In this episode of Ballparks around the world, we pay attention to Koshien Stadium which is located in Osaka. It is the oldest baseball stadium in Japan and home of the annual Koshien high school tournament and the Hanshin Tigers. Koshien Stadium opened its doors in 1924 to host the National High School Baseball Invitational…
Every baseball fan has heard of the Yomiuri Giants. The team plays at the Tokio Dome, located in Bunkyo, Tokyo. The team is the oldest of the professional teams of the NPB. This is the story how the club got its name. Japan first got a view of baseball in 1872 when Horace Wilson, an…
Today, another little piece of baseball history, even though it is only baseball related. This blog post is about the famous Abe Stark sign at Ebbets Field, the former home of the former Brooklyn Dodgers. In the early days of baseball, many MLB parks looked like many MiLB parks look nowadays. The outfield walls were…
Today it is exactly 72 years ago that the Brooklyn Dodgers acquired the contract of Jackie Robinson. It would take five more days before Robinson would make his MLB debut. It was during an exhibition game against their AAA team, the Montreal Royals, where Robinson was playing after he signed a contract with the Dodgers…
In this edition of Minor League history we are talking about the Middle Atlantic League. The league a continuous run from 1925 – 1942 and later from 1946-1951. The league was mainly located in Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania but also had offshoots in New York, Maryland and West Virginia. The first edition of the Middle…
In the wake of the Bryce Harper lunacy, today a blog post about two players that were the highest paid players in their days. Regarding the money they got, none could stand in the shadow of Harper’s $330 million. On this day in 1927, a certain Yankee player became the highest paid player ever as…
In this edition of Baseball related songs, we pay attention to “There used to be a ballpark”, performed by Ol’ Blue Eyes, a.k.a. Frank Sinatra. In this song from his comeback album Ol’ Blue Eyes Is Back, Sinatra took a sentimental journey to the Golden Age of baseball when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York…
In this episode of Baseball related songs, we pay attention to “We didn’t start the fire” performed by Billy Joel. This song describes the cause of history from 1949 until the late eighties. You may wonder why the song starts in 1949. Well, that’s quite simple. It is Billy Joel’s year of birth. Next to…
In today’s edition of Baseball related music, we pay attention to “Talkin’ baseball, sung by Terry Cashman. The song is describing the history of baseball from the 1950s to the beginning of the 80s. The song was released in 1981, the year the regular MLB season was shortened by a player strike. The song was…
In today’s episode of Baseball related songs, we pay attention to Subway by Jim Nuzzo. To many Dutch baseball fans (including myself) this will be an unknown song. The song is about the New York Subway Series, a name for the World Series between New York teams, which happened a lot during the golden age of…
