The Spring 2026 issue of SABR's Baseball Research Journal delves into topics ranging from interracial baseball in 1867 to left-handed double-play combinations, from translating the rules of baseball into Mi'kmaq (the indigenous language of Canada's Atlantic Provinces) to professional women players in Banana Ball.
"Did MLB's Clean Ball Policy Fuel the Hitting and Scoring Surge of the 1920s?"
by David J. Gordon
Some baseball analysts have pointed to baseball's adoption of its "Clean Ball Policy" following the August 1920 beaning death of Cleveland SS Ray Chapman as a major catalyst of the surge in hitting and scoring that marked the turning point demarcating the end of baseball's "Deadball Era" and the dawn of the modern game. If this hypothesis is true, this offensive surge should show up mainly in the later innings, when scuffed and dirty balls would have previously remained in play; the new policy would have had little or no impact in the early innings, when fresh baseballs were always in play. But was such a simple solution the real answer? Did replacing those dirty, scuffed-up balls with new ones really lead to the outbreak of offense in the 1920s?
"Babe Ruth's Anomalous 1929 Season: Why Did His Bases on Balls Plummet?"
by Herm Krabbenhoft and Mike Haupert
Babe Ruth was an extraordinary batter with respect to the "three true outcomes" in baseball. In the two positive outcomes – hitting home home runs and receiving bases on balls – the Sultan of Swat topped the American League twelve times and eleven times, respectively. In the negative true outcome – striking out – the Bambino led the AL just five times. From 1926 through 1931, Ruth put together "the finest sustained display of hitting that baseball has ever seen." During those six seasons he averaged 50 home runs, 155 runs batted in, 147 runs scored, and batted .354. Ruth led the AL in homers in each of those six se
