I’m back with 30 Completely Random Yet Amazing Baseball Facts. If you are a fan of sports facts, check out my others at Random Sports Facts. I am happy to have received all the postive feedback, and hope you enjoy this installment as well. I am certain you will have come across some of these facts, but I’m fairly certainly many will be new.
With the 2013 MLB season ready to get underway, I thought today was an appropriate time to bring them forward. And now, the list:
30 Completely Random Yet Amazing Baseball Facts
1. Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson and Honus Wagner were part of the 1st hall of fame class.
2. The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series titles.
3. The St. Louis Cardinals have the 2nd most World Series wins with 11, but have never won back-to-back World Series.
4. Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. didn’t miss a game in 16 years. He played in 2,632 consecutive games from April 30, 1982 to Sept. 19, 1998.
5. The first World Series was played between Pittsburgh and Boston in 1903 and was a nine-game series. Boston won the series 5-3.
6. The National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum is located in Cooperstown, N.Y. It was created in 1935 to celebrate baseball’s 100th anniversary
7. The tallest player in Major League history is pitcher Jon Rauch, who is six feet, eleven inches tall.
8. A regulation baseball has 108 stitches.
9. Catcher Roger Bresnahan introduced shin guards in 1907.
10. Having been open for nearly 100 years, Fenway Park in Boston is the oldest baseball stadium still in use.
11. Mike Schmidt earned the first $500,000 salary in baseball in 1977.
12. Baseball star Babe Ruth was born George Herman Ruth. He played in 2503 games and had a lifetime batting average of .342.
13. The 1st Baseball game in the USA was played in New Jersey on June 19th 1846.
14. Cal Hubbard is the only person in both Football and Base Hall of fame.
15. The first rule book was issued in 1877 and has been changing ever since.
16. Alex Rodriguez is the youngest player to hit over 500 home runs.
17. Cy Young won 511 games as a pitcher.
18. Barry Bonds leads the home run list with 762 home runs.
19. Ricky Henderson had a staggering 1,406 stolen bases.
20. Sammy Sosa hit over 60 homers in a season 3 times.
21. Curtis Granderson hit 23 triples in the 2007 season.
22. You are 300,000 to 1 to be hit by the baseball and injured if you are in a crowd at a MLB game.
23. The average baseball only lasts about a week. Each baseball can only be used one time in a MLB game.
24. Mickey Mantle has 18 home runs and 40RBI’s in World Series games.
25. Derek Jeter is a 13-time all-star.
26. Roger Clemens won the CY Young award 7times.
27. Ken Griffey Jr. finished his career with 630 Home runs.
28. Pedro Martinez had 3,154 strikeouts in his career.
29. Carlos Beltran was the first switch hitter to hit 300 home runs and steal 300 bases.
30. Randy Johnson had 303 wins and 166 losses in his career.
31 (bonus). The longest Home Run ever hit in Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome) in Toronto, if popped straight up, would not have hit the ceiling.
Feel free to comment on any of these below.
photo credit: Devin Ford via photopin cc
