The history of Asian-born players in the major leagues, from Masanori Murakami in 1964 through Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui to Shohei Ohtani, with the numbers that mark each step.
Ten men have held the office of baseball commissioner since 1920. This guide covers each one, the powers the job has and has lost, and the events from the Black Sox to the pitch clock that defined every tenure.
How baseball kept playing from 1942 to 1945: the presidential letter, the stars who left for service, the teenagers and one-armed outfielder who filled in, travel limits, the women's league and the 1946 boom.
All 28 players with 500 career home runs in the historical record, with rates, eras and context. Covers what 500 meant to Hall of Fame voters, how the club grew after 1986, and the players who stopped just short.
How major-league baseball grew from 16 clubs to 30 in six waves between 1961 and 1998: who joined, why each wave happened, how the new clubs fared, and what expansion did to the game.
How Cal Ripken Jr. played 2,632 straight games from 1982 to 1998, passed Lou Gehrig on September 6, 1995, and ended the run himself. The numbers, the debate and the context.
How the Houston Astrodome of 1965 put major-league baseball under a roof, why grass gave way to artificial turf, and what the Kingdome, Metrodome and later roofed parks did to the game.
All 17 batting Triple Crown seasons by 15 hitters, from Paul Hines in 1878 to Miguel Cabrera in 2012, with the near misses, the pitching version of the award and why the batting crown has been so rare.
How a major-league player becomes a free agent, what a qualifying offer does, and the court cases, arbitrations and negotiations from the reserve clause to the first free agents of 1976.
How a player reaches Cooperstown: who can be on the writers' ballot, how the 75 percent rule and the 10-year limit work, what the era committees do, and what real votes from Biggio to Wagner show.
In 2020 Major League Baseball recognized seven Negro leagues as major leagues, and in 2024 it folded their statistics into the record book. This article explains what changed, what the numbers show and where they are thin.
Between 1919 and 1930 runs per game rose by nearly half and home runs more than tripled. This article looks at the ball, the banned pitches, Babe Ruth and the scoring data to explain what changed and what did not.
How Jackie Robinson's number 42 was retired by every major-league club in 1997, how Jackie Robinson Day began in 2004 and became a league-wide tribute, and what Robinson's own numbers say about the player.
Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games in 1941. This article explains the streak, the arithmetic of why it is so unlikely, how Pete Rose's 44 compares, and what has changed in the game since.
On July 5, 1947, Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League, 81 days after Jackie Robinson debuted. This article covers his path from Newark to Cleveland, the 1948 title and the long wait for the Hall of Fame.
How players born in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and the rest of Latin America went from a handful of pioneers to nearly a quarter of the majors, with the numbers and the stars.
The 1927 Yankees won 110 games, scored 975 runs and swept the World Series. This is the lineup, the pitching staff and the context behind Ruth's 60 home runs and Gehrig's MVP season, with the figures from the historical record.
The 1954 World Series pitted the 111-win Cleveland Indians against the New York Giants, who swept in four games. The article covers Willie Mays's catch, the Series scores and how a record-setting team lost.
The Pirates beat the Yankees in seven games despite being outscored 55 to 27, and Bill Mazeroski ended it with a home run. A game-by-game account with the arithmetic of how a team can win a Series while losing the run count.
How baseball answered the Year of the Pitcher: the mound cut from 15 to 10 inches, a smaller strike zone, four new clubs, two divisions per league and the first League Championship Series, with the scoring numbers that followed.
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