Dear MLB: Your Problem is Relevancy, Not Boredom (although that’s easily fixed, too.)

Dear Major League Baseball, Much has been written recently about your “boredom problem.” Longer games with less action have resulted in declining attendance and declining television ratings, but the solution to your on-field problem is so simple that a Little Leaguer could tell you what it is, whereas a board room full of consultants obviously […]

October’s End

Orange October The Chicago White Sox played in the postseason for the second straight season this year, something they have never achieved before in 120 years of baseball. The Sox won the “Field of Dreams” game on national TV in August, giving baseball fans everywhere (OK, except maybe New York) and generations of movie fans […]

Winter Ball: A History of Baseball, Cuba, and Race

In 2020, Cuban baseball players took center stage in the pandemic-shortened season. The Chicago White Sox won more than half its games twice in the 2010s. But they finished last season with a .583 winning percentage (roughly a 94 win pace over a 162 game schedule). The club made the playoffs for the first time […]

The Last Living Boston Braves Player and an Unexpected Find

When Del Crandall died on May 5, 2021, an era died with him. According to his obituary in the Boston Globe, he was the last living Boston Braves player. Crandall broke in with the Boston Braves as a fresh-faced 19-year-old in 1949 but had his best seasons after the team moved to Milwaukee in 1953. […]

Field of Fire

The White Sox needed this one. For about 102 years the White Sox have needed this one. The Sox got a two-run home run from All-Star shortstop Tim Anderson in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat the New York Yankees 9-8 in the “Field of Dreams” game in Dyersville, Iowa Thursday night, a […]

An Historic Trading Deadline–Can It Happen Again?

If ever a Major League Baseball team traded eight players from its Major League roster in a single day, I can find no mention of it. And yet that is what the Washington Nationals did on July 30, 2021. The Chicago Cubs dealt nine on the same day, which was documented as the highest number […]

Hondo

Frank Howard is a big man. Now in his mid-‘80’s, he was an All-American basketball player at Ohio State University before signing a bonus baseball contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. Two years later, he won the National League Rookie of the Year award. At 6’7” and somewhere between 275 and 300 pounds, […]

Isn’t It Time Congress Seriously Examines the Monopoly Power of Major League Baseball

In December of 2020, with results being certified in the much contested election that saw the defeat of Donald Trump, and with two senate seats still hanging in the balance in Georgia, Major League Baseball, Inc. unilaterally ended its cooperative relationship with Minor League Baseball. For decades, the relationship between Minor League and Major League […]

DC Loves the Long Ball

Gather round children and I will tell you tales of Frank Howard, of how the “Capital Punisher,” could hit a baseball to the moon and back. It was the late 1960’s and the Washington Senators remained perennial cellar dwellers as they had been since the Great Depression. But a giant of a man named Frank […]

The Best Starting Pitching Staffs in the Last 100 Years: Part IV

From Part I: Pitching, pitching, pitching. You may have heard the saying, “You can never have enough pitching.” Of course, if you are going to have good pitching it begins with your starting pitching staff. Which starting pitching staff was the best ever? I considered and reviewed every team that made it to the World […]

The Titanic Hits Bottom

We got on Amtrak yesterday, hoping to find out just how bad the Nationals minor league organization actually has become. Our destination: Wilmington, Delaware, home of the High-A Blue Rocks. Almost every outlet that judges minor league talent, deems Washington’s the worst in the game. After our trip to Wilmington, it is fair to say […]

The Best Starting Pitching Staffs in the Last 100 Years: Part III

From Part I: Pitching, pitching, pitching. You may have heard the saying, “You can never have enough pitching.” Of course, if you are going to have good pitching it begins with your starting pitching staff. Which starting pitching staff was the best ever? I considered and reviewed every team that made it to the World […]

Beholding the Beauty of the Not-Quite-Normal 2021 Season

The sun was surprisingly warm as we sat along the left field foul line, a dozen rows up from the emerald green field at Camden Yards. The crowd was sparse, socially distanced, but still keenly focused on the game set to begin on the field. There has been little to draw large crowds to Baltimore’s […]

