As I work along on the next Bizarre Baseball Culture, I’ve been distracted by some great baseball articles along the way. Check them out:

Over at Slate: William Edward White was the son of a slave, but he was of mixed race and lived his life as a white man… so does his one appearance in 1879 “count” for being the first African-American major leaguer?

Michael Clair looked at the time Michael Bolton made a softball video. It may well be even weirder than Sammy Sosa Softball Slam.

And, finally, Jonah Keri tries to figure out what is going on with the Orioles.