John Thorn

Huzzahs for Retrosheet! Completed seasons for 1911 and 1913, 1936 Negro Leagues seasonal data--bringing the total number of Negro League games in Retrosheet's collection to 7,375--plus box scores for the NL of 1899 and 1900! www.retrosheet.org/summer2025re...

Jim Creighton — September 22, 1860 The Greatest Plays You Never Saw, №15

Today at Our Game, the first triple play: not merely the first in @MLB or the National Association, but the first one ever recorded. Ace pitcher Jim Creighton, playing left field, figures. [Medium.com delays my posting directly to Our Game.] medium.com/@thorn_john_...

Bill’s Dawson City film is fantastic. Highly recommended. Here’s my summary of the 1919 World Series footage that he found: sabr.org/latest/rare-...

There is more, including the 1919 World Series.

YouTube video by Bill Morrison Walter Johnson 1913

Walter Johnson warming up for exhibition game in hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas, 1913. From Bill Morrison's permafrost find; see "Dawson City: Frozen Time. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyL_...

An oddity just noticed: Hal O'Hagan took part in seven triple plays between 1898 and 1907, all in the minor leagues, plus two in the majors. One of these, on August 18, 1902, was an unassisted triple play, and was long regarded as the first such.

Outcault's Yellow Kid made his debut in Truth Magazine, June 4, 1894. Two years later, the Kid was playing baseball in Hogan's Alley, in the Sunday supplement to the New York World, April 12, 1896. He gave birth to the phrase "Yellow Journalism," for Hearst's coverage of the Spanish American War.

"I have a weakness for literary pursuits, and it got me."

I am reminded of Joel Youngblood in August 1982.

Yep. The Jackie Mitchell prank, in which she "fanned" Ruth and Gehrig at Joe Engel's behest, was to have been played on April Fool's Day, 1931 but rain spilled the game to the next day.

MLB's Speedway Classic in Bristol will be the first time an AL or NL game is played in Tennessee, but teams in the Negro Leagues of 1920-1948, now part of MLB, played in Chattanooga, Memphis, and Nashville.

Missing Bats, Part 1: How an obsession with strikeouts upended the balance of baseball (Published 2024)

Great story here @ByMcCullough. "He followed a principle espoused by famed investor Charlie Munger that most problems could be solved by looking backward." I think it all began with Jim Creighton, who transformed the pitcher-batter relationship. www.nytimes.com/athletic/553...

Hail and farewell, Ryne Sandberg.

Tell me more; or supply a date.

YouTube video by I've Got A Secret! I've Got A Secret! - Jonathan Winters 9/28/1960

Tommy Leach and Fred Parent, opponents in the 1903 World Series, on "I've Got a Secret" in 1960. Watch from 7-minute mark. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpP1...

Ain't AI grand?

Superbas, after the acrobatic troupe.

Ned Hanlon — October 28, 1888 The Greatest Plays You Never Saw, №14

Among the "greatest plays you never saw," this one took place at the launch of Spalding's World Tour in 1888--by a man who is in @baseballhall as a manager. ourgame.mlblogs.com/ned-hanlon-o...

Hail and farewell, Tom Lehrer.

Yes, though in much lower classifications than the PCL.

Has anyone ever hit 5 homers in a game? Not in MLB, yet, but in the Pacific Coast League, Pete Schneider did. On May 11, 1923, he hit five home runs with 14 RBIs, narrowly missing a sixth homer in his last at bat.

Left field at the Congress Street Ground was 250 feet, but that was down the line. Boston Journal, the day after: "Every one of Lowe's home run drives would have been legitimate had there been no left field fence...."

Nick Kurtz became the 20th man to hit four homers in an MLB game. The first, in 1894, was Boston's Bobby Lowe. Ed Delahanty hit four in a game in 1896. The next did not come until Lou Gehrig in 1932. Below, Lowe with Gehrig.

Ichiro Suzuki admires a case featuring artifacts from his playing career in Yakyu | Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)

Yokoso, Ichiro. #YakyuBaseball

Pennants They go back, back, back…

How did baseball champions come to win a "pennant"? The practice goes back to 1871 ... and to the Middle Ages. I had cause to re-read this today, and rather liked it. ourgame.mlblogs.com/pennants-6b1...

Casey at the Bat: The Controversy, Part Two “One swallow may not make a summer, but one poem makes a poet.”

The rest of the story, featuring Casey's Great Impostor, George Whitefield D'Vys. ourgame.mlblogs.com/casey-at-the...

Casey at the Bat: The Controversy “One swallow may not make a summer, but one poem makes a poet.”

“One swallow may not make a summer, but one poem makes a poet.” Casey at the Bat: The Controversy, Part One. ourgame.mlblogs.com/casey-at-the...

How do I love early baseball? Let me count the ways. Murder most foul at George Wright's Base Ball Emporium in Boston, Police Gazette, January 18, 1879.

And even earlier:

First @MLB #AllStarGame between NL and AL? Not 1933 ... but 1902, in Kansas City, MO. By next season, NLers Bill Donovan, Sam Crawford, Jack Chesbro, and Willie Keeler will have switched leagues. (I have devised full identifications, but you may enjoy figuring out who is who.)