Incredible sleuthing!
11.03.2026 17:04
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Incredible sleuthing!
June 15, 1872 New York Clipper box score of June 3, 1872 game between Athletics and Nationals. Spencer in quotes at short stop
I think I've cracked maybe the most uncrackable missing player case, that of a player named "Spencer" who made one appearance on June 3, 1872 for the dismal Washington Nationals in a game in Philadelphia. What makes this case so seemingly unsolvable is that Spencer was an alias...
George Wright appeared in several box scores in the 1860s as "George."
Baseball memory triggers thoughts not of how much time has gone by but how little—how in an instant you are that boy again.
A new view of where, why, and when spring training started; credit Boss Tweed and his Mutuals Club. ourgame.mlblogs.com/spring-train...
Hail and farewell, Country Joe McDonald.
Have I shared this previously? Alexander "Sandy" Calder "Drops In at the Polo Grounds" in 1925, when he was staff illustrator for The Police Gazette.
Those of you who have seen the Temple of Dendur at The Met will recall its splendor. Now it, along with 137 other works of art and architecture, may be viewed in three dimensions on the web. www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
Original sketch for World Baseball Classic logo by Todd Radom, 2005
Original sketch, World Baseball Classic logo, 2005. Everything starts with something, somewhere, somehow. Back then you got a sense of what the event's potential could be, but you had to squint a little bit and project forward, far into the future.
Dunlap Broadside: This is the first printed version of the Declaration of Independence. Drafted for the most part by Thomas Jefferson, it was printed by John Dunlap of Philadelphia for distribution in Congress on July 4, 1776.
An uncaptioned photo of Jeff Tesreau prompts Mark Rucker to write about the spitball. ourgame.mlblogs.com/jeff-tesreau...
Funny thing: I'm working on a story for Our Game (for next Monday, not tomorrow) about the history of spring training which, I have learned, dates to Boss Tweed and the New York Mutuals (ssshhhh).
I was an underbidder (drat!) on these two early sheet-music prizes, but the loss recalled for me a story I had written about baseball music: ourgame.mlblogs.com/5-songs-7e3e... {subtitled "Roll over Kluszewski, tell Ohtani the News").
No relationship after he was banished from MLB. Jackson acknowledged receipt of funds for tossing games.
He is not banned, as far as MLB is concerned; its ineligibility list does not extend beyond death. The Hall of Fame makes its own policies.
Today, as I enter my 16th year as MLB's historian, I recall my great predecessor in this post.
Today marks 15 years for me as MLB's official historian; the 16th year commences. For its Weekly Notes (and Our Game), I have in mind to write 20 stories or so about how America and MLB's traditions intersect.
Pitch by pitch, last half inning of Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t12q...
It turns out that Brooklyn catcher Boerum was not such a hero; in the next weekly edition of the Sunday Mercury, it emerges that his 2 passed balls was a typo for 23, and New York catcher De Bost was the man who won the laurels! See below.
Baseball analysts were counting pitches long before there was any concern for injury. This from the third Fashion Race Course Game of 1858, baseball's all-star series between the best of two cities, New York and Brooklyn, which had split two prior games. (New York's pitcher Thorne is no relation.)
“In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of" ... baseball. Dodgers' camp, LIFE, 1948. A "Where's Waldo" search for a Black man will prove unsatisfying.
Hail and farewell, George A. Thompson. Not only did he find baseball in NYC in 1823 but also the game of bace in 1805. He was an incomparable researcher. ourgame.mlblogs.com/baseball-in-...
Outstanding research on Black baseball in the 1860s, just around the corner from where I live (I used to live in the Rondout district of Kingston). www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley...
Andruw Jones, tip your cap to Maz.
Ten years ago, I posted a 12-part history of baseball by David Q. Voigt, an old friend and contributor to Total Baseball (1989). Written for one who must run as he reads, it is illustrated afresh for Our Game. It begins here: ourgame.mlblogs.com/david-voigts...
Hail and farewell, Bill Mazeroski.
Larry Lester and I will talk about how Negro League stats came to be a part of MLB's official record. This will be a Zoom event, so consider joining us next week, on Thursday, Feb 26 at noon Eastern Time. nyslibrary.libcal.com/event/16236463
