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Hank Thompson baseball card

Hank Thompson Lived A Wild, Tragic, Forgotten Life In Baseball

A baseball’s forgotten pioneer was MLB’s third Black player. A war hero and gifted hitter, his troubled life defied the halo.
by Robert Weintraub via Defector on September 17, 2025
Drawing of an early baseball game.

If You Print It, They Will Come

Baseball’s early years.
by Patrick Hastings via Library of Congress Blog on May 28, 2025
African American baseball team photo.

How Baseball Shaped Black Communities in Reconstruction-Era America

On the early history of Black participation in America's pastime.
by Gerald Early via Literary Hub on May 1, 2025
The Earth drawn as a baseball flying through space.

Climate Change Comes for Baseball

The summer sport is facing big questions about how it will adapt.
by Ellen Cushing via The Atlantic on November 2, 2024
Exhibit

America's Pastime

Histories of big league baseball, from the achievements of the players to the culture of the stands to the stories and traditions we pass down.
Picture of a baseball card of designated runner, Herb Washington.

Speed Kills

Two striking reminders of the game-changing potential of great speed and its limited value unless accompanied by other essential skills.
by John Thorn via Our Game on October 7, 2024
Three ring binder filled with a baseball card collection.

Batting by the Numbers

The evolution of baseball’s perfect lineup.
by Neil Paine, Michelle Pera-McGhee via The Pudding on September 24, 2024
Pete Rose on a baseball diamond, head bowed.

For Pete’s Sake

A new book traces "the rise and fall of Pete Rose, and the last glory days of baseball."
by Christopher Caldwell via The Washington Free Beacon on May 12, 2024
John Thorn photographed in front of baseball memorabilia.

How Baseball’s Official Historian Dug Up the Game’s Unknown Origins

A lifelong passion for the national pastime led John Thorn to redefine the sport's relationship with statistics and reveal the truth behind its earliest days.
by Frederic J. Frommer via Smithsonian Magazine on March 28, 2024
Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, New York.

The Last Of The Brooklyn Dodgers

Richard Staff interviews four former Brooklyn Dodgers players, who, despite the team's move to Los Angeles, still identify with their Brooklyn roots.
by Richard Staff via Defector on February 19, 2024
The Sebring patent design, February 4, 1868.

Base Ball Patents

Searching for the first, in the 1860s.
by John Thorn via Medium on January 2, 2024
A Chicago Cubs pitcher warms up.

An "Old-Fashioned Pitchers' Duel" Didn't Always Mean What You Think

A deep dive into the historical context and changing meanings of a time-honored term.
by Lauren Theisen via Defector on September 14, 2023
Cereal box illustration of 1839 baseball game, and caption explaining the history of the first baseball game, created by Abner Doubleday.

Baseball in the Garden of Eden

“Who controls the past,” George Orwell wrote, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” So it has been with baseball.
by John Thorn via Our Game on July 17, 2023
Collage of baseball caps

The History of the Baseball Cap

The long, strange, history of the baseball cap.
by Michael Clair via Major League Baseball on May 9, 2023
Names, dates, and statistics written on lined notebook paper.

The Forgotten Men Behind the Ideas That Changed Baseball

Solving baseball’s enduring puzzles, to those who could even see them, was its own reward. They changed everything but were never given their due.
by Leander Schaerlaeckens via Defector on November 14, 2022
Cosplayers dressed as All the way May and Greta Gill from “A League of Their Own” attend New York Comic-Con on Oct. 6.
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‘A League of Their Own’ Chronicles Life for LGBTQ Women in the 1940s

Even at a time of repression, these women found ways to create a culture and life for themselves.
by Lauren Gutterman via Made By History on November 2, 2022
Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros

What Counts, These Days, in Baseball?

As technologies of quantification and video capture grow more sophisticated, is baseball changing? Do those changes have moral implications?
by David Hinkin via Public Books on February 24, 2021
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Baseball History and Rural America

Baseball's creation myth is bunk, and historians have shown how important cities were to the game's development. But it was still a rural passion.
by Peter Feueherd, David Vaught via JSTOR Daily on May 18, 2020

On the 100th Anniversary of the Negro Leagues, a Look Back at What Was Lost

While segregation was a shameful period in baseball history, the Negro Leagues were a resounding success and an immense source of pride for black America.
by Rob Ruck via The Conversation on February 13, 2020

Teddy Roosevelt Hated Baseball

It was a struggle to even get the president to go to a game.
by Ryan Swanson via Literary Hub on August 27, 2019
Big League Chew’s inaugural package in 1980.

How a Minor League Pitcher Turned a Dugout Conversation Into the Legend That Is Big League Chew

The inventor, who baked the first batch of the iconic gum 40 years ago, talks about the genesis of an American rite of passage.
by Jake Malooley, Rob Nelson via Esquire on July 10, 2019

The History Behind Baseball’s Weirdest Pitch

The improbable success of the curveball.
by Tyler Kepner via Literary Hub on April 24, 2019
Newspaper clipping featuring giant championship bat being presented to the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

How the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings Turned Baseball into a National Sensation

Meet the team that transformed baseball from a pastime to an industry.
by Robert Wyss via The Conversation on March 27, 2019
Baseball player is safe as he slides into first base in the 1906 World Series.

Hand Signals

Deaf history and the birth of umpiring gestures in baseball.
by Rebecca A. R. Edwards via Perspectives on History on October 24, 2018
A 1994 Grapefruit League game in Vero Beach, FL.

Swinging in the Sun: The History and Business of Spring Baseball

How spring training has become as much about money and business as about playing the game.
by Zoë Jackson via Perspectives on History on March 26, 2018
Title page of baseball rulebook from 1845.

Baseball's First Stolen Base Exploited a Loophole in the Rulebook

People in the audience thought the player who stole the base was playing a joke.
via SB Nation on February 21, 2018

How the Cubs Won

Four books contend with the lifting of the 108-year old curse.
by Jack Rakove via Public Books on October 3, 2017

The Umpire Strikes Out: Baseball Music and Labor

The classic baseball hit "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" has a lot more to do with U.S. history than one might think.
by Wendi Maloney via Library of Congress on July 31, 2017
An old sepia photo of a man in a "Nashville" baseball jersey and cap.

The Man With The Killer Pitch

In 1918, Tom "Shotgun" Rogers earned himself a piece of baseball immortality—by killing a former teammate with a fastball.
by W. M. Akers via Narratively on October 1, 2013
Spectators watch the Atlanta Crackers play at Ponce de Leon Park. Postcard from 1915.

“Cobb Out Front in Bid for Stadium”: Professional Baseball and the Rise of Suburbia, 1957-1962

Leaders in Cobb county pushed a huge stadium plan in the late ’50s to lure teams and suburban growth, but funding, leagues, and politics stalled it.
by Andrew J. Bramlett via Atlanta Studies on October 20, 2025
Spectators in the stands and lining the outfield to watch a baseball game.
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Take Me Out to the Class Game: Social Stratification in the Stadium

The private boxes for the privileged few in today’s baseball stadiums are nothing new.
by Matthew Wills, PJ Carlino via JSTOR Daily on July 23, 2025
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