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Baseball History You Didn’t Know – Dale’s Daily Data
July 13, 2011 Baseball has a rich history. With the All-Star game being played last night I thought we’d go over some of the more unusual historical items in baseball you probably didn’t know.
In the early days of baseball, the umpire sat behind home plate in a padded rocking chair.
Babe Ruth was the first baseball player to order a bat with a knob on it. He put in his order to Louisville Slugger and he used one for the first time in 1919.
Spitballs were banned in 1920, but pitchers who already used them were allowed to continue. Kinda like a grandfather clause. Hall of Fame pitcher Burleigh Grimes continued to used a spit ball for the next fourteen years. He finished his career with the Yankees in 1934.