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1942 BILLY HERMAN BROOKLYN DODGERS VINTAGE PHOTO BASEBALL HALL OF FAMER ORIGINAL For Sale

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1942 BILLY HERMAN BROOKLYN DODGERS VINTAGE PHOTO BASEBALL HALL OF FAMER ORIGINAL:
$271.66

BILLY HERMAN VINTAGE ORIGINAL 7X9 INCH PHOTO FROM 1942 SAFE AT HOME AS HE SLID AS A MEMBER OF THE BROOKLYN DODGERS.PHOTO DEPICTS UMPIRE ZIGGY SEARS CALLED THE PLAY OUT BUT CALLED HERMAN SAFE AFTER RAY LAMANNO CINCINNATI CATCHER DROPPED THE BALLWilliam Jennings Bryan Herman (July 7, 1909 – September 5, 1992) was an American second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) during the 1930s and 1940s. Known for his stellar defense and consistent batting, Herman still holds many National League (NL) defensive records for second basemen and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975.Contents1 Biography1.1 Early life1.2 Baseball career1.3 Later life1.4 Personal2 See also3 References4 Further reading5 External linksBiographyEarly lifeBorn in New Albany, Indiana, in 1909, and named after William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Presidential candidate and statesman of the turn of the 20th century,[1] Herman attended New Albany High School.
Baseball careerHerman broke into the majors in 1931 with the Chicago Cubs and asserted himself as a star the following season, 1932, by hitting .314 and scoring 102 runs. His first at-bat was memorable. Facing Cincinnati Reds pitcher Si Johnson, Herman chopped a pitch into the back of home plate, which then bounced up and hit Herman in the back of the head, knocking him out.[2] A fixture in the Chicago lineup over the next decade, Herman was a consistent hitter and solid producer. He regularly hit .300 or higher (and as high as .341 in 1935) and drove in a high of 93 runs in 1936.A 1933 Goudey baseball card of Herman.After a sub-standard offensive year in 1940, Herman was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941. He had one of his finest offensive season in 1943, when he batted .330 with a .398 on-base percentage and 100 runs driven in.
Herman missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons to serve in World War II, but returned to play in 1946 with the Dodgers and Boston Braves (after being traded mid-season). At 37, he was considered prime managerial material by the new owners of the Pittsburgh Pirates. On September 30, 1946, Herman was traded to Pittsburgh with three marginal players (outfielder Stan Wentzel, pitcher Elmer Singleton and infielder Whitey Wietelmann) for third baseman Bob Elliott and catcher Hank Camelli. Herman was promptly named playing manager of the 1947 Pirates, but he was aghast at the cost—Elliott—the Pirates had paid for him. \"Why, they\'ve gone and traded the whole team on me\", he said.[3] Elliott won the 1947 NL Most Valuable Player award and led Boston to the 1948 National League pennant. Herman\'s 1947 Pirates lost 92 games and finished tied for seventh in the NL, and he resigned before the season\'s final game. (His last appearance as a Major League player was on August 1 of that year.)
Herman then managed in the minor leagues and became a Major League coach with the Dodgers (1952–57) and Braves (now based in Milwaukee) (1958–59)—serving on five National League pennant winners in eight seasons. Then he moved to the American League (AL) as the third-base coach of the Boston Red Sox for five years (1960–64), before managing the Red Sox to lackluster records in 1965 and 1966; his 1965 Boston club lost 100 games. After his firing by the Red Sox in September 1966, he coached for the California Angels (1967) and San Diego Padres (1978–79) and served in player development roles with the Padres and Oakland Athletics.
Herman finished his 1,922-game big-league career with a .304 batting average, 1,163 runs scored, 2,345 hits, 486 doubles, 82 triples, 47 home runs, 839 runs batted in, 737 bases on balls and 428 strikeouts. Defensively, he recorded an overall .968 fielding percentage. He won four NL pennants (in 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1941) but no World Series championships as a player (although he was a coach on the 1955 World Series champion Brooklyn Dodgers). His record as a Major League manager was 189-274 (.408). Herman holds the NL records for most putouts in a season by a second baseman and led the league in putouts seven times. He also shares the Major League record for most hits on opening day, with five, set April 14, 1936.
Later life
Herman in 1978Herman moved to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida in 1968. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975. He died of cancer in 1992.[4]
PersonalHerman\'s granddaughter is Cheri Daniels, wife of former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.[5]
See also Biography portalicon Baseball portalList of Major League Baseball career hits leadersList of Major League Baseball doubles recordsList of Major League Baseball career doubles leadersList of Major League Baseball career runs scored leadersList of Major League Baseball annual doubles leadersList of Major League Baseball annual triples leadersList of Major League Baseball player-managers
Billy Herman, a baseball Hall of Fame second baseman who in 1941 helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win their first pennant in 21 years, died of cancer on Saturday. He was 83 years old.
Mr. Herman, who was named to 10 All-Star Games over 15 seasons in the National League, holds the National League record for highest batting average in All-Star Games at .433 (13 for 33). He entered the major leagues in 1931 and played with the Chicago Cubs for 10 seasons. He then joined Leo Durocher\'s Dodgers.
With teammates Joe (Ducky) Medwick, Pee Wee Reese, Dolph Camilli, Kirby Higbe, Pete Reiser, Dixie Walker and Whitlow Wyatt, Mr. Herman helped Brooklyn win the pennant before it lost to the Yankees in the 1941 World Series.
William Herman, a resident of Palm Beach Gardens, was born in New Albany, Ind., on July 7, 1909, and named after the three-time Democratic presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan.
He served two years in the Navy during World War II and returned to the majors in 1946 with the Dodgers. He played his final season with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947.
Mr. Herman ended his 15-year career with a .304 batting average and 2,345 hits in 1,922 regular-season games. He played in four World Series, three with the Cubs (1932, \'35, \'38) and the one with the Dodgers, but none took the championship and three of those clubs lost to the Yankees.
Thanks for reading The Times.Subscribe to The TimesHe was named to the National League All-Star team seven times with Chicago (1934-40) and three with Brooklyn (1941-43).
Mr. Herman coached and managed in the majors from 1947 through 1966. In four seasons as a manager for Pittsburgh and the Boston Red Sox, Herman had a 189-274 record. He retired from baseball in 1975 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame the same year.
A resident of Palm Beach County since 1968, Herman is survived by his wife, Frances; a brother, Frank of New Albany, Ind.; two granddaughters, Cheri Daniels of Indianapolis and Terry Herman of Bloomington, Ind., and four great-granddaughters.
“Baseball was always kind of a struggle for me,” Billy Herman said. “I guess maybe I was doing all right and didn’t realize it.”
Any evidence of Herman’s struggles as a player is difficult to find. From the time he spent his first full season in the big league as a 22-year-old in 1932, Herman was one of the best players in baseball.
A 10-time All-Star, Herman finished his career with a .304 batting average and 2,345 hits despite serving in the Navy for two years during World War II.
In Herman’s first full season in the big leagues, he led the National League in games played with 154 as he helped the Chicago Cubs to the World Series. He finished ninth in MVP balloting after hitting .314. Though Herman missed the inaugural All-Star Game in 1933, he was named to the next 10 in a row.
Herman’s best season came in 1935 when he helped lead the Cubs to the National League pennant. He led baseball with 227 hits and 57 doubles and hit a career-high .341. It was one of three seasons when Herman had more than 200 hits and earned him a fourth place finish in the MVP voting, which was won by his teammate Gabby Hartnett.
Herman’s tenure in Chicago ended in 1941 when he was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers early in the season. He helped the Dodgers reach the World Series that year, the last of his four trips of the Fall Classic as a player.
World War II interrupted Herman’s career, and his swing never regained its previous form after he returned to baseball from the Navy. In his final two years, Herman hit .290 in just 137 games for the Dodgers, the Boston Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Herman retired in 1947 after playing just 15 games as Pittsburgh’s player-manager. He holds the single-season N.L. record for putouts by a second baseman (466 in 1933), one of seven times he led the league in putouts along with the three times he led the league in assists.
He coached in the big leagues until 1964, when he began a three-year stint as the manager of the Red Sox.
Herman was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1975. He passed away on Sept. 5, 1992.
The March 20, 1941, edition of the Sporting News brandished this headline on page 5: “Loyal Watchers Daffy About Dodgers’ Flag Chances; Scribes Already Arguing About World Series Plans.” Brooklyn’s “Bums” had finished a distant second to Cincinnati in 1940, but the beat writers were predicting an all-New York World Series come October. The hubbub surrounding the Dodgers’ chances was a pitching staff led by Kirby Higbe and Whitlow Wyatt. Big things were expected of Pete Reiser, who was taking over in center field for Dixie Walker, who was shifting to right. It was believed that Joe Medwick would bounce back from a subpar 1940 season. If there was one position the Dodgers might need to shore up for a successful pennant run, it was second base.
It was not too long into spring training in 1941 before speculation arose that the Chicago Cubs might try to move their star second baseman, Billy Herman. Chicago general manager Jim Gallagher was very high on Lou Stringer, a second baseman who the front office felt was ready for the big leagues. Just as Herman had replaced Rogers Hornsby a decade earlier, Stringer was being relied on to succeed Herman.
Although Herman was the premier second baseman in the senior circuit, the club thought he had lost a step or two. Perhaps the time had come to unload him. Herman did not show it outwardly, but he was disappointed that he had been passed over twice to manage the Cubs. In 1938 Gabby Hartnett had been selected as a player-manager instead of Herman. Now Jimmy Wilson had been chosen to replace Hartnett.
The Dodgers emerged as the lead suitor for Herman, when general manager Larry MacPhail talked trade with Gallagher in spring training. Dodgers manager Leo Durocher favored Herman over his present second baseman, Pete Coscarart. In Robert Creamer’s book Baseball in 1941, he describes Coscarart as a “journeyman and nothing more.”1 Durocher considered the veteran Herman a “smart baseball player” he could pair with his young shortstop, Harold “Pee Wee” Reese.
Herman got off to a slow start in 1941, batting .194 after 11 games. In the wee hours of May 6, a deal was brokered. The Dodgers sent reserve players Johnny Hudson, Charlie Gilbert and $65,000 to Chicago for Herman. “Herman will help us more than you expect,” said the Lip. “He’ll steady the kid at shortstop. He’ll take charge of the infield. And he gives us sustained power on attack. Anywhere along the line right down to the pitcher we’re likely to blast.”2 Herman got right to work, going 4 for 4 in his debut on May 6 at home against Pittsburgh. “This is a great baseball town,” said Herman.”It’s like playing in a World Series game every day.”3 Four days later, Herman tied a career high when he went 5 for 5 against the Phillies, leading the Dodgers to a 4-1 victory at Shibe Park.“
Back in the Windy City, the Cubs’ Phil Cavarretta may have summed up the feelings of the majority of Cub fans. “When we traded Billy, I was sick, believe me. He went over to Brooklyn and won pennants.”4Herman took the high road. “I’ve got no squawk against the Chicago club,” he said. “They treated me great there, and you couldn’t ask to work for a better, more considerate organization.”5 Herman was inserted in the two hole of the Dodger lineup and batted .291. Brooklyn nipped the Cardinals by 2 ½ games to win the National League Pennant.
William Jennings Herman was born on July 7, 1909, in New Albany, Indiana. New Albany is located on the Ohio River in the southern part of the state, just over an hour away from Louisville, Kentucky. He was one of 10 children born to William and Elizabeth Herman. He was named after United States Secretary of State (1913-15) William Jennings Bryan, a three-time Democratic Party candidate for President (1896, 1900 & 1908), losing each time. Herman commented that he was named after a loser, and Herman hoped that it would not carry over into his baseball career. Although “Bryan” is often included as part of his name, Herman wrote in a players survey given by Cliff Kachline of the Hall of Fame, “My name is William Jennings Herman.”
