Baseball

Pitcher R.A. Dickey is well-known for his knuckleball.

Physicists May Have Finally Figured Out Why Knuckleballs Are So Hard to Hit

All with the help of a ball-throwing robot

Justine Siegal pitching for the Cardinals during batting practice in 2011

The Oakland A’s Hire the First Woman to Coach Major League Baseball

Justine Siegal will be a guest instructor for the team

That Time When Ansel Adams Posed for a Baseball Trading Card

In the 1970s, photographer Mike Mandel asked his famous colleagues to pose for a pack of baseball cards. The results are as amazing as you’d imagine

Eric Byrnes acts as the voice of the digital umpire as the San Rafael Pacifics play the Vallejo Admirals.

Are Robot Umpires Coming to Baseball?

Now that a computer has covered home plate at a minor league game, what's next?

Which of These Baseball Players Should the Portrait Gallery Put on Display?

Vote for these all-stars in an entirely different kind of competition

Jackie Robinson, is shown in post-swing position in front of the stands

The Year of Jackie Robinson's Mutual Love Affair With Montreal

Before he became a major leaguer, Robinson spent a formative year in the more hospitable environs of Canada

Who Has the Best Facial Hair in Baseball History?

As long as there have been home runs and strike outs, ballplayers, even some Yankees, have sported mustaches, beards and side burns

A Citi Field hotdog. How does it compare with your home ballpark's?

The Hunt for the Best Ballpark Hot Dog

Tom Lohr has been traveling the country making his own list of All-Star franks. Who has the best one?

Duke Ellington and band members playing baseball in front of their segregated motel ("Astor Motel") while touring in Florida.

Rare Footage of Duke Ellington Highlights When Jazz and Baseball Were in Perfect Harmony

The Smithsonian's curator of American music explains how the history of two great American innovations—Jazz and baseball—are intertwined

The Inside Story of Baseball's Grand World Tour of 1914

As the 2014 season opens in Australia, they are really only following in the footsteps of the Giants and the White Sox from 100 years ago

Game Delayed Due to Bees

One can only assume that Oprah has something to do with this

Spokane Indians' New Uniforms Have Team Name in Native Spokane Salish Language

Here come the fighting Sp’q’n’i

Author Frank Deford writes in our 101 Objects Special Issue: Negro baseball leagues allowed African-Americans the chance to play the national pastime for pay (if not for much). The heyday of the Negro Leagues was the '30s, the cynosure of most seasons the East-West All-Star Game, which was usually played in Chicago at Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox. Indeed, in 1941, just before America entered the war, that fabled season when Ted Williams batted .406 and Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games, the Negro League All-Star Game drew a crowd of more than 50,000 fans. Read more of Deford's essay.

A Long Toss Back to the Heyday of Negro League Baseball

Sportswriter Frank Deford looks back at the games that opened the national pastime to African-Americans

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The Past and Future of the Baseball Bat

The evolution of the baseball bat, and a few unusual mutations

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Discussion

Discussion

Days after Jackie Mitchell (center) struck out Yankee superstars (from left) Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth, the duo watched the female phenom demonstrate her fastball during spring training in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on April 4, 1931.

The Woman Who (Maybe) Struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig

Of all the strange baseball exploits of the Depression era, none was more surprising than Jackie Mitchell’s supposed feat

The largest baseball stadium in Germany, the Armin-Wolf-Arena seats 4,500 and brings in an average of 1,000 fans to post-season games.

Eins, Zwei, Drei Strikes You’re Out at the Ol’ Ballgame

What happens when the American pastime comes to Germany?

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Document Deep Dive: The Heartfelt Friendship Between Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey

Baseball brought the two men together, but even when Rickey left the Brooklyn Dodgers, their relationship off the field would last for years

Company H of the 48th New York Regiment, stiffly posed for this 1863 formal portrait at Fort Pulaski, in Savannah, GA, seems oblivious to the more informal baseball game in progress behind them. The photo is one of the ealiest known photographs of a baseball game.

That Time More Than 150 Years Ago When Thousands of People Watched Baseball on Christmas Day

During the Civil War, two regiments faced off as spectators, possibly as many as 40,000, sat and watched

The 11 Things You Didn’t Know About Wheaties

Wheaties has been around for nearly 90 years, but when did they start putting athletes on the cover?

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