Dempsey-Fulton 1918

[Willie Pep 229]

[Quicksilver*]

Little baseball history thrown in, like it.

[QueensburyRules]

- -The Feds only lasted a year or two before folding.

MLB first wake up call and now Coronavirus wake up call...Only in baseball!

[billeau2]

- -The Feds only lasted a year or two before folding.

MLB first wake up call and now Coronavirus wake up call...Only in baseball!

Queen B: Do you happen to know when baseball parks were standerdized in the infield and pitching mound? I mean, made to conform to the proper lengths? that field looks HUGE! Then again, so did Alameda Stadium lol.

My old man and I would take marathon walks all over New York City. So in typical weekend fashion I asked my dad about the original field in Hoboken... No internet back then! We usually went out and had a catch in Central Park, or would walk out to some remote area and find a field... So on that day, naive kid that I was (still am right? lol) I figured we would wind up having a catch on the first field where baseball was played!

Now to be fair...Back in those days, the mid seventies, Hoboken was not much to look at, and this was Waayyy before gentrification made it a hotspot. It was basically a wasteland at that time.

So we walk to midtown, catch the tubes across the river...and get to the area and see a General Mills factory with a plaque that reads: "This was the original area where baseball was first played..." All was not lost, we found a field nearby. It was a crushing lesson in what was important in society... Being idealistic and thinking they may preserve the place where baseball was officially started was a pipe dream apparently.

[QueensburyRules]

Queen B: Do you happen to know when baseball parks were standerdized in the infield and pitching mound? I mean, made to conform to the proper lengths? that field looks HUGE! Then again, so did Alameda Stadium lol.

My old man and I would take marathon walks all over New York City. So in typical weekend fashion I asked my dad about the original field in Hoboken... No internet back then! We usually went out and had a catch in Central Park, or would walk out to some remote area and find a field... So on that day, naive kid that I was (still am right? lol) I figured we would wind up having a catch on the first field where baseball was played!

Now to be fair...Back in those days, the mid seventies, Hoboken was not much to look at, and this was Waayyy before gentrification made it a hotspot. It was basically a wasteland at that time.

So we walk to midtown, catch the tubes across the river...and get to the area and see a General Mills factory with a plaque that reads: "This was the original area where baseball was first played..." All was not lost, we found a field nearby. It was a crushing lesson in what was important in society... Being idealistic and thinking they may preserve the place where baseball was officially started was a pipe dream apparently.

- -Nobody knows where the First baseball game was played.

MLB still spinning the myth of Abner Doubleday disproven decades ago, but at official MLB inception ca 1902-3, the infield diamond with 90' base paths was standard. Total diminsions of the parks never standardize making MLB unique among major sports. Generally speaking, they've been shrunk 20-30% for HRs.

Boxing rings were never standardized either though the Orgs have been moving to 20' rings for title fights.

[billeau2]

- -Nobody knows where the First baseball game was played.

MLB still spinning the myth of Abner Doubleday disproven decades ago, but at official MLB inception ca 1902-3, the infield diamond with 90' base paths was standard. Total diminsions of the parks never standardize making MLB unique among major sports. Generally speaking, they've been shrunk 20-30% for HRs.

Boxing rings were never standardized either though the Orgs have been moving to 20' rings for title fights.

I should have said the first official game. Well every team has the same conditions, similar to football when they play in a blizzard lol.

[QueensburyRules]

- -Pitching dimensions also messed with a little.

Most unique field ever is Clark Field in Austin, the UTexas home field for decades. The outfield was layered in 2 limestone cliff levels added to the 12' tall wood fence, the total height from the level infield being something approaching 100'.

In 1929 UT played the Ruth/ Gehrig Yankees in a spring exhibition where Gehrig hit a screamer over dead center that crossed the diagonal street crossing over a 5' outcropping up the hill that was measured at 611', prob the longest, accurately measured HR in history and uphill to boot!

Google it!

[Willie Pep 229]

- -Nobody knows where the First baseball game was played.

MLB still spinning the myth of Abner Doubleday disproven decades ago, but at official MLB inception ca 1902-3, the infield diamond with 90' base paths was standard. Total diminsions of the parks never standardize making MLB unique among major sports. Generally speaking, they've been shrunk 20-30% for HRs.

Boxing rings were never standardized either though the Orgs have been moving to 20' rings for title fights.

The total size of a baseball park was never standardized because the outfield was meant to represent infinity (with a wall). Home runs were an anomaly and the excitement of the games came in base running and fielding.

Home runs (in the dead ball era) stopped the excitement of the game as the ball was driven out of play (no less a slow down than a foul ball with runs.) It took Ruth's consistency and the subsequent 'live ball' to redefine the the home run as exciting.

Now of course it dominates and parks are designed to facilitate their increase.

In 1923 they created a perversely short right field in the new Yankee Stadium to mimic the short right field of the Polo Grounds in effort to keep Ruth's HR numbers up. 'The house built for Ruth.

[QueensburyRules]

- -Thing is Babe even in the deadball era was blasting balls in the upper tiers and later out of parks.

His last HR was out of the park in the immense Pittsburg Forbes Field as a 270 lb 41 yr old with dimming eyesight.

His first pro HR was his first preseason game in N Carolina as a 19 yr old only days removed from his orphanage. He broke the HR record set by Jim Thorpe on the same field.

Btw, babe liked to spar to get in shape for preseason. In a holdout with the Sox, he signed a $5000 contract to fight Gunboat Smith and was in training when the Sox showed up pen in hand with a new contract.

Ain't been another Babe ever.

[billeau2]

- -Pitching dimensions also messed with a little.

Most unique field ever is Clark Field in Austin, the UTexas home field for decades. The outfield was layered in 2 limestone cliff levels added to the 12' tall wood fence, the total height from the level infield being something approaching 100'.

In 1929 UT played the Ruth/ Gehrig Yankees in a spring exhibition where Gehrig hit a screamer over dead center that crossed the diagonal street crossing over a 5' outcropping up the hill that was measured at 611', prob the longest, accurately measured HR in history and uphill to boot!

Google it!

Thats a shot!!! Good information, very interesting.