Baseball is America’s pastime and has seen its share of interesting occurrences, here are some interesting facts about baseball.
5 Interesting Facts Baseball Fans Might Not Know.
That is part of the allure of baseball to hear about or see weird things happen; to witness a rare feat; or to see something that will never be duplicated.
It is why America has a love affair with baseball. It may not be the most popular sport anymore, but there is something about baseball that always captivates.
But baseball is much more than just a game; it is a tradition, a passion, and an obsession. To show you just how fascinating and exciting this sport is, we gathered the most interesting baseball facts.
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Perfect Games Have Only Happened 23 Times
Across 152 years of MLB, a perfect game has only happened 23 times, with 21 being after the so-called modern baseball era started in 1901.
The latest was achieved by Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners in 2012.
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The Longest Game
Way back in 1920, on the 1 st of May, the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers clashed in the ballpark.
Since this was early in the sport’s history, there were no restrictions on playtime or innings and so the game lasted for 26 whole innings. This lasted for nearly four hours (3 hours and 50 minutes).
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A Player Used LSD As A Performance-Enhancing Drug
For our last fact, here’s something fun. In 1970, pitcher Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates claimed to have taken LSD before a game.
While high on the psychedelic substance, Ellis took to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter. Even better, it was the only no-hitter of his baseball career!
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You Could Steal First Base From Second
As we’ve alluded to, the rules of MLB have changed over its long history.
A great example of this was Herman Schaefer, a player who stormed first base from second base in 1911.
This was apparently an attempt to distract the pitcher and secure the win for his teammate.
Everybody was confused but there wasn’t a rule against it, so they drafted one in 1919.
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The Fastest Pitch
In 2010, we saw the fastest pitch ever officially recorded in the long history of Major League Baseball.
It was thrown by Aroldis Chapman of the Cincinnati Reds and hit a top speed of 105.1 miles per hour.
That’s faster than the fastest human runners on Earth, for context, along with notoriously fast animals like the cheetah.