Although the Hermans resided on a small farm in New Albany, the elder William made his living as a machinist at a factory in Louisville. Herman attended New Albany High School, but playing in the major leagues was the farthest thing from his mind. “I was a sub on the team-a substitute third baseman and shortstop. I never played regular in high school,” recalled Herman. 6 At the conclusion of his junior year, Herman dropped out of high school to work in a Louisville veneer manufacturing plant. He married his childhood sweetheart, the former Hazel Jean Steproe, in 1927. They had one son, Billy Jr., and divorced in 1960.
Herman was playing baseball for the New Covenant Presbyterian Church team in Louisville when he was noticed by Cap Neal, general manager of the Louisville Colonels, a Class AA club in the American Association. “(I) signed for nothing. Would have paid to get a contract with the Louisville Cardinals back in 1928 when they signed me. I still wasn’t any good,” said Herman. The Colonels sent him down to Class B Decatur, but he was returned to Louisville within a few days without even seeing the diamond. “When I returned, the Colonels were out of town. I hung around a week until Cap Neal got back to town and he sent me to Vicksburg-a class D town, as low as you can be sent. That’s as low as you can get – Class D- and I couldn’t make it. Then Cap Neal saved my career-got me another chance-by telling a lie-well, I guess it was a lie because it certainly wasn’t the truth. He wired Vicksburg back that no wonder I didn’t look good because they had been playing me at shortstop and my regular position was second base. The truth of the matter was that I never played second base in my life. I had been only a substitute shortstop and third baseman in high school.
“I didn’t do great,” said Herman, “but I must have done well enough because I stuck with them as a second baseman. If Cap hadn’t lied to them about my being a second baseman-I would have been sent home. Since Class D is the end of the road-and I had failed to make it at Class D-the chances are that I’d of dropped out of baseball.”7
Herman returned to Louisville in 1929. In spite of his self-deprecating approach to his abilities, statistics show that he was a solid batsman in his minor league career. His lowest average in the bush leagues was .305 in 1930. He collected 188 hits and 40 doubles. He was batting .350 through 118 games in 1931 when he was purchased by the Chicago Cubs on August 4. He made his debut on August 29, 1931, at Wrigley Field against Cincinnati, singling in his first at bat in the second inning off Si Johnson.
Rogers Hornsby was the manager as well as the regular second baseman for the Cubs in 1931. And at 35 years of age, Rajah could still hit the old ball around the ball field, batting .331 and leading the team in homers (16) and RBIs (90). But in 1932, Hornsby relinquished his keystone duties to Herman, appearing in only 19 games. The Cubs were in second place with a 53-46 record on August 2 when Hornsby was fired and replaced with Charlie Grimm. There was speculation about Hornsby’s alleged gambling, but publicly, he and club president Bill Veeck cited a difference in philosophies for running the club as the reason for Rajah’s dismissal.
Herman was not the least bit disappointed to see Hornsby exit. “He ignored me completely and I figured it was because I was a rookie. But then I saw he ignored everybody. He was a very cold man. He would stare at you with the coldest eyes I ever saw. If you did something wrong, he’d jump all over you. He was a perfectionist and had a very low tolerance for mistakes.”8It was evident that Herman was not alone in his view of Hornsby. When it came to divvying up the shares from the World Series money, the team voted to cut Hornsby out of a full or even a half share.
Under Grimm, the Cubs went 22-6 in August, 1932, and went into September leading the Pirates by 7 ½ games. They coasted through September, winning their first pennant since 1929. Herman batted .314, with 206 hits, and drove in 51 runs. But it was his defense, leading the league with 527 assists, that was surprising.
Chicago met the New York Yankees, led by manager Joe McCarthy, in the World Series.. The Yankees had little trouble with the Cubs, sweeping them in four straight.
In the fifth inning of Game Three at Wrigley Field, Babe Ruth hit a home run off pitcher Charlie Root. The blast, which broke a 4-4 tie, has become known as Ruth’s “called shot”. Herman debunks this story. “If he’d have pointed and hit it there, he’d have been on his ass the rest of the series,” said Herman. “The Cub pitchers would have retaliated and sent the Babe sprawling with a blizzard of knockdown pitches. Our bench was on him, calling him everything, a big, fat baboon, everything you could think of. He was pointing toward our dugout, not to center field.”9
Over the next two seasons, the Cubs finished in second place in the National League. In 1933, Herman accounted for 466 putouts at his keystone position, still the NL record. On June 28, 1933, at Philadelphia, he tied a N.L. record with 11 putouts in a nine-inning game. In 1934, Herman was selected to his first All-Star Game. It started a string of 10 straight times that Herman participated in the mid-summer classic. He continued to hit well, despite sharing time at second base with Augie Galan, a switch-hitting infielder. By 1935 he was a fixture at the top of the Cubs order. He often batted in the two hole and was adept at hitting behind the runner when the hit-and-run play was on. Although he did not walk all that much, his walks outnumbered his strikeouts in every season. Casey Stengel pinned the moniker “John the Baptist” on Herman. “His head is always on the plate, and he cons the umpires into calling perfect strikes too high,” said Stengel.10
Billy Herman was gaining a reputation as a good, smart, aggressive ballplayer, whether at bat or in the field. “The only thing we had on our minds was to win,” said Billy. “Any way we could, we played to win. And if that wasn’t good enough, why you went back home, got a lunch pail, and go to work. If you didn’t play hard, you wouldn’t have a friend on the club and you wouldn’t be there long.”11
Herman’s views were a sign of the times. A new one-year contract had to be earned every year, and each player had to fight for his spot on the team. This was especially true during the years of the Great Depression. Another sign of the times was the presence of Al Capone at Wrigley Field. Capone would have his allotment of bodyguards around him. “The Capone era,” said Herman, “that was my time. He’d walk into the ballpark like the president walking in today, with bodyguards all around him. Once, Gabby posed for a picture with Capone. And the next year Judge Landis made a rule that ballplayers couldn’t talk to anyone in the stands.”12
The 1935 season may have been Herman’s best, as he led the league in hits (227), doubles (57) and sacrifice hits (24) while batting a career-high .341. He led second basemen in assists (520), putouts (416), double plays (109) and fielding percentage (.964). His keystone partner, Billy Jurges, led all shortstops in the same four defensive categories. Often, Herman would move a few feet, depending on the batter or the pitch count. Known as a smart player, he often played the percentages to his advantage. For players who hit most times to left field, Herman would station himself behind the second base bag. He estimated that he was successful about 70% of the time. Herman also estimated that another half-dozen times he was able to snare line drives that got by the pitcher with this positioning. For bigger, slower runners, Herman would set up shop deep on the grass between first and second base. The ball might not be hit hard, but with a slow runner, he had plenty of time to make the play.
Heading into September, the Cubs trailed the defending World Champion Cardinals by 2 ½ games. The New York Giants were in second place, one game off the pace. But the Cubs had a torrid September, posting a 23-3 record. Conversely, the Cards went 19-12 and the Giants were 15-15 in the same period. The Cubs were on top by four games as the curtain came down on the regular season.
Their World Series opponent was the Detroit Tigers. Lon Warneke pitched the Cubs to two wins, but the rest of the staff was unable to beat the powerful Tigers, who wrapped up the series in six games. For Herman, it was his most productive series, as he hit .333 and drove in a team-high six runs.
Over the next couple of years, Herman established himself as the top second baseman in the senior circuit. He was without peer in the field and at the plate he topped .300 in six of his first eight seasons as a starter. “He’s without doubt the best fielding keystone man in the league since I have been in the harness,” said manager Charlie Grimm. “He can go farther to his right and also to his left than any second sacker I’ve ever watched. Frankie Frisch, at his best, wasn’t the fielder Billy is. Frisch had more power at the plate and speed on the bases, but I’d still pick Herman over him in all-around value. “13Pittsburgh great Paul Waner said of Herman’s defense, “I’ll hit one I think is through there and Herman suddenly comes up through a trapdoor and is standing right in front of the ball.”14
The 1938 season mirrored the 1932 season in one respect. On July 19, the Cubs were tied for third place with Cincinnati. The ownership decided to make a move, replacing Grimm with Hartnett. Unlike in 1932 when the taciturn Hornsby was relieved of his duties, most people were searching for a reason why Grimm was ousted. The only explanation was that Grimm, who had led the Cubs to a 45-36 record thus far, was not getting enough out of his players. A few days later, Grimm reappeared in Chicago as a broadcaster on WBBG radio, covering Cubs games. Although it looked at if both actions were related, Cubs owner P. K. Wrigley denied it.
Chicago trailed the Pirates by 1 ½ games on September 26, 1938. But a crucial three-game sweep of the Bucs in late September catapulted the Cubs into first place and the Pirates could not recover, closing the season two games back. The middle game on September 28 was a 6-5 win, delivered by Hartnett’s solo home run in the ninth inning, which was dubbed as “the homer in the gloamin’” as darkness descended on Wrigley Field.
The Cubs faced a powerful Yankee team in he World Series. The Bronx Bombers made quick work of the Cubs, sweeping them as Red Ruffing won two games. “We come. We saw. We went home,” said Cubs first baseman Rip Collins15
Billy Herman and Billy Jurges had formed one of the best middle-infield combinations over the last seven years. That was disrupted when Jurges was involved in a six-player deal with the New York Giants on December 6, 1938. One of the players going to the Cubs was Dick Bartell, Jurges’s replacement.
Over the next two seasons the Cubs sank in the standings. At 30 years of age, Herman showed no signs of slowing down. He led the league in triples (18) and batted .307. In the prime of his career, Herman was the king of the second baseman. In 1940, Wrigley hired Jim Gallagher as the Cubs’ general manager. Gallagher was a Chicago sportswriter who was critical of the Cubs’ front office. Wrigley offered Gallagher the job saying, “If you know so much, you run the club.”16
In 1941, Gallagher traded away Herman to Brooklyn. The Dodgers won the pennant, and again Herman found himself going up against the Yankees. The result was the same, New York winning in five games. That made Herman 1-12 in World Series games against New York.
On August 8, 1942, the Dodgers held a nine game lead over the Cardinals. The Bums seemed to be on cruise control. Incredibly, the Cards went 43-8 to surpass Brooklyn and win the N.L. pennant. “I’ll never forget,” said Herman, “we were breezing in 1942, leading by about 10 games in August when Larry MacPhail, who ran the Dodgers, came into the clubhouse and chewed out all of us, including Leo Durocher, about our drinking, card-playing, etc., and told us we wouldn’t win the pennant, that St. Louis would. We won 104 games, 104 out of 154 in those days, but Larry was right. The Cardinals went right by us and won the pennant with 106.”17
If there was ever a concern that Herman was slowing down, those thoughts were put to rest in 1943. Herman batted .330 and incredibly drove in 100 runs, a career high, while hitting only two home runs.
With World War II in full swing, players were starting to be called up to serve their country. Herman was classified 1-A, meaning that he was eligible to be drafted into the service. Instead he enlisted in the United States Navy. After his initial training at Great Lakes Naval Station, Herman was sent to Pearl Harbor. He spent much of his time playing baseball on base teams located on the Pacific Islands. Herman missed the 1944 and 1945 seasons and was discharged on December 16, 1945.
Herman returned to the Dodgers for the 1946 season. But Eddie Stanky had taken over at second base, and on June 15 Herman was dealt to the Boston Braves for catcher Stew Hofferth. Between the two teams he hit .298 and drove in 50 runs, serving as a backup at second and third base.
