15 Baseball Facts to Knock You Out of the Park

When it comes to baseball, interesting facts, remarkable stories, and wholesome events abound in this beautiful game. It is a sport with the oldest professional league in the world and countless legends that still inspire players today.

In celebration of the sport, we’ve decided to make a small compilation of baseball facts: not simply cool facts about baseball, but ones with genuinely interesting stories behind them. Let’s get started, shall we?

1. Baseball was actually devised by a Brit.

(NPR)

One of the most interesting facts about baseball is its origins. The myth says Abner Doubleday, a Civil War general, brought us this beautiful game back in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. But it seems that it was just an attempt to prove that baseball originates from the US. This comes as no surprise, as baseball is America’s favorite sport right after American football.

History facts, on the other hand, prove otherwise. As we know it today, baseball was actually invented by British writer and cricket reporter Henry Chadwick. Chadwick fell in love with the early versions of baseball so much that he felt he had to contribute to it.

Chadwick created a stat system, which included ERA and a batting average for the first time and was a basis for today’s system we all know and love. He was also a huge promoter of the sport.

Even so, the now false fact about baseball origins stuck around so much that from 1936 the town of Cooperstown became home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

2. The Longest Baseball Game Ever Lasted for 8 hours and 25 minutes.

(Guinness World Records)

It was a minor league game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox. In total, there were 33 innings. After the first nine innings, the result was tied 1-1. After 21 innings, it was tied again with 2-2, a result which persisted even after 32 innings.

The game was then suspended and resumed two months later, with Red Sox scoring a winning run 18 minutes in. 

3. The Shortest Baseball Game Lasted 31 minutes.

(MLB)

This fun fact about baseball happened due to one of the teams rushing to catch the train. Asheville Tourists and Winston-Salem Twins were playing one of the season’s last games, and since the Twins were in a rush, they agreed to start the game half an hour earlier than scheduled. 

The audience coming in to watch the game was barely able to catch the ending. And in case you’re wondering, the Twins won 2-1.

4. At 15 years of age, Joe Nuxhall was the youngest player to ever play in the MLB.

(CBC)

There are lots of fascinating  MLB facts, but this one’s especially interesting!  In 1944, many players were called into service, and there weren’t many who were able to stay and play at the time. Jo Nuxhall was a talented teenager whose father declined the offer of a professional contract, opening the doors for his son to play some baseball in the major leagues.

June 10th was his debut as a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. He started well but couldn’t move out of the inning. He was transferred to the minor leagues for the rest of the year but made a comeback eight years later and had a very lucrative career.

5. Worth a staggering $6b, the New York Yankees are the most valuable franchise in baseball.

(Forbes)

Even if you’ve never followed baseball in your life, you know who the Yankees are. Established in 1901 and rebranded in 1913, this baseball team won the World Series 27 times. To put it in perspective, the St. Louis Cardinals are in second place with 11.

Baseball facts or not, the Yankees are the symbol of New York as much as the Statue of Liberty, with their NY logo recognized around the world. It also helps that Forbes has evaluated the team at $6 billion, which puts them far ahead of other baseball teams in the US and only slightly behind the $6.5 Dallas Cowboys from the NFL.

6. A baseball-shaped grenade was invented during WWII, but it didn’t do too well.

(Historynet)

Looking for some more fun baseball facts? Try this: to help their soldiers hit enemy targets better, the OSS (Office of Strategic Service) designed the Beano T-13, the baseball-shaped hand grenade. Social logic told them that a grenade that had the same dimensions as a baseball would improve the accuracy of the soldiers.

However, the grenade was too sensitive, and the mechanism failed more than a few times, mortally wounding two men and injuring 44 soldiers.

7. The fastest speed of a thrown pitch ever recorded stands at 108.1 mph (173.97 km/h).

When googling “​​fastest pitch in baseball,” the first result will usually be the one of Aroldis Chapman, at 105.1mph in a game against the Phillies. Chapman has thrown an even faster pitch of 106mph, which was not approved due to three different radars recording three different speeds.

However, MLB facts connoisseurs will know that there is another, a seemingly forgotten pitch that holds the crown of the fastest. Nolan Ryan threw it in 1974.

8. A 17-year-old named Jackie Mitchell struck out the Iron Horse and the Sultan of Swat in the same game.

(Smithsonian Magazine)

Here comes one of our top 5  facts about baseball. Back in the days, the baseball leagues were divided racially, religiously, by gender, fat vs. slim, blondes vs. brunettes, etc.

Jackie Mitchell was a 17-year girl who old played for the Chattanooga Lookouts. The new president Joe Engel, a known showman, booked the Yankees for two exhibition matches and signed Mitchell a week prior to the match in order to attract the crowd and enhance ticket sales.

It worked. Commentators and news articles hyped up the game and made many derisive comments about the supposedly unfair matchup.

Then came game day. Engels sent his new pitcher to face the heart of the then infamous “Murderers’ Row.” Ruth and Gherig were the duo; both men were considered the greatest and highest-paid baseball players at the time, and one of the top athletes in the world at the time.. They each thought it would be an easy hit, but Mitchel’s signature sinker made them both strikeout, leaving both batterers and the crowd in awe.

The fact that Ruth and Gherig came to see Mitchel training the next day makes it even more beautiful.

9. Babe Ruth is considered the Greatest Baseball Player Ever.

(ESPN)

Only one man was able to single-handedly change the game of baseball and turn it into what it is today. Best known for his home runs, Babe Ruth transformed the game of baseball. 

