Top 20
Baseball Facts
1. The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series Titles, the most all time.
2. Cal Ripken Jr. holds the record for playing in the most consecutive baseball games. He played in 2,632 games.
3. Pete Rose from the Cincinnati Reds holds the all time record for hits (4,256) and games played (3,562). He was banned from baseball for life for betting on games while managing the Reds.
4. The life span of a major league baseball is 5–7 pitches. During a typical game, approximately 70 balls are used.
5. The oldest baseball park still in use is Fenway Park, the home field of the Boston Red Sox, which debuted in 1912.
6. 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.
7. 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 from baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
9. Every single MLB baseball is rubbed in Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud, a unique “very fine” mud only found in a secret location near Palmyra, New Jersey.
10. The shortest major league player was Eddie Gaedel, who was three feet, seven inches tall. His sole appearance in an MLB game was a publicity stunt.
11. A regulation baseball has 108 stitches.
12. The infamous nickname “the Babe” was a take off on a reporter’s statement calling Babe Ruth one of “Dunn’s babes” when he was signed as a rookie by Jack Dunn. Other names that stuck with him throughout his career included “The Great Bambino” and “The Sultan of Swat.”
13. Baseball has been called America’s national pastime since the Civil War. Indeed, its popularity increased during that war (1861–65) as both Union and Confederate soldiers played the game as a morale booster and emotional escape when they had time.
14. The term “Murderer’s Row” describes the 1927 Yankee lineup, which featured future Baseball Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, Tony Lazzeri, and Earle Combs.
15. William Howard Taft was the first ever President of the United States to throw the ceremonial first pitch to kick off the MLB season. He started the tradition in 1910. Jimmy Carter remains the only US President since then to buck the trend.
16. The first World Series was played between Pittsburgh and Boston in 1903 and was a nine-game series. Boston won the series 5-3.
17. The National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum is located in Cooperstown, N.Y. It was created in 1935 to celebrate baseball's 100th anniversary.
18. Don Baylor played in three straight World Series for three different teams; 1986 (Red Sox), 1987 (Twins), and 1988 (Athletics).
19. Bo Jackson is the only athlete to be named an All-Star for two different sports - Baseball and Football.
20. Deon Sanders is the only person to play in the World Series and the Super Bowl.