Billy Herman had a desire to one day manage at the big league level. He had wanted to lead the Cubs, but the opportunity never presented itself. On September 30, 1946, Herman was on the move again, part of a seven-player deal that sent him to Pittsburgh. There, he signed a two-year contract as a player-manager. The Pirates were in a rebuilding mode, and although they may not have been expected to challenge for the pennant, a last-place finish was also not foreseen. Under Herman, the Bucs went 61-92. They finished 32 games behind first place Brooklyn. Herman resigned on September 25, 1947. “We’re not blaming any one factor or any one individual for the failure of the Pirates. We’re not criticizing or indicting Billy Herman, but for the best interests of all concerned, Bill resigned as field manager of the Pirates,” said club president Frank McKinney. 18
Billy Herman retired with a career batting average of .304. He collected 2,345 hits, 486 doubles and 839 RBIs. He totaled 4,780 putouts, 5,681 assists and 1,177 double plays. His lifetime fielding percentage was .967. He led the National League in putouts in seven seasons.
Herman was not deterred by his managing experience in Pittsburgh. He spent the next 16 seasons either managing in the minor leagues or coaching in the majors. He was a player-manager in 1948 with Minneapolis of the American Association and in 1950 with Oakland of the Pacific Coast League. Herman then returned to the major leagues, coaching for Brooklyn (1952-1957), Milwaukee (1958-1959) and Boston (1960-1964). With two games left in the 1964 season, Herman replaced Red Sox skipper Johnny Pesky on an interim basis. He was given the head job for the 1965 and 1966 seasons. But the Red Sox finished 62-100 in 1965, 40 games back of first-place Minnesota. The 1966 season was no better, and with the Red Sox battling the Yankees, Senators and Athletics for the basement of the American League at 64-82, Herman was fired on September 8, 1966, and replaced by Pete Runnels. His managerial record was 189-274.
Herman resurfaced as a coach for the California Angels in 1967. He moved to northern California and scouted for the Athletics from 1968 to1974.
Billy Herman was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee on August 18, 1975. “I expected it sooner, not later,” said Herman. “But I’ll take it. Sure it’s a thrill. It’s very satisfying; particularly when you look at all the outstanding ballplayers there have been who aren’t in.”19
Herman returned to coaching, joining Roger Craig’s staff in San Diego for the 1977 and 1978 seasons. He retired to his home in Florida, with his wife Frances, whom he had married in 1961. Herman played a lot of golf, and was a 3 handicap. He enjoyed fishing and was an excellent bridge player. He passed away on September 5, 1992, in West Palm Beach, Florida as the result of cancer.
The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League baseball team, active primarily in the National League (founded 1876) from 1884 until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, California, where it continues its history as the Los Angeles Dodgers. The team moved west at the same time as its longtime rivals, the New York Giants, also in the National League, relocated to San Francisco in northern California as the San Francisco Giants. The team\'s name derived from the reputed skill of Brooklyn residents at evading the city\'s trolley streetcar network. The Dodgers played in two stadiums in South Brooklyn, each named Washington Park, and at Eastern Park in the neighborhood of Brownsville before moving to Ebbets Field in the neighborhood of Flatbush in 1913. The team is noted for signing Jackie Robinson in 1947 as the first black player in the modern major leagues.[1]Contents1 Early Brooklyn baseball1.1 The origin of the Dodgers1.2 Nicknames2 Rivalry with the Giants2.1 \"Uncle Robbie\" and the \"Daffiness Boys\"3 Breaking the color barrier4 \"Wait ’til next year!\"5 Move to California6 References7 Other readingEarly Brooklyn baseballMany of the clubs represented at the first convention of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) were from Brooklyn, including the Atlantic, Eckford, and Excelsior clubs that combined to dominate play for most of the 1860s. Brooklyn helped make baseball commercial, as the locale of the first paid admission games, a series of three all star contests matching New York and Brooklyn in 1858. Brooklyn also featured the first two enclosed baseball grounds, the Union Grounds and the Capitoline Grounds; enclosed, dedicated ballparks accelerated the evolution from amateurism to professionalism.
Despite the early success of Brooklyn clubs in the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP), which were officially amateur until 1869, they fielded weak teams in the succeeding National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP), the first professional league formed in 1871. The Excelsiors no longer challenged for the amateur championship after the Civil War (1861–1865) and never entered the professional NAPBBP (aka NA). The Eckfords and Atlantics declined to join until 1872 and thereby lost their best players; the Eckfords survived only one season and the Atlantics four, with losing teams.
The National League (NL) replaced the NAPBBP in 1876 and granted exclusive territories to its eight members, excluding the Atlantics in favor of the Mutual Club of New York who had shared home grounds with the Atlantics. When the Mutuals were expelled by the league, the Hartford club moved in, the press dubbing them The Brooklyn Hartfords,[2] and played its home games at Union Grounds in 1877 before disbanding.
The origin of the DodgersThe team currently known as the Dodgers was formed in 1883 by real estate magnate and baseball enthusiast Charles Byrne, who convinced his brother-in-law Joseph Doyle and casino operator Ferdinand Abell to start the team with him. Byrne arranged to build a grandstand on a lot bounded by Third Street, Fourth Avenue, Fifth Street, and Fifth Avenue, and named it Washington Park in honor of first president George Washington.[3] Nicknamed by reporters the \"Grays\" for their uniforms, the team played in the minor level Inter-State Association of Professional Baseball Clubs that first season. Doyle became the first team manager, and they drew 6,431 fans to their first home game on May 12, 1883 against the Trenton, New Jersey team. The Grays won the league title after the Camden Merritt club in New Jersey disbanded on July 20 and Brooklyn picked up some of its better players. The Grays were invited to join the two year old professional circuit, the American Association (founded 1882) to compete with the eight year old NL for the 1884 season.[4]
After winning the American Association league championship in 1889, the Brooklyn club (very occasionally now nicknamed the Bridegrooms or Grooms, for six players having wed during the 1888 season) moved to the competing older National League (1876) and won the 1890 NL Championship, being the only Major League team to win consecutive championships in both professional \"base ball\" leagues.[5] They lost the 1889 championship tournament to the New York Giants and tied the 1890 championship with Louisville. Their success during this period was partly attributed to their having absorbed skilled players from the defunct AA New York Metropolitans and one-year Players League entry Brooklyn Ward\'s Wonders. The middle years of the decade were disappointing, a slump the Spalding Guide rather primly ascribed to management tolerating drunkenness among the players.[6] In 1899, most of the original old Baltimore Orioles NL stars from the legendary Maryland club which earlier won three consecutive championships in 1894–1895–1896, were moved to the Grays (Bridegrooms) by the ownership partner in both teams, Harry von der Horst, along with famed Orioles manager Ned Hanlon who became the club\'s new manager in New York / Brooklyn under majority owner Charles Ebbets, who had by now accumulated an 80% share of the club. The new combined team was dubbed the Brooklyn Superbas by the press (inspired by the popular circus act The Hanlons\' Superba) and would become the champions of the National League in 1899 and again in 1900.
Nicknames
Logo of the Brooklyn Dodgers/Superbas from 1910 through 1913The name Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers was first used to describe the team in 1895.[7] The nickname was still new enough in September 1895 that a newspaper could report that \"\'Trolley Dodgers\' is the new name which eastern baseball cranks [fans] have given the Brooklyn club.\"[8] In 1895, Brooklyn played at Eastern Park, bounded by Eastern Parkway (now Pitkin Avenue), Powell Street, Sutter Avenue, Van Sinderen Street,[3] where they had moved early in the 1891 season when the second Washington Park burned down. Some sources erroneously report that the name \"Trolley Dodgers\" referred to pedestrians avoiding fast cars on street car tracks that bordered Eastern Park on two sides. However, Eastern Park was not bordered by street-level trolley lines that had to be \"dodged\" by pedestrians.[9] The name \"Trolley Dodgers\" implied the dangers posed by trolley cars in Brooklyn generally, which in 1892, began the switch from horse-power to electrical power, which made them much faster, and were hence regarded as more dangerous.[7][10] The name was later shortened to Brooklyn Dodgers.[11].
Other team names used to refer to the franchise that finally came to be called \"the Dodgers\" were the Atlantics (1884, not directly related to the earlier Brooklyn Atlantics), Bridegrooms or Grooms (1888–1898),[12] Ward\'s Wonders,[13] the Superbas (1899-1910),[14] and the Robins (1914–1931).[15] All of these nicknames were used by fans and newspaper sports writers to describe the team, often concurrently, but not in any official capacity. The team\'s legal name was the Brooklyn Base Ball Club.[16] However, the \"Trolley Dodgers\" nickname was used throughout this period, along with other nicknames, by fans and sports writers of the day. The team did not use the name in a formal sense until 1916, when the name was printed on home World Series programs; the word \"Dodgers\" finally appeared on team jerseys in 1932.[17] The \"conclusive shift\" came in 1933, when both home and road jerseys for the team bore the name \"Dodgers\".[18]
Examples of how the many popularized names of the team were used interchangeably are available from newspaper articles from the period before 1932. A New York Times article describing a game the Dodgers played in 1916 starts out by referring to how \"Jimmy Callahan, pilot of the Pirates, did his best to wreck the hopes the Dodgers have of gaining the National League pennant\", but then goes on to comment, \"the only thing that saved the Superbas from being toppled from first place was that the Phillies lost one of the two games played.\"[19] Most baseball statistics sites and baseball historians generally now refer to the pennant-winning 1916 Brooklyn team as the Robins; on the other hand, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle used \"Superbas\" in its box scores that season. A 1918 New York Times article used the nickname Robins in its title \"Buccaneers Take Last From Robins\", but the subtitle of the article reads \"Subdue The Superbas By 11 To 4, Making Series An Even Break\".[20][21] Space-conscious headline writers still used \"the Flock\" (derived from \"Robins\") during the Dodgers\' last decade in Brooklyn.[22]
Another example of the interchangeability of different nicknames is found on the program issued at Ebbets Field for the 1920 World Series, which identifies the matchup in the series as \"Dodgers vs. Indians\", despite the fact that the Robins nickname had been in consistent usage at this point for around six years.[23]
Rivalry with the GiantsMain article: Dodgers–Giants rivalryThe historic and heated rivalry between the Dodgers and the Giants is more than a century old. It began when the Dodgers and Giants faced each other in the 1889 World Series, the ancestor of the Subway Series, and both played in separate cities (the Dodgers in Brooklyn and the Giants in New York City Manhattan). When both franchises moved to California after the 1957 season, the rivalry was easily transplanted, as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have long been rivals in economics, culture, and politics.
\"Uncle Robbie\" and the \"Daffiness Boys\"Manager Wilbert Robinson, another former Oriole, popularly known as \"Uncle Robbie\", restored the Brooklyn team to respectability. His \"Brooklyn Robins\" reached the 1916 and 1920 World Series, losing both, but contending perennially for several seasons.[24] Charles Ebbets and Ed McKeever died within a week of each other in 1925, and Robbie was named president while still field manager.[25] Upon assuming the title of president, however, Robinson\'s ability to focus on the field declined, and the teams of the late 1920s were often fondly referred to as the \"Daffiness Boys\" for their distracted, error-ridden style of play.[26] Outfielder Babe Herman was the leader both in hitting and in zaniness. The signature Dodger play from this era occurred when three players – Dazzy Vance, Chick Fewster, and Herman – ended up at third base at the same time. (The play is often remembered as Herman \"tripling into a triple play\", though only two of the three players were declared out and Herman was credited with a double rather than a triple.)[27] Herman later complained that no one remembered that he drove in the winning run on the play. The incident led to the popular joke:
\"The Dodgers have three men on base!\"\"Oh, yeah? Which base?\"[28]After his removal as club president, Robinson returned to managing, and the club\'s performance rebounded somewhat.[26]
When Robinson retired in 1931, he was replaced as manager by Max Carey.[26] Although some suggested renaming the \"Robins\" the \"Brooklyn Canaries\", after Carey, whose last name was originally \"Carnarius\", the name \"Brooklyn Dodgers\" returned to stay following Robinson\'s retirement.[26] It was during this era that Willard Mullin, a noted sports cartoonist, fixed the Brooklyn team with the lovable nickname of \"Dem Bums\". After hearing his cab driver ask, \"So how did those bums do today?\", Mullin decided to sketch an exaggerated version of famed circus clown Emmett Kelly to represent the Dodgers in his much-praised cartoons in the New York World-Telegram. Both image and nickname caught on, so much so that many a Dodger yearbook cover, from 1951 through 1957, featured a Willard Mullin illustration of the Brooklyn Bum.
