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Baseball

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

Canada

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

Cool Finds

Game Delayed Due to Bees

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

Cool Finds

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

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.

The Civil War

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?

The Top 10 Biggest Sports #Fails of All Time

For athletes on the world stage, nothing is worse than choking under pressure. Here are the 10 most memorable transgressors

Few aspects of American life have been documented for as long and as precisely as Major League Baseball, which began playing games in 1876.

This Baseball Fan Digs the Small Ball

Last year major-leaguers scored the fewest runs per game in 19 seasons. A top statistician says that’s something to root, root, root for

Our beliefs about the morality of beaning a player with a pitch differ from our believe about other areas of life.

High and Inside: Morality and Revenge in Baseball

Does beaning in baseball represent an ethical holdover from our earlier days of family feuds and a culture of honor?

The ballpark of the future in Miami

Welcome to the 21st Century Ballpark

The new Marlins Park in Miami isn’t another retro stadium. No, it’s high-tech and arty and a little bit wacky

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Infographic: The Rise and Fall of Scoring in Baseball

From the dead-ball era to the steroids era, the balance between pitchers and hitters has always been in flux

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