Category: History
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The Curious Case of Lou Proctor
In a remote and distant corner of baseball history is the story of Lou Proctor, which was originally documented in The Baseball Encyclopedia. In the case of the latter, it is the story of a publication that no longer exists and in the person of Lou Proctor it is the tale of a ball player…
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Cheer Up White Sox Fans
As most fans now know, the Chicago White Sox set the record for futility in 2024 with the most losses in a single season with 121. This mark “bested” the 1962 New York Mets, who previously held the record with 120 losses. Although this is a low point in White Sox history, they can in…
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Triple Crown Races Goes Down to the Wire!
By: Reed Weiser Stepping away a moment from our traditional examination of the baseball rules and the management of the game, it has been an exciting year in terms of individual achievements. During the course of the baseball season, I periodically scan over the League Leaders in what we used to consider traditional statistics as…
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Combined No-Hitters
For 90 years from 1876 through 1966, major league baseball only had one combined no-hitter meaning more than one pitcher was involved in the effort. Overall, there have been 20 combined no-hitters in major league history. Although a combined no-hitter was a rarity prior to 1970 (there were only two) it has become commonplace recently. …
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The State of the Game
Baseball was previously known as America’s Pastime, but sadly those days are long gone. Many considered the golden age of baseball from 1920 – 1960, while others believed the post war era from 1946 – 1969 as the games heyday. Whatever you think was the height of baseball, those days are clearly over when compared…
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Maybe Size Matters
One of the reasons touted by MLB that the game needs rescuing are the flat attendance figures. In 2007, MLB reached a high in its history of 79.5 million fans attending games that year. That number slid into the mid 70 million level and further dipped below 70 million since 2018. Of course the Covid…
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The DH and the Disappearance of Strategy
On April 6, 1973, Ron Blomberg came to bat for the New York Yankees as the first designated hitter in MLB history. Prior to that year, pitchers in both leagues came to bat. It was not until 2022 that the National League also permanently adopted the designated hitter rule that almost now completely wipes out…
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Strikeout Considerations
The premise that MLB functions under is that baseball is on the decline because the games are too long and this has turned off the fan base. As we noted in prior posts the rule changes do little to change the actual action, and instead just shorten the game. If you want to buy into…