Baseball is a well-known sport not only in America but around the world. It, much like other sports, has seen its fair share of intriguing events. Even if you are looking for MLB picks today, here we come with some interesting facts about baseball that you probably didn’t know.
108 stitches are used in every MLB ball.
The first and last 108 stitches of each baseball are hidden in the leather. Some people claim that there are 216 stitches since they are double stitches. Every hand-sewn baseball has a six-pitch limit before it is retired. This indicates that each game uses 5-6 hundred baseballs.
MLB baseballs get scrubbed with a certain amount of dirt.
That’s exactly. All MLB baseballs are scrubbed with a specific mud obtained from an unidentified source. Only one person sells this mud to MLB each season and only they know where it is. Why is this mud unique? The MLB only allows this sludge as foreign material. It offers a better grip and shows the leather of the ball. Other companies have made attempts to imitate this special and enigmatic mud, but all have failed.
Spitball was banned in 1920
A baseball field known as a “spitball” had the surface of the ball modified by the application of something like saliva (hence the name) or petroleum jelly. The Pirates’ Burleigh Grimes threw a legal spitball against the Giants in 1934, and the Pirates won the game. Why was spitting forbidden? A spitball behaves differently than a normal pitch because it contains a foreign material, the wind resistance changes, and the weight distribution changes.
Two versions of baseball before the American Civil War
Baseball was played in two different ways before the American Civil War. One was a game played with a softball in Massachusetts, while the other involved a game played with a hardball in New York. As Civil War troops from New York and New Jersey shared their game with other soldiers, the New York version gained popularity.
The Yankees weren’t the first team to use numbered uniforms.
Contrary to popular belief, the Cleveland Indians were the first club to wear numbers on the back of their uniforms, not the New York Yankees. Why are the Yankees given credit? The Cleveland Indians became the first official team to wear numbers on the back of their jerseys after their previous game was postponed due to weather.
Baseball wasn’t invented by Abner Doubleday.
You may know that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday in 1839. Not only is this tale untrue, it barely scratches the surface of the true story of America’s national pastime. How and why did this myth arise then? A group led by merchants met in 1907 to determine the historical ancestors of baseball. However, they paid tribute to Civil War hero Abner Doubleday rather than acknowledging baseball’s origins in cricket and the rounder.
Conclusion
Did you find this interesting? Were some of the facts sounding strange? That is bear truth even if it was interesting or looking strange. These facts are there in Baseball and many fans don’t know.