I finally watched Eight Men Out
Kenesaw Mountain Landis served as a federal judge then the first commissioner of Major League Baseball; kept baseball from integrating
Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson became the first African-American major league baseball player of the modern era in 1947
a perfect game is a game in which a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) pitches a victory and in which no opposing player reaches base, i.e. no hits or walks; a no-hitter and a shutout; there have been 17 perfect games in the history of Major League Baseball — “more people have orbited the moon than have pitched a Major League Baseball perfect game” — stats
Raymond Johnson Chapman was the second of two Major League Baseball players to have died as a result of an injury received in a game. He was hit in the head by a pitch thrown by Carl Mays. He was replaced by Harry Lunte. (Jets to Brazil lyrics in “Chinatown”: “last of the pitchers, catfish done hunting Harry Lunte.” (James Augustus “Catfish” Hunter was a Major League Baseball pitcher between 1965 and 1979 and pitched one of those 17 perfect games.)
best game in baseball: October 3, 1951 — Dodgers/Giant pennant race; Bobby Thomson at bat, Ralph Branca pitching, the “shot heard ’round the world,” “The Giants win the pennant!” (they went on to lose the World Series to the Yankees); referenced in “Pafko at the Wall” (Underworld) by Don Delillo, Sports Night (tv show), The Godfather, and (according to Wikipedia (i.e., i don’t personally remember these two)) in The Wonder Years and M*A*S*H.