Articles

An Unanticipated Fourth Entry

An essay on the Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia from 2007

Constitution of the Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia

A text previously unavailable

The Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia

A history, from Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times, March 2, 1861

Base Ball: The Philadelphia Story

I wrote this story for the 2026 All-Star Game Media Guide. The site is Philadelphia, as MLB’s part in commemorating America’s 250th…

America’s National Game: 1933

MLB’s first all-star games, and its antecedents

America’s National Game: 1974

Henry Aaron breaks home-run record of Babe Ruth

America’s National Game: 1939

Baseball’s Centennial Season

America’s National Game: 1954

Marilyn, Joe, and the long story of baseball-star couplings

America’s National Game: 1951

The Shot Heard ’Round the World nears a 75th birthday

America’s National Game: 1888, redux

Ninth in the series; who deserves the credit for “Casey”?

Cobb & Speaker & Landis: Closing the Books

From ESPN’s “The Diary of Myles Thomas,” May 27, 2016

America’s National Game: 1908, redux

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Bob Burks, Itinerant Minor Leaguer

A new story by Mark Rucker

America’s National Game: 1908

Seventh in a season-long series

America’s National Game: 1958

Sixth in a season-long series

America’s National Game: 1935

The innovation of night baseball; fifth in the series

America’s National Game: 1888

Fourth in a season-long series

From Kiosk Dream to Digital Encyclopedia

How Retrosheet Changed Everything, by Jay Wigley

America’s National Game: 1947

Third in a season-long series

History of the Strike Zone

With ABS on the way, how did we get here?

Death in the Strike Zone

From the new book by Thomas W. Gilbert

A Pictorial Retrospective of Baseball: Part 9, the 1830s and Earlier

Conclusion to a new series that goes back, back, back

A Pictorial Retrospective of Baseball: Part 1, 1868

A new series that goes back, back, back

O Canada

For the 2025 World Series, the consolations of history

Fred Snodgrass — October 16, 1912

The Greatest Plays You Never Saw, №11

Report of the Mayor’s Committee on Baseball

To Mayor F. H. La Guardia, October 31, 1945

The Merkle Blunder: A Kaleidoscopic View

What really happened?

Fred Merkle — September 23, 1908

The Greatest Plays You Never Saw, №4

Bits and Bytes and Bats and Balls

Snippets from long ago

The Dream of Baseball

Reflecting upon a lucky life

Baseball’s First Play-by-Play

From the New York Sunday Mercury, July 25, 1858

PIONEERS: Dick Perez

Fifteenth in a new series

200 Is the New 300

These pitchers did not quite get there (and why they didn’t)

PIONEERS: Dave Smith

Sixth in a new series

PIONEERS: William Hulbert

Nineteenth in a season-long series

World Series Jewelry

Baseball in 25 Objects: Eighteenth in this year’s series

Jackie Robinson Day

Baseball in 25 Objects: A New Series Begins

The Giants Steal the Pennant! The Giants Steal the Pennant!

My book review of The Echoing Green, 15 years ago

How Did the South React to Jackie Robinson’s Signing?

The sporting scene in Dixie, ten days after

When Landis Met Robeson

What was said? What was done? How to judge?

Ballplayer, Umpire, Drunkard; Gambler, Pickpocket, Preacher

Not Billy Sunday, but one of the game’s mystery men

Baseball Letter to Walt Whitman

Sent by Peter Doyle on September 21, 1868

Curve Pitching at Princeton

Mac Mann, Ham Avery, and Candy Cummings square off at the nexus of legend and fact

A Pennant Is Blown

October 3, 1951: Brooklyn Dodgers vs. New York Giants

Old News in Baseball, №21

Anatomy of a Murder: The Federal League and the Courts, Part 4

The Oldest Trick in the Book

The Pitcher’s Art

Baseball’s 100 Most Important People, Part 4