Baseball

Baseball evolved from English bat-and-ball games like rounders — the story of Abner Doubleday inventing it in Cooperstown is a myth. The decisive step came in 1845, when the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York wrote a set of rules featuring foul territory, three-out innings, and the tag or force out instead of hitting runners with the ball. The 'New York game' spread through the Civil War camps and became the national pastime.

1. 1845

   The Knickerbocker Rules

   The Knickerbocker club codified the diamond, foul lines, and tagging runners out — banishing the old practice of 'soaking' runners by throwing the ball at them.

2. 1857

   Nine innings, ninety feet

   Convention delegates fixed the game at nine innings (rather than first to 21 runs) and set the bases 90 feet apart — a distance so well judged it has never changed.

3. 1893

   The pitcher moves back

   The pitching distance was set at 60 feet 6 inches with a rubber slab, the final adjustment in decades of tug-of-war between pitchers and hitters (four balls for a walk had settled in 1889).

4. 1920

   The live-ball era

   The spitball and other doctored pitches were banned and balls were replaced more often — offense exploded, and Babe Ruth's home runs remade the sport.

5. 1973

   The designated hitter

   The American League adopted the DH to bat in place of the pitcher; the National League held out for nearly half a century before the DH became universal in 2022.

6. 2023

   The pitch clock era

   MLB introduced a pitch clock, limits on defensive shifts, and larger bases — cutting average game time by roughly 24 minutes and boosting stolen bases overnight.