Your Daily Facts about Baseball
It is a herculean task to narrow down the date of origin of baseball. It is believed that the game originated somewhere between the mid-1700s and early-1800s in the United States.
In 1866, Charles A. Peverelly wrote, “The game of base ball has now become beyond question the leading feature of the outdoor sports of the United States … It is a game which is peculiarly suited to the American temperament and disposition; … in short, the pastime suits the people, and the people suit the pastime.”
1846: first recorded argument between a player and an umpire (guess who won the argument).
The first baseball stadium built in the United States was the Forbes Field, built in Pittsburgh in 1909.
The first professional baseball league was initiated in 1871. Most of the big cities in the eastern parts of United States had a professional team representing them by the beginning of 20th century.
In the major league baseball,the distance between bases is 90 feet . The distance from the pictures mound to home plate is 60 feet , 8 inches.
Baseball ended one of its oldest traditions in 1997 when inter league play begin for the first time. This means that teams from the American league can play National league teams during the regular season The first inter league game was played on June 12, 1997.
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap while playing baseball, and he used to changed it every two innings.
Major league umpire Cal Hubbard is the only person in both the baseball and football Hall of fame!
The inventor of baseball is also credited with firing the first Union shot of Civil war.
Bob Feller and Kerry Woods are the only pitchers in history to accomplish this unusual feat : They both stroke out one batter for every year of there ages in a game.
The lifespan of an average baseball is just eight days. A baseball is used only once in one Major League Baseball game.
Before 1859, baseball umpires were seated in padded chairs behind home plate.
The only two days of the year in which there are no professional games(MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-star game.
Ted Williams won the AL batting titles when he was 39 and again at 40. The last At Bat of Ted’s career was a homerun on the last day of the 1960 season.
The first “Babe” in baseball was Babe Adams who pitched from 1906 to 1926.
Joe DiMaggio is the only person to play on four World Championship teams in his first four years in the big leagues, the 1936-39 Yankees.
The first World Series was played between Pittsburgh and Boston in 1903 and was a nine-game series. Boston won the series 5-3.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum is located in Cooperstown, N.Y. It was created in 1935 to celebrate baseball’s 100th anniversary.