The National Pastime offers baseball history available nowhere else. Each fall this publication from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) explores baseball history with fresh and often surprising views of past players, teams, and events. Drawn from the research efforts of more than 6,700 SABR members, The National Pastime establishes an accurate, lively, and entertaining historical record of baseball. A Note from the Editor, John Thorn: Who are those guys on the cover? The first reader to identify all twelve correctly may skip the rest of this introduction and go directly to page 2, where the real action begins. The rest of you are expected to slog through to the end of the column (you're on the honor system), where the editor has thoughtfully supplied the answers. Nothing sets the blood of a baseball fan a-racing like The Question of The Hall of Fame, variously cast as: How can they keep Nellie Fox out? How did they let George Kelly in? Can't we forget about the 1919 World Series and give Shoeless Joe his plaque? What if Jim Kaat had been a Yankee? And what about Reggie? And Ryan? And Rizzuto? The debate is endless and too often merely partisan, but it is good for baseball and better for the Hall, whose officials are delighted that there are folks out there writing letters for departed worthies like Tony Mullane and Vic Wilis and Riggs Stephenson. Long-winded letters protesting voting procedures may shed more heat than light, and are surely bothersome to answer, but they too are the bellows that fan the flame of the old hot stove. Besides . . . it's just plan fun to repopulate Coopertown's Hall of Fame according to one's own vision, just as it is to make "paper trades" in the off-season, or predict pennant winners, or debate whether the 1936 Yankees would defeat the 1976 Reds. Winter is the time for such cracker-barrel wisdom, and in this, the fifth issue of The National Pastime, Bob Carroll dispenses more than his two cents' worth. In a virtuoso performance as writer and artist (of the cover and twelve drawings on pages 16-27), Carroll presents the images and credentials of his deserving dozen, plus an innovative plan for cracking the logjam in the Hall of Fame Committee on Baseball Veterans. (The task confronting that group of selectors grows more difficult each year, with their choices remaining limited to two from an ever widening "talent pool.") Winter is also the time for holiday greetings, and our back cover features a delightful rarity: Babe Ruth's personal Christmas card from 1931. It is a combination of photograph and water color from the editor, who extends to TNP readers the message in the crossed bats in the foreground. The next issue of TNP will return to the pictorial format first displayed in the summer of 1984; scheduled for spring, it will be a lavish celebration of the games most beautifully photographed period, the dead-ball days of 1901-19. Also slated for 1986 publication is a "regular" TNP, the estimable Baseball Research Journal and a rookie called The SABR Review of Books.  ALL RIGHT—so who are the guys on the cover? Left to right, giant all: (top) Dick Allen, Ron Santo, Richie Ashburn, Bill Mazeroski; (center) Indian Bob Johnson, Ernie Lombardi, Hal Newhouser, Bobby Doerr; (bottom) Bid McPhee, Dickey Pearce, William Hulbert, Bill Dahlen.

The National Pastime Winter 1985: A Review of Baseball History

Sports & Outdoors

Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

Baseball

SOCIETY AMERICAN BASEBALL RESE

The flagship publication of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), the Baseball Research Journal is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed publication presenting the best in SABR member research on baseball. History, biography, economics, physics, psychology, game theory, sociology and culture, records, and many other disciplines are represented to expand our knowledge of baseball as it is, was, and could be played.

The Baseball Research Journal (BRJ), Volume 14

In this issue . . . Baseball lives in all seasons. So the first issue of The SABR Review takes a look at two of the newest works on non-regular-season baseball: A Baseball Winter and (on Spring Training) The Short Season. We cover Jim Kaplan’s diary of ’83 season, too. But we don’t forget the history, with reviews of the two latest books on two of baseball’s prime movers, Ban Johnson and A.G. Spalding, discussed by A.D. Suehsdorf and Luke Salisbury.And what are the newest of the great baseball writers saying? In this issue we review the latest by Bill James, Roger Kahn, Peter Gammons, and Dan Okrent. Plus a special treat: a brief reminiscence of the immortal Red Smith by his teammate on the All-Time Great-Writers Team, Bob Broeg.Two of the national pastime’s oldest skills are also its most overlooked. Jack Carlson and Frank Boslett analyze what Bill Curran has to say about defense in Mitts, and what Kevin Kerrane learned about putting the Dollar Sign on the Muscle.Most of us started loving baseball at an early age, and most remember the almost sinfully delicious feeling when we discovered that we could actually read about it, too. That’s why this issue takes a special three-way look at those early books that first forged the magical link between the game and the imagination for many of us. Leverett Smith overviews what juvenile baseball literature has been about since its beginnings. Jack Kavanagh tells us about a star, Baseball Joe Matson, who lasted 16 years (and outlasted a writer or two). Next, Phil Bergen takes an in-depth look at how the works of John R. Tunis were clues to our society’s mores, from pre-World War II to the Vietnam conflict.Since much of the best of baseball writing occurs in shorter pieces, the anthology has long been a staple of baseball readers’ libraries. Tom Jozwik looks at one of the newest, The Armchair Book of Baseball, edited by John Thorn, and has the audacity to compare it to Charles Einstein’s Fireside Books. That’s a tough league to hit in.SABR researchers will be happy to hear about a new book that compiles baseball bibliographies in one volume for the first time. David Porter previews his Dictionary of American Sport Biography: Baseball. In addition to single-book reviews, The SABR Review will also take on larger subjects. In this go-round, there are three great ones. First, if you’ve ever wanted to know which books tell the real story of Negro League baseball, you’ll find out in the Jules Tygiel’s essay, “The Negro Leagues Revisited.” Mark Gallagher analyzes how the Yankees have served as fodder for baseball literature in a special way for a long time. And graphic specialist Mark Rucker looks at the more important illustrated works of baseball history, all the way back to 1831 (!)A feature we’ll make a regular member of The SABR Review’s lineup is “Personal Favorites.” In this issue, Darrell Berger sees Pat Jordan’s A False Spring as baseball’s “beat” (as in Kerouac) epic.Another feature we’ll continue is the phone survey. This time around we talked to people whose books we read to ask the deceptively simple question: What baseball book do you return to most often? Of course, they all answered The Macmillan Encyclopedia. But after probing Leonard Koppett, Lawrence Ritter, Peter Palmer, and some others had some intriguing things to say.

