His most extraordinary contribution to the game, however, rests in the fact that he alone changed its complexion and contour. It had been a game of “inside baseball,” a tightly-played contest for single runs – stolen bases; squeeze plays, placement hitting. But the booming bat of the Babe demonstrated that runs could be gathered like […]

Charles Conlon built an amazing archive of images with little fanfare during his lifetime, but now he is recognized as the father of baseball photography. LEGENDS OF THE CAMERA In a new series, TheNationalPastimeMuseum.com focuses on baseball’s most influential photographers. Author Larry Canale, who wrote two books with legendary lensman Ozzie Sweet, will be your […]

Between 1982 and 1990, an annual old timers game was played, first in Washington, D.C., and then in Buffalo, New York—an event that drew national attention from its very first inning. It was known as the Cracker Jack Old Timers Baseball Classic, and it was the brainchild of former Atlanta Braves Vice President Dick Cecil. […]

As we wait for those magic words of February, “pitchers and catchers report today,” we can reflect that the influence of baseball on the English language is stunning, strong, and at what appears to be an all-time real and metaphoric high. Tough folks play “hardball,” save for when they relent and ask a few “softball […]

  You can blame it on the uniforms. Having discarded their old pinstriped garb with the interlocking “NY” on the sleeve, the 1916 New York Giants introduced new check-patterned regalia, complete with red sanitary stockings and a large “NY” on the chest—“The last word in baseball sartorial invention,” according to team secretary John B. Foster. […]