5 Lessons I've Learned From Baseball History

A window into the past

5 Lessons I've Learned From Baseball History

I’ve always loved reading baseball history. I loved it as a kid, and I still love it as an adult.

However, I’ve learned over time that a few of the things I thought I knew about the sport are wrong.

Here are 5 things I’ve learned about its history that have surprised me.

Team Nicknames

The truth is that team nicknames are largely a modern invention.

That doesn’t mean that you won’t see them, of course. The National League team in St. Louis was called the Cardinals, for example. But sometimes the newspapers gave them different names:

The idea we have that a team only has a specific nickname is a modern invention, one that comes from the age of copyright and trademarks. Team names were largely nicknames given to teams by sportswriters in the early days, and did not carry with them the meaning and connotation that they would in later years.

Minor League Baseball

I’ve written a lot about this before, and will write more about this in the future.

The difference between major and minor league baseball was not as large as you think.

The chief differentiator was the draft system. In theory, young players would first sign with minor league teams, and then would be subject to the major league draft at the end of each season. Ideally, players would sign first with teams located close to their hometowns, and would only gradually advance into the wider world of baseball competition.

In reality, major league teams often had backroom deals with minor league teams. The draft itself was usually rigged, as owners knew which players were the theoretical property of which team.

The system was awful. However, it was nowhere near as bad as the farm system that has replaced it. Under the farm system, minor league baseball is essentially devoid of meaningful pennant races. Minor league baseball teams serve as the colonies of imperialist major league empires — and the result has been a general lack of interest in the sport in minor league towns.

We’ve never had a system anything like the association football system in England and elsewhere, where small, independent local teams survive chiefly on player sales and have the theoretical chance of being promoted to the top. This distinction was not caused by the accident of history, either. It was done deliberately, all in the name of territorial rights and local monopolies.

Like many other American institutions, baseball has been controlled by large corporations since its very beginning.

Day Games

We tend to think of day games starting around 1:30 PM or 2:00 PM. Some games even start around noon.

Most day games in the deadball era started sometime between 3:30 PM and 4:00 PM.

Even doubleheaders started later than we think.

This is significant because batters were hitting out of the shadows in nearly every game. Not only did they have to contend with white shirts and no batting eye, and not only were they up there against spitballs and other trick pitches — they also probably couldn’t see the ball anyway.

This is an incredibly significant aspect of deadball era history — and is one that baseball historians have generally ignored.

Player Stories

This probably needs no introduction, given what my posts usually consist of — but it’s something you should keep in mind.

When we look at old statistics and player names, we’re not dealing with a set of numbers. We’re talking about real people — men who had hopes and dreams, men who had fears and anxieties, and men who had stories that are fascinating.

Not everybody was a hero, of course. However, when you start looking closely at the unsung heroes, you’ll find that their stories are just as fascinating as DiMaggio, Williams, Ruth, and the others.

There are a lot of stories left to tell, so stay tuned.

The Game Hasn’t Changed

This is probably the most controversial of these 5 points.

I see comments all the time stating that modern baseball started after 1947, or after 1920, or whenever.

The truth is that the modern game of baseball started in 1893.

That’s the year the pitcher’s mound was moved back to 60 feet 6 inches.

We’ve had the following rule changes since then:

The infield fly rule in 1895

The foul strike rule in 1901 (National League) and 1903 (American League)

The Designated Hitter rule in 1973

The recent rule changes — ghost runners in extra innings, banning the shift, the pitch clock, etc.

But none of these are significant changes to how the game is played.

Baseball doesn’t have the equivalent of the legalization of the forward pass in American football. There’s no baseball equivalent to legalizing forward passing in hockey, or dribbling with the ball in basketball. There’s no major rule change in baseball quite like the revision of the offsides law in association football in the 1920s.

That’s why it’s so easy for us to compare one era to another. The fundamental aspects of the game are the same.

Of course, that’s also why the game feels lethargic, slow, and dated. Sadly, the men who organize and advertise the sport are extremely poor at engaging with their audience.