America's National Game: 1954. Willie Mays and The Catch, plus how we came to measure defense, from Branch Rickey's “There is nothing on earth anybody can do with fielding” on up to today. ourgame.mlblogs.com/americas-nat...

America’s National Game: 1954

“The Catch,” plus how we measure defense

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Walter Johnson warming up for exhibition game in hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas, 1913. From the @decasia Dawson City permafrost find. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyL_...

Walter Johnson 1913

YouTube video by Bill Morrison

youtube.com

A discovery (yes, I should find better use for my time): this game of April 29, 1875, previously attributed as a home game for the Washington Nationals, was played at The Fair Grounds of Richmond, Virginia. (Boston won, 22-5.) The game of May 1 was probably played there, too.

Tommy Leach and Fred Parent, opponents in the 1903 World Series, on "I've Got a Secret" in 1960. Watch from 7-minute mark. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpP1...

I've Got A Secret! - Jonathan Winters 9/28/1960

YouTube video by I've Got A Secret!

youtube.com

Ballparks, from field to park to stadium. In an oddity deriving from the Commissioner's 2020 decision to reclassify the Negro Leagues as majors, RickwoodField becomes the oldest MLB park--constructed before Fenway or Wrigley. ourgame.mlblogs.com/americas-nat...

America’s National Game: 1909

The ballpark, from the Elysian Fields to Shibe Park and beyond

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Just back from the framer. George Wright by Graig Kreindler.

I rebuilt the 1943 Negro league stats now included as part of the official MLB statistical record. A huge breakthrough in my research was uncovering this 4-page Homestead Grays press release from late in the season, hidden in the archives at Howard Univ. It was a road map for finding box scores.

Four score and seven years ago: blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/07/...

“Four Score and Seven Years Ago….” Lincoln’s Handwritten Gettysburg Address | Timeless

For a document as iconic as the Gettysburg Address now is, many details about its creation and delivery have been lost to time or clouded by conflicting memories of witnesses. Civil War historian Mich...

blogs.loc.gov

For certified nerds only! The evolution of the box score, expanded visually from a decades-old exchange between Craig Waff and yours truly. ourgame.mlblogs.com/craig-waff-o...

Craig Waff on Early Scoring Systems

An exchange with me from October 16–17, 2008

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Retrosheet has a link on many player pages labeled "Discrepancies." For nerd fun, check out, say, Babe Ruth. www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/R/P...

I am once again begging Hollywood to stop using the Greek alphabet for an Ancient World movie, if they can't afford to even throw a couple of quid at anyone with an inkling of the language. Unless they really think audiences are dying to see THS THDPSSSSPS

Yet more about early Philadelphia baseball (1820s and 1830s). Written twenty years ago. ourgame.mlblogs.com/an-unanticip...

An Unanticipated Fourth Entry

An essay on the Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia from 2007

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I thought it possibly valuable to researchers to record the text of this primal publication--the first effort to do so in 188 years . The Olympic Constitution includes prohibitions aplenty but also a provision for keeping records--and a "pattern uniform"! ourgame.mlblogs.com/constitution...

Constitution of the Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia

A text previously unavailable

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As promised, here is the second entry on early baseball in Philadelphia, a verbatim history of the Olympic Ball Club from Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, March 2, 1861. ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-olympic-...

The Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia

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

ourgame.mlblogs.com

This is a week for three stories about "The Philadelphia Story" in baseball. First, a story I wrote for the 2026 All-Star Game Media Guide. The game is in Philly, as MLB’s part in commemorating America’s 250th birthday. ourgame.mlblogs.com/base-ball-th...

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…

ourgame.mlblogs.com

1/2 Recently acquired: the fabulously rare Pictorial Clipper, issued in December 1856, straddling the New Year of 1857. This was a semiannual premium, priced at six cents rather than four-- the regular price of The New York Clipper, founded in 1853. It features "fifty-two capital likenesses ...

From the James F. Marsters sporting-goods catalog of 1875, thus depicting clubs of 1874. Note the Mutuals player wearing a boating-style cap.

Brilliant story by @KeithOlbermann about his "extra" Honus Wagner: loveofthegameauctions.com/the-restored...

I’m Honus, Dammit - Love of the Game Auctions

I'm Honus, Dammit" by Keith Olbermann Every collector wants to discover a T206 Honus Wagner. But none of us expect to discover one in our own collections. On a shelf. In a big Lucite screw-down holder...

loveofthegameauctions.com

Hail and farewell, Mike Wallace. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/05/b...

Mike Wallace, Who Wrote an Acclaimed History of New York, Dies at 83

nytimes.com

Two days late.

America's National Game: 1933; MLB's first all-star games, and its surprising antecedents. ourgame.mlblogs.com/americas-nat...

America’s National Game: 1933

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

ourgame.mlblogs.com

Here's how I mark America's 250th birthday: with a magnificent feature in the NY Times, free to you. The Statue of Liberty greeted me in New York Harbor when I was 2-1/2, on the General Ballou, a reconditioned Army transport ship for immigrant Jews and other aliens. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

1/4 My friend Bruce and I were both underbidders on an item that came up at RMY Auctions: Lot # 51: 1859 "The History of Baseball in Boston", Incredible Early (17) Page Manuscript. (The item sold for $2,535.65.) But he obtained, at exceedingly modest cost, a cabinet photo of

Thirty-six years ago! I had just created, with Pete Palmer and a legion of others, Total Baseball. For this set, produced by Little Sun (thus the "LS"), I appeared--wearing a Black Yankees cap, I think--on card No. 23 in the “Major League Writers” set.

Next in the series, America's National Game: Henry Aaron breaks the home-run record with No. 715. Was he chasing Ruth or Robinson? ourgame.mlblogs.com/americas-nat...

America’s National Game: 1974

Henry Aaron breaks home-run record of Babe Ruth

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"Save the Last Dance for Me": the unparalleled backstory. blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/06/...

The wedding that inspired “Save the Last Dance for Me” | Timeless

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Postscript: the A’s were, indeed, in NYC for a series with the Highlanders that weekend. No Sunday baseball in NYC, opening up an opportunity for Waddell to make a couple bucks as a ringer in a semipro game.

The game indeed took place, with “Wilson” (Waddell) pitching for the white team, Rube Foster for the CXG. Rube Foster indeed gets credited with the victory, and possibly a legendary nickname. Seems to suggest Dryden wasn’t kidding, Waddell lost to Foster. CORRECTION: This is 1903, not ‘02.

The Cuban X-Giants were to face the Murray Hills team at Olympia Field, NYC. No mention of Waddell, who would appear under an alias… 2/3

I believe the Rube v Rube game took place on August 2, 1902. Charles Dryden, who was traveling with the A’s, scribbled about the game on 8/4-8/5. He was known to write some tall tales, but this one seems to check out… per the NY Evening World 1/3