"Fontenot...failed to take an easy forceout at second base on a hard bunt, opening the door to Philadelphia's game-busting four runs in the seventh."

How does getting the out at the wrong base open the way to a big inning? It could lead to scoring one run instead of zero, but it didn't lead to a four-run inning.

My overall opinion is not to try to get the lead runner on a bunt (unless it's the 8th or 9th in a close game) if it's not an absolutely sure out.

What really opens the gate to a big inning is trying to get the lead runner and failing. That means one fewer out and one more man on base.

But it's also because other sports have grabbed a larger share of the media pie than they had in 1959. It may partially be baseball mismarketing its product, but the NBA, NFL and college sports are far more recognized today.

Jeter has been a fine, amazingly consistent and durable player on a very good team, in New York, for fifteen years. But he's not a Mantle. Though I guess even Mantle wasn't really a Mantle. The legend has grown since he retired.

Also, players from the 50s had a much greater mystique, because there was so little TV coverage, and of course that was much greater in the 40s with DiMaggio, Feller and the rest.

I also submitted 25 games from the 8th Congress in Atlantic City 1921 that were not in the database. Boy, are they ever hard to find! I'm still missing a lot of them, but I (or someone on my behalf) have been through two years of <American Chess Bulletin>, two years of <British Chess Magazine>, and a year of the <Brooklyn Daily Eagle>, as well as stuff by Hilbert, so I've about run out of sources to check.

I was browsing your Game Collection: Lake Hopatcong 1923 (9th American Chess Congress. Are you still looking for missing games? I was noodling around in the <Eagle> for 1923 and I think I've found a few:

Round 3 -- Lasker-Morrison 1-0
Round 8 -- Morrison-Santasiere 1-0
Round 10 -- Janowski-Schapiro 1/2-1/2
Round 11 -- Black-Morrison 0-1
Round 12 -- Lasker-Palmer 1-0
Round 13 -- Santasiere-Schapiro 0-1
Round 13 -- Chajes-Janowski 0-1
Round 13 -- Black-Lasker 0-1 (the scan cut off half of White's moves, but I can tell you what issue it's in -- maybe you can find another source for that particular day and page)

At least I think these are games you don't have, assuming I am reading your coding correctly. Let me know if you want PGNs on any.

I'm having some connection problems with my source at the moment, so I might be able to find more, but not right now. I can check again later.

Truth is, if I were Swisher (and the Yankees), maybe I'd be arguing that the ball did hit me. Another man on base with one out, early in the game, could be more valuable than scoring the run from third.

And there's some interesting insights on baseball in those old newspapers. Here's some observations by Matt Kilroy, star pitcher from the 1880s and 1890s, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for 8/31/1909, p. 4:

<Kilroy on Latter-Day Twirlers>

"The pitchers of to-day do not play the game," said Matt Kilroy, the greatest left-hander of his time, and one of the best fielding pitchers the game has ever known. During the progress of a recent Athletic-Detroit game Mattie was standing far back in the grandstand behind the plate studying the pitching. Krause was in the box for the Athletics and Summers for the Tigers, and each made mistakes which were easy to notice. "Just look at that kid." continued Kilroy. "He is thinking of nothing but strike-outs . He lets the baserunners take too many liberties. Look at the start he gives them. No wonder they steal bases. You never saw baserunners get away with tricks like that when I was in the box.

"A quick throw would catch them, but you see he is thinking only of the batter. He wants to strike him out, and forgets that while he is doing that, if he succeeds, the runner can work around to a position in which he can score on almost any sort of a play. Summers is pretty good to-day, but he is not playing the game, either. He never thinks of backing up throws. He stood in his position and never made a move when that long bound came to Moriarty from Crawford. Had the ball come any way but true Summers' laziness would have cost a run or two. In my time the pitcher backed up every throw on which there was any possibility of a costly mistake."

It looks like the next generation always forgets how to play baseball. By now, I'm suprised they remember anything at all about the game.