The Best Starting Pitching Staffs in the Last 100 Years: Part II

From Part I: Pitching, pitching, pitching. You may have heard the saying, “You can never have enough pitching.” Of course, if you are going to have good pitching it begins with your starting pitching staff. Which starting pitching staff was the best ever? I considered and reviewed every team that made it to the World […]

A Small Piece of the Brent Honeywell Story

It’s all over baseball today as the Tampa Bay Rays host the New York Yankees. Brent Honeywell, once the most highly touted pitching prospect in baseball four years ago, took the mound for the first time since 2017, when he suffered a long series of arm injuries. One of those injuries was particularly ugly, when […]

Cyclones’ Roller Coaster Ride: Team Braved Turbulent 2020, Begins New Era

MCU Park was alive on Sept. 10, 2019. Players and coaches gamboled toward one another, shared hugs, and posed for photographs. Draped in their untucked, dirt-stained jerseys, they hoisted the trophy and champagne bottles, ebulliently signaling they were “number one” by extending their index fingers. The Brooklyn Cyclones were right to celebrate—they had just captured […]

You Don’t Miss Your Water

Yermin Mercedes? Who included him on their list of 100 best MLB prospects?? And yet there he is, emerging on the grandest stage of all. He garnered eight hits in his first nine at bats, where he may yet position himself with Sam Horn and other legendary April wonders. Or is he the real deal? […]

The Best Starting Pitching Staffs in the Last 100 Years: Part I

Pitching, pitching, pitching. You may have heard the saying, “You can never have enough pitching.” Of course, if you are going to have good pitching it begins with your starting pitching staff. Which starting pitching staff was the best ever? A few that come to mind right away were the Atlanta Braves of the ‘90s. […]

A Fond Farewell to The Baseball Gauge

Hello, friends and fellow Seamheads. As some of you have noticed our partner site, The Baseball Gauge, is no longer around. This has been in the works for a while, but only because our good friend and genius behind the goodness that was The Baseball Gauge, Dan Hirsch, has moved on to bigger and better […]

Southern League Shutouts: How Cannon Balls, Rubber Tax, Pelicans, and Hurricanes Made 1910 New Orleans The Shutout Capital of the World

Shutouts are so 1975, aren’t they? Well they’ve been on the steady decline since. Today, we see one every 150 games. But back in the day you could catch one every eight or nine games… some years even better. The 1908 National League holds the record: 160 shutouts. It is the only major league season […]

The Seamheads Negro Leagues DB: A Brief Introduction

In the wake of the recent announcement about MLB’s recognition of the Negro leagues, we prepared the following brief introduction to our work here. The Seamheads Negro Leagues Database is an in-progress statistical encyclopedia covering Black professional baseball players, teams, and leagues during the era of segregation. Our work was specifically commended by Commissioner of […]

Winter Ball: A History of Baseball, Cuba, and Race

In 2020, Cuban baseball players took center stage in the pandemic-shortened season. The Chicago White Sox won more than half its games just twice in the 2010s. But they finished last season with a .583 winning percentage (roughly a 94 win pace over a 162 game schedule). The club made the playoffs for the first […]

Baseball’s Biggest Hypocrite

What if I were to tell you that there are 618 former players who aren’t receiving Major League Baseball (MLB) pensions? And that, of those 600+ retirees, many of them are persons of color, such as the Houston Astros’ Aaron Pointer — an NAACP award winner and diversity pioneer (he was the first African American […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1926 NNL Fielding & Pitching, 32 Home Runs for Suttles

We’ve added newly audited and expanded statistics for the 1926 Negro National League, including fielding statistics, complete pitching statistics, batters’ hit by pitch, and a handful of new games and corrections to the record. While I don’t think that counting stats are, by themselves, a particularly good measure of the quality of Negro league ballplayers, […]

The Return

November 2, 2020 The Dead Don’t Die We have always wanted to meet Mario Andretti because he was, is, and likely always shall be, the coolest dude on wheels. Andretti can drive any car, anywhere, at any time. He can ride a bike, play poker, and swim with dolphins. Mario Andretti doesn’t really even drive. […]