Perhaps the highlight of the Daffiness Boys era came after Wilbert Robinson left the dugout.[26] In 1934, Giants player/manager Bill Terry was asked about the Dodgers’ chances in the coming pennant race and cracked infamously, \"Is Brooklyn still in the league?\" Managed then by Casey Stengel, who played for the Dodgers in the 1910s and went on to greatness managing the New York Yankees,[26] the 1934 Dodgers were determined to make their presence felt. As it happened, the season entered its final games with the Giants tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the pennant, with the Giants’ remaining games against the Dodgers. Stengel led his Bums to the Polo Grounds for the showdown, and they beat the Giants twice to knock them out of the pennant race.[26] The \"Gashouse Gang\" Cardinals nailed the pennant by beating the Cincinnati Reds those same two days.[26]
One key development during this era was the 1938 appointment of Leland \"Larry\" MacPhail as Dodgers\' general manager.[26] MacPhail, who brought night games to Major League Baseball as general manager of the Reds, also started night baseball in Brooklyn and ordered the successful refurbishing of Ebbets Field.[26] He also brought Reds voice Red Barber to Brooklyn as the Dodgers\' lead announcer in 1939, just after MacPhail broke the New York baseball executives\' agreement to ban live baseball broadcasts, enacted because of the fear of the effect of radio calls on the home teams\' attendance.
MacPhail remained with the Dodgers until 1942, when he returned to the Armed Forces for World War II. He later became one of the Yankees\' co-owners, offerding unsuccessfully for Barber to join him in the Bronx as announcer.
The first major-league baseball game to be televised was Brooklyn\'s 6–1 victory over Cincinnati at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1939. Batting helmets were introduced to Major League Baseball by the Dodgers in 1941.
Breaking the color barrier
Jackie Robinson.For most of the first half of the 20th century, no Major League Baseball team employed a black player. A parallel system of Negro Leagues developed, but most of the Negro League players were denied a chance to prove their skill before a national audience. Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play Major League baseball in the 20th century when he played his first major league game on April 15, 1947 as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson\'s entry into the league was mainly due to General Manager Branch Rickey\'s efforts. The deeply religious Rickey\'s motivation appears to have been primarily moral, although business considerations were also present. Rickey was a member of the Methodist Church, the antecedent denomination to the United Methodist Church of today, which was a strong advocate for social justice and active later in the Civil Rights Movement.[29] Rickey saw his opportunity with the 1944 death of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, an arch-segregationist and enforcer of the color barrier.
Besides selecting Robinson for his exceptional baseball skills, Rickey also considered Robinson\'s outstanding personal character, his UCLA education and rank of captain in the U.S. Army in his decision, since he knew that boos, taunts, and criticism was going to be directed at Robinson, and that Robinson had to be tough enough to withstand abuse without attempting to retaliate.[30]
The inclusion of Robinson on the team also led the Dodgers to move its spring training site. Prior to 1946, the Dodgers held their spring training in Jacksonville, Florida. However, the city\'s stadium refused to host an exhibition game with the Montreal Royals – the Dodgers’ own farm club – on whose roster Robinson appeared at the time, citing segregation laws. Nearby Sanford similarly declined. Ultimately, City Island Ballpark in Daytona Beach agreed to host the game with Robinson on the field. The team traveled to Havana, Cuba for spring training in 1947, this time with Robinson on the big club. Although the Dodgers ultimately built Dodgertown and its Holman Stadium further south in Vero Beach, and played there for 61 spring training seasons from 1948 through 2008, Daytona Beach renamed City Island Ballpark to Jackie Robinson Ballpark in his honor.
This event marked the continuation of the integration of professional sports in the United States, with professional football having led the way in 1946, with the concomitant demise of the Negro Leagues, and is regarded as a key moment in the history of the American civil rights movement. Robinson was an exceptional player, a speedy runner who sparked the team with his intensity. He was the inaugural recipient of the Rookie of the Year award, which is now named the Jackie Robinson award in his honor. The Dodgers\' willingness to integrate, when most other teams refused to, was a key factor in their 1947–1956 success. They won six pennants in those 10 years with the help of Robinson, three-time MVP Roy Campanella, Cy Young Award winner Don Newcombe, Jim Gilliam, and Joe Black. Robinson eventually became the first African-American elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
\"Wait ’til next year!\"After the wilderness years of the 1920s and 1930s, the Dodgers were rebuilt into a contending club first by general manager Larry MacPhail and then the legendary Branch Rickey. Led by Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Gil Hodges in the infield, Duke Snider and Carl Furillo in the outfield, Roy Campanella behind the plate, and Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, and Preacher Roe on the pitcher\'s mound, the Dodgers won pennants in 1941, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953, only to fall to the New York Yankees in all five of the subsequent World Series. The annual ritual of building excitement, followed in the end by disappointment, became a common pattern to the long suffering fans, and \"Wait ’til next year!\" became an unofficial Dodger slogan.
While the Dodgers generally enjoyed success during this period, in 1951 they fell victim to one of the largest collapses in the history of baseball.[31] On August 11, 1951, Brooklyn led the National League by an enormous 13½ games over their archrivals, the Giants. While the Dodgers went 26–22 from that time until the end of the season, the Giants went on an absolute tear, winning an amazing 37 of their last 44 games, including their last seven in a row. At the end of the season the Dodgers and the Giants were tied for first place, forcing a three-game playoff for the pennant. The Giants took Game 1 by a score of 3–1 before being shut out by the Dodgers\' Clem Labine in Game 2, 10–0. It all came down to the final game, and Brooklyn seemed to have the pennant locked up, holding a 4–2 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning. Giants outfielder Bobby Thomson, however, hit a stunning three-run walk-off home run off the Dodgers\' Ralph Branca to secure the NL Championship for New York. To this day Thomson\'s home run is known as the Shot Heard \'Round The World.
In 1955, by which time the core of the Dodger team was beginning to age, \"next year\" finally came. The fabled \"Boys of Summer\" shot down the \"Bronx Bombers\" in seven games,[32] led by the first-class pitching of young left-hander Johnny Podres, whose key pitch was a changeup known as \"pulling down the lampshade\" because of the arm motion used right when the ball was released.[33] Podres won two Series games, including the deciding seventh. The turning point of Game 7 was a spectacular double play that began with left fielder Sandy Amorós running down Yogi Berra\'s long fly ball, then throwing to shortstop Pee Wee Reese, who relayed to first baseman Gil Hodges to double up a surprised Gil McDougald to preserve the Dodger lead. Hank Bauer grounded out and the Dodgers won 2–0.
Although the Dodgers lost the World Series to the Yankees in 1956 during which the Yankees pitcher Don Larsen pitched the only World Series perfect game in baseball history and the only post-season no-hitter for the next 54 years, it hardly seemed to matter. Brooklyn fans had their memory of triumph, and soon that was all they were left with – a victory that was remembered decades later in the Billy Joel single \"We Didn\'t Start the Fire\", which included the line, \"Brooklyn\'s got a winning team.\"
Move to CaliforniaReal estate businessman Walter O\'Malley had acquired majority ownership of the Dodgers in 1950, when he bought Rickey\'s 25 percent share of the team and secured the support of the widow of another equal partner, John L. Smith. Soon O\'Malley was working to buy new land in Brooklyn for a new, more accessible and better ballpark than Ebbets Field. Beloved as it was, Ebbets Field had grown old and was not well served by infrastructure, to the point where the Dodgers could not \"sell out\" the park to maximum capacity even in the heat of a pennant race, despite dominating the league from 1946 to 1957.
New York City Construction Coordinator Robert Moses, however, sought to force O\'Malley into using a site in Flushing Meadows, Queens – the eventual location of Shea Stadium, the home of the future New York Mets. Moses\' vision involved a city-built, city-owned park, which was greatly at odds with O\'Malley\'s real-estate savvy. When O\'Malley realized that he was not going to be allowed to buy a suitable parcel of land in Brooklyn, he began thinking of team relocation.
O\'Malley was free to purchase land of his own choosing but wanted Robert Moses to condemn one parcel of land along the Atlantic Railroad Yards in downtown Brooklyn under Title I authority, after O\'Malley had bought the bulk of the land he had in mind. Title I gave the city municipality power to condemn land for the purpose of building what it calls \"public purpose\" projects. Moses\' interpretation of \"public purpose\" included public parks, public housing and public highways and bridges. What O\'Malley wanted was for Moses to use Title I authority, rather than to pay market value for the land. With Title I the city via Robert Moses could have sold the land to O\'Malley at a below market price. Moses refused to honor O\'Malley\'s request and responded, \"If you want the land so bad, why don\'t you purchase it with your own money?\"[34]
Meanwhile, non-stop transcontinental airline travel had become routine during the years since the Second World War, and teams were no longer bound by much slower railroad timetables. Because of civil aviation advances, it became possible to locate teams farther apart – as far west as California – while maintaining the same busy game schedules.
When Los Angeles officials attended the 1956 World Series looking to entice a team to move there, they were not even thinking of the Dodgers. Their original target had been the Washington Senators franchise, which eventually moved to Bloomington, Minnesota to become the Minnesota Twins in 1961. At the same time, O\'Malley was looking for a contingency in case Moses and other New York politicians refused to let him build the Brooklyn stadium he wanted, and sent word to the Los Angeles officials that he was interested in talking. Los Angeles offered him what New York did not: a chance to buy land suitable for building a ballpark, and own that ballpark, giving him complete control over all its revenue streams. At the same time, the National League was not willing to approve the Dodgers\' move unless O\'Malley found a second team willing to join them out west, largely out of concern for travel costs.[35]
Meanwhile, Giants owner Horace Stoneham was having similar difficulty finding a replacement for his team\'s antiquated home stadium, the Polo Grounds. Stoneham was considering moving the Giants to Minneapolis, but was persuaded instead to move them to San Francisco, ensuring that the Dodgers had a National League rival closer than St. Louis. So the two arch-rival teams, the Dodgers and Giants, moved out to the West Coast together after the 1957 season.
The Brooklyn Dodgers played their final game at Ebbets Field on September 24, 1957, which the Dodgers won 2–0 over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
On April 18, 1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers played their first game in L.A., defeating the former New York and newly relocated and renamed San Francisco Giants, 6–5, before 78,672 fans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.[36] Catcher Roy Campanella, left partially paralyzed in an off-season automobile accident on January 28, 1958, was never able to play for Los Angeles.
A 2007 HBO film, Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush, is a documentary covering the Dodgers history from early days to the beginning of the Los Angeles era. In the film, the story is related that O\'Malley was so hated by Brooklyn Dodger fans after the move to California, that it was said, \"If you asked a Brooklyn Dodger fan, if you had a gun with only two bullets in it and were in a room with Hitler, Stalin and O\'Malley, who would you shoot? The answer: O\'Malley, twice!\"Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team\'s players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called \"runs\". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners\' advance around the bases.[2] A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter).
The principal objective of the batting team is to have a player reach first base safely; this generally occurs either when the batter hits the ball and reaches first base before an opponent retrieves the ball and touches the base, or when the pitcher persists in throwing the ball out of the batter\'s reach. Players on the batting team who reach first base without being called \"out\" can attempt to advance to subsequent bases as a runner, either immediately or during teammates\' turns batting. The fielding team tries to prevent runs by getting batters or runners \"out\", which forces them out of the field of play. The pitcher can get the batter out by throwing three pitches which result in strikes, while fielders can get the batter out by catching a batted ball before it touches the ground, and can get a runner out by tagging them with the ball while the runner is not touching a base.
