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TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME was what a lot of children were
saying today. What a beautiful day to enjoy OPENING DAY OF BASEBALL in Magee, MS.
I wanted to give you a little history lesson today since it was Baseball’s opening day in Magee and surrounding areas.
The first team to play baseball under modern rules were the New York Knickerbockers. The club was founded on September 23, 1845, as a social club for the upper middle classes of New York City, and was strictly amateur until it disbanded. The club members, which included its president Doc Adams and Alexander Cartwright, formulated the Knickerbocker Rules, which in large part dealt with organizational matters but which also laid out rules for playing the game. Among the rules introduced then, and which characterize modern baseball are: nine-man teams; nine-inning games; bases 90 feet apart; elimination of the bound rule. One of the significant rules prohibited soaking or plugging the runner; under older rules, a fielder could put a runner out by hitting the runner with the thrown ball, similarly to the common schoolyard game of kickball. The Knickerbocker Rules required fielders to tag or force the runner, as is done today, and avoided a lot of the arguments and fistfights that resulted from the earlier practice.
So here we are today, in the year 2015, from the Knickerbockers to all the many teams at the Magee Sportsplex in Magee, Ms. Let us keep the coaches and our children in our prayers as they learn the game of baseball but most importantly they learn how to play with and have respect for others. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!