State of the Game – Mike Port on Umpiring, Rule Changes and Analytics

Mike Port’s professional baseball career spanned more than four decades, from 1969 to 2011. When his aspirations to play in the big leagues ended with an injury shortly after signing with San Diego, he accepted a position in the Padres’ minor league system and worked his way up to the role of Farm Director. In […]

We’re Back (At Last)

We’re Back White Sox 4, All You Assholes Who Don’t Like The White Sox, 3 September 17, 2020 Two thousand eight. The world has changed a bit since then. Two thousand eight was the last time the Chicago White Sox made the playoffs and now they’re finally back, braving into the postseason based upon a […]

From the Archives: “The Mysterious Floating Sensation”

The following was originally posted on October 6, 2008 and an abridged version appears in Baseball’s Untold History: The Wild Side published by Summer Game Books in 2017. Did he or didn’t he? That’s the question. Eddie Cicotte is widely recognized as the inventor of the knuckleball, earning his nickname “Knuckles” around 1908, his first […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1924 NNL Fielding & Pitching + 1921 Tesreau Bears

A brief note on an update we made a few weeks ago. We have added: 1) Fielding statistics, full pitching statistics, and batters’ hit by pitch for the 1924 Negro National League, along with games involving one new independent team, Charlie Mills’s St. Louis Giants; 2) 1921 games between Black teams and a very good […]

Negro Leagues Game of the Day on This Date in 1928 (June 15th)

Friday, June 15th – In the final game of the series, the Birmingham Black Barons play the Cleveland Tigers at Luna Park. Birmingham has taken 3 of 4 from the ‘new look’ Tigers. Here are the starting lineups: Birmingham Black Barons (17-17) Geechie Meredith, RF Charles Wesley, 2B George McAllister, 1B Roy Parnell, CF Chuffy […]

Negro Leagues Game of the Day on This Date in 1928 (June 14th)

Thursday, June 14th – The Memphis Red Sox at the Chicago American Giants, in Schorling Park for a double header. Chicago comes home after having lost the last 8 of 9 on the road in Birmingham and Kansas City. The American Giants raise their World Championship banner for 1927 in pre-game ceremonies. Here are the […]

Negro Leagues Game of the Day on This Date in 1928 (June 12th)

Tuesday, June 12th – The Chicago American Giants visit the Kansas City Monarchs at Muehlebach Field: Here are the starting lineups: Chicago American Giants (13-15)1. Jelly Gardner, CF2. Stanford Jackson, 3B3. Jim Brown, C4. Reuben Jones, RF5. Pythias Russ, SS6. John Hines, LF7. Charlie Williams, 2B8. Lemuel Hawkins, 1B9. Owen Smaulding, P Kansas City Monarchs […]

Negro Leagues Game of the Day on This Date in 1928 (June 9th)

Saturday, June 9th – The Memphis Red Sox visit the Detroit Stars at Mack Park. Detroit is on a 7 game NNL winning streak and still has hope of catching St. Louis for the first half pennant. Memphis has signed Heavy Johnson after he was released by Cleveland. Here are the starting lineups: Memphis Red […]

Negro Leagues Game of the Day on This Date in 1928 (June 4th)

Monday, June 4th – No Games Scheduled Here are the Negro National League Standings (1st half)St. Louis Stars (16-3)Detroit Stars (20-8)Chicago American Giants (12-9)Memphis Red Sox (13-14)Kansas City Monarchs (10-11)Birmingham Black Barons (11-15)Cuban Stars (West) (4-10)Cleveland Tigers (4-20) Eastern Teams RecordsBaltimore Black Sox (11-6)Hilldale (6-5-1)New York Lincoln Giants (7-6)Atlantic City Bacharach Giants (5-6-1)Cuban Stars (East) […]

Negro Leagues Game of the Day on This Date in 1928 (June 3rd)

Sunday, June 3rd – In a battle for the 1st half pennant, the Detroit Stars host the St. Louis Stars at Mack Park. Here are the starting lineups: St. Louis Stars (16-2)1. Cool Papa Bell, CF 2. Willie Bobo, 1B3. Willie Wells, SS4. Mule Suttles, RF5. Wilson Redus, LF6. Dewey Creacy, 2B7. Clarence Palm, C8. […]

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