- The base most stolen in a baseball game is second base.[6]
- The unofficial anthem of American baseball, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” is traditionally sung during the middle of the 7th inning. It was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert von Tilzer, both of whom had never been to a baseball game.[3]
- Mo’ne Davis (2001– ) became the first female to win a Little League World Series baseball game.[13]
- No woman has ever played in a major league baseball game. American sports executive Effa Louise Manley (1897–1981) is the first and only woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.[8]
Early baseballs contained anything from a rock to a walnut in the center
- The life span of a major league baseball is 5–7 pitches. During a typical game, approximately 70 balls are used.[6]
- While baseball initially started in the U.S., it has spread worldwide. Today more than 100 countries are part of the International Baseball Federation. Japan has the largest pro baseball league outside the U.S.[8]
- Baseball’s L.A. Dodgers, originally founded in Brooklyn, are named after the legendary skill that that local residents showed at “dodging” the city’s trolley streetcar system.[8]
- The Boston Americans won baseball’s first World Series in 1903.[8]
- In 2014, Major League Baseball saw approximately $9 billion in gross revenue, up from $8 billion the previous year.[2]
- The baseball team with the most World Series wins is the New York Yankees with 27 titles.[8]
- The first known reference to the word “baseball” was in a 1744 publication by children’s publisher John Newberry called A Little Pretty Pocket-Book.[11]
- A “can of corn” is an easy fly ball. The term comes from when old-time grocers used their aprons to catch cans knocked from a high shelf.[4]
- Craig Biggio (1965– ) of the Houston Astros holds the record for a player most often hit by a pitch.[8]
- In 2008, Dr. David A. Peters found that sliding headfirst into a base is faster than a feet-first slide.[6]
The mitt is the most evolved piece of sport's equipment
- Baseball gloves have evolved more than any other piece of the sport’s equipment.[6]
- The oldest baseball park still in use is Fenway Park, the home field of the Boston Red Sox, which debuted in 1912.[8]
- The New York Yankees were the first baseball team to wear numbers on their backs, in the 1920s. They initially wore numbers based on the batting order. Babe Ruth always hit third, so he was number 3.[4]
- For the first half of the 20th century, major league teams barred African-Americans from participating in its baseball games. However, African-Americans formed “Negro Leagues,” which had some of the greatest players of the century.[8]
- The Yankees’ Mickey Mantle holds the record for the longest home run on record for a 565-foot clout hit at Washington DC’s old Griffith Stadium on April 17, 1953. As a switch hitter, he was batting right-handed against left-handed pitcher Chuck Stobbs from the Washington Senators.[8]
- There is a rule in baseball that before every game, an umpire should remove the shine from the new baseballs by rubbing them with mud from a creek in Burlington County, New Jersey.[4]
- Chicago Cubs outfielder Rick Monday became a national hero when he rescued an American flag from two men who were trying to set it on fire in the outfield at Dodger Stadium during a game on April 25, 1976. The 25,167 fans gave him a standing ovation and burst out singing “God Bless America.”[8]
- The first U.S. president to throw the ceremonial first ball was William Howard Taft (a former semipro baseball player) on April 14, 1910. American presidents, except Jimmy Carter, have been throwing out the first ball on Opening Day ever since.[8]
- “The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed for the first time at a sporting event on September 5, 1918, in the middle of the 7th inning of Game 1 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs at (rented out) Comiskey Park.[8]
- Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. became the first father and son to play in the major leagues as teammates for the Seattle Mariners in 1990. On September 14, 1990, they hit back-to-back home runs, creating another father-son baseball first.[8]
Jackie Mitchell was banned from Major and Minor League Baseball
- Minor league pitcher Jackie Mitchell (1913–1987) is famous for striking out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession in the 1930s. She was promptly banned from Major and Minor League Baseball.[8]
- Famous baseball movies include The Bad News Bears (1976), The Pride of the Yankees (1942), The Natural (1984), Bill Durham (1988), Bang the Drum Slowly(1973), Moneyball (2011), 42 (2013), A League of Their Own (1992), Fear Strikes Out (1957), and Eight Men Out (1988).[12]
- Visiting teams wear (at least mostly) gray uniforms so fans can easily distinguish between the visiting team and the home team. The tradition dates back to the late 1800s when travelling teams did not have time to launder their uniforms and, consequently, wore gray to hide the dirt.[4]
- The first pro baseball game ever to be aired on television was on August 26, 1939. It was a doubleheader between Brooklyn and Cincinnati.[8]
- “Soaking” was a very early baseball rule that allowed a runner who was off base to be put out by throwing a ball at him.[4]
- The team with the most players in the Hall of Fame is the San Francisco Giants, who have 24 Hall of Famers.[8]
- From 1995 to 2001, every seat at Jacobs Field was sold out every night for 455 baseball games in a row. The Cleveland Indians retired the number 455 in honor of their fans.[8]
- The last major league ballpark to install lights was Chicago’s Wrigley Field in 1988. Until then, the Cubs did not have lights and played all their home games in the daytime.[8]
The association between hot dogs and baseball began as early as 1893
- Hot dogs are the most popular ballpark food item. Baseball fans ate 21,357,316 hot dogs and 5,508,887 sausages during the 2014 major league season. That is enough hot dogs to stretch from Dodger Stadium in LA to Wrigley Field in Chicago.[9][14]
- Boston Red Sox player Jimmy Piersall celebrated his 100th home run by running the bases backwards. He was an eccentric player who inspired the book and movie Fear Strikes Out, which chronicle his battle with bipolar disorder.[8]
- In 1989, NBC’s Gayle Gardner (1950– ) became the first woman to regularly host Major League Baseball games for a television network.[8]
- When baseball great Lou Gehrig retired from the game due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), he said in his farewell speech that he was “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” His speech has been called the “Gettysburg Address of Baseball.”[8]
- Toni Stone (1921–1996) became the first of three women to play in baseball’s Negro League over its 40-year history. Baseball historians called her the “female Jackie Robinson.” At one time, in 1953, she was the fourth best batter in the league.[13]
- Dock Ellis (1945–2008), the Pirates’ starting pitcher, pitched his first and only no-hitter of his career on June 12th, 1970. He also happened to be high on LSD at the time.[8]
- While baseball games today last about 3 hours, the fastest game ever played in major league history lasted just 51 minutes on September 28, 1919. The New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1 at the Polo Grounds.[8]
- The most innings ever played in a Major League Baseball game was 26 innings on May 1, 1920, when the Brooklyn Dodgers played the Boston Braves.[8]
- The longest game on record was between the Chicago White Sox and the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on May 9, 1984. The game lasted 8 hours 6 minutes and went 25 innings.[8]
- The record for the least amount of people at a baseball game was set in 2011 when the Florida Marlins played the Cincinnati Reds. Due to Hurricane Irene, just 347 people attended the game.[8]
Johannes Peter "Honus" Wagner was an American baseball shortstop
- The most valuable baseball card ever is the 1909 Honus Wagner T206 baseball card, worth about $2.8 million.[8]
- In the United States, baseball is often used as a metaphor for sex. The term “first base” indicates mouth-to-mouth kissing; “second base” symbolizes skin-to-s