OPS stands for On-base Plus Slugging, and it might be the single most useful offensive stat in baseball. Add a hitter’s on-base percentage to their slugging percentage and you get one number that tells you almost everything about their offensive value: how often they reach base and how much damage they do when they hit … Read more
Here’s the single most important concept in the entire baseball card hobby: the same card can be worth $50 ungraded and $4,500 in PSA 10. Not because the card itself is different, but because Professional Sports Authenticator put a tiny number on a plastic slab. The 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. is the textbook … Read more
The most expensive baseball card ever sold went for $12.6 million. That happened in August 2022 — a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle in pristine SGC 9.5 condition, sold by Heritage Auctions in a single 90-second bidding war that started above $10 million and never looked back. The buyer was anonymous. The seller had owned the … Read more
If you have a box of baseball cards from the late 1980s or early 1990s sitting in your parents’ attic, I have some honest news for you. Most of them are worth less than the cardboard they’re printed on. The cards that everyone thought would pay for college — the Canseco rookies, the Chipper Jones … Read more
The batter’s box is one of those baseball measurements that fans rarely think about until they need to know it. The boxes get re-chalked before every game, players know exactly where to stand without thinking about it, and unless someone gets called out for stepping out, the dimensions never come up. For coaches building practice … Read more
The infield fly rule is the most frequently misunderstood rule in baseball, and the people who get it wrong loudest are usually the ones who think they understand it. The rule exists for one specific reason — to prevent a defensive trick play that would otherwise be unstoppable — but the way it actually works … Read more
The dropped third strike rule in softball confuses players, parents, and even some coaches because it works differently than they expect — and differently between fastpitch and slowpitch. The basic rule mirrors baseball’s, but softball adds its own layers: the orange safety base, the no-leadoff context, and the fact that the rule isn’t even used … Read more
If you’ve ever stepped onto a high school baseball field after years of watching MLB games on TV, you might be surprised how similar everything looks. That’s not an accident — high school baseball under NFHS rules uses essentially the same field dimensions as Major League Baseball. The infield is identical. The pitcher’s mound is … Read more
Three strikes and you’re out. That’s one of the most fundamental rules in baseball — except when it isn’t. If the catcher fails to catch the third strike, the batter sometimes gets a free shot at running to first base. Sometimes. The “sometimes” is what trips people up, because the rule depends on a specific … Read more
Buying your kid a batting helmet should be one of the simplest equipment decisions in baseball. Walk into any sporting goods store and you’ll find a wall of them: Junior, Senior, T-Ball, XS through XL. The problem is that “Junior” and “Senior” mean different things at different brands, and a 10-year-old who needs a “Junior” … Read more