Hitting Dingers

  When did the hot dog become the staple food for baseball?     Have you ever attended a baseball game and suddenly ask yourself, why do they do this? The tradition of the 7th inning stretch or singing "Take me out to a ball game". What are the stories behind this odd traditions. The question today is when did the hot dog become food for baseball?     We will have to travel back to the 1880s when baseball started to become a organized sport for people to enjoy. The root origin can be traced back to a German immigrant Chris Von Der Ahe. Chris owned the St. Louis Browns baseball team and started to sell his frankfurters at his games. The hot dog itself has roots from the German sausage traditions.      While Chris Von Der Ahe was the first to sell the hot dogs at baseball games. It was Harry Stevens' a British immigrant was able network concession stands selling hot dogs to ballparks across the country.      Prior to concession where ...

  Baseball has a language of its own. There are basic terms and there are phrases that can keep you totally clueless. We are going to touch on least common terms and phrases. Lets play ball! ACE - Typically refers to a team's No. 1 pitcher or a elite level pitcher.    Balk - A legal movement on the mound by the pitcher. The umpire rewards the runner with advancement to the next base. Around the horn - A play that starts with the third basemen to the second basemen then to first base. Phrase "Back door slider" - A breaking pitch that appears to be out of the strike zone but then breaks over the plate. Phrase "Bean Ball" - A pitch thrown at the hitter's head. An illegal pitch usually resulting in an ejection.  Boot - An error by a fielder when instead of collecting the ball, the fielder kicks it away with their actual foot or part of their glove. Phrase "Brush back pitch" - a pitch thrown "inside" to a hitter, because the hitter is close to...

   Have you ever heard the term "balk" watching baseball? It is one of the most confusing rule in the game. Baseball is a know to be filled with technicalities and rules that can be challenging to understand. That such rule is a "Balk".  What is a Balk? A balk is termed a illegal pitch that is called by the umpire at all levels of the game. A balk is commonly called with one or more runners on base and a illegal movement by the pitcher is made. While it is a single rule with multiple different illegal movement to draw a balking call.  Types of Balks  The pitcher makes his natural pitching motion but fails to pitch home.  The pitcher feints a throw to 1st base, while touching the rubber, but fails to make the throw. The pitcher fails to step directly towards a base before throwing to that base. Note that you cannot throw then step.  The pitcher throws or fake throws to a unoccupied base, except for the purpose of making a play.  The pitcher makes a...

  The Raise in Tommy John surgery in Youth Baseball     The shocking raise in youth baseball players needing reconstructive Tommy John surgery has been on the raise for the last decade. With changes in pitching styles in the MLB over the last 20 years. Pitchers are being asking to throw harder then ever and places a high amount of spin on the ball that places a tremendous amount of torque on the elbow.      The ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) is a small ligament on the inside of the elbow that connects the ulna bone (forearm) to the humerus bone. In children the ligament is under developed, the repetitive  stress of throwing a baseball as soon as the age of 4 years contributes to the raising number of injuries for players under the age of 15.      Tommy john was a dodger pitching that received the first successful reconstructive surgery of the UCL that saved his MLB career. The tearing of the UCL before was a career ending injury. In to...

             The game of softball was first played on a cold Chicago day in 1887. George Hancock is credited with the invention of the game of Softball. George and a group of men with the love of the game of Baseball found it difficult to play baseball in the middle of a Chicago winter. George and his buddies brought the game inside a warehouse to escape the cold. The game was first played with a boxing glove and a broom stick.  The game of softball is played similar to the game of baseball, with its unique challenges. With the fields being roughly half the size of a baseball field requires the player to have a quicker reaction times. The softball is designed to the difference of the game. We will talk about a few of the obvious differences. Even how the players run the bases brings it unique twist. First the pitching styles is a noticeable difference. The game of baseball, pitching is overhand in a downward motion vs pitching under hand that is ...

  Why are there so many different baseballs today?     It shouldn't come to a surprise, with increase in technology would bring innovation to the game of baseball. Baseball has stood the test of time, from "playing at base" at the American army camp at Valley Forge in 1778. Princeton College in 1787 forbidding students to "play with balls and sticks" on the common ground. To one of the first organized Rochester (New York) Baseball Club, with it's fifty members in the 1820's. Over the last 30 years wide world of sports general have invested a tremendous amount of money and man hours. The goal was to find a way to be more competitive and make the game safer for the players at all age levels.  Each baseball is designed for a certain age group with performance and safety in mind. With the youngest group the first priority being safety over performance. As the the age of the players grow, the increase of the performance of the ball increases, with a decrease ...