The SABR Review of Books, Volume 1: A Forum of Baseball Literary Opinion

In this issue . . . If experiencing the game of baseball were limited to actual participation or in-person attendance, the sport would mean much less to all of us that it does. Because we read about the game, we can enjoy it long after the fact, and in a whole new form: digested, chewed, analyzed, stat-icized. The electronic media have also played a big part — letting up "be there" for games many miles too far for a drive. This two-sided richness of enjoying baseball is at the two-sided center of this edition of The SABR Review of Books. The SABR Review of Books is here to provide literary opinion, so we begin with a survey of a blue-ribbon panel of baseball writers and researchers, asking the question, "What books would constitute the essential baseball library?" We compiled the results and added the comments of the participants. What we got is an intriguing forum that sounds like a SABR bull session — full of savvy and conversation.The recent release of several books on or about baseball broadcasting is the other main section of this issue. First is Curt Smith’s magnum opus, Voices of the Game. It’s the first full-scale history of broadcasters and broadcasting. Accompanying that review are views of books by two characters who played big roles themselves in Smith’s book: Jack Brickhouse and Ernie Harwell. Joep Oppenheimer reviews the former, Jim O’Donnell the latter. Then we asked videophile and sports broadcaster himself, Bill Borst, to review the baseball videos now available.Baseball’s literary legacy is much more than histories and narratives. It has spawned major works in both fiction and poetry. Yet while the wedding between baseball and poetry has been fruitful, baseball fiction often leaves an unfulfilled feeling. Why is that? We asked Luke Salisburgy, who has tackled the challenge of writing baseball fiction himself, why it’s so goshdarned tough to do well. Poet Ira Stone provides us with a “Mediation” on the linkage of baseball and poetry, advising that “These poets did not seek to write about baseball. . . . These poets surprised themselves in creating poems wrapped in the mythology of baseball . . .”Comparisons seem to be at the heart of nearly any baseball discussion, so it’s only fair that two articles in this issue start with that premise. Adie Suehsdorf reviews Say It Ain’t So, Joe and One Last Round for the Shuffler, two works that treat similar baseball characters: one a legend for his faults, the other barely a memory. For the first issue of The SABR Review Frank Phelps was asked to review Anton Grobani’s Baseball Biography, and he did, but between contribution and publication, we got word of a “new and better” bibliography, this one by Myron Smith. So we asked Frank to review it. The result is a side-by-side comparison of the two. Must reading for baseball bibliophiles.Always fascinating are those behind-the-scenes looks at the game that go beyond clubhouse chatter, into the worlds of power and prestige. Merritt Clifton analyzes what the notorious Bowie Kuhn said about himself in Hardball, and Don Warfield’s book on Larry MacPhail is discussed by Philip Bergen.This issue’s “personal favorite” feature looks lovingly at Pitching in a Pinch, by Christy Mathewson. Rob Johnson even explains how he spent years searching for a copy of it he could call his own. And we all know that feeling.But that’s far from all: we have reviews of Joe Durso’s Baseball and the American Dream, by Darrell Berger; Pete Cava on The Dixie Association; Lawrence Rubin squares off with The Sporting News on their “Fifty Greatest Games”; Glenn Stout discusses Maury Allen’s Maris; and more.

The SABR Review of Books: A Forum of Baseball Literary Opinion, Volume II

Award Voting

Deane, Bill

The flagship publication of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), the Baseball Research Journal is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed publication presenting the best in SABR member research on baseball. History, biography, economics, physics, psychology, game theory, sociology and culture, records, and many other disciplines are represented to expand our knowledge of baseball as it is, was, and could be played.

