BALLS & STRIKES

Today’s fans who think that games need to be sped-up might be surprised to learn that back in the 1880s it was common practice for a pitcher to throw between 40-60 pitches PER BATTTER. [1]

In those early days the pitcher’s only function was to serve the ball up (“on a platter”) to the batter without the intention of walking or striking him out, since balls and strikes were not called by the umpires. Instead, batters told the umpire exactly where they wanted the ball pitched and the umpire ordered the moundsman to aim for that spot; the batter could wait as long as he liked until taking a swing. Since no balls or strikes were being called, pitchers tried to avoid, or “paint,” the sweet spot called for by the batsman.

This resulted in a slow and tedious at-bats with the batsmen refusing to swing at any pitch that they thought wasn’t exactly in their required location. In the first game played by the home team Atlantics in Brooklyn [1855] it took 2 hours and 45 minutes to play just three innings! [2]

With day games running well past sunset, despite strong resistance, [3] it was decided in 1879 [4] to require the umpire to make a ball or strike call on every pitch “with the exception of a two-strike warning pitch,” [5] which made it 4 balls to advance to first base and 4 strikes to be called out of the batter’s box. It took ten years for the two-strike warning pitch to be eliminated and, in 1889, it became 4 balls for a walk and 3 strikes for an out, whether the batter was striking at the pitch, or the umpire called a pitch a strike. [6]

But, for those of you who like to see current players hustle down to first after ball four is called, know that batters, until 1889, could be called out for walking to first base; they had to run. [7] Hence, the term “walk” was not used in those early days.

Originally, the term “strike” referred only to when the batter took a swing at, or tried to strike the ball. [8] The term “ball” was an abbreviation for the original warning that the umpire gave to the pitcher to aim for the spot called for by the batter: “Ball to the bat.” [9]

Could you imagine a home plate umpire walking out to the mound and warning Bob Gibson to try to hit Hank Aaron’s bat?

(NOTE: All citations are from A Game of Inches by Peter Morris. Page numbers are listed after the footnote number. [1], [2] p.17; [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] p.19; [9] p.20.)

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