Baseball Facts

• The velocity of a pitched baseball is about 8 mph faster as it leaves the pitcher's hand than when it reaches home plate.
  
• Before 1845, the bases on a Baseball field were arranged in U-shape. Posts or stakes were used instead of bases as we know them, runs were called "aces," and the first team to reach a score of 21 won the game.
• Even by 1860 Baseball was more a social event than a competitive sport. Tea was served during the many "intermissions," and the pitch, threw the ball where the batter asked him to. Bunting was considered a breach of taste.
  
• On June 7, 1950, the Boston Red Sox scored twenty runs against the St.Louis Browns. Next day the Sox beat the Browns by a score of 29 to 4. In two games Boston compiled forty nine runs.
  
• The great Yankee slugger Babe Ruth, who began his career as a pitcher, had a favorite pitching trick that has rarely been duplicated.
• He was able to throw two Baseballs in such a way that the balls remained parallel to each other all the way from his hand to the catcher's glove.
• Ruth was famous for this stunt and would demonstrate it on request.