Category: History

A few weeks ago I got a note from a reader who pointed me toward this story about former Cy Young winner Pete Vuckovich (bet you forgot he pitched for …

Two Fridays ago I ran a Ticker item about how Warren Spahn and Mort Cooper changed their uniform numbers with each additional victory late in the 1951 and 1942 seasons, …

As the Cubbies and their fans sift through the rubble of yet another disappointment, reader Dave Lundborg has alerted me to something that may explain some of the team’s recent …

When I visited Scott Little’s house last month, I got to spend a little bit of time perusing his bookshelf. One volume in particular caught my eye: The Pro Football …

Remember this guy, who appeared in this photo and this photo, and how we spent a few days puzzling over who he might be and how he got into those …

Last week I linked to an eBay listing for an old article about NFL helmet carts. I ended up winning the item (I was the only bidder, rather amazingly) and …

Remember my recent ESPN column about unusual uni-related moments in MLB All-Star Games? We appear to have another one on our hands — or, at the very least, an interesting …

The more you poke around in various archives, the more surprising it becomes that nobody ever came up with a dedicated uniform column or beat before I did. There’s certainly …

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before”¦ Four or five years ago I was bidding on these two uniform swatch books on eBay. I didn’t win, but I had …

Last month I ran Book Club entries on a pair of football books that came out around 1970 (look here and here). That led several readers to point me toward …

We often talk discuss yearbooks and programs, but we don’t often talk about media guides, in large part because they’re not documented very well on the web. But now someone …

Some people are compulsive documenters who pore over their files and scrapbooks; others are no good at documentation but are big on eyewitness testimony, repeatedly saying, “Trust me, kid, I …

Several readers have spoken highly of this 1969 book, which chronicles the first half-century of the NFL, so I tracked down a copy. Sure enough, tons of great stuff. Here …

It was hot in NYC yesterday. Like, really hot. So hot you could feel your eyeballs perspiring and your nuts liquefying. So hot you could break a serious sweat just …

Lemme tell ya, nothing screams “deep blues authenticity” like a screening of a 50-year-old ballgame in which almost everyone in the stadium was white (although it’s arguably grittier than some …