Baseball Field - History

History

The basic layout of the diamond has been little changed since the original Knickerbocker Rules of the 1840s. The distance between bases was already established as 90 feet, which it remains to this day. Through trial and error, 90 feet had been settled upon as the optimal distance. 100 feet would have given too much advantage to the defense, and 80 feet too much to the offense. As athleticism has improved on both sides of the equation, 90 feet remains the appropriate balance between hitting and fielding, as it continues to provide frequent tests between the speed of a batter-runner and the throwing arm of a fielder. The first baseball field was created in 1845.

It is the pitching distance, and other aspects of the pitcher's mound, and of pitching itself, that were tinkered with from time to time over the many decades, in an effort to keep an appropriate balance between pitching and hitting.

The very specific pitching distance of 60 feet 6 inches is one of those sports oddities that seems like a mistake unless one considers the history:

• The original Knickerbocker Rules did not specify the pitching distance explicitly.
• By the time major league baseball began in the 1870s, the pitcher was compelled to pitch from within a "box" whose front edge was 45 feet from the "point" of home plate. Although he had to release the ball before crossing the line, as with bowlers in cricket, he also had to start his delivery from within the box; he could not run in from the field as bowlers do. Furthermore, the pitcher had to throw underhand. By the 1880s, pitchers had mastered the underhand delivery—in fact, in 1880, there were two perfect games within a week of each other.
• In an attempt to "increase the batting", the front edge of the pitcher's box was moved back 5 feet in 1881, to 50 feet from home plate.
• The size of the box was altered over the following few years. Pitchers were allowed to throw overhand starting in 1884, and that tilted the balance of power again. In 1887, the box was set at 4 feet wide and 5½ feet deep, with the front edge still 50 feet from the plate. However, the pitcher was compelled to deliver the ball with his back foot at the 55½ foot line of the box, thus somewhat restricting his ability to "power" the ball with his overhand delivery. (Lansch, p. 96)
• In 1893, the box was replaced by the pitcher's plate, although "the box" is still used today as a slang term for the pitcher's location on the field. Exactly 5 feet was added to the point the pitcher had to toe, again "to increase the batting" (and hopefully to increase attendance, as fan interest had flagged somewhat), resulting in the seemingly peculiar pitching distance of 60½ feet. (Lansch, p. 230)
• Many sources suggest that the pitching distance evolved from 45 to 50 to 60½ feet. However, the first two were the "release point" and the third is the "pushoff point", so the 1893 increase was not quite as dramatic as is often implied; that is, the 1893 rule change added only 5 feet to the release point, not 10½ feet.

Originally the pitcher threw from flat ground, but over time the raised mound was developed, somewhat returning the advantage to the pitchers. Prior to the mid-20th century, it was common for baseball fields to include a dirt pathway between the pitcher's mound and home plate. This feature is sometimes known as the "keyhole" due to the shape that it makes together with the mound. The keyhole was once as wide as the pitcher's box and resembled the "pitch" area used in the game of cricket. Sometimes this path extended through the batting area and all the way to the backstop. Once the rounded pitcher's mound was developed, the path became more ornamental than practical, and was gradually thinned before being largely abandoned by the late 1940s. In recent years some ballparks, such as Comerica Park and Chase Field in the major leagues, have revived the feature for nostalgic reasons.