Bar none, the most iconic style choice in Major League Baseball history is probably Rollie Fingers’s handlebar mustache. The closer’s signature ‘stache was his calling card and, when given the chance to extend his career by shaving it 34 years ago this week, he refused. Mike and Bill look back at one of the first…

Despite being largely forgotten today, Oscar Charleston was perhaps the greatest and most popular Negro Leaguer of his day and one of the best players in baseball history. With special guest Jeremy Beer, whose biography of Charleston just won the Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal, Mike and Bill learn about who Charleston was on and…

There has never been an infield that has played together longer, more often, or perhaps better than the Dodgers’ incredible combination of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Bill Russell, and Ron Cey, a dynamic foursome that lasted 9 years and 833 starts together. But it all came to an end 38 years ago this week, when…

By far the most successful attempt to create a third major league began in earnest 107 years ago this week in a hotel in Indianapolis. It fizzled out after two years, but left a legacy that still governs the professional game today. Mike and Bill leaf through the short life of the Federal League, and…

It was a punchline across the country 47 years ago this week, when Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich announced they had decided to switch families the previous winter. Like many trades, this one turned out to be pretty one-sided, as Kekich’s life and career were upended in the aftermath. Mike and Bill look…

There is no denying that Pete Rose is one of the biggest figures in baseball history, and one of the greatest players of all time. There is also no denying, 31 years after Sports Illustrated revealed that he had gambled on his own team multiple times over multiple seasons, that he is one of the…

In a slight departure this week, Mike and Bill take a listener suggestion to focus on the influenza epidemic that swept across the globe in 1918 and lingered into 1920. That epidemic did have some effects on the game and played a role in further driving a wedge between the players and the owners that…

Baseball does not belong to one country or to one people, and hasn’t since the game was exported to and adopted by Japan in the late 19th century. With special guest Robert Fitts (@robfitts), author of the new book Issei Baseball, Mike and Bill trace its movement across the Pacific and back again to the…