baseball

The Dodgers Were Right to Honor the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

by Lily Lucas Hodges

Catholic groups charged that the LGBTQ group mocked their faith with their appropriation of nuns' dress. But the group more importantly defied Catholic teaching to promote life-saving health care and education about sexuality at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. 

"A League of Their Own" Update Engages Lives of Queer Women in the 1940s

by Lauren Gutterman

"The series’ portrait of queer life amid World War II might seem unrealistic to some, but history reveals that queer women and trans men — from butch to femme and married to unmarried — often found opportunities to act on their desires and build queer communities."

Minor League Baseball Union Part of a Long History of Organizing

Along with baristas and warehouse workers, minor leaguers are organizing to fight back against poor pay and a lack of respect on the job, says labor historian Peter Rachleff. 

Remember Vin Scully With His Classic Call of the Last Outs of Sandy Koufax's Perfect Game

The legendary broadcaster's ability to say just enough to frame the drama of a moment without overshadowing it was on full display on September 9, 1965 at Dodger Stadium. 

Dig Into the History of Baseball's Negro Leagues with a Quiz from the Library of Congress

by Mike Queen

Now that Major League Baseball is recognizing stats from Negro League competition as Major League achievements, it's time to learn about the top players and history of the league.

The Atlanta Braves Represent the Best and Worst of Baseball

by Ben Railton

A lifelong fan feels frustration that the team of Hank Aaron still tolerates the Tomahawk Chop. Renaming the club the Hammers would be a good start. 

New Book Examines Jackie Robinson's Dedication to Civil Rights

by Aram Goudsouzian

Unlike a typical biography, Kostya Kennedy's "True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson" looks at four years of the baseball legend's life and his changin civil rights advocacy.

Baseball's Labor War

by Peter Dreier

Organizing the Brotherhood of Professional Base-ball Players in 1885, John Montgomery Ward asked whether team owners could treat their players as chattel through the "reserve clause." Today's players seem to be learning some similarly radical lessons from the recent owner's lockout.

Baseball Players Can't Live on a "Cup of Coffee"

by Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier

Framing the baseball lockout as a battle of billionaire owners vs. millionaire players misses the fact that most players who ever reach the big leagues won't make great salaries, garner endorsements, or get a league pension. 

Baseball and the Unspeakable

As history teachers struggle with how to handle racist slurs in primary sources, an unexpected remark from a ballplayer in 1938 illustrates that this struggle isn't new. Columnist Neil Steinberg asks if making words unspeakable blows up in the faces of teachers more often than bigots.

Baseball's Lockout Shows the Growing Power of Labor

by Gwendolyn Lockman

"In many ways, the twists and turns of baseball’s labor battle over salaries, pensions and more have reflected the ebbs and flows of labor power in the United States."

Ken Burns "In Tears" at Posthumous Hall of Fame Induction of Negro League Star Buck O'Neil

Buck O'Neil's recollections of the Negro Leagues were a key part of Burns's 1994 documentary series "Baseball." O'Neil was a tireless champion of the history of Black baseball who pushed the sport's establishment to recognize that part of its history. 

MLB Passed on the Chance to Stop the Drain of African American Players from Baseball

by Lou Moore

Major League Baseball noticed that the trend of increased Black participation in the pro game was making a sharp U-turn as early as the mid-1970s. MLB ignored the advice of many Black players, managers and scouts to reach out to African American youth to protect the diversity and quality of the game. 

"We All Know Where We Came From": 2021 White Sox Carry on History of Latino Baseball

The Chicago White Sox have returned to the baseball postseason in part because of their core of players from Latin America, which has long been a trademark of the club. 

On September 1, 1971 the Pittsburgh Pirates Fielded the First All-Black Team in MLB History

The Pirates' lineup 50 years ago was composed of African American and Afro-Latino players, and offers an occasion to reflect on the changing position of Black players in baseball and of baseball in Black America. 

The Nine: How These Black Ballplayers' Stories Show a Changing Game and Country

The stories of nine Black baseball players, from Hall of Famer Willie Mays to up-and-coming Tim Anderson, reveal much about changes in the game and the nation. 

Ringer Eddie "The King" Feigner Strikes Out 6 HOF'ers in 1967 Celebrity Softball Game

Hear Vin Scully and Jerry Lewis announce a celebrities vs. big leaguers softball game, watch barstorming softball legend Eddie "The King" Feigner strike out six hall-of-famers in a row. 

Iconic Mint-Condition 1933 Babe Ruth Baseball Is Expected To Shatter Auction Records

"My dad began collecting in the early 1980s starting with baseball cards from 1957 and 1959 when he was ten to twelve years old," his son Stewart Newman said. "Those were replacements for the treasured cards of his youth that he kept in shoeboxes as a youngster and that his mom later threw out."

The Violent Origin Story of Dodger Stadium

by Ranjani Chakraborty and Melissa Hirsch

Through interviews with several former residents of the area, Vox explores the story of their neighborhoods razed to make room for Dodger Stadium. It’s one that’s often missing from the history of Los Angeles and has created a double-edged relationship for some Dodger fans. Features commentary by historian Priscilla Leiva. 

Clark Griffith Was Too Cheap To Integrate Baseball

Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith did not seize the opportunity to bring the Black superstars who played for the Homestead Grays in the nation's capital, or the District's enthusiastic Black baseball fans, into the Major League fold. Was bigotry or cheapness to blame?