The opposing teams switch back and forth between batting and fielding; the batting team\'s turn to bat is over once the fielding team records three outs. One turn batting for each team constitutes an inning. A game is usually composed of nine innings, and the team with the greater number of runs at the end of the game wins. Most games end after the ninth inning, but if scores are tied at that point, extra innings are usually played. Baseball has no game clock, though some competitions feature pace-of-play regulations such as the pitch clock to shorten game time.
Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. Baseball\'s American origins, as well as its reputation as a source of escapism during troubled points in American history such as the American Civil War and the Great Depression, have led the sport to receive the moniker of \"America\'s Pastime\"; since the late 19th century, it has been unofficially recognized as the national sport of the United States, though in modern times is considered less popular than other sports, such as American football. In addition to North America, baseball is considered the most popular sport in parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
In Major League Baseball (MLB), the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL), each with three divisions: East, West, and Central. The MLB champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series. The top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The World Baseball Classic, organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, is the major international competition of the sport and attracts the top national teams from around the world. Baseball was played at the Olympic Games from 1992 to 2008, and was reinstated in 2020.
Rules and gameplayFurther information: Baseball rules and Outline of baseball
Diagram of a baseball field Diamond may refer to the square area defined by the four bases or to the entire playing field. The dimensions given are for professional and professional-style games. Children often play on smaller fields.
2013 World Baseball Classic championship match between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, March 20, 2013A baseball game is played between two teams, each usually composed of nine players, that take turns playing offense (batting and baserunning) and defense (pitching and fielding). A pair of turns, one at bat and one in the field, by each team constitutes an inning. A game consists of nine innings (seven innings at the high school level and in doubleheaders in college, Minor League Baseball and, since the 2020 season, Major League Baseball; and six innings at the Little League level).[3] One team—customarily the visiting team—bats in the top, or first half, of every inning. The other team—customarily the home team—bats in the bottom, or second half, of every inning. The goal of the game is to score more points (runs) than the other team. The players on the team at bat attempt to score runs by touching all four bases, in order, set at the corners of the square-shaped baseball diamond. A player bats at home plate and must attempt to safely reach a base before proceeding, counterclockwise, from first base, to second base, third base, and back home to score a run. The team in the field attempts to prevent runs from scoring by recording outs, which remove opposing players from offensive action, until their next turn at bat comes up again. When three outs are recorded, the teams switch roles for the next half-inning. If the score of the game is tied after nine innings, extra innings are played to resolve the contest. Many amateur games, particularly unorganized ones, involve different numbers of players and innings.[4]
The game is played on a field whose primary boundaries, the foul lines, extend forward from home plate at 45-degree angles. The 90-degree area within the foul lines is referred to as fair territory; the 270-degree area outside them is foul territory. The part of the field enclosed by the bases and several yards beyond them is the infield; the area farther beyond the infield is the outfield. In the middle of the infield is a raised pitcher\'s mound, with a rectangular rubber plate (the rubber) at its center. The outer boundary of the outfield is typically demarcated by a raised fence, which may be of any material and height. The fair territory between home plate and the outfield boundary is baseball\'s field of play, though significant events can take place in foul territory, as well.[5]
There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the bat, and the glove or mitt:
The baseball is about the size of an adult\'s fist, around 9 inches (23 centimeters) in circumference. It has a rubber or cork center, wound in yarn and covered in white cowhide, with red stitching.[6]The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a single, solid piece of wood. Other materials are now commonly used for nonprofessional games. It is a hard round stick, about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) in diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are typically around 34 inches (86 centimeters) long, and not longer than 42 inches (110 centimeters).[7]The glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various shapes to meet the specific needs of different fielding positions.[8]Protective helmets are also standard equipment for all batters.[9]
At the beginning of each half-inning, the nine players of the fielding team arrange themselves around the field. One of them, the pitcher, stands on the pitcher\'s mound. The pitcher begins the pitching delivery with one foot on the rubber, pushing off it to gain velocity when throwing toward home plate. Another fielding team player, the catcher, squats on the far side of home plate, facing the pitcher. The rest of the fielding team faces home plate, typically arranged as four infielders—who set up along or within a few yards outside the imaginary lines (basepaths) between first, second, and third base—and three outfielders. In the standard arrangement, there is a first baseman positioned several steps to the left of first base, a second baseman to the right of second base, a shortstop to the left of second base, and a third baseman to the right of third base. The basic outfield positions are left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder. With the exception of the catcher, all fielders are required to be in fair territory when the pitch is delivered. A neutral umpire sets up behind the catcher.[10] Other umpires will be distributed around the field as well.[11]David Ortiz, the batter, awaiting a pitch, with the catcher and umpirePlay starts with a member of the batting team, the batter, standing in either of the two batter\'s boxes next to home plate, holding a bat.[12] The batter waits for the pitcher to throw a pitch (the ball) toward home plate, and attempts to hit the ball[13] with the bat.[12] The catcher catches pitches that the batter does not hit—as a result of either electing not to swing or failing to connect—and returns them to the pitcher. A batter who hits the ball into the field of play must drop the bat and begin running toward first base, at which point the player is referred to as a runner (or, until the play is over, a batter-runner). A batter-runner who reaches first base without being put out is said to be safe and is on base. A batter-runner may choose to remain at first base or attempt to advance to second base or even beyond—however far the player believes can be reached safely. A player who reaches base despite proper play by the fielders has recorded a hit. A player who reaches first base safely on a hit is credited with a single. If a player makes it to second base safely as a direct result of a hit, it is a double; third base, a triple. If the ball is hit in the air within the foul lines over the entire outfield (and outfield fence, if there is one), or if the batter-runner otherwise safely circles all the bases, it is a home run: the batter and any runners on base may all freely circle the bases, each scoring a run. This is the most desirable result for the batter. The ultimate and most desirable result possible for a batter would be to hit a home run while all three bases are occupied or \"loaded\", thus scoring four runs on a single hit. This is called a grand slam. A player who reaches base due to a fielding mistake is not credited with a hit—instead, the responsible fielder is charged with an error.[12]
Any runners already on base may attempt to advance on batted balls that land, or contact the ground, in fair territory, before or after the ball lands. A runner on first base must attempt to advance if a ball lands in play, as only one runner may occupy a base at any given time. If a ball hit into play rolls foul before passing through the infield, it becomes dead and any runners must return to the base they occupied when the play began. If the ball is hit in the air and caught before it lands, the batter has flied out and any runners on base may attempt to advance only if they tag up (contact the base they occupied when the play began, as or after the ball is caught). Runners may also attempt to advance to the next base while the pitcher is in the process of delivering the ball to home plate; a successful effort is a stolen base.[14]
A pitch that is not hit into the field of play is called either a strike or a ball. A batter against whom three strikes are recorded strikes out. A batter against whom four balls are recorded is awarded a base on balls or walk, a free advance to first base. (A batter may also freely advance to first base if the batter\'s body or uniform is struck by a pitch outside the strike zone, provided the batter does not swing and attempts to avoid being hit.)[15] Crucial to determining balls and strikes is the umpire\'s judgment as to whether a pitch has passed through the strike zone, a conceptual area above home plate extending from the midpoint between the batter\'s shoulders and belt down to the hollow of the knee.[16] Any pitch which does not pass through the strike zone is called a ball, unless the batter either swings and misses at the pitch, or hits the pitch into foul territory; an exception generally occurs if the ball is hit into foul territory when the batter already has two strikes, in which case neither a ball nor a strike is called.A shortstop tries to tag out a runner who is sliding head first, attempting to reach second base.While the team at bat is trying to score runs, the team in the field is attempting to record outs. In addition to the strikeout and flyout, common ways a member of the batting team may be put out include the ground out, force out, and tag out. These occur either when a runner is forced to advance to a base, and a fielder with possession of the ball reaches that base before the runner does, or the runner is touched by the ball, held in a fielder\'s hand, while not on a base. (The batter-runner is always forced to advance to first base, and any other runners must advance to the next base if a teammate is forced to advance to their base.) It is possible to record two outs in the course of the same play. This is called a double play. Three outs in one play, a triple play, is possible, though rare. Players put out or retired must leave the field, returning to their team\'s dugout or bench. A runner may be stranded on base when a third out is recorded against another player on the team. Stranded runners do not benefit the team in its next turn at bat as every half-inning begins with the bases empty.[17]
An individual player\'s turn batting or plate appearance is complete when the player reaches base, hits a home run, makes an out, or hits a ball that results in the team\'s third out, even if it is recorded against a teammate. On rare occasions, a batter may be at the plate when, without the batter\'s hitting the ball, a third out is recorded against a teammate—for instance, a runner getting caught stealing (tagged out attempting to steal a base). A batter with this sort of incomplete plate appearance starts off the team\'s next turn batting; any balls or strikes recorded against the batter the previous inning are erased. A runner may circle the bases only once per plate appearance and thus can score at most a single run per batting turn. Once a player has completed a plate appearance, that player may not bat again until the eight other members of the player\'s team have all taken their turn at bat in the batting order. The batting order is set before the game begins, and may not be altered except for substitutions. Once a player has been removed for a substitute, that player may not reenter the game. Children\'s games often have more lenient rules, such as Little League rules, which allow players to be substituted back into the same game.[3][18]
If the designated hitter (DH) rule is in effect, each team has a tenth player whose sole responsibility is to bat (and run). The DH takes the place of another player—almost invariably the pitcher—in the batting order, but does not field. Thus, even with the DH, each team still has a batting order of nine players and a fielding arrangement of nine players.[19]
PersonnelSee also: Baseball positionsPlayers
Defensive positions on a baseball field, with abbreviations and scorekeeper\'s position numbers (not uniform numbers)See also the categories Baseball players and Lists of baseball playersThe number of players on a baseball roster, or squad, varies by league and by the level of organized play. A Major League Baseball (MLB) team has a roster of 26 players with specific roles. A typical roster features the following players:[20]
Eight position players: the catcher, four infielders, and three outfielders—all of whom play on a regular basisFive starting pitchers who constitute the team\'s pitching rotation or starting rotationSeven relief pitchers, including one closer, who constitute the team\'s bullpen (named for the off-field area where pitchers warm up)One backup, or substitute, catcherFive backup infielders and backup outfielders, or players who can play multiple positions, known as utility players.Most baseball leagues worldwide have the DH rule, including MLB, Japan\'s Pacific League, and Caribbean professional leagues, along with major American amateur organizations.[21] The Central League in Japan does not have the rule and high-level minor league clubs connected to National League teams are not required to field a DH.[22] In leagues that apply the designated hitter rule, a typical team has nine offensive regulars (including the DH), five starting pitchers,[23] seven or eight relievers, a backup catcher, and two or three other reserve players.[24][25]
Managers and coachesThe manager, or head coach, oversees the team\'s major strategic decisions, such as establishing the starting rotation, setting the lineup, or batting order, before each game, and making substitutions during games—in particular, bringing in relief pitchers. Managers are typically assisted by two or more coaches; they may have specialized responsibilities, such as working with players on hitting, fielding, pitching, or strength and conditioning. At most levels of organized play, two coaches are stationed on the field when the team is at bat: the first base coach and third base coach, who occupy designated coaches\' boxes, just outside the foul lines. These coaches assist in the direction of baserunners, when the ball is in play, and relay tactical signals from the manager to batters and runners, during pauses in play.[26] In contrast to many other team sports, baseball managers and coaches generally wear their team\'s uniforms; coaches must be in uniform to be allowed on the field to confer with players during a game.[27]
UmpiresAny baseball game involves one or more umpires, who make rulings on the outcome of each play. At a minimum, one umpire will stand behind the catcher, to have a good view of the strike zone, and call balls and strikes. Additional umpires may be stationed near the other bases, thus making it easier to judge plays such as attempted force outs and tag outs. In MLB, four umpires are used for each game, one near each base. In the playoffs, six umpires are used: one at each base and two in the outfield along the foul lines.[28]
StrategySee also: Baseball positioningMany of the pre-game and in-game strategic decisions in baseball revolve around a fundamental fact: in general, right-handed batters tend to be more successful against left-handed pitchers and, to an even greater degree, left-handed batters tend to be more successful against right-handed pitchers.[29] A manager with several left-handed batters in the regular lineup, who knows the team will be facing a left-handed starting pitcher, may respond by starting one or more of the right-handed backups on the team\'s roster. During the late innings of a game, as relief pitchers and pinch hitters are brought in, the opposing managers will often go back and forth trying to create favorable matchups with their substitutions. The manager of the fielding team trying to arrange same-handed pitcher-batter matchups and the manager of the batting team trying to arrange opposite-handed matchups. With a team that has the lead in the late innings, a manager may remove a starting position player—especially one whose turn at bat is not likely to come up again—for a more skillful fielder (known as a defensive substitution).[30]
TacticsPitching and fielding
A first baseman receives a pickoff throw, as the runner dives back to first base.See also: Pitch (baseball)The tactical decision that precedes almost every play in a baseball game involves pitch selection.[31] By gripping and then releasing the baseball in a certain manner, and by throwing it at a certain speed, pitchers can cause the baseball to break to either side, or downward, as it approaches the batter, thus creating differing pitches that can be selected.[32] Among the resulting wide variety of pitches that may be thrown, the four basic types are the fastball, the changeup (or off-speed pitch), and two breaking balls—the curveball and the slider.[33] Pitchers have different repertoires of pitches they are skillful at throwing. Conventionally, before each pitch, the catcher signals the pitcher what type of pitch to throw, as well as its general vertical and/or horizontal location.[34] If there is disagreement on the selection, the pitcher may shake off the sign and the catcher will call for a different pitch.
