The names on the cast-bronze plaques hanging in the National Baseball Hall of Fame embody the history and drama of the sport--they are the royalty of baseball.
More than a century ago, the Philadelphia Athletics enjoyed a glorious five-season run under legendary manager Connie Mack, winning three World Series and four pennants from 1910 through 1914.
Tom Gamboa played baseball professionally, coached, scouted, managed in the minors and in Puerto Rico and coached in the majors with the Cubs and Royals.
"e;Orioles Magic"e; is a phrase fans still associate with the 1979-1983 seasons, Baltimore's last championship era, when they played excellent, exciting ball with a penchant for late-inning heroics.
The Tobacco State League played an important role in eastern North Carolina for five summers (1946-1950), giving small-town communities a chance to be a part of professional baseball and offering a return to normalcy after World War II.
Perhaps familiar today as an answer to sports trivia questions, Ken Williams (1890-1959) was once a celebrity who helped bring about a new kind of power baseball in the 1920s.
It was a novel experiment as baseball's leading men formed the National Association, bringing order to the hodgepodge of professional and amateur clubs that made up the sport from the end of the Civil War through 1870.
The New York Yankees were the strongest team in the majors from 1948 through 1960, capturing the American League Pennant 10 times and winning seven World Championships.
Offering the best in original research and analysis, Base Ball is an annually published book series that promotes the study of baseball's early history, from its protoball roots to 1920, and its rise to prominence within American popular culture.
Schooled on the sandlots of Milwaukee, Chicago Black Sox center fielder Oscar "e;Happy"e; Felsch (1891-1964) was a rising star who then blew a promising career for a few bucks by participating in the throwing of the 1919 World Series.
The Detroit Tigers gave a memorable performance in the pennant race against the New York Yankees in 1961, the American League's first expansion season.
With virtually the same personnel that had won both the National League pennant and the World Series the previous season, the 1926 Pittsburgh Pirates were favored by the majority of preseason prognosticators to capture the pennant for the second year in a row.
One of the greatest pitchers of the 19th century, Tim Keefe (1857-1933) was an ardent believer in the artisan work ethic that was becoming outmoded in burgeoning industrial America.
After the Civil War, the Yankee textile industry began a steady transfer south, bringing with it the tradition of a mill village, usually owned by the mill's owner, where the workers and their families lived.
More than 300 ballplayers have spent time with both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, opposing teams in one of the most intense rivalries ever in sports.
The story of the "e;Miracle"e; Braves is one of the most memorable in baseball history, but less well known is what the club did after that spectacular season.