why I think it’s interesting, and where you might find...
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Ups and Downs of the Worcester Base Ball Club: League Season 1880
F.E. Pollard, Ups and Downs, 1880. The National League was still pretty green in 1880, its fifth season of existence. Reduced to only six teams in 1878, it had bounced back to eight only by adding such...
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Ups and Downs of the Worcester Base Ball Club: The 1880 Book
Worcester’s three-year franchise in the National League (1880-82), largely unknown to the current generation of fans, leapt from obscurity with the recent civic unrest in Baltimore and the...
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