From the Archives: Harry Lunte—The Man Who Tried to Replace Ray Chapman

On August 16, 1920 the Cleveland Indians prepared to take the field against the New York Yankees to start a crucial three-game series at Yankee Stadium that pitted the first-place Indians against the third-place Yankees. Cleveland was a mere four percentage points ahead of the Chicago White Sox in the standings; New York stood within […]

My Top Five Red Sox Hall of Famers of All Time

Hey baseball fans! In case you don’t know, I’m a huge Yankees fan. That means that I am literally forced to hate the Red Sox. However, I don’t hate some of the Sox’s past players. In fact, by the end of this post, you will know my top five favorite Red Sox Hall of Famers […]

April 20, 1912: The First Game at Fenway Park

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park, here is a look at how the Boston Globe of April 21, 1912 described the first game at Fenway, played the day previously. Of course it was a Red Sox-Yankees affair, with perhaps Boston’s best team ever winning 7-6 on a run in the 11th. (The Yankees, […]

Starting Something Great

When the Red Sox assembled their dream roster last offseason, many wrote them into the World Series without hesitation. We still don’t understand all that went wrong, but what we do know is that the “greatest team ever” label was not to be. Author Thomas J. Whalen argues that even the 2004 title winner did […]

Fun With Retrosheet: Come-From-Behind Batting Champions

Trent McCotter sent me a note yesterday pointing out that Matt Kemp has very nearly closed a recent 19-point gap in the NL batting race as part of his three-prong effort to capture the triple-crown. Which got us to wondering about the largest deficits overcome by batting champions. Since 1918, here they are: Days ToGo […]

Fenway Park’s 100th Anniversary: There’s Nothing Like Being at the Game

I’ve never considered myself religious by any means. Yet, I’m a believer that everyone has some place where they just feel at home, or safe. A sanctuary, of sorts. To some of the more religious types, a church. Baseball stadiums are my church. There is just something about passing through the gates and walking into […]

1920: Anything but Status Quo

All eyes stared at the Detroit Tigers dugout. If TV had existed in 1920, all of America would have been tuned in as well. Life began to blur in 1920. Some folks didn’t know what was what at the dawn of the Jazz Age, but baseball was baseball. Black or white, right or wrong, win […]

“Gorgeous George,” a Beauty

Doling out compliments is not one of the first qualities that springs to mind when one thinks of Ty Cobb. Yet Cobb went way beyond that when he lauded George Sisler. Cobb called Sisler the “œnearest thing to a perfect ballplayer.” (5, Sizzler). Cobb didn’t exude praise, so there had to be a reason for […]

Speaker Spoke Plenty Loud

Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle. All four men bring to mind ideals you want in an outfielder. How about Tris Speaker? Speaker joined Cobb and Ruth on the membership roll when the Hall of Fame opened in 1939, yet not much is said or written about him. Speaker didn’t have Ruth’s power […]

The Curse of the Virtual Bambino

Even in the world of virtual reality, Babe Ruth is king. It seems that I’m always working on serious research for my next book or article, spending almost all of my free time on it, that I almost forgot what it was like to have fun. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the research/writing process […]

Babe Ruth Homered in $800 Million Baseball Game

On August 26, 1943, 48-year-old Babe Ruth hit a home run off 43-year-old Walter Johnson into the right field stands at the Polo Grounds. The blast – one of the last by the Babe – was witnessed by 35,000 fans and helped raise $800 million in War Bonds. Organized by the long-since defunct New York […]