A great story about King Kelly. One time when he was managing in Boston, he didn't put himself in the lineup. An opposing batter hit a foul popup toward the Boston bench, and Kelly loudly announced, "Kelly, now catching for Boston!" and caught the ball. At the time, there was no rule against substituting in the middle of the action, so the umpire had no choice but the call the batter out. Obviously, because of this incident, they had to change that rule.
All I know is, we had a Blast, as kids---playing on the nearby fields, feeling like we would one day be Pro--Baseball players. We didn't have video games, or, cell-phones...Thank GOD!! We actually went OUTSIDE to "Play," and exercise our bodies. I'm extremely thankful for having been born in the 50's! ( the Music was infinitely better, as well).
Great video! A few notes: 7:55 - An 81-game winning streak is often cited, but it's worth noting that Cincinnati won their last eight games in 1868, which would put their winning streak at 89. 8:35 - Cincinnati didn't disband after a single loss. They finished out the 1870 season with a 67-6 record. 10:05 - The NA was crooked, without a doubt. The best evidence is that prior to his arrest, Boss Tweed was an investor of the New York Mutuals. 14:51 - The reserve clause came a few years after the NL's founding. 18:05 - John L. Sullivan was somewhat of a baseball player himself! He pitched a couple of semi-pro games in the 1880s and remained a baseball fan throughout his life.
Thank been a student of baseball since age 11 , 33 years never can know enough or understand all prespectives.names or story change the impact and conceptual influences vary . The more you listen and learn. thank for your time making this.
I've have the honor to play 1864 rules base ball in CT, RI, MASS, NY, and now TN. It is a great sport, but the history of where we play, from old forts to old plantations is etched in my mind. I can't help think of those who fought in the Civil war.
Charles Elliot sounds like a man after my own heart. Curve balls are dishonest, and the primary reason my dream to play professional baseball collapsed at the tender age of 14. There were other sports I was better at but my heart was always with baseball. When I was a kid, it was tough to find an open diamond in the summer. Not too long ago I happened to come across three on a nice June afternoon. They were all empty and two had grass so high if the backstop wasn't still there you would never know kids once played ball there. But I enjoyed the video. Good job. 👍
From a History major in college and a lifetime player and baseball fan, thank you for this lecture series. I appreciate your approach without political or social agenda dominating your presentation.
Good job. I've loved the game of baseball and its history since the early 1960s, and I've read many books about baseball. I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture and learned a couple of things that I either didn't know or had forgotten about LOL Well done.
Slide Kelly Slide and moving the mound in 1893. Cy Young made the adjustment to 60 feet and 6 inches and proved he was great in the 19th and 20th centuries as he won 511 games. Others like John Clarkson, Tim Keefe, and Tony Mullane did not seeing their careers destroyed by the greater distance! We saw that also in 1969 when the mound was lowered.
Just found you, great info, well formatted and interesting. I often have thought how cool it must've been for my great grandfather, who as a young boy got to see the 1890's Baltimore Orioles, beat the beaneaters for the championship. Names like Willie Keeler, John McGraw, Wilbert Robinson, who would take baseball to the modern era. To bad my Orioles suck, DeAngelos is no Vonderhorst.
Wonderful lecture, bud! Just love it and all your great research. I’m learning quite a lot. By the way, did “Alfred” Spalding have a twin named Albert Goodwill Spalding?🤔
The men and women of Lansing Ia. have a long history of success in the game of Baseball and Softball. The Local HS is always a threat to win the Conference championship. It is a sports mad River city on the Mississippi .
Thanks for all this! It's especially helpful as I begin a different version of If Baseball Integrated Early, where baseball integrates from the beginning - in this one I focus on ownership instead of a superstar player not dying in the Civil War and holding the key to pushing integration. Looks like I might want to keep them out of the national association if it was so corrupt. :) and I know now also this one girl character, future wife of 1 owner, is a suffragist (She wears bloomers in the '60s when they are relatively new) her playing baseball with the boys is not that odd.
This is a great series of videos! If I may nitpick one thing, it's that you didn't take the opportunity in this video to include a photo of the South End Grounds in Boston, a great example of an early stadium built specifically for baseball. But that's just a personal nitpick. Otherwise, I find these videos pretty fascinating.
Just curious, we have attended 1857 rules base ball, which has underhand slow pitching and outs on one bound of the ball with players advancing, including foul outs on one bound. Just curious when fast overhand pitching began. This really changed the game from a game played by anyone for fun versus the game being played by pros with high skills as a spectator sport.
The MLB rules committee decided pitchers could throw overhand in 1884 but even before that pitchers were delivering the ball with impressive speed using a delivery a bit like underhanded reliever Dan Quisenberry.
Just a little trivia to me as a German: It is always funny how Americans pronounce German names. I just heard it in the background, when you talked about Christian von der Ahe. I thought his name was Christian Wanderer, as you pronounced him somewhat like that. Then I clicked on the video tab and saw his name, I'd have never heard "von der Ahe" even if I'd tried to. The actual German pronounciation of "von der" would be like "fonn dare" with the last word "Ahe" being pronounced like the U in "usher" directly followed by the English unstressed "a" as in "a pineapple".