With a runner on base and taking a lead, the pitcher may attempt a pickoff, a quick throw to a fielder covering the base to keep the runner\'s lead in check or, optimally, effect a tag out.[35] Pickoff attempts, however, are subject to rules that severely restrict the pitcher\'s movements before and during the pickoff attempt. Violation of any one of these rules could result in the umpire calling a balk against the pitcher, which permits any runners on base to advance one base with impunity.[36] If an attempted stolen base is anticipated, the catcher may call for a pitchout, a ball thrown deliberately off the plate, allowing the catcher to catch it while standing and throw quickly to a base.[37] Facing a batter with a strong tendency to hit to one side of the field, the fielding team may employ a shift, with most or all of the fielders moving to the left or right of their usual positions. With a runner on third base, the infielders may play in, moving closer to home plate to improve the odds of throwing out the runner on a ground ball, though a sharply hit grounder is more likely to carry through a drawn-in infield.[38]
Batting and baserunningSeveral basic offensive tactics come into play with a runner on first base, including the fundamental choice of whether to attempt a steal of second base. The hit and run is sometimes employed, with a skillful contact hitter, the runner takes off with the pitch, drawing the shortstop or second baseman over to second base, creating a gap in the infield for the batter to poke the ball through.[39] The sacrifice bunt, calls for the batter to focus on making soft contact with the ball, so that it rolls a short distance into the infield, allowing the runner to advance into scoring position as the batter is thrown out at first. A batter, particularly one who is a fast runner, may also attempt to bunt for a hit. A sacrifice bunt employed with a runner on third base, aimed at bringing that runner home, is known as a squeeze play.[40] With a runner on third and fewer than two outs, a batter may instead concentrate on hitting a fly ball that, even if it is caught, will be deep enough to allow the runner to tag up and score—a successful batter, in this case, gets credit for a sacrifice fly.[38] In order to increase the chance of advancing a batter to first base via a walk, the manager will sometimes signal a batter who is ahead in the count (i.e., has more balls than strikes) to take, or not swing at, the next pitch. The batter\'s potential reward of reaching base (via a walk) exceeds the disadvantage if the next pitch is a strike.[41]
HistoryMain article: History of baseballFurther information: Origins of baseballThe evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. Consensus once held that today\'s baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular among children in Great Britain and Ireland.[42][43][44] American baseball historian David Block suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other, and that the game\'s most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball and \"tut-ball\".[42] The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery.[45] Block discovered that the first recorded game of \"Bass-Ball\" took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player.[46] This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants.[47]
By the early 1830s, there were reports of a variety of uncodified bat-and-ball games recognizable as early forms of baseball being played around North America.[48] The first officially recorded baseball game in North America was played in Beachville, Ontario, Canada, on June 4, 1838.[49] In 1845, Alexander Cartwright, a member of New York City\'s Knickerbocker Club, led the codification of the so-called Knickerbocker Rules,[50] which in turn were based on rules developed in 1837 by William R. Wheaton of the Gotham Club.[51] While there are reports that the New York Knickerbockers played games in 1845, the contest long recognized as the first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history took place on June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey: the \"New York Nine\" defeated the Knickerbockers, 23–1, in four innings.[52] With the Knickerbocker code as the basis, the rules of modern baseball continued to evolve over the next half-century.[53] By the time of the Civil War, baseball had begun to overtake its fellow bat-and-ball sport cricket in popularity within the United States, due in part to baseball being of a much shorter duration than the form of cricket played at the time, as well as the fact that troops during the Civil War did not need a specialized playing surface to play baseball, as they would have required for cricket.[54][55]
In the United StatesFurther information: Baseball in the United States and History of baseball in the United StatesEstablishment of professional leaguesIn the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the New York metropolitan area,[56] and by 1856, local journals were referring to baseball as the \"national pastime\" or \"national game\".[57] A year later, the sport\'s first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players, was formed. In 1867, it barred participation by African Americans.[58] The more formally structured National League was founded in 1876.[59] Professional Negro leagues formed, but quickly folded.[60] In 1887, softball, under the name of indoor baseball or indoor-outdoor, was invented as a winter version of the parent game.[61] The National League\'s first successful counterpart, the American League, which evolved from the minor Western League, was established in 1893, and virtually all of the modern baseball rules were in place by then.[62][63]
The National Agreement of 1903 formalized relations both between the two major leagues and between them and the National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues, representing most of the country\'s minor professional leagues.[64] The World Series, pitting the two major league champions against each other, was inaugurated that fall.[65] The Black Sox Scandal of the 1919 World Series led to the formation of the office of the Commissioner of Baseball.[66] The first commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, was elected in 1920. That year also saw the founding of the Negro National League; the first significant Negro league, it would operate until 1931. For part of the 1920s, it was joined by the Eastern Colored League.[67]
Rise of Ruth and racial integrationCompared with the present, professional baseball in the early 20th century was lower-scoring, and pitchers were more dominant.[68] The so-called dead-ball era ended in the early 1920s with several changes in rule and circumstance that were advantageous to hitters. Strict new regulations governed the ball\'s size, shape and composition, along with a new rule officially banning the spitball and other pitches that depended on the ball being treated or roughed-up with foreign substances, resulted in a ball that traveled farther when hit.[69] The rise of the legendary player Babe Ruth, the first great power hitter of the new era, helped permanently alter the nature of the game.[70] In the late 1920s and early 1930s, St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey invested in several minor league clubs and developed the first modern farm system.[71] A new Negro National League was organized in 1933; four years later, it was joined by the Negro American League. The first elections to the National Baseball Hall of Fame took place in 1936. In 1939, Little League Baseball was founded in Pennsylvania.[72]
Robinson posing in the uniform cap of the Kansas City Royals, a California Winter League barnstorming team, November 1945 (photo by Maurice Terrell)Jackie Robinson in 1945, with the era\'s Kansas City Royals, a barnstorming squad associated with the Negro American League\'s Kansas City MonarchsA large number of minor league teams disbanded when World War II led to a player shortage. Chicago Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley led the formation of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League to help keep the game in the public eye.[73] The first crack in the unwritten agreement barring blacks from white-controlled professional ball occurred in 1945: Jackie Robinson was signed by the National League\'s Brooklyn Dodgers and began playing for their minor league team in Montreal.[74] In 1947, Robinson broke the major leagues\' color barrier when he debuted with the Dodgers.[75] Latin-American players, largely overlooked before, also started entering the majors in greater numbers. In 1951, two Chicago White Sox, Venezuelan-born Chico Carrasquel and black Cuban-born Minnie Miñoso, became the first Hispanic All-Stars.[76][77] Integration proceeded slowly: by 1953, only six of the 16 major league teams had a black player on the roster.[76]
Attendance records and the age of steroidsIn 1975, the union\'s power—and players\' salaries—began to increase greatly when the reserve clause was effectively struck down, leading to the free agency system.[78] Significant work stoppages occurred in 1981 and 1994, the latter forcing the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years.[79] Attendance had been growing steadily since the mid-1970s and in 1994, before the stoppage, the majors were setting their all-time record for per-game attendance.[80][81] After play resumed in 1995, non-division-winning wild card teams became a permanent fixture of the post-season. Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997 and the second-highest attendance mark for a full season was set.[82] In 2000, the National and American Leagues were dissolved as legal entities. While their identities were maintained for scheduling purposes (and the designated hitter distinction), the regulations and other functions—such as player discipline and umpire supervision—they had administered separately were consolidated under the rubric of MLB.[83]
In 2001, Barry Bonds established the current record of 73 home runs in a single season. There had long been suspicions that the dramatic increase in power hitting was fueled in large part by the abuse of illegal steroids (as well as by the dilution of pitching talent due to expansion), but the issue only began attracting significant media attention in 2002 and there was no penalty for the use of performance-enhancing drugs before 2004.[84] In 2007, Bonds became MLB\'s all-time home run leader, surpassing Hank Aaron, as total major league and minor league attendance both reached all-time highs.[85][86]
Around the worldWith the historic popular moniker as \"America\'s national pastime\", baseball is well established in several other countries as well. As early as 1877, a professional league, the International Association, featured teams from both Canada and the United States.[87] While baseball is widely played in Canada and many minor league teams have been based in the country,[88][89] the American major leagues did not include a Canadian club until 1969, when the Montreal Expos joined the National League as an expansion team. In 1977, the expansion Toronto Blue Jays joined the American League.[90]Sadaharu Oh managing the Japan national team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. Playing for the Central League\'s Yomiuri Giants (1959–80), Oh set the professional world record for home runs.In 1847, American soldiers played what may have been the first baseball game in Mexico at Parque Los Berros in Xalapa, Veracruz.[91] The first formal baseball league outside of the United States and Canada was founded in 1878 in Cuba, which maintains a rich baseball tradition. The Dominican Republic held its first islandwide championship tournament in 1912.[92] Professional baseball tournaments and leagues began to form in other countries between the world wars, including the Netherlands (formed in 1922), Australia (1934), Japan (1936), Mexico (1937), and Puerto Rico (1938).[93] The Japanese major leagues have long been considered the highest quality professional circuits outside of the United States.[94]Pesäpallo, a Finnish variation of baseball, was invented by Lauri \"Tahko\" Pihkala in the 1920s,[95] and after that, it has changed with the times and grown in popularity. Picture of Pesäpallo match in 1958 in Jyväskylä, Finland.After World War II, professional leagues were founded in many Latin American countries, most prominently Venezuela (1946) and the Dominican Republic (1955).[96] Since the early 1970s, the annual Caribbean Series has matched the championship clubs from the four leading Latin American winter leagues: the Dominican Professional Baseball League, Mexican Pacific League, Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League, and Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. In Asia, South Korea (1982), Taiwan (1990) and China (2003) all have professional leagues.[97]
The English football club, Aston Villa, were the first British baseball champions winning the 1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain.[98][99] The 2020 National Champions were the London Mets. Other European countries have seen professional leagues; the most successful, other than the Dutch league, is the Italian league, founded in 1948.[100] In 2004, Australia won a surprise silver medal at the Olympic Games.[101] The Confédération Européene de Baseball (European Baseball Confederation), founded in 1953, organizes a number of competitions between clubs from different countries. Other competitions between national teams, such as the Baseball World Cup and the Olympic baseball tournament, were administered by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) from its formation in 1938 until its 2013 merger with the International Softball Federation to create the current joint governing body for both sports, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).[102] Women\'s baseball is played on an organized amateur basis in numerous countries.[103]
After being admitted to the Olympics as a medal sport beginning with the 1992 Games, baseball was dropped from the 2012 Summer Olympic Games at the 2005 International Olympic Committee meeting. It remained part of the 2008 Games.[104] While the sport\'s lack of a following in much of the world was a factor,[105] more important was MLB\'s reluctance to allow its players to participate during the major league season.[106] MLB initiated the World Baseball Classic, scheduled to precede its season, partly as a replacement, high-profile international tournament. The inaugural Classic, held in March 2006, was the first tournament involving national teams to feature a significant number of MLB participants.[107][108] The Baseball World Cup was discontinued after its 2011 edition in favor of an expanded World Baseball Classic.[109]
