The National Pastime

Back in 1982, the Society for American Baseball Research was still young, barely a decade past its founding, and had grown to some 1600 members. One of their number, a "defrocked English Lit guy poking around in journalism," suggested to the board of directors that SABR, and the world, might benefit from a publication along the lines of American Heritage, only about baseball. Before long that member, John Thorn, found himself at the helm of the newly christened periodical, The National Pastime: A Review of Baseball History. The very first issue included names we think of today as luminaries in the field of baseball history and analysis: Harold Seymour, Lawrence S. Ritter, Pete Palmer, David Voigt, Bob Broeg, and more. Over the years the significance of that flagship issue has only grown, while the inventory has dwindled. SABR is pleased to present a replica edition here, with the addition of a new preface by John Thorn, now the official historian of Major League Baseball.

This issue includes:

Nate Colbert's Unknown RBI Record by Bob Carroll

Nineteenth-Century Baseball Deserves Equal Time by Art Ahrens

Dandy at Third: Ray Dandridge by John B. Holway

How Fast Was Cool Papa Bell? by Jim Bankes

The Field of Play by David Sanders

Ladies and Gentlemen, Presenting Marty McHale by Lawrence S. Ritter

Remembrance of Summers Past by Bob Broeg

The Merkle Blunder: A Kaleidoscopic View by G. H. Fleming

A Tale of Two Sluggers: Roger Maris and Hack Wilson, by Don Nelson

Baseball's Misbegottens: Expansion Era Managers by David Voigt

The Early Years: A Gallery by Mark Rucker and Lew Lipset

The Egyptian and the Greyhounds by Lew Lipset

All the Record Books Are Wrong by Frank J. Williams

Goose Goslin's Induction Day by Lawrence S. Ritter

The Great New York Team of 1927--and It Wasn't the Yankees by Fred Stein

Modern Times: A Portfolio by Stuart Leeds

Books Before Baseball: A Personal History by Harold Seymour, Ph.D.

Ballparks: A Quiz by Bob Bluthardt

Runs and Wins by Pete Palmer

Baltimore, the Eastern Shore, and More by Al Kermisch

David and Goliath: Figures by Ted DiTullio

Double Joe Dwyer: A Life in the Bushes by Gerald Tomlinson

John Thorn is the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, an honor that reflects his incomparable contributions to baseball history. In partnership with Pete Palmer, he created The Hidden Game of Baseball and Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball, not only a complete record of the game's statistical history, but one that included sabermetric analysis. Thorn served as senior creative consultant to Ken Burns's Baseball, and in 2011, he published Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, tracing baseball's American origins back to the 18th century.

SABR is the Society for American Baseball Research, a group of over 6,000 enthusiasts about the game of baseball whose research interests range from the game's history to statistical analysis, records, cultural impact, and more. The BioProject is a SABR effort to research, write, and publish biographies of every player--and every person--ever connected with organized baseball. Anyone with a love of baseball can join SABR and become a part of these efforts.