History Flashback takes a look at historical “found footage” of all kinds—newsreels, instructional films, even cartoons—to give us a glimpse into how much things have changed, and how much has remained the same. It was a hot, sunny evening on July 12, 1955 and the new County ...read more
Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in the Major Leagues on April 15, 1947, when he took the field in the top of the first inning against the Boston Braves. When Robinson took his spot at first base, he broke baseball’s 50-year-old color barrier, which not ...read more
The instantly-recognizable song is played before thousands of sporting events every year, but just how did the Star-Spangled Banner come to be a staple of sports in the first place? The answer, it turns out, has to do with World War I. Baseball fans in the late 19th century ...read more
The eyes of Abraham Lincoln gazed down from a portrait on the paneled walls inside the executive offices of the Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball Club as Branch Rickey fire-hosed a torrent of racial slurs at Jackie Robinson. The president and general manager of the Dodgers had little ...read more
The rise of organized baseball after the Civil War led to early attempts to segregate the sport. The National Association of Amateur Base Ball Players rejected African-American membership in 1867, and in 1876, owners of the professional National League adopted a “gentleman’s ...read more
LikeJackie Robinson, these four men had to deal with unimaginable pressure. They all had teammates who wouldn’t shake their hands or play catch with them. They all had fans who ridiculed and threatened them with every slur in the book. None of them could stay in the same hotels ...read more
Although the ceremonies surrounding baseball’s Opening Day have been around since at least 1890, it took 20 years for the commander in chief to become part of the tradition. The first sitting president to throw a pitch was William Howard Taft. The corpulent commander in chief ...read more
1. The first spring training was a spa compared to today’s version. In one form or another, spring training has always been a part of organized baseball. In the early days of the National League, which formed in 1876, spring training was quite different than today. Teams ...read more
When the Cubs last won In 1908… A British company struck oil at Masjed Soleyman in southwestern Persia (now Iran), marking the beginning of petroleum production in the Middle East. Controversy erupted at the Olympic Games, held in the new 68,000-seat stadium in the Shepherds ...read more
On the afternoon of May 15, 1941, some 9,000 spectators converged on the Bronx to watch the New York Yankees face the Chicago White Sox. The big league season was only a month old, but already the Yanks were off to a disappointing start. The club had lost seven of its last nine ...read more
He was the son of German immigrants. Born Henry Louis Gehrig in New York City on June 19, 1903, the future sports icon was the son of German immigrants. His father and mother each arrived in America as young adults then met and married in New York City. Gehrig, the only one of ...read more
From the sport’s earliest days, baseball has been at the heart of American culture, and at the heart of the baseball itself has been rubber. During the dawn of baseball in the 1840s, players crafted homemade hardballs by wrapping whatever small objects they could find—rocks, ...read more
Just like peanuts and Cracker Jack, the seventh-inning stretch is a baseball tradition. Precisely how this custom came about is unknown, but there are several theories. According to one popular tale, William Howard Taft, America’s 27th president, is to thank for the ritual. In ...read more
In April 2013, an unidentified man drove up to Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, and left behind a box containing a black, severed goat’s head. News outlets immediately speculated on what the shocking parcel might portend. Was it a warning? Was it a threat against team ...read more
1. Paige learned how to pitch in reform school. Leroy Robert Paige spent a hardscrabble youth working to support his family in Mobile, Alabama, and may have first earned the nickname “Satchel” during a stint as a porter at a local train station. He grew up loving baseball, but ...read more
The “American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language” cites the conventional wisdom that the word “southpaw” originated “from the practice in baseball of arranging the diamond with the batter facing east to avoid the afternoon sun. A left-handed pitcher facing west would ...read more
Just how the “Big Fix” of 1919 played out remains a subject of considerable debate among baseball historians. Accounts differ, but the scheme may have first materialized a few weeks before the World Series, when White Sox first baseman C. Arnold “Chick” Gandil and a gambler named ...read more
By the fall of 1921, Babe Ruth had become the brightest star in America’s most popular pastime. The New York Yankees slugger, who first broke into the major leagues in 1914, had set the single-season home run record for the third straight year and already smashed Roger Connor’s ...read more
On the afternoon of August 26, 1939, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Dolph Camilli stepped up to the plate against Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Niggeling. The Dodgers had lost the first game of a doubleheader 5-2 to the visiting Reds earlier that day, and now the fans at Ebbets field ...read more
1. Ruth first gained fame as a pitcher. Although best remembered for swatting a prodigious 714 home runs and slugging .690, which remains a major-league record, Ruth was one of baseball’s most dominant left-handed pitchers in the 1910s. He won 89 games in six seasons with the ...read more
On June 12, 1939, a constellation of baseball’s brightest stars and a crowd of 10,000 fans thronged a pastoral village of only 2,800 people nestled in the rolling hills of upstate New York. They had come to Cooperstown to celebrate the 100th birthday of the national pastime as ...read more
1. Churchill Downs This fabled venue is home to America’s most celebrated horse race, the Kentucky Derby. In the early 1870s, after two earlier local racecourses closed, Col. Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. (grandson of explorer William Clark) filled the void by developing a ...read more
As Hank Aaron strode to the plate, the sellout crowd of 53,775 packed into Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium rose as one. All across the United States, baseball fans stopped whatever they were doing and crouched a little closer to their glowing television screens. The umpire reached ...read more
The start of the 20th century might not seem particularly modern–after all, there were only 45 states in the Union, hardly anyone owned a car (the Model T didn’t debut until 1908) and William McKinley, a Civil War vet, occupied the White House. However, 1900 is now considered the ...read more