Minor leaguers once unionized for better pay, housing, and medical care

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.

MLB teams can travel with roughly 12,000 pounds of gear and luggage

Each of the league's 30 teams has travel directors facilitating intricate logistics to move players and luggage to the next city, often after a game and the night before another game day. This video breaks down the wild planning required.

MLB pitchers were charged with benefiting from sports betting

In November 2025, two pitchers for the Cleveland Guardians were charged with coordinating with sports bettors to enrich themselves and others. In many instances, they shared the kinds of pitches they would throw at specific points in the game. Bettors then placed money on those actions.

In 2024, the league signed a 11-year deal with Disney, Amazon, and NBC Universal

The $2.2B deal was widely applauded in the media, but the Players Association questioned how the NBA arrived at the valuation and why the deal gives players less than 10% of total revenue compared to the NBA’s 50%.

The rising cost of taking a family to the ballgame

While inflation affects the price of all goods and services across an economy, some hit harder for consumers than others. Taking data from the average cost of tickets all the way down to the number of hot dogs a family would buy, the average pricetag for a family of four to attend a baseball game is now just over $200–making America’s pastime cost-prohibitive for many families.

Before 1920, a single baseball was used throughout a game

During the Deadball Era, pitchers doctored a baseball with spit, nail files, and licorice for a competitive edge, leading to discolored, mangled, and lopsided baseballs by the game's end. This concluded in 1920 when Cleveland Indians star shortstop Ray Chapman was hit in the head by a ball too dirty to see and died. The rules were changed to require an umpire to replace a dirty baseball and outlawed the spitball.

Free agency dramatically changed player compensation

When team owners created the reserve clause in 1879, the idea was that each team would control player salaries rather than the open market. After the 1975 elimination of the reserve clause, players became eligible for free agency after a contract expired, increasing wages across the league.

How fantasy baseball fights the loneliness epidemic

Experts believe the erosion of traditional community organizations has led to a loneliness epidemic. This deep dive explores how fantasy baseball has filled the gap for some men, providing a stand-in social network.

Integration of Latino players in MLB

The Senators’ spectacular losing record obscures one of the most important stories in baseball history: the club’s role in integrating Latino players into the major leagues

130,000 working musicians once went on strike

The early days of the record industry looked much different than they do now. There were few national record labels and there were organized musicians who viewed themselves more as day laborers rather than artists. That allowed for an organized strike by the American Federation of Musicians.

After emancipation, many slaves went from working for free to working for tips

In 1938, the New Deal established a minimum wage for one-fifth of the labor force, with many sectors—including service workers—not covered. Today, although the subminimum wage of $2.13 an hour is enforced, a large portion of those paychecks go to taxes like Social Security and Medicare.

Some Super Bowl performers make less than $1K for the event

The NFL has a longstanding policy of not compensating Super Bowl Halftime show performers, with the idea that the true compensation for artists is the scale of the exposure to the artist’s music. Previous Super Bowl performers have made the union rate minimum, which is about $1K per day.

Little League sensation Danny Almonte was two years older than his competitors

The New York pitcher was a hotshot pitcher in the 2001 Little League World Series, catapulting his Bronx team to a third-place finish thanks to a no-hitter and a perfect game. Sports Illustrated eventually reported that Almonte was 14, not 12, and that his coach and father had knowingly misled Little League. They were both banned, though Almonte himself was cleared of all wrongdoing.

In 2020, the league quarantined players in a 'wubble'

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the WNBA delayed the start of their season, choosing to play in a quarantine bubble for a 22-game season. Players choosing to opt in knew the decision wasn't just for them, but for their families. This TNT video explores what it was like for WNBA players to play, practice, and live together for nearly 100 days.

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.

For years, Black players were tacitly banned from professional football leagues

In 1902, Charles Follis was the first Black player to play in a professional football game, and Black players were allowed in years after other leagues banned them. A "gentleman’s agreement” led to the league banning Black players in 1933, until four Black men reintegrated pro football in 1946.

Full-time employees can cost up to 1.4 times as much as an independent worker

While gig work jobs often have a low barrier to entry and flexible work hours, there are a few downsides to the sector, too. For instance, gig work platforms like Airbnb likely won’t pay for an Airbnb host’s health insurance or paid time off.

Unions are organizations workers form to improve aspects of their working conditions

While there are many different types of labor unions, they are, generally speaking, organizations workers form to improve aspects of their working conditions, such as vacation time or discipline processes.

A tragic injury led to the original NHL All-Star Game

The annual NHL All-Star Game is a joyous affair celebrating the best players each season. But its origins came from one of the most terrifying moments in hockey history. In a 1933 game, Maple Leafs wing Ace Bailey was nearly killed on the ice, and the NHL organized a benefit game to raise money for his family.

Pickleball injuries were responsible for $350M in medical costs in 2023

Unsurprisingly, picklers over 50 account for 90% of the injuries, with the most common being sprains, strains, and fractures. Experts say a substantial pregame warm-up can prevent most injuries.

How men's volleyball teams are saving struggling colleges in the US

Many colleges and universities in the US are facing severe financial pressure from a mix of decreasing research funding, lower enrollment, and, overall, a decreased interest in higher education. For some colleges, beefing up athletic programs that aren't available at all schools, like men's volleyball, is attracting new students.

Shohei Ohtani's interpreter allegedly stole $16M for gambling debts

Ippei Mizuhara first met Shohei Ohtani during the two-way star’s rookie year in Japan. Ten years later, Mizuhara, who had become a trusted friend and confidant to Ohtani, is alleged to have stolen $16M from his employer to repay gambling debts.

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

The first US Olympic basketball team was made up of amateurs from company teams

In 1936, the first year the Olympics featured basketball, the US squad featured players from two companies: an oil refinery in Kansas and Universal Pictures in Hollywood.

Members of the United States Congress earn $174,000 annually

Members of the United States Congress have received the same pay since 2009. Leadership roles are more lucrative, and lawmakers become eligible for a federal pension after five years, with benefits tied to the length of service and salary.

The best US cities for entry-level jobs with livable wages

In Bakersfield, California, 100% of entry-level job ads on Indeed recently claimed to pay above the local living wage. But other cities, like Honolulu, Hawaii, aren't as livable for entry-level workers: Just 27.69% of new job posts advertise a salary in line with the city's living wage.

Annual memberships for concierge medicine can be $1,000 or as much as $50,000

Concierge medicine practices offer more opportunities for same-day visits and longer meeting times with doctors in exchange for annual membership fees on top of typical insurance payments, copays, and deductibles.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

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.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

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

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Sears sold DIY house kits starting at $600 in its famous catalog from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in roughly 10,000 'Sears and Roebuck houses' being built.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Human-to-human transmission of hantavirus remains extremely rare, so the 2026 hantavirus cruise ship outbreak doesn't mean we're facing a COVID-style pandemic risk.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.