Distinctive elementsBaseball has certain attributes that set it apart from the other popular team sports in the countries where it has a following. All of these sports use a clock,[110] play is less individual,[111] and the variation between playing fields is not as substantial or important.[112] The comparison between cricket and baseball demonstrates that many of baseball\'s distinctive elements are shared in various ways with its cousin sports.[113]
No clock to kill
A well-worn baseballIn clock-limited sports, games often end with a team that holds the lead killing the clock rather than competing aggressively against the opposing team. In contrast, baseball has no clock, thus a team cannot win without getting the last batter out and rallies are not constrained by time. At almost any turn in any baseball game, the most advantageous strategy is some form of aggressive strategy.[114] Whereas, in the case of multi-day Test and first-class cricket, the possibility of a draw (which occurs because of the restrictions on time, which like in baseball, originally did not exist[115]) often encourages a team that is batting last and well behind, to bat defensively and run out the clock, giving up any faint chance at a win, to avoid an overall loss.[116]
While nine innings has been the standard since the beginning of professional baseball, the duration of the average major league game has increased steadily through the years. At the turn of the 20th century, games typically took an hour and a half to play. In the 1920s, they averaged just less than two hours, which eventually ballooned to 2:38 in 1960.[117] By 1997, the average American League game lasted 2:57 (National League games were about 10 minutes shorter—pitchers at the plate making for quicker outs than designated hitters).[118] In 2004, Major League Baseball declared that its goal was an average game of 2:45.[117] By 2014, though, the average MLB game took over three hours to complete.[119] The lengthening of games is attributed to longer breaks between half-innings for television commercials, increased offense, more pitching changes, and a slower pace of play, with pitchers taking more time between each delivery, and batters stepping out of the box more frequently.[117][118] Other leagues have experienced similar issues. In 2008, Nippon Professional Baseball took steps aimed at shortening games by 12 minutes from the preceding decade\'s average of 3:18.[120]
In 2016, the average nine-inning playoff game in Major League baseball was 3 hours and 35 minutes. This was up 10 minutes from 2015 and 21 minutes from 2014.[121] In response to the lengthening of the game, MLB decided from the 2023 season onward to institute a pitch clock rule to penalize batters and pitchers who take too much time between pitches.[122]
Individual focus
Babe Ruth in 1920, the year he joined the New York YankeesAlthough baseball is a team sport, individual players are often placed under scrutiny and pressure. While rewarding, it has sometimes been described as \"ruthless\" due to the pressure on the individual player.[123] In 1915, a baseball instructional manual pointed out that every single pitch, of which there are often more than two hundred in a game, involves an individual, one-on-one contest: \"the pitcher and the batter in a battle of wits\".[124] Pitcher, batter, and fielder all act essentially independent of each other. While coaching staffs can signal pitcher or batter to pursue certain tactics, the execution of the play itself is a series of solitary acts. If the batter hits a line drive, the outfielder is solely responsible for deciding to try to catch it or play it on the bounce and for succeeding or failing. The statistical precision of baseball is both facilitated by this isolation and reinforces it.
Cricket is more similar to baseball than many other team sports in this regard: while the individual focus in cricket is mitigated by the importance of the batting partnership and the practicalities of tandem running, it is enhanced by the fact that a batsman may occupy the wicket for an hour or much more.[125] There is no statistical equivalent in cricket for the fielding error and thus less emphasis on personal responsibility in this area of play.[126]
Uniqueness of parksFurther information: Ballpark
Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The Green Monster is visible beyond the playing field on the left.Unlike those of most sports, baseball playing fields can vary significantly in size and shape. While the dimensions of the infield are specifically regulated, the only constraint on outfield size and shape for professional teams, following the rules of MLB and Minor League Baseball, is that fields built or remodeled since June 1, 1958, must have a minimum distance of 325 feet (99 m) from home plate to the fences in left and right field and 400 feet (122 m) to center.[127] Major league teams often skirt even this rule. For example, at Minute Maid Park, which became the home of the Houston Astros in 2000, the Crawford Boxes in left field are only 315 feet (96 m) from home plate.[128] There are no rules at all that address the height of fences or other structures at the edge of the outfield. The most famously idiosyncratic outfield boundary is the left-field wall at Boston\'s Fenway Park, in use since 1912: the Green Monster is 310 feet (94 m) from home plate down the line and 37 feet (11 m) tall.[129]
Similarly, there are no regulations at all concerning the dimensions of foul territory. Thus a foul fly ball may be entirely out of play in a park with little space between the foul lines and the stands, but a foulout in a park with more expansive foul ground.[130] A fence in foul territory that is close to the outfield line will tend to direct balls that strike it back toward the fielders, while one that is farther away may actually prompt more collisions, as outfielders run full speed to field balls deep in the corner. These variations can make the difference between a double and a triple or inside-the-park home run.[131] The surface of the field is also unregulated. While the adjacent image shows a traditional field surfacing arrangement (and the one used by virtually all MLB teams with naturally surfaced fields), teams are free to decide what areas will be grassed or bare.[132] Some fields—including several in MLB—use artificial turf. Surface variations can have a significant effect on how ground balls behave and are fielded as well as on baserunning. Similarly, the presence of a roof (seven major league teams play in stadiums with permanent or retractable roofs) can greatly affect how fly balls are played.[133] While football and soccer players deal with similar variations of field surface and stadium covering, the size and shape of their fields are much more standardized. The area out-of-bounds on a football or soccer field does not affect play the way foul territory in baseball does, so variations in that regard are largely insignificant.[134]A New York Yankees batter (Andruw Jones) and a Boston Red Sox catcher at Fenway ParkThese physical variations create a distinctive set of playing conditions at each ballpark. Other local factors, such as altitude and climate, can also significantly affect play. A given stadium may acquire a reputation as a pitcher\'s park or a hitter\'s park, if one or the other discipline notably benefits from its unique mix of elements. The most exceptional park in this regard is Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. Its high altitude—5,282 feet (1,610 m) above sea level—is partly responsible for giving it the strongest hitter\'s park effect in the major leagues due to the low air pressure.[135] Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, is known for its fickle disposition: a pitcher\'s park when the strong winds off Lake Michigan are blowing in, it becomes more of a hitter\'s park when they are blowing out.[136] The absence of a standardized field affects not only how particular games play out, but the nature of team rosters and players\' statistical records. For example, hitting a fly ball 330 feet (100 m) into right field might result in an easy catch on the warning track at one park, and a home run at another. A team that plays in a park with a relatively short right field, such as the New York Yankees, will tend to stock its roster with left-handed pull hitters, who can best exploit it. On the individual level, a player who spends most of his career with a team that plays in a hitter\'s park will gain an advantage in batting statistics over time—even more so if his talents are especially suited to the park.[137]
StatisticsFurther information: Baseball statisticsOrganized baseball lends itself to statistics to a greater degree than many other sports. Each play is discrete and has a relatively small number of possible outcomes. In the late 19th century, a former cricket player, English-born Henry Chadwick of Brooklyn, was responsible for the \"development of the box score, tabular standings, the annual baseball guide, the batting average, and most of the common statistics and tables used to describe baseball.\"[138] The statistical record is so central to the game\'s \"historical essence\" that Chadwick came to be known as Father Baseball.[138] In the 1920s, American newspapers began devoting more and more attention to baseball statistics, initiating what journalist and historian Alan Schwarz describes as a \"tectonic shift in sports, as intrigue that once focused mostly on teams began to go to individual players and their statistics lines.\"[139]
The Official Baseball Rules administered by MLB require the official scorer to categorize each baseball play unambiguously. The rules provide detailed criteria to promote consistency. The score report is the official basis for both the box score of the game and the relevant statistical records.[140] General managers, managers, and baseball scouts use statistics to evaluate players and make strategic decisions.Rickey Henderson—the major leagues\' all-time leader in runs and stolen bases—stealing third base in a 1988 gameCertain traditional statistics are familiar to most baseball fans. The basic batting statistics include:[141]
At bats: plate appearances, excluding walks and hit by pitches—where the batter\'s ability is not fully tested—and sacrifices and sacrifice flies—where the batter intentionally makes an out in order to advance one or more baserunnersHits: times a base is reached safely, because of a batted, fair ball without a fielding error or fielder\'s choiceRuns: times circling the bases and reaching home safelyRuns batted in (RBIs): number of runners who scored due to a batter\'s action (including the batter, in the case of a home run), except when batter grounded into double play or reached on an errorHome runs: hits on which the batter successfully touched all four bases, without the contribution of a fielding errorBatting average: hits divided by at bats—the traditional measure of batting abilityThe basic baserunning statistics include:[142]
Stolen bases: times advancing to the next base entirely due to the runner\'s own efforts, generally while the pitcher is preparing to deliver or delivering the ballCaught stealing: times tagged out while attempting to steal a base
Cy Young—the holder of many major league career marks, including wins and innings pitched, as well as losses—in 1908. MLB\'s annual awards for the best pitcher in each league are named for Young.The basic pitching statistics include:[143]
Wins: credited to pitcher on winning team who last pitched before the team took a lead that it never relinquished (a starting pitcher must pitch at least five innings to qualify for a win)Losses: charged to pitcher on losing team who was pitching when the opposing team took a lead that it never relinquishedSaves: games where the pitcher enters a game led by the pitcher\'s team, finishes the game without surrendering the lead, is not the winning pitcher, and either (a) the lead was three runs or less when the pitcher entered the game; (b) the potential tying run was on base, at bat, or on deck; or (c) the pitcher pitched three or more inningsInnings pitched: outs recorded while pitching divided by three (partial innings are conventionally recorded as, e.g., \"5.2\" or \"7.1\", the last digit actually representing thirds, not tenths, of an inning)Strikeouts: times pitching three strikes to a batterWinning percentage: wins divided by decisions (wins plus losses)Earned run average (ERA): runs allowed, excluding those resulting from fielding errors, per nine innings pitchedThe basic fielding statistics include:[144]
Putouts: times the fielder catches a fly ball, tags or forces out a runner, or otherwise directly effects an outAssists: times a putout by another fielder was recorded following the fielder touching the ballErrors: times the fielder fails to make a play that should have been made with common effort, and the batting team benefits as a resultTotal chances: putouts plus assists plus errorsFielding average: successful chances (putouts plus assists) divided by total chancesAmong the many other statistics that are kept are those collectively known as situational statistics. For example, statistics can indicate which specific pitchers a certain batter performs best against. If a given situation statistically favors a certain batter, the manager of the fielding team may be more likely to change pitchers or have the pitcher intentionally walk the batter in order to face one who is less likely to refers to the field of baseball statistical study and the development of new statistics and analytical tools. The term is also used to refer directly to new statistics themselves. The term was coined around 1980 by one of the field\'s leading proponents, Bill James, and derives from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).[146]
The growing popularity of sabermetrics since the early 1980s has brought more attention to two batting statistics that sabermetricians argue are much better gauges of a batter\'s skill than batting average:[147]
