Major League Baseball — Bunk History

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Pete Rose on a baseball diamond, head bowed.

For Pete’s Sake

A new book traces "the rise and fall of Pete Rose, and the last glory days of baseball."

by Christopher Caldwell via The Washington Free Beacon on May 12, 2024

John Thorn photographed in front of baseball memorabilia.

How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins

A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest days.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Smithsonian on March 28, 2024

Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, New York.

The Last Of The Brooklyn Dodgers

Richard Staff interviews four former Brooklyn Dodgers players, who, despite the team's move to Los Angeles, still identify with their Brooklyn roots.

by Richard Staff via Defector on February 19, 2024

A Chicago Cubs pitcher warms up.

An "Old-Fashioned Pitchers' Duel" Didn't Always Mean What You Think

A deep dive into the historical context and changing meanings of a time-honored term.

by Lauren Theisen via Defector on September 14, 2023

George H.W. Bush, wearing a Yale baseball uniform, receives the manuscript of Babe Ruth’s autobiography.

In Babe Ruth’s Final Steps on Public Stage, Two Brushes With History

Babe Ruth's final days revealed his mortality, and made more history, when he encountered a future U.S. president.

by Frederic J. Frommer via Washington Post on June 13, 2023

A portrait of Jackie Robinson in his Brooklyn Dodgers uniform, circa 1945.

Jackie Robinson Was More Than a Baseball Player

Jackie Robinson is popularly portrayed as the man who broke baseball’s color line by quietly enduring racist abuse. But that narrative is much too narrow.

by Michael Arria, David Naze via Jacobin on May 12, 2023

Boxing ring set up in Dodger Stadium.

Whoever Killed Davey Moore Also Killed Boxing At Dodger Stadium

Why the first prizefight at Dodger's Stadium would become its last (outside of fiction).

by Vince Guerrieri via Defector on February 28, 2023

Names, dates, and statistics written on lined notebook paper.

The Forgotten Men Behind the Ideas That Changed Baseball

Solving baseball’s enduring puzzles, to those who could even see them, was its own reward. They changed everything but were never given their due.

by Leander Schaerlaeckens via Defector on November 14, 2022

Nixon, sitting in front of a Meet the Press backdrop, gestures to someone out of frame as a production crew member adjusts his chair.

The Secret History Of Richard Nixon, Mets Sicko

The less known story of Richard Nixon and his genuine love and care for his hometown team, the New York Mets.

by Richard Staff via Defector on May 19, 2022

Jackie Robinson addresses civil rights supporters protesting outside the 1964 GOP National Convention.

Jackie Robinson Was a Radical – Don't Listen to the Sanitized Version of History

Before Colin Kaepernick, Jackie Robinson wrote, ‘I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a Black man in a white world.’

by Peter Dreier via The Conversation on April 14, 2022

Picture of SunTrust Park, home of the Atlanta Braves.

The Atlanta Braves and the Worst and Best of Baseball in America

How the team came to have that name and why it still persists.

by Ben Railton via The Saturday Evening Post on April 5, 2022

Mark McGwire baseball card

Neoliberalism with a Stick of Gum: The Meaning of the 1980s Baseball Card Boom

Before beanie babies and Pogs, small rectangles of cardboard were the errant investments of a stratifying American society.

by Jason Tebbe via Tropics of Meta on March 12, 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

Yankees fans celebrate their win over the Kansas City Royals in the 1976 American League Championship

Why Baseball Fans Stopped Rushing the Field

On Oct. 21, 1980, a beloved tradition was put to a stop.

by Mitchell Nathanson via Slate on October 26, 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

Rube Foster Was the Big Man Behind the First Successful Negro Baseball League

100 years ago, it took a combination of salesman and dictator to launch a historic era for black teams.

by John Florio, Ouisie Shapiro via Andscape on February 13, 2020

On the 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues, a Look Back at What Was Lost

While segregation was a shameful period in baseball history, the Negro Leagues were a resounding success and an immense source of pride for black America.

by Rob Ruck via The Conversation on February 13, 2020

Black Sox Forever

Reflections on the centennial of America’s greatest sports scandal.

by Harry Stein via City Journal on September 26, 2019

Teddy Roosevelt Hated Baseball

It was a struggle to even get the president to go to a game.

by Ryan Swanson via Literary Hub on August 27, 2019

The Forgotten All-Star Game That Helped Integrate Baseball

The battle for the integration of Major League Baseball started long before Jackie Robinson.

by Stephanie Liscio via Deadspin on July 19, 2019

The History Behind Baseball’s Weirdest Pitch

The improbable success of the curveball.

by Tyler Kepner via Literary Hub on April 24, 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

How Superstition and the Opera Gave Birth to Mascots

The dark origins of the first mascots.

by Michael Imhoff via SB Nation on December 11, 2017

Remembering Baseball’s Right-Wing Rotation

When three Padres pitchers joined the John Birch Society in 1984, the sports world was challenged by a different kind of political activism.

by Bryan Curtis via The Ringer on October 31, 2017

How the Cubs Won

Four books contend with the lifting of the 108-year old curse.

by Jack Rakove via Public Books on October 3, 2017

How the National Anthem Got Tangled Up With American Sports

Like most relationships, it’s complicated.

by Tevi Troy via Politico Magazine on September 26, 2017

Celebrating the Life and Activism of Jackie Robinson

Those who honor Jackie Robinson must remember his importance outside the baseball diamond.

by Matthew Teutsch via Black Perspectives on May 9, 2017

Dock Ellis against a psychedelic background

Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No

The story of the legendary pitcher and his 1970 drug-fueled no-hitter.

by James Blagden via Victory Journal on November 11, 2009

A photograph of Bonnie Erickson posing with the Phillie Phanatic mascot.

Miss Piggy Has a Mother

Everyone’s heard of Jim Henson. It’s time to give Bonnie Erickson — creator of beloved Muppets and mascots including the Phillie Phanatic — her due.

by Nell McShane Wulfhart via The Cut on June 13, 2024

Rickwood Field is the oldest ballpark in the United States.

Everyone Should Know About Rickwood Field, the Alabama Park Where Baseball Legends Made History

The sport's greatest figures played ball in the Deep South amid the racism and bigotry that would later make Birmingham the center of the civil rights movement.

by Patrick Sauer via Smithsonian on June 12, 2024

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