Homepage Homeruns

Dateline: 10/13/97 - Weekly feature from your Guide To Personal Web Pages

Baseball homepages are superior to those of other sports.

How's that for a first pitch?

Let me explain: Although baseball may no longer rule as the most popular American sport (basketball arguably has overtaken it), its unique role within American culture continues. The Web is rife with fan pages devoted to players and teams -- some as deep and statistically satisfying as anything you'll find on mainstream-media sites -- but a different strain runs through baseball homepages.

Just as baseball's evocative metaphors and historic tradition have long inspired the best sportswriting, the best baseball homepages are those that capture the quirkiness and timelessness of America's pastime.

So, in honor of the upcoming World Series, I've collected links to personal sites that honor the uniqueness of baseball. To be clear: This piece is not about the best Cal Ripken page or the best Atlanta Braves page. It's about fan pages that could only be about one sport: baseball.

Baseball's Rich History

The Curse Lives On
Joshua Farb's explication of the Curse of the Bambino (Red Sox fan version, i.e, think Greek tragedy). And if you don't know what curse I'm talking about, you're reading the wrong article.

Home Plate: Baseball In The 1930s
Larry S. Bonura, a social historian specializing in sports, is writing a biography of one Zeke Bonura, a major league player in the 30s. His collection of Zeke anecdotes melt away the years.

Brooklyn Dodgers: The Boys Of Summer
This page is sort of a mess, but it's got it all. Don't miss "Dream of a Batboy."

A Look At The Negro Leagues
A woman's take on the personalities and history of what was once called "shadowball."

The Evolution Of The Baseball Bat
This is the kind of arcana baseball fanatics thrive on: An engineering design professor explains how changes in bats have brought about a more exciting, offense-oriented game.

Baseball As Art

Baseball Illustrations
Baseball has long mesmerized artists -- "a dance of essential moments arrayed on a geometric landscape," one called it. Jeff Suntala's site contains many striking portraits, especially of Negro League players.

Baseball On Postage Stamps
Ed Stephan's short history of baseball-inspired stamps contains many lovely examples. Lickable art.

Baseball Advocacy

Fans Against Realignment
Ever since the players strike three years ago, baseball fans have been using the Web to organize sentiment pro and con on the hot issue of the day. This site is no fan of the proposed realignment that would move quite a few teams from one league to another.

Pete Rose HOF
Lenny Laks is pretty riled that Rose has not been elected to Cooperstown. Read his tirade. Sign his petition. Or just enjoy the reproduction of Rose's rookie card.

Baseball Statheads

The Sabermetric Manifesto
Math professor David Grabiner on "the search for objective knowledge about baseball." This is more than a little quixotic.

The Ex-Cub Factor
Christian Ruzich presents quantitative evidence of why any team in a pennant race should "FIRE ANYONE WHO USED TO BE ON THE CUBS!"

Best And Worst Baseball Teams
Harry H. Hollingsworth is a retired economist-statistician. That explains why he has enough time to run the computer models behind this list of the best and worst 30 teams of all time. Great fodder for debate.

Baseball Miscellany

Troy Soos
This is the homepage of the author of the Mickey Rawlings historical baseball mysteries. He's looking for help with the title of his next book, which deals with a Negro League team and the KKK.

Psychic Baseball
Andy Brewer is professional psychic who finds "beauty and spiritual joy in baseball." Though there's not much here yet, the "gallery" quotes are extremely well chosen.

Bullet Trains, Baseball, And A-Bombs
American Owen Brady spent a year in Hiroshima on a Fulbright Fellowship. While there, he found out how baseball has become one of Japan's pillars of "cultural continuity." (This is a direct link to a file that is part of a framed site.)

The Great American Baseball Trip
Call me naive, but I don't think many basketball fans feel compelled to embark on a pilgrimage to the home courts of every NBA team. Brian A. Reich just spent the summer visiting every major-league park. This is his travel diary.

Minor League Ballpark Photos
They're all here. Pure obsession, courtesy of Gary Jarvis.

P.S. Don't overlook the baseball sites maintained by my fellow guides: Pro BaseballBaseball History.