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First Set of Rules
The first set of rules for the game of baseball was published by the Knickerbocker baseball clubs Alexander Cartwright. There was 20 very general rules -
First Rules Revised
The New York Baseball teams (new york was one of the few leagues at this time) come together to revise the original 20 rules to try and make the game better. The main fix was for the batting order. -
The Baseball Convention of 1857
A head of rules and regulatoins committe was born, and over a dozen teams were at the convention to help improve the rules of the game. Games were now played by innings and not just to a certain score. Many other rules were changed to resemble more of what we see today such as base length. -
Umpires were given much more power
The umpire became much more significant especially behind the plate. The umpires were now able to call strikes against batters who let well pitched balls go by. The strikeout was born for when the umpire called three strikes on the batter. -
Batters Box
Along with balls and strikes, the batters box was implimented to now try and manage strikeouts as batters would try to avoid them by moving -
Fair vs Foul
The rule that balls hit inside the lines not caught on the fly were live balls and balls hit outside the lines and not caught on the fly would be a strike,but it would not count as a strike out -
First Professional League
the first true professional league was born as was the rule that you can run past first base and first base only. -
National League
The national league was born, which we still see in major league baseball today. In this league it was decided that the umpire could ask a spectator if the ball had been caught when the umpire couldnt see it, this would eventually escolate to more umpires like we see today. -
Rule Agreement
The national league and american association agree on the same set of rules for their different leagures. The strike zone ( ball between the knees and chest and within the plate) and the batter getting a base after getting hit by a pitch was born. -
Bat changes
It was decided by the National League and the american association of baseball clubs that the bat would no longer be flat and that it would become round like what we see today -
Infield Fly
The first rule of the infield fly was invented. It stated that "he batter is out if a fly ball is hit that can be handled by an infielder with first base occupied with only one out" -
Catcher interference
The rule of catcher interference was born. If the catcher would prevent the batter from swinging and hitting the ball, the batter would be awareded first base.