He played for the Boston Red Sox, but his ultimate dominance came to light after transferring to the New York Yankees. He finished his career playing for the Boston Braves. A less known baseball fact is that Babe Ruth started as a pitcher and only later turned into a hitter. 

A man of many nicknames – the Great Bambino, the Behemoth of Bust, the Caliph of Clout, the Sultan of Sway; legend says he had so many nicknames, his real name, George Herman Ruth Jr., was only used three times in his entire life. All we know for sure is that he was Babe Ruth, the greatest player to ever play the game of baseball.

10. Richie Ashburn once unintentionally snipped the same spectator twice with two foul balls.

(The Hyper Texts)

There are many fun facts in baseball, but we imagine this one wasn’t particularly entertaining to Richie or Miss Alice Roth, the unlucky fan at the receiving end of this quirky situation.

On August 17th, 1957, Ms. Roth had gone to a Phillies game with her husband, a sports editor. While in the stands, Richie Ashburn swung and hit a foul ball, unintentionally directing it at Mrs. Roth and breaking her nose.

While she was being carried away by the medics, the game continued, and Ashburn hit another foul ball, flying it towards Mrs. Roth again, hitting and breaking her knee the second time.  “Fun” baseball facts, indeed, huh?

Despite the incident, Ashburn and Roth became and stayed close friends during their lifetimes, and Roth’s son later became a batboy for the Phillies.

11. An Average Baseball Player’s Salary is $4.41 Million.

(Front Office Sports)

After a 99-day lockout, the second-longest halt in MLB history, the player’s union, and the league found common ground. The salaries rose by 5.9%, bringing the minimum salary to $700,000. One hundred highest-paid players make 48.9% of total salaries, which is a drop from the previous 52.4%.

12. Before each game, all MLB balls are rolled around a special mud at a secret location in New Jersey.

(Sports Illustrated)

Here’s an interesting baseball fact for you:  in 1920, Ray Chapman died from a pitch to the head. From that moment on, the teams started looking for a way to increase the pitchers’ grip on the ball without damaging or dirtying it to the point where it would become too hard to see.

They used different methods like shoeshine and tobacco juice but to no avail. Until one day, Russell “Lena” Blackburne found the answer near his home in New Jersey. The mud was of a special natural mixture that the ball could absorb within a minute, and you wouldn’t even notice it was rolled in it unless you grabbed it immediately.

The mud’s specific location is kept secret to this day and is being used by every team in MLB.

13. George Medich saved a spectator’s life.

(MLB.com Blogs)

Here’s a question: “How many facts about baseball players involve saving a life on the pitch?” This next one really hits it “out of the park.”George, “The Doc” Medich, didn’t rock his nickname just for show. He was a medical student at the University of Pittsburgh and was in residency at Allegheny General Hospital.

In 1978, Medich’s team, the Texas Rangers, played as guests against the Baltimore Orioles. He was 61-years-old, by the way. He heard the call for a doctor while he was on the bench and immediately stepped up to help.

A spectator was having a heart attack, and thanks to his knowledge and expertise, the Doc performed CPR, keeping the spectator’s heart beating long enough for the medics to arrive and take him to the hospital.

14. Actor Will Ferrell played for 10 MLB teams in one day.

(Cut4 by MLB.com)

Here is a bona fide baseball Hall of Fame fact: actor Will Ferrell once played for ten teams in a single day, covering every position on the baseball field. In an attempt to raise money to fight cancer, the actor made an astonishing feat that was made immortal by an HBO documentary named “Ferrell Takes The Field.”

When he was not playing, he was either in a van or a helicopter traveling to the next game. His unique achievement raised close to a million dollars that day.  And, speaking of baseball firsts, Ferrell also made history by breaking a record held by Joel Youngblood, who played two games for two different teams in 1982.

The ten teams Ferrell played for were:

1. Chicago White Sox
2. the Oakland A’s
3. Seattle Mariners
4. Cincinnati Reds
5. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
6. Los Angeles Dodgers
7. Chicago Cubs
8. San Francisco Giants
9. San Diego Padres
10.  Arizona Diamondbacks

15. Dock Ellis had a no-no game while high on LSD.

(Guardian)

The ‘70s in the US were an extraordinary decade in numerous ways. It was the era of disco, fast drugs, and non-stop parties. But there was a specific moment right at the start of the decade that brought us some crazy baseball stories, including the following one.

Dock Ellis flew to San Francisco with his team on June 11th, 1970, and since they had the day off, he asked the manager if he was free to go. After getting his leave, he popped an LSD right at the airport and went to his friend’s house, where he crashed for the night.

A day later, he was called to play. Forgetting what day it was, Ellis took another LSD before the game. “High as a Georgia pine” was how he described feeling that day.

Despite (or perhaps because of?) his state, Dock was getting a no-hit after no-hit, ultimately managing a “no-hitter,” a baseball term used to describe when a pitcher finishes the game without anyone catching a single ball they threw.

He even caught a ball mid-air while securing the first base. There are some crazy baseball facts out there, but you have to admit this one is up there with the craziest!

Conclusion

Whether you are a fan or not, there are some things about baseball that you just have to give it credit for. It’s a game with a lot of heart and one that many still play for the love of it, even as huge sponsorship deals and inflated egos sometimes threaten to ruin the magic.

So when next you find yourself at the baseball stadium with someone you love, eating hot dogs and cheering for your team or just tracking the results of your baseball bets, take a second to appreciate the game you’re watching. You never know – you could be witnessing a historical moment.