Fun Facts About Baseball: Learn Some Cool Obscure Details
After discussing the basic rules of baseball and some prominent teams, we thought it would be fun to have an article dedicated to some cool facts about the sport that surprised even some of us. Perhaps you know some of them, but we will attempt to also give you some lesser-known interesting facts that you can share with your friends.
Fun Facts About Baseball Players
Let’s start off by mentioning some interesting facts about various baseball players over the years:
- Joe Nuxhall: On June 10, 1944, Nuxhall pitched for the Cincinnati Reds at the age of 15, thus becoming the youngest player to play in Major League Baseball; he still holds that record.
- Leroy “Satchel” Paige: the legendary baseball player became and remains the oldest player to play in a Major League Baseball game at the age of 59 for the Kansas City Athletics.
- Tommy Brown: On August 20, 1945, 17-year-old Brown hit his first homerun for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the youngest player to do so, a record that he still holds today.
- Julio Franco: On April 20, 2006, Franco, aged 46 at the time, became, and remains, the oldest baseball player to land a homerun.
- Nolan Ryan and Cap Anderson: these two great players hold the record for most seasons played in Major League Baseball; a total of 27 for both.
- Yogi Berra: the fantastic baseball player Berra holds the record for most appearances, as well as wins, in World Series. He played in 14 World Series and won 10 of them.
- Cy Young: Young holds the MLB record for most wins in history with 511 wins.
- Barry Bonds: Bonds became and remains the player with the most home runs in a single season; he hit 73 home runs in 2000. He set another impressive record in 2007 – hitting a total of 762 home runs upon retiring. Only two other players, Bebe Ruth (714 runs) and Hank Aaron (755 runs) have passed the 700-mark so far.
- Jay Clarke: Clarke holds the record for most home runs in a single game; he apparently hit 8 home runs on June 15, 1902, but his record is still disputed as there’s no concrete evidence to prove or disprove the claim.
- Aroldis Chapman: Chapman made history in 2010 when he threw the fastest baseball pitch, clocked at 105.1/mph, for the Cincinnati Reds.
- Nolan Ryan: Ryan holds the record of the most strikeouts in Major League Baseball history with a total of 5,714.
- Hank Aaron: Apart from being the second player, after Bebe Ruth, to hit 700 home runs, Aaron is also the player to have batted in 2,297 runs, setting a record he still holds today.
- Edwin Jackson: Jackson holds a somewhat interesting record in the MLB; he’s the player to have changed the most teams in his career, playing for a total of 14 MLB teams.
Fun Facts About the Game
Now that we’ve seen the impressive records set by those amazing baseball players, let’s talk about the game itself:
- The first time the word “baseball” was mentioned was in John Newbery’s children’s book A Little Pretty Pocket Book, which was first published in 1744 in Britain.
- The first professional baseball team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings; the club was established in 1866, but despite being the ancestor of the Cincinnati Reds, it’s considered that the team that still plays today was established in 1881.
- The Atlanta Braves is considered to be the oldest continuously operating team in American baseball history, having been founded in 1871.
- The New York Yankees hold the record for most baseball titles, having won 27 World Series (played in 40).
- The fastest professional baseball game only lasted for 32 minutes; this record was set in a game between the Atlanta Crackers and Mobile Sea Gulls; the Sea Gulls won the nine-inning game on August 30, 1916.
- The fastest Major League Baseball game lasted for the impressive 51 minutes; The New York Giants won the game 6-1, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies on September 28, 1919.
- The longest MLB game lasted for more than 8 hours (8 hours and 6 minutes) and it had to be completed over two days (May 8-9, 1984); the game was between the Chicago White Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers. In the end, the White Sox won.
- The longest MLB by innings (26 innings) lasted for 3 hours and 50 minutes; it was between the Brooklyn Robins and the Boston Braves. The game was called off due to darkness and it ended in a 1-1 tie on May 10, 1920.
- The first US President to pitch a baseball game was President Taft who threw the first pitch at Opening Day on April 14, 1910; Taft was a semi-professional baseball player before entering politics.
- After Taft, every US President, except for Jimmy Carter, has thrown the first pitch at Opening Day.
- 95% of professional baseball players use bats made out of maple wood.
- The American Tobacco Company came up with the idea of baseball cards by selling their cigarettes with baseball cards inside.
- The most valuable baseball card today is of Horus Wagner, and it sells for the mind-boggling $3 million. The reason for that is the rarity, because Wagner apparently didn’t want his image to be used, so there are fewer cards printed.