In 1936 two new stars made their first appearances in the big leagues ... Bob Feller ... Joe DiMaggio ... DiMaggio was the perfect accompaniment to Lou Gehrig. He would help lead the Yankee to four consecutive world championships. ibid.
Gehrig was spectacular. ibid.
Kansas City Monarchs World’s Colored Champions Base Ball Club. ibid. team photograph
Founded in 1920 the Monarchs dominated black baseball for more than twenty-five years. ibid.
A button in the White House that lit up Crosley Field in Cincinnati ... This was the first night game in Major League History. The Reds won 2-1. The other owners were appalled. ibid.
Lou Gehrig took himself out of the lineup ... Earned himself the nickname the Iron Horse. ibid.
It was incurable ... The news of Gehrig’s illness stunned the country. ibid.
It is true that there had never been any written law banning black players ... The hypocrisy of fighting racism abroad while ignoring it at home proved clearer. Ken Burns, Baseball: The National Pastime
Black leaders again pressed Landis for an answer. ibid.
Fifteen out of sixteen club owners opposed integration. ibid.
Jack Robinson ... Baseball was relatively low on his list. But he was good enough at it so when he left the Army in 1944 the Kansas City Monarchs offered him a job at shortstop at $400 a month. ibid.
He hit .387 in his first season. ibid.
He batted .625 and stole seven bases seemed only to antagonise his future team-mates. ibid.
On April 15th 1947 at Ebbets Field in Flatbush in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City ... the Brooklyn Dodgers faced the Boston Braves ... A black man – Jack Roosevelt Robinson – was starting the game at first base. ibid.
Robinson played brilliantly. ibid.
There were threats to shoot Robinson from the stands. ibid.
100,000 fans turned out to see him [Babe Ruth] lie in state at Yankee Stadium. ibid.
At the funeral Ruth’s old team-mates served as pallbearers. ‘I’d give a hundred bucks for an ice-cold beer,’ said Joe Dugan to Wayne Hoyt. Hoyt nodded, ‘So would the Babe.’ ibid.
Between 1950 and 1960 ... the now-dying Negro leagues sent their greatest players to the Majors. Ken Burns, Baseball: The Capital of Baseball
The city of New York came to dominate the game as never before. ibid.
The 1950s belonged to the New York Yankees. ibid.
Like Stengel, Berra became as well known for what he said off the field as for what he did on it. ibid.
Mr Mantle: Mickey Mantle took Joe DiMaggio’s spot in centre-field and his position as the centrepiece of the Yankee attack. ibid.
He became a superb switch-hitter. ibid.
Five hundred and sixty-five feet. ibid.
Other black players followed in Jackie Robinson’s turbulent wake: Larry Doby ... Roy Campenella ... Ernie Banks ... Frank Robinson ... Henry Aaron ... Curtis Charles Flood … ibid.
Television began broadcasting baseball games coast to coast. ibid.
Willie Mayes: he was born Westfield Alabama on May 6th 1931 ... He seemed able to do everything. ibid.
According to Joe DiMaggio, Mayes had the greatest throwing arm he had ever seen. ibid.
To many he was the greatest player to ever live. ibid.
On September 24th 1957 a few thousand Dodger fans turned out to see the last game at Ebbets Field ... Brooklyn lost. ibid.
Jackie Robinson did not go west with the Dodgers. ibid.
A two-ton wrecking ball painted to resemble a baseball began to demolish Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, the home of the Dodgers from 1913 to 1957. Baseball: A Whole New Ball Game
For the first time baseball would move inside. ibid.
In 1960 the Yankees were in the World Series again ... It was the first time the World Series had ever ended with a [Pittsburgh] home run. ibid.
Flood and his black team-mates had to endure the segregated facilities and persistent racism that still plagued black ball players and black Americans alike. ibid.
His name was Sandy Koufax ... He’ll strike you out, an opposing batter said, but he won’t embarrass you. ibid.
Casey Stengel believed him [Koufax] the best pitcher in baseball history. ibid.
Sandy Koufax ... would become the youngest man elected to the hall of fame. ibid.
The century-old struggle between the owners and the players was reaching a climax. ibid.
No active player dared testify on his [Flood’s] behalf. Ken Burns, Baseball: Home
The United States Supreme Court ruled against him [Flood]. ibid.
Hank Aaron ... When he finally left the game he had hit 755 home runs. ibid.
The arbitration was binding; the reserve clause was dead. ibid.
Major League baseball was found guilty of collusion. ibid.
Most of all it is about time and timelessness. ibid.
Imperishable hope and coming home. ibid.
The game of baseball, now more than one hundred and fifty years old, remained remarkably unchanged. Ken Burns, Baseball: The Tenth Inning I
Their statistics the only residue of their existence in the game. ibid.
Latin and Asian players would transform the game. ibid.
For the next decade and half Atlanta would dominate the National League. ibid.
Barry Bonds: ‘he would put up numbers no-one would believe.’ ibid.
He was quick to remind them how badly he thought they had treated his dad. ibid.
Ken Griffey junior was thrilling fans with one of the most beautiful swings in all of baseball history. ibid.
The game’s many transgressors have been celebrated for their creativity as much as they have been castigated for their misdeeds. ibid.
In 1988 Jose Canseco astounded the baseball world when he became the first player to hit forty home runs and steal forty bases in a single season. ibid.
Canseco and others had transformed their bodies by taking heavy doses of anabolic steroids. ibid.
Professional baseball players were free to take whatever they wanted. ibid.
Cal Ripken junior ... He had started every Orioles’ game ... 2,632 straight games. ibid.
The Yankees had not won a world championship since 1978. Baseball: The Tenth Inning II
New York Yankees v Atlanta IV: at four hours, seventeen minutes it was the longest game in World Series history. ibid.
The heart of the Yankees would retain the home-grown players they had so carefully cultivated. ibid.
Roberto Clemente ... Baseball’s first great Latin star. ibid.
In 1997 fifteen of the players chosen to play in the all-star game were Latin. ibid.
Sammy [Sosa] was fast, skinny but strong. ibid.
Over the next few seasons McGwire continued to add muscle to his already massive frame. ibid.
He hit balls out of the park with astonishing frequency. ibid.
McGwire finished May with 27 home runs. He was a full month ahead of Maris’s 1961 pace. Ken Griffey junior struggled to keep up. Then from out of nowhere another slugger joined the chase – Sammy Sosa. ibid.
By mid-summer the home run contest had become front page news ... They couldn’t get enough of Sosa and McGwire. ibid.
It took McGwire only 145. ibid.
The two sluggers entered the final weekend of the season tied at 65. ibid.
McGwire: 70 ... Sosa finished the season with 66 home runs. ibid.
400 home runs and steal 400 bases: Barry Barnes. ibid.