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The sold-out crowd at Yankee Stadium’s first opening day.

Major League Baseball’s Historical Quest to Entice Middle- and Upper-Class Fans to the Park

MLB’s focus on wealthier fans stands in stark contrast to rhetoric about the ballpark that had long called it a site of egalitarian intermixing.
by Seth S. Tannenbaum via Process: A Blog for American History on October 15, 2024
Silhouette of baseball player swinging bat.

Negro-League Players Don’t Belong in the MLB Record Books

And neither do white players from the segregation era.
by Malcolm Ferguson via The Atlantic on June 13, 2024
Baseball players for the Texas Rangers restraining fan from running onto field.

The Beer Night Riot, 50 Years Ago: What Was That America Like?

The melee, the mayhem, the metal chairs.
by Daniel McGraw via The Bulwark on June 4, 2024
Christy Mathewson, a pitcher for the New York Giants from 1900-1916.

When New York Made Baseball and Baseball Made New York

The rise of the sport as we know it was centered in Gotham, where big stadiums, heroic characters, and epic sportswriting produced a pastime that bound a city together.
by Adam Gopnik via The New Yorker on March 25, 2024
Pete Rose and Bud Harrelson fighting during a baseball game.

Pete Rose Remembers the Biggest Postseason Brawl in Baseball History

“You know how many second basemen or shortstops I knocked on their ass in my career?”
by Keith O'Brien via Intelligencer on October 8, 2023
The Tri-City ValleyCats played in the Baseball Hall of Fame’s showcase game during induction weekend in 2004.

The Supreme Court May Overturn the Error That Made Major League Baseball Rich

A pair of minor league clubs are asking the court to reverse the league’s lucrative 101-year-old antitrust exemption.
by Matt Ford via The New Republic on September 21, 2023
Curt Flood of the Saint Louis Cardinals, May 1966. Flood challenged Major League Baseball’s “reserve clause” barring players from changing teams.

A People’s History of Baseball

Communists fighting the color line. Baseball players resisting owners. Baseball's untold history of struggles against racial injustice and labor exploitation.
by Peter Dreier, Michael Arria via Jacobin on May 25, 2022
Illustration of catcher Buck Ewing of the New York Giants

Baseball's Reserve Clause and the "Antitrust Exemption"

The controversy between players and owners frequently brought baseball into the federal courts between the late nineteenth and late twentieth centuries.
by Jake Kobrick via Federal Judicial Center on May 18, 2022
Max Scherzer, a member of the MLBPA bargaining committee, throws a pitch on March 21, 2022.

Baseball's Labor Wars

MLB owners’ recent lockout was an effort to reverse the gains that players had won over decades of labor struggle. The owners failed.
by Peter Dreier via Dissent on March 28, 2022
Picture of the field at the Cyclone's Stadium in Coney Island, New York.

How Government Devastated Minor League Baseball

And why stopping the subsidies can help bring it back.
by Matt Welch via Reason on October 10, 2021
Outfielder Darryl Strawberry of the New York Mets in uniform with bat

MLB Could've Stopped Black Talent Drain But Didn't

Baseball’s failure to get out in front of the problem in the 1970s had real and lasting consequences.
by Louis Moore via Global Sport Matters on October 6, 2021
Roberto Clemente at bat

Pittsburgh Pirates Mark 50 Years Since Historic All-Black-and-Latino Lineup

Players, fans and authors recall the landmark 1971 starting nine.
by Bill O'Driscoll via WESA on August 30, 2021
Curt Flood posed with a baseball bat.

The Ballplayer Who Fought for Free Agency

For his talents on the diamond and his determination off of it, Curt Flood deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
by Peter Dreier via The Nation on August 27, 2021
A colorful graphic featuring Curt Flood with a key on his necklace.

Curt Flood Belongs in the Hall of Fame

His defiance changed baseball and helped assert Black people’s worth in American culture.
by Jemele Hill via The Atlantic on February 10, 2021
Hank Aaron.

What Hank Aaron Told Me

When I spoke with my boyhood hero 25 years after his famous home run, I learned why he’d kept going through the death threats and the hate.
by Sandy Tolan via The Atlantic on January 25, 2021
Baseball players congratulate each other after a game.

The Black Gap in Baseball

Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, Andre Dawson and Derek Jeter sit down to discuss the Black gap in baseball.
via The Players' Tribune on September 10, 2020

Will MLB Confront Its Racist History?

The controversy over buildings, statues, and awards honoring racists has finally reached the baseball establishment.
by Peter Dreier via Dissent on July 22, 2020
Barricades marking a baseball field as closed.
partner

On What Should Have Been Opening Day, America Needs Baseball More Than Ever

When it's safe to return, baseball can play a big role in uniting Americans and providing comfort.
by Randy Roberts, Johnny Smith via Made By History on March 26, 2020

Say It Is So: Baseball’s Disgrace

The case for electing "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Pete Rose to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on February 20, 2020
Three Black men in a field wearing Baltimore Black Sox uniforms.

Bill Bruton’s Fight for the Full Integration of Baseball

Louis Moore discusses Bill Bruton and the erasure of his activism towards integration in Major League Baseball.
by Louis Moore via Black Perspectives on May 9, 2019
"Fleet" Walker (middle row, far left) poses with Oberlin College's first varsity baseball team in 1881. Walker went on to become the first African American major leaguer.

The First African American Major League Baseball Player Isn’t Who You Think

As the country celebrates Jackie Robinson Day, let’s consider the career of Fleet Walker.
by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on April 15, 2019

Like Jackie Robinson, Baseball Should Honor Curt Flood's Sacrifice

Fifty years ago, Flood took a stand and paved the way for free agency.
by William C. Rhoden via Andscape on April 15, 2019
Eight black MLBers photographed at a Negro League Alumni All-Star Game in 1952.

After Jackie Robinson Bent Baseball's Color Barrier, Two Journeymen Broke It For Good

Real inclusivity is based on equal access to mediocrity.
by C. Brandon Ogbunu, Ben Odell via Deadspin on April 15, 2019

Retiring Chief Wahoo

Detailing the history and the controversy behind an iconic baseball mascot.
by Scott Longert via We're History on April 6, 2018
A 1994 Grapefruit League game in Vero Beach, FL.

Swinging in the Sun: The History and Business of Spring Baseball

How spring training has become as much about money and business as about playing the game.
by Zoë Jackson via Perspectives on History on March 26, 2018
The Earth drawn as a baseball flying through space.

Climate Change Comes for Baseball

The summer sport is facing big questions about how it will adapt.
by Ellen Cushing via The Atlantic on November 2, 2024
Illustration of Willie Mayes holding a baseball bat, while men watch from the city.

A Giant of a Man

The legacy of Willie Mays and the Birmingham ballpark where he first made his mark.
by Eric Wills via The American Scholar on October 10, 2024
Picture of a baseball card of designated runner, Herb Washington.

Speed Kills

Two striking reminders of the game-changing potential of great speed and its limited value unless accompanied by other essential skills.
by John Thorn via Our Game on October 7, 2024
Three ring binder filled with a baseball card collection.

Batting by the Numbers

The evolution of baseball’s perfect lineup.
by Neil Paine, Michelle Pera-McGhee via The Pudding on September 24, 2024
A team photograph of the Homestead Grays.

The Negro Leagues Are Officially Part of MLB History — With the Records to Prove It

The MLB incorporated the statistics of 2,300 Black athletes who played in the segregated Negro Leagues, making the Josh Gibson its new all-time batting leader.
by Rachel Treisman via NPR on May 29, 2024
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