Early sports historical changes

[Roady]

I am still looking when I have time but it is slow going.

[Roady]

Baseball Almanac at http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hibavg2.shtml
states ....
"Also, in 1887, when a player received a base on balls (walk) he was also awarded a hit in his official statistics. The rules of the day and Major League Baseball recognize the statistics as they were recorded and Baseball Almanac has also complied with the new direction."
They have him ranked first for single season batting average.

[coxfan]

Thanks, Roady, for your help!

[Roady]

Thanks, Roady, for your help!

You're welcome.

[coxfan]

Today's rule about tagging out a runner comes from an early rule that allowed a runner to be put out by hitting him with a thrown ball between bases! Early variants of baseball allowed this practice, called "soaking" when homemade balls were usually softer than today's balls. But "soaked" runners weren't always happy with the bruises they got, so soaking was replaced very early when the modern rule that the fielder has to be holding the ball.

The effect was to allow harder balls; another step toward modern baseball.

[coxfan]

I just bought a modern reprint of Henry Chadwick's 1868 book on baseball. It was the first book devoted totally to baseball.

In it, Chadwick talks of his battle to eliminate the rule that a batter was out if his hit was caught either on the fly or on "first bound" (ie first bounce). There were no fielding gloves back then, and so the "first bound" rule was popular to protect bare hands.

Chadwick was among those who thought it was more "manly" to catch balls on the fly (without a glove!), so he adopted a tricky tactic. He said he argued both sides of the issue in different articles, thereby creating two parties where there had been only one. Then he got the National Association to experiment with eliminating the "first bound" catch, and the idea caught on.

But his victory was only partial, as in 1868 the "fly catch" rule applied only to fair balls. The "first bound" catch was still an out on foul balls and uncaught third strikes.

[coxfan]

The Federal League was a third major league that existed only two years: in 1914 and 1915. But though it folded, it left a profound impact on modern baseball through the following:

1) Wrigley Field was built for the Chicago Federal League club, and became the Cubs' home after the Feds folded.

2) Babe Ruth was sold to the Red Sox, because his minor-league club in Baltimore was being clobbered at the gate by their Federal League competition that played literally across the street. With attendance for the little club dropping as low as 150 even with Ruth playing, Ruth was shopped around. The Red Sox bought his rights sooner than he otherwise have made the majors.

3) Baseball's first Commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, came to the MLB owners' attention when the Federal League sued the Majors under anti-trust statutes. Landis happened to be the judge who got the suit, which was a bad mistake by the Feds who filed it in his jurisdiction. They didn't realize that Landis was a baseball fan who feared that the suit would kill the Reserve Clause that bound players to their clubs.

Landis was known for arbitrary rulings that were often reversed. There's little doubt that he deliberately delayed the trial to force the cash-strapped Federal League to reach a "settlement" that killed their league and left the Reserve Clause safe for a while. The AL and NL were so impressed by Landis that he was later tabbed to Chair the revamped three-man Commission. It became a one-man job when Landis demanded just broad powers that they dropped the idea of a three-man commission to let him reign alone.

4) Despite the setback with Landis, elements of the defunct Federal League got to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that baseball is exempt from Anti-Trust statutes (A strange ruling, since other sports weren't exempted.) The anti-Trust ruling has influenced many later MLB actions, through fear that the exemption would be taken by Congress.

[coxfan]

Cricket is today a strange game to Americans, but it once was a major sport in the US. In the late 1850's, there were three bat-and-ball sports that were organized in the US:

1) Cricket had clubs all over the US, using British rules that had been standardized sine the mid-1700's.

2) A "Massachusetts game" variation of baseball was played in New England. It differed from today's baseball in such basics as shape of the infield, outs/inning, and other things. Scores in the Massachusetts tended to be very high (50 runs or more per team).

3) The "New York game" was still mainly a NYC game by 1857. Like today's game, it had a symmetrical diamond infield, three outs/inning, and foul balls ; though it differed otherwise from the modern game.

All three formed national associations in the US. But by the late 1860's, the New York game had spread all over the US and was becoming modern baseball. It drove the Massachusetts game into extinction. Cricket nearly disappeared from the US but remains the "national game" of Britain and the Commonwealth.

Ironically, an attempt to introduce baseball into England was ridiculed by the British, who called it a child's game that wasn't as "scientific" as cricket. Neither country has shown any enthusiasm for the other's game.

But American cricket influenced the development of baseball. Americans in the 1840's formed baseball clubs (like today's astronomy or chess clubs) that evolved into modern baseball organizations. (Professional players still use the word "clubs", a term that's recently spreading into other sports.) The idea of forming these clubs came from cricket clubs dating back at least to 1750 in Britain. The Knickerbocker baseball club in 1845 mimicked the cricket tradition, dating to the late 1700's, of having a prominent club publish standardized rules. That was a crucial step in creating organized baseball.

Cricket also led the way in having professionals, some of whom helped to promote the idea of baseball professionals when it was still controversial.

[coxfan]

The name "shortstop" is a strange term for a position, and that's because it was once a strange position. An 1864 diagram of a baseball diamond showed the "short stop" stationed directly behind the pitcher on a line between him and second base. Apparently the second baseman played near his base, and the short stop had the job of roaming wherever he needed to help the other infielders. Only by the late 1860's did the position become what it is today, with the shortstop (becoming one word) playing between second and third as a twin of the second baseman. (Source: "The American Boy's Book of Sports and Games", published 1864)

[coxfan]

More from Chadwick's 1868 book on baseball: Although Chadwick invented "K" for strikeout and is the father of baseball statistics, he refused to record strikeouts as a pitching stat. He considered that a strikeout was entirely the result of bad batting, and not a credit to the pitcher.