When the Negro Leagues Joined the Record Books
When MLB recognized the Negro Leagues as major, Josh Gibson climbed the leaderboards. What the reclassification did to baseball's statistical history.
Category
Baseball History
Old games, new lenses. Revisiting the eras, seasons, and decisions that shaped the sport through the metrics we use today.
The Save Rule and the Birth of the Modern Closer
A stat invented in 1969 quietly rewrote how bullpens are run. How the save created the one-inning closer — and why analytics is pushing back.
The Birth of Sabermetrics: Bill James and the Baseball Abstract
Before Moneyball there was a night watchman writing mimeographed annuals. How Bill James and the SABR crowd turned baseball questions into measurable answers.
The Year of the Pitcher: 1968 and the Mound They Lowered
Bob Gibson's 1.12 ERA, a 31-game winner, and a .301 batting champion. How 1968 pushed offense to the brink and forced baseball to lower the mound.
The Live-Ball Revolution of 1920: How One Year Remade Offense
A spitball ban, a fatal beaning, and a livelier ball turned baseball upside down almost overnight. How 1920 ended the dead-ball era, read through run scoring.
The 10 Most Statistically Improbable Seasons in MLB History
The seasons that still break the math: ten of the most statistically improbable individual years in MLB history, viewed through modern metrics.
The Dead-Ball Era Through Modern Metrics
What would the dead-ball era look like with Statcast? Re-reading 1900–1920 baseball through run environment, BABIP, and the metrics we use today.
Revisiting Five Famous Trades with WAR Hindsight
Trades are judged the day they happen. WAR judges them years later. Revisiting five famous deals with the benefit of wins-above-replacement hindsight.
The Strikeout Era: How the Whiff Took Over Baseball
Strikeouts have climbed for a century, from rare event to nearly a quarter of all plate appearances. How the whiff took over — and what drove each surge.
The Death of the Complete Game
A century ago, pitchers finished what they started. Now the complete game is all but extinct. The data behind one of baseball's biggest workload shifts.