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 […]

David Ortiz Risks Legacy On PED Article

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz recently penned an article for the website The Players Tribune professing his innocence and annoyance regarding claims of steroid use. The longtime Sox designated hitter was outed by The New York Times in 2009 as a player failing a drug test during the 2003 season. The paper named seven […]

Ben Chapman and Jackie Robinson

(Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on Seamheads.com in March 2010. With the release of “42” I thought it appropriate to re-post it—ML). Ben Chapman or “Chappy” as I was instructed to call him, (see my previous article for my introduction to him) was born and reared in the Deep South during a time when […]

NY Times Unloads Last of Red Sox Stake

NY Times unloads last of Red Sox stake (via AFP) The New York Times Co., has sold its remaining stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team for $63 million as the struggling media group moves to focus on its core operations. A regulatory filing Friday said the New York Times Company sold its remaining […]

Driving Mr. Yogi

In the recently released book, Driving Mr. Yogi by Harvey Araton, the front seat is occupied ably by Yogi Berra and Ron Guidry, but the back seat is filled with the Pantheon of modern day Yankee heroes. Characteristically, George Steibrenner spills over into the front and tries to take the wheel. But Yogi Berra is too much […]

A New York View of the 1913 Merkle Play

For those who read the accounts of Fred Merkle’s handling the ball hit to him in the third inning of the final game of the 1913 World Series—from the Philadelphia sport writers’ view—I have some follow up that presents the play from the New York writers’ view. One major difference is the Philadelphia writers all […]

Gambling on the 1917 White Sox-Giants World Series

The recent New York Times article about speculation that the Cubs threw the 1918 World Series to the Red Sox brings up the broader issue of how deeply major league baseball was corrupted by gambling and a money culture in the 1910s. A while ago I looked up how the Chicago Tribune covered the end […]

“Jews and Baseball, An American Love Story”

“Jews and Baseball, An American Love Story” is a new documentary film written by long-time and Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times sports writer, Ira Berkow, and directed by Peter Miller.  It was featured Sunday night to a packed house at the American Film Institute theater in Silver Spring, MD. It is not just any movie house, […]

“It’s Not Personal, Sonny. It’s Strictly Business”

Much has been written about the Derek Jeter situation. I was talking to my brother-in-law last week about it, and I brought up some relevant and relatively obscure illustrative points. One, that I love, is Tom Seaver’s incredulity at ownership’s shock that players, the most competitive people on Earth, were equally fierce at the bargaining […]

Costas, Olbermann, Schilling, Firestone Head All-Star Cast of Replay League Participants

Recently Seamheads.com partnered with Strat-O-Matic to run season replays and serve as their official podcast, and when I learned that Strat was going to be celebrating its 50th anniversary early in 2011, I decided to pull out all the stops, figuring what better way to celebrate than to run a replay league with teams run […]

Dickey, Wakefield, and the Not-So-Lost-But-Sorta-Lost Art of the Knuckleball

With roughly six weeks remaining in the 2010 season there are a number of bloggers, writers, and analysts that have started looking ahead to the offseason. While the writing itself hasn’t actually begun yet, I’ll admit I’ve started thinking ahead to the format I hope to encapsulate my year-end thoughts within. Of course, the season’s […]

Part Two: The Story Of The 1888-1889 New York Giants

Every player was smiling when the New York Giants departed the bus that had brought them home from St. Louis, where they had just captured the franchise’s first World Series. Even President John Day, who was feeling the effects of a flu he’d contracted on the trip, was in a talkative mood about the series. […]

Buying A Manager

“I came here with $100,000 to get a new manager and two new players for the Chicago club.” said Chicago Cubs President Charles H. Weeghman as he arrived in New York City for the annual National League baseball meetings of 1916. “I have in mind for a leader two men who have attained national prominence […]

They Were Once Known As…

Over the course of baseball history, many teams have made changes to their nicknames and plenty have stuck. The New York Highlanders officially switched over to the Yankees in 1913 and haven’t looked back. Neither have the Chicago Cubs, who were known as the Colts (1890-97) and Orphans (1898-1902) before changing to their current moniker. […]

Jimmie Foxx Pitching in 1945: A Surprising Story

Back in July 1980, the Boston Globe recalled that Jimmie Foxx’s “final appearance in the majors was as a pitcher. “In 1945, when he was 37, Foxx had slipped badly and was hanging on by his fingertips with the Phillies. One day, Ben Chapman, Phils’ manager, came to Jimmie.” Chapman told Foxx, “We’re desperate. Would […]

Selig, NFL Rushing to Judgment on Blood Testing

Looks like Major League Baseball and the NFL could be headed for a major collision with its players over a blood test for human growth hormone. The Washington Post is reporting today that the NFL has proposed implementing the blood test for HGH that tripped up a professional rugby player in Britain earlier this week. […]

Babe Ruth, Movie Actor

Many baseball fans already know about how Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees after the 1919 season, apparently to fund his production of the play My Lady Friends in 1920, which became Frazee’s musical hit, No, No, Nanette, in 1925. But the superstar he sold did some acting of his […]