The Baseball Research Journal (BRJ), Volume 17

The National Pastime offers baseball history available nowhere else. Each fall this publication from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) explores baseball history with fresh and often surprising views of past players, teams, and events. Drawn from the research efforts of more than 6,700 SABR members, The National Pastime establishes an accurate, lively, and entertaining historical record of baseball. A Note from the Editor, Robert L. Tiemann:Baseball intrigues its followers on many different levels. Its statistics lend themselves to endless interpretations and speculations, spawning SABRmetrics, the Baseball Research Journal and numerous offspring. In this journal we examine not the statistics but the lives and careers of players and teams of the past and them game and times in which they performed.In an uncertain and changing world, there is comfort in the timeless patterns of baseball. When a team like the Hitless Wonders can upset an apparently invincible squad like the 1906 Cubs, underdogs can forever take heart. And with the right formula and attitude, surprise teams like the 1894 Orioles and 1961 Reds can leap from the second division to the pennant. Whole communities can come together in support of the local ballclub in times of need, as happened in Amsterdam, N.Y., in 1942, but the pressures of the pennant race can also cause some performers to do strange things, like Flint Rhem's allegations of kidnapping in 1930. Promising youngsters like Christy Mathewson and Rube Waddell often struggle before emerging as stars, while proven performers like Hack Miller may find their careers derailed by changing managerial strategy. But even after their fabled skills have faded, some old heroes are able to stay in the game as managers, executives, or, like Harry Heilmann, as broadcasters.Although baseball's continuity is vital in explaining its stature as our national pastime, the game is constantly, if subtly, changing. It took pioneers like Dickey Pearce to define how the game is played both on offense and defense. And an examination of the 1901 Boston Americans reveals differences in nearly all aspects of the game. Yet not all apparent innovations are new. Indeed, the first midget pinch-hitter was used in 1905, not 1951 as generally believed.At its best baseball teachers us larger lessons of life. Batboys take their clubhouse experiences into the outside world with a greater understanding of humanity. And one former batboy and amateur club organizer had gone on to world renown as an historian of the game. Bobo Newsom's brilliance in the face of personal tragedy in 1940 aroused the admiration of the entire nation, not just that of the fans. Andy Cohen and Jackie Robinson had to overcome social prejudices as well as the normal pressures to establish themselves as big league performers.

The National Pastime, Volume 10: A Review of Baseball History

Collection of columns, first published in "The Sporting News" between 1962 & 1969, by the great baseball historian & journalist, Lee Allen.

Cooperstown Corner: Columns from the Sporting News, 1962-1969

Allen, Lee

This is for The Baseball Research Journal, Volume 20 - Paperback. It is in English and has many interesting and original articales.

The Baseball Research Journal (BRJ), Volume 20

The National Pastime offers baseball history available nowhere else. Each fall this publication from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) explores baseball history with fresh and often surprising views of past players, teams, and events. Drawn from the research efforts of more than 6,700 SABR members, The National Pastime establishes an accurate, lively, and entertaining historical record of baseball. A Note from the Editor, Peter C. Bjarkman:
Even when that laughable Abner Doubleday creation myth of baseball's origin—foisted on the American public by Albert Spalding for crassly commercial reasons—is just dismissed, still the reputed "American origins" of the national game are tough enough to shake. Most current sports histories merely substitutes one "creation myth" for another. Thus Alex Cartwright gets full credit and—presto—the American birthright of the national pastime remains largely intact. But the Cartwright claim itself rests on shaky enough ground: the Elysian Fields contest of 1846 was no more an instance of "fully evolved baseball" than were numerous earlier matches held throughout the northeastern states and provinces of Canada. This native game of "base-ball" was never immaculately conceived but, instead, slowly and painfully evolved—"stool ball" to "rounders" to "town ball" to "Massachusetts game" to "New York game"—and the germinating seeds were always demonstrably European.
Events of the past decade have made the international elements of our adopted national game simply indisputable. A near tidal wave of Latin American imports has inarguably provided the biggest single story in major league baseball during the 1980s. Rival Japan boasts a long-standing professional league which, while never a serious match for our own, nonetheless solidifies the cross-cultural appeal of diamond play. In world amateur contests it is Castro's Cuba that has long been ranking world power, while USA amateur teams are beaten out with disturbing frequency at world-level competitions by squads from Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Nicaragua as well. Throughout the Caribbean basin "beisbol" enjoys equal status as the ordained national game.
This Olympic year—in which baseball first (and at long last) debuts as a medal sport—seems, then, a most appropriate occasion to focus the attention of SABR scholars upon the world baseball movement. Even major league baseball—long a bastion of provincialism—now looks pragmatically in that very direction. Major League Baseball International Partners has recently been created by MLB, NBC and Pascoe Nally (a leading British sports marketing firm) to regulate broadcast and promotion of the international game. The International Baseball Association, based in Indianapolis, has been actively spreading the world baseball message for more than a decade with clinics and tournaments held around the globe.
As the worlds grows smaller and cultures find themselves drawn more tightly into a web of interdependence, it is again the miraculous game of baseball which marches at the forefront of this inevitable parade toward a world community. Baseball in 1992 ironically seems poised to fulfill its global mission at the very hour when runaway salaries and shopping mall stadia have disaffected so many American fans. Yet, as our Canadian SABR colleague Bill Humber has often reminded us, "Who ever said that baseball is an American game, anyway?"

The National Pastime, Volume 12: A Review of Baseball History

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