On-base percentage (OBP) measures a batter\'s ability to get on base. It is calculated by taking the sum of the batter\'s successes in getting on base (hits plus walks plus hit by pitches) and dividing that by the batter\'s total plate appearances (at bats plus walks plus hit by pitches plus sacrifice flies), except for sacrifice bunts.[148]Slugging percentage (SLG) measures a batter\'s ability to hit for power. It is calculated by taking the batter\'s total bases (one per each single, two per double, three per triple, and four per home run) and dividing that by the batter\'s at bats.[149]Some of the new statistics devised by sabermetricians have gained wide use:
On-base plus slugging (OPS) measures a batter\'s overall ability. It is calculated by adding the batter\'s on-base percentage and slugging percentage.[150]Walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) measures a pitcher\'s ability at preventing hitters from reaching base. It is calculated by adding the number of walks and hits a pitcher surrendered, then dividing by the number of innings pitched.[151]Wins Above Replacement (WAR) measures number of additional wins his team has achieved above the number of expected team wins if that player were substituted with a replacement-level player.[152]Popularity and cultural impact
Two players on the baseball team of Tokyo, Japan\'s Waseda University in 1921Writing in 1919, philosopher Morris Raphael Cohen described baseball as the national religion of the US.[153] In the words of sports columnist Jayson Stark, baseball has long been \"a unique paragon of American culture\"—a status he sees as devastated by the steroid abuse scandal.[154] Baseball has an important place in other national cultures as well: Scholar Peter Bjarkman describes \"how deeply the sport is ingrained in the history and culture of a nation such as Cuba, [and] how thoroughly it was radically reshaped and nativized in Japan.\"[155]
In the United StatesThe major league game in the United States was originally targeted toward a middle-class, white-collar audience: relative to other spectator pastimes, the National League\'s set ticket price of 50 cents in 1876 was high, while the location of playing fields outside the inner city and the workweek daytime scheduling of games were also obstacles to a blue-collar audience.[156] A century later, the situation was very different. With the rise in popularity of other team sports with much higher average ticket prices—football, basketball, and hockey—professional baseball had become among the most blue-collar-oriented of leading American spectator sports.[157]The Tampere Tigers celebrating the 2017 title in Turku, FinlandOverall, baseball has a large following in the United States; a 2006 poll found that nearly half of Americans are fans.[158] In the late 1900s and early 2000s, baseball\'s position compared to football in the United States moved in contradictory directions. In 2008, MLB set a revenue record of $6.5 billion, matching the NFL\'s revenue for the first time in decades.[159] A new MLB revenue record of more than $10 billion was set in 2017.[160] On the other hand, the percentage of American sports fans polled who named baseball as their favorite sport was 9%, compared to pro football at 37%.[161] In 1985, the respective figures were pro football 24%, baseball 23%.[162] Because there are so many more major league games played, there is no comparison in overall attendance.[163] In 2008, total attendance at major league games was the second-highest in history: 78.6 million, 0.7% off the record set the previous year.[85] The following year, amid the U.S. recession, attendance fell by 6.6% to 73.4 million.[164] Eight years later, it dropped under 73 million.[165] Attendance at games held under the Minor League Baseball umbrella set a record in 2008, with 43.3 million.[166] While MLB games have not drawn the same national TV viewership as football games, MLB games are dominant in teams\' local markets and regularly lead all programs in primetime in their markets during the summer.[167]
CaribbeanSince the early 1980s, the Dominican Republic, in particular the city of San Pedro de Macorís, has been the major leagues\' primary source of foreign talent.[168] In 2017, 83 of the 868 players on MLB Opening Day rosters (and disabled lists) were from the country. Among other Caribbean countries and territories, a combined 97 MLB players were born in Venezuela, Cuba, and Puerto Rico.[169] Hall-of-Famer Roberto Clemente remains one of the greatest national heroes in Puerto Rico\'s history.[170] While baseball has long been the island\'s primary athletic pastime, its once well-attended professional winter league has declined in popularity since 1990, when young Puerto Rican players began to be included in the major leagues\' annual first-year player draft.[171] In Cuba, where baseball is by every reckoning the national sport,[172] the national team overshadows the city and provincial teams that play in the top-level domestic leagues.[173]
Asia
An Afghan girl playing baseball in August 2002In Asia, baseball is among the most popular sports in Japan and South Korea.[174] In Japan, where baseball is inarguably the leading spectator team sport, combined revenue for the twelve teams in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the body that oversees both the Central and Pacific Leagues, was estimated at $1 billion in 2007. Total NPB attendance for the year was approximately 20 million. While in the preceding two decades, MLB attendance grew by 50 percent and revenue nearly tripled, the comparable NPB figures were stagnant. There are concerns that MLB\'s growing interest in acquiring star Japanese players will hurt the game in their home country.[175] Revenue figures are not released for the country\'s amateur system. Similarly, according to one official pronouncement, the sport\'s governing authority \"has never taken into account attendance ... because its greatest interest has always been the development of athletes\".[176] In Taiwan, baseball is one of the most widely spectated sports, with the origins dating back to Japanese rule.[177]
Among childrenAs of 2018, Little League Baseball oversees leagues with close to 2.4 million participants in over 80 countries.[178] The number of players has fallen since the 1990s, when 3 million children took part in Little League Baseball annually.[179] Babe Ruth League teams have over 1 million participants.[180] According to the president of the International Baseball Federation, between 300,000 and 500,000 women and girls play baseball around the world, including Little League and the introductory game of Tee Ball.[181]
A varsity baseball team is an established part of physical education departments at most high schools and colleges in the United States.[182] In 2015, nearly half a million high schoolers and over 34,000 collegians played on their schools\' baseball teams.[183] By early in the 20th century, intercollegiate baseball was Japan\'s leading sport. Today, high school baseball in particular is immensely popular there.[184] The final rounds of the two annual tournaments—the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament in the spring, and the even more important National High School Baseball Championship in the summer—are broadcast around the country. The tournaments are known, respectively, as Spring Koshien and Summer Koshien after the 55,000-capacity stadium where they are played.[185] In Cuba, baseball is a mandatory part of the state system of physical education, which begins at age six. Talented children as young as seven are sent to special district schools for more intensive training—the first step on a ladder whose acme is the national baseball team.[173]
In popular culture
The American Tobacco Company\'s line of baseball cards featured shortstop Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1909 to 1911. In 2007, the card shown here sold for $2.8 million.[186]Baseball has had a broad impact on popular culture, both in the United States and elsewhere. Dozens of English-language idioms have been derived from baseball; in particular, the game is the source of a number of widely used sexual euphemisms.[187] The first networked radio broadcasts in North America were of the 1922 World Series: famed sportswriter Grantland Rice announced play-by-play from New York City\'s Polo Grounds on WJZ–Newark, New Jersey, which was connected by wire to WGY–Schenectady, New York, and WBZ–Springfield, Massachusetts.[188] The baseball cap has become a ubiquitous fashion item not only in the United States and Japan, but also in countries where the sport itself is not particularly popular, such as the United Kingdom.[189]
Baseball has inspired many works of art and entertainment. One of the first major examples, Ernest Thayer\'s poem \"Casey at the Bat\", appeared in 1888. A wry description of the failure of a star player in what would now be called a \"clutch situation\", the poem became the source of vaudeville and other staged performances, audio recordings, film adaptations, and an opera, as well as a host of sequels and parodies in various media. There have been many baseball movies, including the Academy Award–winning The Pride of the Yankees (1942) and the Oscar nominees The Natural (1984) and Field of Dreams (1989). The American Film Institute\'s selection of the ten best sports movies includes The Pride of the Yankees at number 3 and Bull Durham (1988) at number 5.[190] Baseball has provided thematic material for hits on both stage—the Adler–Ross musical Damn Yankees—and record—George J. Gaskin\'s \"Slide, Kelly, Slide\", Simon and Garfunkel\'s \"Mrs. Robinson\", and John Fogerty\'s \"Centerfield\".[191] The baseball-inspired comedic sketch \"Who\'s on First?\", popularized by Abbott and Costello in 1938, quickly became famous. Six decades later, Time named it the best comedy routine of the 20th century.[192]
Literary works connected to the game include the short fiction of Ring Lardner and novels such as Bernard Malamud\'s The Natural (the source for the movie), Robert Coover\'s The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., John Grisham\'s Calico Joe and W. P. Kinsella\'s Shoeless Joe (the source for Field of Dreams). Baseball\'s literary canon also includes the beat reportage of Damon Runyon; the columns of Grantland Rice, Red Smith, Dick Young, and Peter Gammons; and the essays of Roger Angell. Among the celebrated nonfiction books in the field are Lawrence S. Ritter\'s The Glory of Their Times, Roger Kahn\'s The Boys of Summer, and Michael Lewis\'s Moneyball. The 1970 publication of major league pitcher Jim Bouton\'s tell-all chronicle Ball Four is considered a turning point in the reporting of professional sports.[193]
Baseball has also inspired the creation of new cultural forms. Baseball cards were introduced in the late 19th century as trade cards. A typical example featured an image of a baseball player on one side and advertising for a business on the other. In the early 1900s they were produced widely as promotional items by tobacco and confectionery companies. The 1930s saw the popularization of the modern style of baseball card, with a player photograph accompanied on the rear by statistics and biographical data. Baseball cards—many of which are now prized collectibles—are the source of the much broader trading card industry, involving similar products for different sports and non-sports-related fields.[194]
Modern fantasy sports began in 1980 with the invention of Rotisserie League Baseball by New York writer Daniel Okrent and several friends. Participants in a Rotisserie league draft notional teams from the list of active MLB players and play out an entire imaginary season with game outcomes based on the players\' latest real-world statistics. Rotisserie-style play quickly became a phenomenon. Now known more generically as fantasy baseball, it has inspired similar games based on an array of different sports.[195] The field boomed with increasing Internet access and new fantasy sports-related websites. By 2008, 29.9 million people in the United States and Canada were playing fantasy sports, spending $800 million on the hobby.[196] The burgeoning popularity of fantasy baseball is also credited with the increasing attention paid to sabermetrics—first among fans, only later among baseball professionals.[197]
Derivative gamesMain article: Variations of baseballInformal variations of baseball have popped up over time, with games like corkball reflecting local traditions and allowing the game to be played in diverse environments.[198] Two variations of baseball, softball and Baseball5, are internationally governed alongside baseball by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.[199]
British baseballMain article: British baseballAmerican professional baseball teams toured Britain in 1874 and 1889, and had a great effect on similar sports in Britain. In Wales and Merseyside, a strong community game had already developed with skills and plays more in keeping with the American game and the Welsh began to informally adopt the name \"baseball\" (Pêl Fas), to reflect the American style. By the 1890s, calls were made to follow the success of other working class sports (like Rugby in Wales and Soccer in Merseyside) and adopt a distinct set of rules and bureaucracy.[200] During the 1892 season rules for the game of \"baseball\" were agreed and the game was officially codified.[201]
Finnish baseballMain article: PesäpalloFinnish baseball, known as pesäpallo, is a combination of traditional ball-batting team games and North American baseball, invented by Lauri \"Tahko\" Pihkala in the 1920s.[202] The basic idea of pesäpallo is similar to that of baseball: the offense tries to score by hitting the ball successfully and running through the bases, while the defense tries to put the batter and runners out. One of the most important differences between pesäpallo and baseball is that the ball is pitched vertically, which makes hitting the ball, as well as controlling the power and direction of the hit, much easier. This gives the offensive game more variety, speed, and tactical aspects compared to baseball.[202]
See alsoicon Baseball portalBaseball awardsBaseball clothing and equipmentList of baseball filmsList of organized baseball leaguesWomen in baseballRelated sportsBrännboll (Scandinavian bat-and-ball game)Comparison of baseball and cricketLapta (game) (Russian bat-and-ball game)Oină (Romanian bat-and-ball game)Snow baseball (with similar rules played in India during winters)StickballStoop ballVitillaWiffle ball Related Items:

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