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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
Erin Jackson of the United States holds an American flag after winning the gold medal in the speedskating women's 500-meter race at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, on Feb. 13.
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The Hidden History That Explains Why Team USA is Overwhelmingly White

Exclusion and violence in Western U.S. states help explain the Whiteness of winter sports.
by Sherri Sheu via Made By History on February 17, 2022
Tommie Smith holding shoe
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Amateurism, Sneaker Money, and the Forgotten Protest of the 1968 Games

One of the most audacious examples of product placement at the Olympics was staged by John Carlos and Tommie Smith.
by Harry Blutstein via HNN on July 25, 2021
Pure athletic prowess wasn’t really the point—the People’s Olympiad was about cultivating a spirit of equality, in direct contrast to Nazi ideals.

The 'Protest' Olympics That Never Came to Be

A leftist response to the 1936 Games being held in Nazi Germany, the proposed competition was canceled by the Spanish Civil War.
by Sam Harrison via Smithsonian on July 19, 2021
Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros

What Counts, These Days, in Baseball?

As technologies of quantification and video capture grow more sophisticated, is baseball changing? Do those changes have moral implications?
by David Hinkin via Public Books on February 24, 2021
Men with six-packs on a boat

When Men Started to Obsess Over Six-Packs

Greek statues, the Napoleonic wars, and the advent of photography all played a role.
by Conor Heffernan via The Conversation on February 23, 2021

The 1904 Olympic Marathon May Have Been the Dumbest Race Ever Run

While we're missing three weeks of sporting endeavors due to the Tokyo Olympics, we can revisit one of the most bizarre races in modern Olympic history.
by Jake Sturmer, Rebecca Armitage via ABC News on July 25, 2020
Lou Gehrig holding a baseball bat

How Baseball Players Became Celebrities

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth transformed America’s pastime by becoming a new kind of star.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on May 21, 2020
Diagram of a man swinging a wooden club.

Eastern Sports and Western Bodies: The “Indian Club” in the U.S.

Although largely forgotten today, exercise by club swinging was all the rage in the 19th century.
by Daniel Elkind via The Public Domain Review on April 1, 2020

Althea Gibson, Who Smashed Racial Barriers in Tennis, Honored With Statue at U.S. Open

'It’s about time,' said former doubles partner Angela Buxton.
by Brigit Katz via Smithsonian on August 28, 2019
Newspaper clipping featuring giant championship bat being presented to the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

How the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Turned Baseball into a National Sensation

Meet the team that transformed baseball from a pastime to an industry.
by Robert Wyss via The Conversation on March 27, 2019

Almost Undefeated: The Forgotten Football Upset of 1976

How the Toledo Troopers, the most dominant female football team of all time, met their match.
by Britni de la Cretaz via Longreads on February 1, 2019

Field of Dreams

Migrant futboleros in greater Mexico.
by Romeo Guzman via Boom California on June 13, 2018

This Seamstress Conquered Bike Racing in the 1890s

Cyclist Tillie Anderson shattered records, dominated her competition, and earned the world champion title.
by Kate Siber via Outside on May 31, 2018

A Brief History of America’s Obsession With Sneakers

Invented for athletics, sneakers eventually became status symbols and an integral part of street style.
by Kate Keller via Smithsonian on May 18, 2018
The modern and original logo of the Cleveland Indians, Chief Wahoo.

The Secret History of Chief Wahoo

Brad Ricca dives into the history of the Cleveland Indians' name and the creation of "Chief Wahoo."
by Brad Ricca via Belt Magazine on June 19, 2014

Locker-Room Liberty

Athletes who helped shape our times and the economic freedom that enabled them.
by Matt Welch via Reason on May 1, 2005
A man making fists, ready to box.

Storm of Blows

In the 1890s, boxing went from lower class brawling to upper class show of masculinity.
by Melissa Haley via Commonplace on January 1, 2003
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Black Champions: Interview with Wilma Rudolph

An Olympic runner reflects on segregation and her first experiences with integrated sports events.
via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on April 11, 1985
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
Runners on a track and crowds in the stands at the All Africa Games, 1973.
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Afraid of an Inspiring Olympics Story

How Europe reacted when Ethiopia tried to join the famed global sporting tradition at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
by Hannah Borenstein via HNN on July 16, 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
Picture of the book, "Cracks in the Outfield Wall," by Chris Holaday.

American Legion Baseball, Episode 1

The story of an incident that may have been the first time the issue of race was ever addressed on a baseball field in the Carolinas.
by Chris Holaday via UNC Press Blog on April 25, 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
Moe Berg in his baseball uniform holding a catchers glove

The Baseball Player-Turned-Spy Who Went Undercover to Assassinate the Nazis' Top Nuclear Scientist

During World War II, the OSS sent Moe Berg to Europe, where he gathered intel on Germany's efforts to build an atomic bomb.
by Zachary Clary via Smithsonian on August 31, 2023
Bruce Lee in a classic pose from the movie ‘Enter the Dragon.'

The Fighting Spirit of Bruce Lee

The actor and martial arts star also wanted to be regarded as a poet-philosopher.
by Jeff Chang via The Wall Street Journal on August 12, 2023
The Milwaukee Turners acrobatic team, 1866.

Socialist Gym Rats Fought to End Slavery in America

Veterans of the 1848 German revolution immigrated to America with three passions burning in their hearts: barbells, beer, and socialism.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Jacobin on August 9, 2023
Two horses standing outside of a horse trailer.

A Gallop Through a Horse's Pedigree

An in-depth look at horse breeding.
by Mark Harvey via 3 Quarks Daily on June 5, 2023
A horse and rider diving into a pool.

Remembering When Horse Diving Was an Actual Thing

For 50 years, this bizarre act was one of the Atlantic City's biggest attractions.
by Diana Hubbell via Atlas Obscura on May 9, 2023
Vince McMahon

Vince McMahon Controls Wrestling History in Order to Control All of Wrestling

How the WWE chairman warped pro wrestling all the way to WrestleMania 39.
by Abraham Josephine Riesman via Polygon on March 27, 2023
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