Some Interesting Facts about Baseball - America’s Favorite Pastime

With a long history and long-standing position as America’s favorite pastime, Baseball has the most colorful past of any sport. You may think you know a lot about this beloved game but are you aware of these facts?

• Five to seven pitches is the average life span of a Major League baseball.
• The first recorded argument between an umpire and a player occurred in 1846.
• On May 9th, 1984, a game between The Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox clocked in at eight hours and six minutes and entered the record books as the longest baseball game in history.
• The man who invented baseball also holds credit for firing the first union shot of civil war.
• In 1903, Pittsburgh and Boston played the first World Series. Boston won 5-3 in the 9-game series.
• Created in 1935 to celebrate baseball’s 100th anniversary, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in located in Cooperstown, New York.
• Fly balls that bounced over the outfield fence were considered home runs prior to the 1930 American League Season and the 1931 National League season.
• The distances between bases in Major League Baseball is 90 feet.
• The salary for a professional baseball player in the 1970’s was around 25,000 dollars. Today it is around 3.1 million.

Not that you know some interesting facts about the game of baseball and it’s history, here are some facts you might not have known about some of baseball’s most famous players and teams.

• The shortest major league baseball player was Edward Carl “Eddie” Gaedel. He stood at three feet, seven inches and weighed sixty-five pounds.
• Hailing from Drumheller, Alberta, Glen Edward Gorbous has the longest baseball throw on record.
• William Cummings’ invention of the curve ball came to him in a peculiar way after seeing a spinning clamshell curve across the water.
• While playing, Babe Ruth wore a cabbage under his cap which he changed every two innings.
• Cal Ripkin, Jr. of the Baltimore Orioles didn’t miss a single game in 16 years. From April 30th, 1982 to September 19th, 1998, he played 2,632 straight games.
• The single-season home run record of seventy was broken when Barry Bonds of San Francisco hit 73 home runs in 2001.
• He played 27 seasons in major league and pitcher, Nolan Ryan struck out more batters than any other pitcher.
• Connie Mack, former manager of the Philadelphia A’s had 3,755 career victories under his belt, more than any other manager.
• Twenty-six series titles were won by the New York Yankees which is more than any other team.
• Trades are normal events in the game of baseball but consider this bizarre trade. One of the greatest pitchers of all time, Cy Young, was traded for a suit.