Baseball's first unhittable pitcher

The duel between pitchers and hitters is an essential part of any baseball game, but it wasn't always this way. In the 1850s, no system of balls and strikes existed, and pitchers used a stiff arm to deliver the ball like a horseshoe. Their job was to help and not hinder hitters who had three swinging chances to put the ball in play. You could even say that pitchers and hitters were allies, not adversaries. So how did baseball go from soft, underhanded pitches to blazing fastballs delivered from an elevated mound? Let's talk about how pitching evolved during the 19th century. Ten years before any professional leagues existed, a man by the name of Jim Creighton, he's the one holding the ball in this illustration, did something radical. Playing for the Brooklyn Excelsiors between 1860 and 1862, he delivered the ball with unheard-of speed, movement, and control. For the time, Creighton was just about unhittable. He could limit opposing batters to a handful of runs in an era when teams routinely scored 30 or 40 times. Critics accused Creighton of snapping his wrist in violation of the rules. And besides, critics insisted what he was doing was unsportsmanlike. The pitcher's job was to get the ball in play, not induce swings and misses. Well, the future belonged to men like Jim Creighton. Competitive pitchers wanted to get hitters out, and they developed new ways of doing it with movement, spin, and different speeds. The National Players Association had introduced the concept of called strikes in 1858, but it was the introduction of called balls in 1863 that addressed pitchers who might be tempted to deliver the ball wide of the strike zone as a strategy to avoid a formidable hitter. Two years later, the Rules Committee decreed that pitchers would have to work inside of a designated box and throw behind a line 45 feet from home plate. Up to this point, pitchers could stand at any distance they liked. On the eve of professionalization, the sport grappled with what pitchers could and could not do. Franchise owners of the National League, founded in 1876, wanted a Goldilocks version of baseball. Not too many runs and not too many strikeouts. Things should be just right for paying spectators who wanted a balance between defense and offense. The balance of power, however, tipped decisively towards defense during the late 1870s. Rules stipulated that pitchers had to release the ball at or below the waist, but hard-throwing sidearm pitchers, similar to Dan Quisenberry, could do just that and release the ball just 45 feet away from home plate. Not only that, pitchers had developed effective curveballs. What a happy time for pitchers! Strikeouts nearly tripled and the league's batting average dropped 25 points between 1877 and 1880. In response to such dominant pitching, the league intervened. In 1881, the front edge of the pitcher's box was moved back five feet, which gave hitters more time to react and batting averages went up 15 points in 1882. Some rule changes favored defense. Notably, the league legalized overhand pitching in 1884 and banned square bats used for bunting. The next great innovation occurred in 1887. Pitchers would have to throw with a foot on the edge of the pitcher's box, marked at 55 feet 5 inches, and take one step towards the hitter before releasing the ball. But of even greater significance, the rules committee gave batters four strikes to an out instead of three. Unsurprisingly, league batting averages shot up 25 points in 1887, one of the biggest year-over-year increases ever, and the game's best pitcher, Charles Radburn, had a terrible year. Let's pause for a moment and consider this depiction of the Boston Nationals and New York Giants in 1888. The fielders are barehanded, no pitcher's mound exists, the catcher is about 10 feet from the batter, not crouched behind him, and the dugout is literally a dirt dugout. Much is recognizable to our eyes and much differs too. While the rules kept evolving, in 1888 the league returned to three strikes for an out, a relatively rare concession to defense, and in 1893 the rules makers announced something big. Pitchers would be required to wind up and push off from a slab of rubber 60 feet 6 inches from home plate. No more front and back edges of a pitcher's box. Once again, the balance of power shifted to offense. In 1894, strikeouts fell by a third and the league's batting average rose to an all-time record of 309. Cy Young had the worst season of his storied career, and aging star Cap Anson saw his batting average surge 74 points. The offensive bonanza did not last, however. By 1900, pitchers had adapted to 60 feet 6 inches and discovered something valuable. They could throw harder by striding downhill, thanks to helpful groundskeepers who began creating mounds. In response, baseball set the maximum height of the pitcher's mound at 15 inches in 1903. Looking back on the history of pitching, it is clear that most rule changes involve giving hitters new advantages and not the other way around. The league outlawing spitballs, lowering the pitcher's mound 5 inches, and introducing the designated hitter rule are three noteworthy examples. In our time, pitchers are dominating hitters with historically high strikeout rates and by limiting the number of batted balls in play. The problem, you might say, is that pitchers keep getting better and better at getting outs. Thanks for watching this video and let me know what you think in the comments.