Chapter 52

PLAY BALL!

I love baseball. And I’m sure many of you folks do as well. I grew up in Queens, New York and the memories of going to Shea Stadium with my father and grandfather to see our beloved Mets play will always make me smile (even if they didn’t have the greatest seasons!). When they were old enough, I took my own kids and their friends out to see the games played by the local AAA team. I honestly believe that AAA baseball is better, because the players give it all they have, because they are either on the way up, or struggling not to go down.

However, Sweetie isn’t impressed. She sees (in her words); “A bunch of guys standing around, waiting for the ball to be hit and maybe they can run in a circle and score a point.” (Remember, she is from Australia, where they play Cricket. It’s a strange game, to my eyes, but then again, a lot of stuff from Australia is strange!) So to help educate her a little bit about the fine history of the game, I came up with the following.

The base most stolen in a baseball game is second base.

The unofficial anthem of American baseball, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” is traditionally sung during the middle of the 7th inning. It was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer, both of whom had never been to a baseball game.

Mo’ne Davis (2001– ) became the first female to win a Little League World Series baseball game.

Early baseballs contained anything from a rock to a walnut in the center.

The life span of a major league baseball is 5–7 pitches. During a typical game, approximately 70 balls are used.

While baseball initially started in the U.S., it has spread worldwide. Today more than 100 countries are part of the International Baseball Federation. Japan has the largest pro baseball league outside the U.S.

Baseball’s L.A. Dodgers, originally founded in Brooklyn, are named after the legendary skill that local residents showed at “dodging” the city’s trolley streetcar system.

The Boston Americans won baseball’s first World Series in 1903.

The baseball team with the most World Series wins is the New York Yankees with 27 titles.

The first known reference to the word “baseball” was in a 1744 publication by children’s publisher John Newberry called A Little Pretty Pocket-Book.

A “can of corn” is an easy fly ball. The term comes from when old-time grocers used their aprons to catch cans knocked from a high shelf.

Craig Biggio (1965– ) of the Houston Astros holds the record for a player most often hit by a pitch.

Baseball gloves have evolved more than any other piece of the sport’s equipment.

The oldest baseball park still in use is Fenway Park, the home field of the Boston Red Sox, which debuted in 1912.

The New York Yankees were the first baseball team to wear numbers on their backs, in the 1920s. They initially wore numbers based on the batting order. Babe Ruth always hit third, so he was number 3.

For the first half of the 20th century, major league teams barred African-Americans from participating in its baseball games. However, African-Americans formed “Negro Leagues,” which had some of the greatest players of the century.

The Yankees’ Mickey Mantle holds the record for the longest home run on record for a 565-foot clout hit at Washington DC’s old Griffith Stadium on April 17, 1953. As a switch hitter, he was batting right-handed against left-handed pitcher Chuck Stobbs from the Washington Senators.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Rick Monday became a national hero when he rescued an American flag from two men who were trying to set it on fire in the outfield at Dodger Stadium during a game on April 25, 1976. The 25,167 fans gave him a standing ovation and burst out singing “God Bless America.”

The first U.S. president to throw the ceremonial first ball was William Howard Taft (a former semipro baseball player) on April 14, 1910. American presidents, except Jimmy Carter, have been throwing out the first ball on Opening Day ever since.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed for the first time at a sporting event on September 5, 1918, in the middle of the 7th inning of Game 1 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs at (rented out) Comiskey Park.

Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. became the first father and son to play in the major leagues as teammates for the Seattle Mariners in 1990. On September 14, 1990, they hit back-to-back home runs, creating another father-son baseball first.

Visiting teams wear (at least mostly) gray uniforms so fans can easily distinguish between the visiting team and the home team. The tradition dates back to the late 1800s when traveling teams did not have time to launder their uniforms and, consequently, wore gray to hide the dirt.

The first pro baseball game ever to be aired on television was on August 26, 1939. It was a doubleheader between Brooklyn and Cincinnati.