Baseball Web Gems

Table of Contents of Archived baseball features

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Posted on Feb 12 2018 in Archives

Catch these baseball “web gems” from past issues …

  • See how the game was played 150 years ago;
  • Meet a Mr. Met from the 1990s — who grew up in rural Indiana;
  • Catch the “Cincinnati Chicken” in its only performance;
  • Trip back to when polyester uniforms moth-balled flannels for good;
  • and so much more!

 


Our Grand Old Game

(This article was published in the July 2004 issue of Electric Consumer as part of a two-issue focus on Indiana’s “living history” interpreters.)

A century and a half ago, gentlemen and ladies assembled on diamond-shaped fields playing a game of ball for pure pleasure. The game was a new sensation, an American creation, something called … Continue reading


Hoosiers on First?

(This article originally appeared in the May 2016 issue of Electric Consumer.)

The Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869 may have been the first paid “professional” baseball team. But Hoosiers might be surprised to learn the first professional game was played in Fort Wayne …  Continue reading


A Hoosier at Heart

(This article originally appeared in the October 1998 issue of Electric Consumer.)

New Yorkers reputedly are a surly sort. But the old sayings about not judging books by their covers and nice guys finishing last sure don’t apply — at least when it comes to their baseball mascot. “Mr. Met is the nicest character …  Continue reading


Fowl Ball

(This article originally appeared in the April 1993 issue of Electric Consumer.)

Baseball season is once again at hand. It always seems that at least a couple games each year are made memorable by events of historic significance. Usually a great exhibition of pitching or hitting, an amazing catch or an odd-ball play will inscribe … Continue reading


The Day Moose wore Polyester PJs

(This column originally appeared in the June 1997 issue of Electric Consumer.)

To a kid growing up in small-town America in the early 1970s, the memories of summer were indelibly etched with the smells of cowhide, Topps bubble gum, freshly cut grass — and mothballs. But it all started changing in my hometown the day … Continue reading


Every Underdog has His Day 

(This column was revised and reprinted in the April 2006 issue of Electric Consumer. It first appeared in the April 1989 issue.)

Springtime at last is here! And this middle-aged man’s fancy once again turns to thoughts of … baseball. To get through the dreary days of winter now passed, I’d often put on the movie … Continue reading


Old Man Riverfront

(This column originally appeared in the April 2002 issue of Electric Consumer.)

May 1975 … three neighborhood buddies, two sisters, one set of parents … road trip to Cincinnati … the Reds and the Atlanta Braves … baseball, hot dogs and Bat Day … Oh, wow! As if on a journey to Oz, we wound our … Continue reading