I don't want to start this video out with a hit…or an announcer…or
baseball cards. Let's start it with the explosion of the USS Princeton in 1844,
not because of the explosion, but because of the art.
Currier and Ives made prints from 1835 to 1907, and they were kind of culture machines. Because
images were scarce at the time, their lithographs became the source of record for American history:
like the American National Game of Baseball, published in 1866. It's Hoboken's Elysian Fields,
an epic baseball game on a beautiful baseball diamond. Pitcher? Check.
Batter? Check. Baseline? Check. This makes it look like baseball was just a few tweaks
to get to the game today — the addition of some gloves, adding overhand pitching and you're good
to go. But that is not the case at all. The story of why a baseball diamond is a
diamond is wrapped up in urban history, and the business of sports, and…look at this:
see the outline of the path? The baseball diamond could have been a square.
So, yeah, I don't know if you noticed, but I actually rented a major league stadium
for this video. Kind of crazy. “Take me out to the ball game…”
So let me just put my sports hat on. Now, listen to me before you comment “that was a dad joke.”
I want you to think about something. You're watching a video about baseball history told
by a middle-aged, mustachioed man. If this is not a safe space for dad jokes, what is?
Listen, it took me 30 seconds to find Uncle Sam playing baseball.
This game is steeped in myth. Let's set some boundaries on the scope of this video.
As a non-baseball historian, I thought that Abner Doubleday was the inventor of baseball
as definitively as James Naismith invented basketball. That's because there was even a
whole report, the Mills Commission report, that said Doubleday invented the game. The report was
this whole thing about nationalism and legends, and it has since been largely discredited.
The point is, baseball's history, it remains extremely controversial.
Am I going to demo something soon? Yeah, soon.
I think they took the bases home, by the way. We just got these things.
Some historians trace the game's origin to rounders, the English game. The Rounders field,
I will say it definitely gives me baseball vibes. The cosmetic difference is fourth base being here.
But that shape was not a foregone conclusion. So let's go to Boston and talk about the
Massachusetts game. “Where everybody knows
your…variant of baseball.” In 1858, a commission formalized
the rules that appeared in this book. Note the publication location. We're generally
talking 1850s here, but it probably started earlier. You can see it in this diagram.
The game looked like this. See how the bases are arranged, though often they were posts.
That is why they had a base tender. Distance between bases varied,
but a batter stood here and ran around like this. He could be hit by the ball to get out as well,
which is fun. (Sounds of pain.)
This shape meant the ball could go anywhere, and some great players got really good at
whacking pitches backwards. So remember how modern baseball looks a lot like rounders?
The Massachusetts game had a directional sense more like cricket. But when Currier
and Ives put out that print in the 1860s, American baseball looks like a diamond.
What happened?
I love this paper. It made it really clear to me why the baseball diamond is a diamond. The
New York Knickerbockers. “Showtime.”
Not those Knicks. These Knicks. The Knickerbockers were founded
by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. Again, this is controversial,
but some people call him the father of baseball. Here is a Knickerbocker wearing knickerbockers.
Like most early baseball stuff, this is surrounded in lore and controversy. But we do believe that
the Knickerbockers helped promote the New York game. But let's get to the diamond of it all,
because the diamond had some key logistical advantages for baseball.
One, this game was played in urban crowded spaces, the Elysian fields aside. Baseball games were
being played without a lot of space. And the diamond had a key advantage. I actually can't
tell what is happening in this drawing. But look down here at this guy. He's punching another guy.
It's kind of funny. Foul lines hemmed in exactly where the field ended and spectators could stand.
Someone's walking their dog, so I'm just waiting for that to stop before I talk about foul lines.
See how these spectators could crowd right up to the diamond in a way Massachusetts game
watchers couldn't. I mean, look at ballparks today. Baseball is still uniquely integrated
with the surrounding city. You can get a flavor of that with this 1905 picture of the New York game.
See how limited infrastructure like no stadium makes it more important to have clear boundaries
to the game. But it used to be even more of a problem in the Massachusetts game,
with no separation between players and spectators. That could ruin games. The
diamond cut down the playing field size significantly. Imagine like a wedge in a pie
chart. The Massachusetts game was the whole pie. But the New York game allowed you to use just a
part of it. For the Massachusetts game, you also needed more players to cover all that area. The
Knickerbockers embraced one form of baseball, and the more teams that played it, the more it grew.
I mean, different rules like no pegging players, but also a diamond base path. Competitors like
the Massachusetts game or niche ones like Marlboro Baseball, which had five stakes, couldn't compete
against the popularity of the New York game. Union Baseball grounds in Brooklyn opened in
1862. The first box score was surrounded by Civil War news. Soon, there wasn't much other choice.
Just finish that video. Finish what you started here. (Dies.)
Okay. So a baseball diamond is a diamond. Why do I care? Aside from my great affinity for….Let's
go back to that Currier and Ives print. John Thorn is Major League Baseball's historian.
He wrote this great book about the early game, and he also tracked down a history
of the lithograph. And with a little detective work, it turns out that based on a few clues,
this Currier and Ives game was a game that was never actually played. Baseball has always been
a uniquely self-mythologized sport. The history of why the baseball diamond is
a diamond, it shows the limits of the mystical. Baseball was formed by practical needs, whether
it was field size, team composition, or just the popularity of the game. The square, as exciting
as it was, it didn't adapt. And adaptation, that willingness to let the best idea win,
that might be another reason that baseball is “America's national game.”
Hey there, just one more thing. I'm about to record the Patreon reaction video to
this video. It's where I get into the research that I had to leave out.
However, I do want to touch on the geometry here, because I think some of you are probably going
to say, "Oh, a baseball diamond is a square. It's just a square turned a different direction." Now,
my goal here is to do a cultural history of the baseball diamond,
why it got turned that way. I think there are a lot of interesting historical reasons,
but you're right. It's kind of square-like.
Except, even the pedantic person who says it's actually a square is sort of wrong
because apparently, if you actually look at the layout of the baseball diamond,
it is something called a "convex kite," just because of how the measurements actually work out.
So, if this video shape-triggered you in any way, there's a lot of nuance here. You can
never quite get it right. But I do have one shape for you, and that's this one. It's a heart. Yeah.
Okay, thank you for watching. Hopefully, I will see you in the next one.
And yes, I know that a heart is not actually shaped like that. Am I
going to have to make another video about this, too? Okay. Bye.