In an 1856 Knickerbocker meeting, backed a motion to permit nonmembers to take part in intramural games if fewer than eighteen Knicks were present. Alas, this couldn't be decided without some good old-fashioned squabbling. That begged the question: Exactly how many innings was the right amount? At that point, the Knickerbockers were torn between seven or nine men to a side - it all depended on how many were available that day - and for consistency's sake, the number of players dictated the number of innings played. Enter Alexander Cartwright, founder of the Knickerbocker Club and definitely not a real fireman: After an 1856 game ended in a 12-12 tie on account of darkness, it was clear that a change needed to be made. A problem was brewing, though: As skill levels increased and pitching caught up to hitting, those 21 aces were harder and harder to come by. This wasn't a problem at first, in an age in which scoring runs was pretty commonplace - games lasted an average of only six innings in the 1840s, and featured scores as high as 60-100 combined runs. Instead, teams played until one of them scored 21 aces - the 19th century equivalent of a run. In baseball's infancy, not only was it a game without a clock, but it was also a game without a set number of innings. Why nine innings (and why nine men in a lineup)? Even when the concept was introduced, though, it was slowly and tentatively: Only every third "unfair" pitch was called a ball, meaning a batter could only walk after nine (!) pitches outside of the strike zone.Īs run-scoring declined and pitchers began to do more than just feed batters, the rule was frequently adjusted - first to eight balls, then to seven, then to six and so on, until in 1889, the league settled on four. Games were routinely called due to lack of daylight, so, in 1863, called balls were instituted. #Mlb 9 innings 18 combination cards freeAs you might imagine, this created some, uh, pretty drastic pace of play concerns: Batters, free to wait for the perfect pitch, would see up to 40-50 pitches per at-bat - in one 1860 game between the Brooklyn Atlantics and the Brooklyn Excelsiors, 665 pitches were thrown. But that's not all! The idea of a "ball" didn't yet exist, either, so eventually pitchers recognized that they could continue to deliver pitches well wide of the plate and wait for the batter to get impatient. And we do mean plenty: Initially, called strikes didn't even exist, and when they were instituted in 1858, they came with caveats - the first pitch couldn't be a called strike, and umpires were required to warn each batter that a certain pitch would be called a strike in the future. So, naturally, those batters were given plenty of chances to make that happen. For everything else, though, it's been a long and winding road.Īgain, baseball's primary objective in the mid-19th century was to let batters put the ball in play as much as possible. "Three strikes you're out" has been a foundational rule of baseball since the very beginning - it was even codified in the 1845 Knickerbocker Rules, thought to be some of the very first written rules of the game. Why are batters given four balls and three strikes? The move fundamentally changed the relationship to the batter, and changed much of the game with it - from the rule stipulating that batters could dictate where the pitch was thrown to the function of balls and strikes. #Mlb 9 innings 18 combination cards professionalFinally, in 1884, Cincinnati Red Stockings boss and "Father of Professional Baseball" Harry Wright made it official: Pitchers could deliver the ball any way they wanted. Presumably tired of getting shelled year after year, pitchers like Tommy Bond started pushing the envelope inch by inch, creating greater speed and movement with essentially sidearm deliveries - until, in 1872, the perpendicular rule was relaxed to allow for greater range of motion.Īt that point, all bets were off: Pitchers - recognizing that they could throw harder, locate better and throw more ferocious breaking balls - began to creep their release point all the way up to a three-quarters arm slot by the early 1880s. Their purpose was simple: Offer the ball up in a hittable position and get out of the way. Baseball evolved from other stick and ball games like cricket, so, like in those games, pitchers weren't originally intended to be in opposition to the batter. If that sounds like a pretty easy time for hitters, well, that was the point. (Incidentally, this is also why they're referred to as "pitchers" - they pitched the ball in the traditional sense of the term, with a stiff underhanded motion, almost like tossing a horseshoe.)
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