An obsession with statistics has made teams better than ever — but the game is now more tedious for fans to watch. Since sportswriter Henry Chadwick popularized the box score in the 19th century, baseball fans have had a love affair with statistics. Many can recite records like Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Rickey Henderson’s 130 stolen[…]
New franchises, colorful characters, and the ‘Miracle Mets’ gave new life to a sport grown stodgy. When examining American history of the late 1960s, one is often tempted to gravitate toward the foreign and domestic strife fostered by the war in Vietnam, the ongoing struggle for civil rights, or the frenetic cultural shifts in a[…]
One of the leisure activities some Chicagoans could enjoy was a day at the ballpark. Chicago in 1900: An Industrial, Immigrant City with a Strong Baseball Tradition In the early twentieth century, Chicago, along with a number of other American cities, experienced dramatic social dislocations caused by industrialization, an influx of European immigrants, and the[…]
What do Pete Rose, Rob Manfred, Barry Bonds, and Ted Williams have in common? Why, Shoeless Joe Jackson, of course. By Granville Wyche Burgess Major League Baseball has had its share of controversies and scandals, but perhaps none has had a more lasting impact than the Black Sox Scandal of 1919. At the center of[…]
Up until the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, gambling and baseball had a marriage of convenience. Introduction Imagine if, after watching the thrilling victory of the Chicago Cubs in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series over the Cleveland Indians – a game in which the Cubs won their first championship in over a century –[…]
The Red Stockings made professionalism – which had been previously frowned upon – acceptable to the American public. This Major League Baseball season, fans may notice a patch on the players’ uniforms that reads “MLB 150.” The logo commemorates the Cincinnati Red Stockings, who, in 1869, became the first professional baseball team – and went on to win[…]