@@thebaseballprofessor I actually wondered about the same thing when you tried to pronounce him. I doubt they pronounced it the German way, but what's even more interesting, how did HE pronounce HIMSELF when introducing to Americans? I mean, as the president of a professional baseball team he had to introduce himself to other people quite often. By the way, when you said something in Spanish (I guess in part 2 of this series?) I was quite impressed.
There's nothing surprising about being able to know the stats from the National Association. The first edition of the Baseball Encyclopedia (1969) contained every available statistic from every major league since...the National Association. I personally believe statistics prior to the establishment of the American League in 1901 should be separate. The game was so much different--rules, equipment, style of play. Sure, baseball has seen its ups and downs of hitting and pitching over the years, but the 19th century was, excuse for this, a whole different ball game.
BTW, Slide Kelly Slide had nothing to do with the mound, he was a catcher and drinker and died at age 36. He had been a star in Chicago and Boston. Mike King Kelly!
I have always been suspect of pitching records before 1894, the time when the pitching rubber was less than 60 ft 6 inches. Would we still record Cap Anson’s hits if the base paths were 83 ft instead of 90 ft, essentially the same comparison of 55 ft 6 inches vs 60 ft 6 inches?
I see your point, but MLB has fiddled with the rules since 1894 (tigher wound balls, lowering the pitcher's mound, designated hitter, pitch clocks). League batting averages and league ERA have been relatively constant since 1876. I accept Cap Anson's career achievements albeit with a recognition of "park factors" and "era factors". The 1930s was an good time for hitters while our time is a good time for pitchers, but it's all within a certain range of balance between offensive and defense.
Well spoken. After 1894 the only rule change about the dimensions of the playing field was the lowering of the mound 5 inches after “The Year of The Pitcher” in ’68. But, regardless of losing 5 inches of height from the mound, type of ball, DH, etc., there is only the 1894 demarcation of throwing the pitch at 60’6” that establishes the interior “battlefield” diamond dimensions as it stands today. All other changes are simply defining the tools to be used on that field. I don’t think record keepers would tally the scores of old basketball games and compare them with current players if the rim was nine feet tall. Or old NFL stats if the old field was only 90 yards. Yet, as you pointed out baseball or its publicity tenders were/are conservative, nativist, and protective of the history of the sport, and such questions are not to be uttered. Nevertheless, it makes for a good end-of-the-night, end-of-the-bar discussion. Btw Excellent lectures. @@thebaseballprofessor
What Old Hoss did was still amazing. You should read "Fifty-Nine in '84". Though i disagree with the author and the Baseball Professor. Old Hoss was not giving the bird. If you examine the photo close up you can see that its clearly a cigar. The color is darker than the other fingers. Its crumpled like a cigar. The size is way too big compared to the other fingers and it extends too far past the other knuckles. One knuckle would not be that far below the other knuckles. Sorry folks but it's just a cigar.
Historically soccer was viewed as a man's game after WWI (when there were well-publicized ladies matches). Gender neutrality in soccer ,at least in the West and Far East, began in the late 80's and the Women's World Cup popularized it on a world wide scale. There's still work to be done to get full gender neutrality, at least at the professional level, especially in the most of the Mid-East where there are mostly clandestine women's leagues, so not to alert the authorities of their countries (i.e. the Gulf States and off-and-on in Iran).
In the United States, however, soccer is _primarily_ a women's game, which is why it dominates every Women's World Cup, and why it is often misogynistically dismissed.
@@SamAronow Not really. Women dominate the World Cup because a) there are fewer sports for women to go pro in and make a living than men, b) fewer national women's teams are as competitive (look at the way Brazil wasted the talents of Marta), and c) whereas most men are content to play in MLS, far more women go to top leagues in Europe.
Funny about Cricket and Rounders as Rounders is mostly a women's sport and Cricket is mainly a male sport with only places like NZ having women's Cricket league. Also, funny saying these sports that came from GB, in previous part 2 the sport of Rugby was one missed and that spawned 3 different sports from them Football USA/Canadian these two similar sports and Australian football a closer sport to Rugby.
Rounders was very much a female sport in the UK when I was young in the 1950s and 60s ..... girls played it at school, towns and districts of cities had leagues and it was very widespread, but it was all recreational, there was no professional game. Women's cricket is now booming in the UK, there are professional leagues and the same is true throughout the cricket playing world
They are separate categories. All a republic means is that there is no monarch. A democracy refers to the right of people to decide. For example, France and Germany are democratic republics, China is an undemocratic republic, Spain is a democratic monarchy, and Saudi Arabia is an undemocratic monarchy.
Outstanding info. Love this stuff. Unfortunately the narrator is very annoying. The constant smacking of the lips, the drama he attempts to inject, not necessary. The info is fascinating enough. Fix it and enough with the smacking. That must everyone else as well. So condescending.
