$Unique_ID{BAS01289}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Appendix:  Bat, Ball and Glove}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{
Felber, Bill}
$Subject{Bat bats Ball balls Glove gloves rulesmakers rulebook rules rule size
weight mass speed Ruth Waitt Doak}
$Log{}

Total Baseball:  Appendixes


Bat, Ball and Glove

Bill Felber


     To promote uniformity and fair competition, rulesmakers have always felt
the need to define how the ball should be made.  That definition has changed
very little over the course of more than a century.  Notice how similar are
the two definitions that follow, the first from an 1861 convention of the
National Association of Base Ball Players, and the second taken from the
Official Baseball Rules of 1992:

     1861. "The ball must weigh not less than five and one-half, nor more
     than five and three-fourths ounces avoirdupois.  It must measure not less
     than nine and one-half, nor more than nine and three-fourths inches in
     circumference.  It must be composed of India rubber and yarn, covered
     with leather."

     1992. "The ball shall be a sphere formed by yarn wound around a small
     core of cork, rubber or similar material, covered with two stripes of
     white horsehide or cowhide, tightly stitched together.  It shall weigh
     not less than five nor more than five and one-quarter ounces avoirdupois
     and measure not less than nine nor more than nine and one-quarter inches
     in circumference."

     How greatly has the ball changed in a century and a quarter?  It is about
five percent smaller, about nine percent lighter.  Its core is different.  The
stitching is tighter.  Still, the ball put in play in the amateur contests of
1861 would pass muster by modern rules.
     That is not to say that the baseball of Civil War days and the official
model of today are virtually identical.  Today's ball is far more resilient
and travels greater distances.  The modern baseball also undergoes far less
wear and tear.  For many years it was customary for a game ball, even a mushy,
discolored or lopsided one, to be kept in play until it was irretrievably
lost.  The idea of going through a few dozen boxes of balls per game--common
today--would have seemed frivolously wasteful to great grandpa.
     As was the case with the ball, the rulebook has licensed only minor
adjustments with the bat, and then, generally, only by way of greater
specificity.  Again, compare the rules governing play in 1861 with the
slightly more elaborate section from the modern rulebook:

     "The bat must be round, and must not exceed two and one-half inches in
     diameter in the thickest part.  It must be made of wood, and may be of
     any length to suit the striker."

     1992. "The bat shall be a smooth, rounded stick not more than two and
     three-quarter inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than
     42 inches in length.  The bat shall be one piece of solid wood, or formed
     from a block of wood consisting of two or more pieces of wood bonded
     together with an adhesive in such way that the grain direction in all
     pieces is essentially parallel to the length of the bat.  Any such
     laminated bat shall contain only wood or adhesive."

     The modern rule also contains an allowance for a small "cupping" of up to
one inch at the bat's end, and for use of a grip-improving substance on the
bat handle.  There is a length limit, but in today's major leagues it is
virtually unheard-of for a bat to exceed thirty-six inches in length, much
less forty-two.  The modern bat has gained one-quarter of an inch in girth
over its ancestor, but its biggest change--the trend toward ever lighter
bats--was not mandated.
     Place hitters of the years before 1920 coveted heavy "wagon tongue"
models with thick barrels capable of driving the ball over the infield, even
at the expense of bat speed.  Cap Anson, legendary star of the Chicago White
Stockings, used just such a bat, reputedly weighing in at a manly three pounds
and then some.  In the 1920s Babe Ruth menaced opposing pitchers with a 48
ounce model bat.  But Ruth saw to it that the bat handle was tapered to
accommodate his smaller than normal hands.
     The modern bat has the skinny handle but seldom weighs more than
thirty-three ounces.  The reason is simple:  batting instructors, who once
looked upon mass as the key factor behind a mighty poke, now focus on bat
speed instead.  The faster a batter can move the bat through the strike zone,
the greater force applied to the ball.  And the greater force applied, the
farther the ball travels.
     As for gloves . . . in the game's early days players were expected to
catch the ball barehanded.  Until 1864 they were aided in that effort by a
rule recording an out if a ball was caught on the first bounce.  The earliest
documented evidence of a fielding glove in big-league play was in 1875 by St.
Louis first baseman Charlie Waitt.  In his book America's National Game
(1911), Albert Spalding reported that in a game that year Waitt donned a
street-dress leather glove on his fielding hand.  Waitt reportedly was
ridiculed league-wide.  But as more prominent players adopted Waitt's concept,
the notion gradually came to be accepted.  It was not until 1894, however,
when third baseman Jerry Denny retired, that the era of the barehanded fielder
passed.
     The early gloves, lacking webbing and lacing, merely provided protection
for the hands.  Today larger, better-padded, webbed, laced, and pocketed
gloves might more appropriately be described as "fielding devices," because it
is they, not the fielder's hands, that do much of the actual fielding work.
Also, and as verification of the first point, players of the previous century
often wore gloves on both hands.  For the throwing hand, they would simply
snip the glove at the fingers for dexterity.
     It was not until 1895 that stipulations concerning use of gloves were
included in the rules:  those limited the size of gloves to ten ounces and
fourteen inches circumference for all players except catchers and first
basemen, who were permitted to use any size glove.  Today's rulebook,
conversely, takes a page and a half to specify dimensions, materials, lacings,
and webbings for gloves.  Today there are thirteen different size limitations
on the standard fielder's glove alone, ranging from palm width to the length
of each separate finger.
     Credit commonly is given to a pitcher, spitballer Bill Doak of the St.
Louis Cardinals, for advancing glove technology from the primordial state.  In
1920 Doak approached a glove manufacturer with a plan for a glove that
included a square of reinforced webbing between the thumb and finger sections
as an additional aid to fielding.  Previously the fingers simply had been
laced together, or were left to flap independently.  So advanced was Doak's
model, by the way, that it remained popular for almost thirty years.  And
every subsequent advance in glove design, whether it be the hinged heel, short
or long fingered design, or advanced webbing, can be traced to a concept
originated by Doak.
     Questions remained about enforcement of the 1950 size limits, however, as
fielders' gloves and catchers' mitts seemed to grow with each passing year.
So in 1972 the rules committee drafted the present thirteen-point measuring
system.  Fortunately, there is no record of a game ever being halted while a
manager challenged the legality of a fielder's glove on all thirteen points.