Fenway Park is the oldest professional baseball stadium in use

Ranking every baseball stadium outfield by how hard it is to play

Park factors have long adjusted for how a ballpark helps or hurts hitters and pitchers, but rarely fielders. MLB's Statcast looked at five years of Outs Above Average data to shed light on the gap. It found that stadiums with roofs or in cities that regularly have sunny skies dominate the easy end, while those battered by wind or rain, like San Francisco's, are the hardest to play.

Major League Baseball, explained

Major League Baseball is America’s oldest professional sports league. Alongside triumphs, the league has faced scandals, including drug abuse and steroid use, shaping its path over the decades. Today, MLB embraces new rules, international talent, and a growing connection to legalized sports betting.

‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ became associated with sports at the 1918 World Series

The song is often played at the start of amateur and professional sports games, a tradition that historians say became popular during World War I. During the seventh-inning stretch of the first game of the 1918 World Series, a band started an impromptu version. Red Sox player Fred Thomas, on leave from the Navy, turned to salute the flag, and the crowd followed his lead.

Measuring which nation has the most baseball fans

It's known as America's pastime, but just how devoted are Americans to baseball? FiveThirtyEight outlines several metrics indicating Puerto Rico may have the most devoted fanbase. See how they used an adjusted metric to rank the world's biggest...

100 moments that shaped baseball history

Published in 2018 by baseball historian Jacob Kornhauser, this list examines the defining moments throughout more than a century of play on the field, from Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis purportedly throwing a no-hitter while on acid to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier.

'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' was inspired by a billboard

If you’ve ever been to a baseball game, you’ve likely sung "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." The song was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth, a Tin Pan Alley musician inspired by a billboard advertising a game at the Polo Grounds in New York.

Some say baseball's drug problem goes back to the late 1800s

At age 32, pitcher James “Pud” Galvin was feeling tired and decided to take "the Brown-Séquard elixir," which contained a testicular fluid from dogs and guinea pigs, believed to invigorate tired bodies. It might've worked: Galvin pitched a two-hit shutout the next day.

How pitcher Pedro Martinez helped reverse the curse of the Red Sox

The team had not won a World Series for nearly 100 years—while their rivals, the Yankees, had won 26. The Dominican pitcher joined the club in 1997 and helped lead the team to reverse the curse.

Congress plays baseball together in a bipartisan charity game dating back to 1909

First organized in 1909 by Rep. John Tener, a former pro baseball player, the Congressional Baseball Game pits Democrats against Republicans to raise money for charity—and offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at lawmakers mixing rivalry with camaraderie.

Boston opened the first subway tunnel in the US in 1897

By the end of the 19th century, nearly 400,000 people were packed into less than a square mile of downtown Boston, with 8,000 horses pulling trolleys through streets choked with noise, manure, and congestion. This prompted the city to pursue a then-controversial subway system.

A deep dive into the man behind ballpark nachos

Nachos were invented in Mexico in 1943, but "ballpark nachos" (featuring liquid cheese and pickled jalapenos) were invented in 1976 for the Texas Rangers, then a relatively new franchise. This Texas Monthly piece digs into the history of Frank Libreto, who realized classic nachos could be a cost-efficient concession with just a few small tweaks.

The oldest restaurants in the US

This list features several establishments that have been around since before the Declaration of Independence, including the White Horse Tavern, in Newport, Rhode Island, and New York's Fraunces Tavern, where George Washington dismissed his troops at the end of the Revolutionary War.

The NHL's first regular season outdoor game was in 2003

Despite being a sport born on frozen ponds, modern professional hockey has held only a few exhibition and college games outside. In 2003, a game between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens brought players and 57,000 fans together to endure sub-zero temperatures for a piece of history.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in 1927

Black players were not permitted on the existing professional basketball teams, but Abe Saperstein—the team's original coach, owner, manager, and sometimes player—leaned into the team's all-Black roster, nodding to New York's historically Black neighborhood even though the team didn't play there until the late 1960s.

'I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. I like to live as big as I can.'

- Baseball legend Babe Ruth (1895-1948)

The early years of the Met

The Met didn’t start out in the grand, sprawling grounds that it currently occupies. This episode of Hometown History, a podcast about lesser-known historical places and events, covers the early years of the venerable institution. Learn about how the vision and planning of a group of 19th century artists and philanthropists took the Met from a small collection in a humble brick building to the cultural powerhouse that it is today.

The Rose Bowl was first played in 1902 and was the first postseason college football game

Held annually in Pasadena, California, the Rose Bowl is known as the “Granddaddy of Them All,” pairing top teams in a historic stadium and coinciding with the famed Rose Parade each New Year’s Day.

Benjamin Franklin donated the books that became the first true public library in the US

In 1778, the town of Franklin, Massachusetts—named in his honor—asked Benjamin Franklin for a bell, but he donated a book collection instead, saying "sense" was more important than "sound." Residents voted in 1790 to make the books freely available to all, creating the nation's first public library.

The first fantasy football league began in Oakland, California

Winkenbach organized the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League, the first fantasy football league. The game allowed team owners to draft players from both the NFL and the AFL, then separate leagues, and create an impossibly epic roster.

Robinson is among the league's greatest figures

Robinson won Rookie of the Year and played in the majors for 10 seasons, winning a World Series in 1955. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962. The Dodgers retired his number, 42, in 1972, and MLB retired it league-wide in 1997.

The New York Stock Exchange was started in 1792

When it first opened, traders would meet both outside on the street and in coffee shops to do business. Today, the NYSE is known as one of the most important financial institutions in the world.

Tennis' Grand Slam tournaments take place at some of the sport's most storied venues

There are over 50 events on the WTA calendar, but the tour's four Grand Slam tournaments are the ones both professionals and fans look forward to every year. This Eyes on the Stands video takes you on a journey from Melbourne Park, to Roland Garros, to the All England Club, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to learn the rich history of each venue.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Abbey Road Studios invented stereo recording (and was the site of most of the Beatles' recordings)

Built around 1830 and bought by the Gramophone Company in 1929, the St. John's Wood property became the world's first purpose-built recording studio. Its legacy spans stereo sound's invention, the Beatles' entire catalog, and blockbuster film scores from Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings.

CBGB, the breeding ground for punk, was intended to be a country bar

Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, Blondie, and many other bands got their start at CBGB. But its owner, Hillel “Hilly” Kristal, didn’t intend for it to be a punk rock venue. CBGB stood for “Country Bluegrass Blues,” though he included “OMFUG” (for “Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers”) on the venue’s marquee.

In 2024, Walden Pond was listed as an endangered place

The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the site of Henry David Thoreau's "Walden" experiment as one of the most endangered historic places in America due to a proposed airport expansion and the proposed development of a nearby plot of land.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Animal phobias are likely the most common type of phobias, followed by an extreme fear of heights.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.