New Baseball Trivia

Baseball is known as “The American Pastime,” but don’t let that make you think that baseball is only played in America. Currently baseball is played all over the world and is continuing to grow in popularity in the most diverse countries. Places like Japan, Korea, Cuba, and even India all have national baseball teams who represent them.

If you would like to learn some baseball trivia, things that you probably didn’t know beforehand, then this article will be a great read for you.

• Contrary to popular belief, baseball was originally introduced in England as early as the year 1744. Then, the ball was cased in hard leather and was struck with a wooden bat. At that time it was targeted towards inactive, unhealthy children as a way for them to get exercise and have fun as well. Only later did it catch on for adults.
• Mickey Mantle hit the longest ever recorded home run at Detroit Brigg’s Stadium in 1960. He sailed a baseball 643 feet before it hit the ground.
• The first player to hit a triple in the majors was Levi Meyerle in 1876.
• Brooks Robinson holds the record for the most years played with the same team, the Baltimore Orioles.
• Frank Robinson holds the record for hitting the most home runs in an opening day game. That number is 8.
• Fergie Jenkins is the only pitcher to have a record of over 3000 strikeouts and less than 1000 walks.
• The only game (to date) in which two triple plays happened was played on July 17, 1990, where the Minnesota Twins lost to the Red Sox 1-0, despite pulling off this amazing defensive feat.
• George Gore and Billy Hamilton both stole a record 7 bases in the same baseball game in 1881 and 1894, respectively.
• Babe Ruth won his only MVP award in 1923. At that time, there was a policy that no player could win more than one MVP award, so even though Babe pulled off amazing offensive seasons after that year, he was ineligible to win again.
• The pitcher’s mound was implemented in order to increase pitching speed -- by creating a downhill slope -- and is standardly supposed to be 10 inches above the home plate. This rule was set in 1969.

Baseball has vast amounts of history related to it. These facts that I have given you are just a few of the incredibly interesting knowledge of baseball. I hope that you have committed something to memory and can share it with others.