baseball, n.Trivia

Baseball is so boring that a player was once ejected from an MLB game for sleeping during the game.

Baseball uses up a lot of bats --- an MLB player uses around 100 bats in a season.

MLB umpires are required to wear black underwear in case they split their pants.

Baseballs become softer as games progress.

MLB uses up a lot of Louisville Slugger bats each season; about 40,000 trees-worth.

Baseball is a peanut-eating pasttime --- 3.7 million bags are eaten every year at ballparks.

Baseballs have 108 stitches

MLB is the oldest professional sports league that is still in existence (1876)

Baseball is slow --- the average game has about 18 minutes of active playing time.

Baseball is more complex than one would think --- there are nine different ways to reach first base

American' football, baseball, basketball, and hockey were all invented by Canadians.

Before 1859, umpires would sit behind home plate in a rocking chair

backwards “K” in baseball means the batter struck out “looking” (ie did not attempt to swing at the third strike-called pitch)

MLB once had women players. A 17-year old African-American woman struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig (in an exhibition game)

An MLB game generally uses around 100 balls

Baseball's rules are always changing --- walks were scored as hits during the 1887 season.

K denotes 'strikeout' because 'S' was being used to denote a sacrifice

Pitchers were prohibited from delivering the ball overhand for much of the 19th century.

Strikeouts are not limited to three per inning. As many as 85 times, a pitcher has struck out four batters in one inning.

A curveball is able to break up to 17 inches