Take Me Out to the Ball Game ⚾️
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Description
🏟 Why did Major League Baseball move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta? 🧢 As the 2021 MLB season gets into full swing, we learn about the mysterious origins of America’s pastime, and the truth about Abner Doubleday, the Father of Baseball. ⚾️ What's the longest game in MLB history? Which MLB player has the most homeruns? The answers to these questions and more in today's Fact Attack! 👩🏾 Plus! The Trivia Question of the Day!
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⚾️ Learn the real reason the MLB moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta this year
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Transcript
Various Voices 0:00
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Bethany Van Delft 0:06
From Georgia politics to the game's origin story, in the next 10 minutes, we'll get the lowdown on what's up in baseball. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and this is The Ten News.
This past week, Major League Baseball announced that this year's All-Star Game and the player draft would be moved out of Atlanta. This is in response to a new Georgia law around voting rules. The new voting law signed by Republican governor Brian Kemp makes it a crime to give voters food or water while they wait in lines, limits the use of ballot boxes, adds new ID requirements for absentee ballots, and puts the state's republican led legislature in charge of the county election boards. Voting rights advocates say that this new law will greatly impact communities of color and disenfranchise many voters, which means depriving them of their right to vote by making it extremely hard for qualified voters to fairly cast a vote in future elections. So why is the MLB action important? By moving a very popular event that brings tourists and fans to Georgia, the league can use their business power to protest the new law. Way to go! Commissioner Rob Manfred said in the statement, "Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans, and it poses restrictions to the ballot box. The MLB isn't the only business taking action against the new law.? Two of Georgia's largest companies, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines have also spoken out about the new law. Good job everybody.
Do you want to know more about voting rights? What do you think about the situation in Georgia? We'd love to find out. Send us a note at hello@thetennews.com. We'll be watching the story closely and we'll keep you updated. As the 2021 season gets into full swing, we asked correspondent Kenny Curtis to explain the nearly 200 years of history behind America's pastime.
Kenny Curtis 2:19
Spring has officially sprung and for American sports fans that can only mean one thing. Baseball. Commonly referred to as America's pastime, baseball is one of our country's most beloved sports. But if you think about it, baseball is kind of a strange game, especially compared to other sports we play in the US. Baseball is the only team sport where the offense never touches the ball and the defense always has the ball.
A Kid 2:50
Okay?
Kenny Curtis 2:52
So where did this strange game come from? And how exactly did it get to be so popular? Well, truth be told it's a bit of a mystery. For decades, people thought that the game of baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday during the summer of 1839 in Cooperstown, New York, but it appears that Doubleday though seemingly a good guy who eventually became a civil war hero, never really had anything to deal with baseball.
A Kid 3:19
Seriously?
Kenny Curtis 3:20
He was still in college at West Point in 1839, and he never claimed to have started the sport. Regardless, this rumor circulated for years. In 1907, a former major league player named AJ Spalding, who owned a lot of sporting goods stores, launched an investigation into the origin of the sport. He didn't find any evidence proving that Doubleday invented the game, except the claims of one man, a mining engineer named Abner Graves, but Cooperstown businessmen and Major League Baseball officials had sort of already established the town as the unofficial home of baseball. By the 1930s the National Baseball Hall of Fame was opened in Cooperstown and the story stuck. Even today, many people still refer to Abner Doubleday as the father of baseball. Now we know for sure that variations of the game of baseball had been played in the United States since the 18th century. Most people agree that the game originated as a spin-off of the popular English board cricket, or the British children's game called rounders that many immigrant families brought over to the US. It's hard to say exactly who started the game of baseball, but it quickly became popular among school-aged kids. And then, in 1945, the New York Knickerbocker baseball club was created, and the rules of baseball were officially finalized. Right. One of the club's founders, a volunteer firefighter and bank clerk named Alexander Joy Cartwright established the rules that we use today in modern baseball. He set up a diamond shape infield, foul lines, the three strike rule, he also abolishes the dangerous practice of tagging runners out by actually throwing the ball at them. Yeah, that was actually how they did it back in the day. Probably a good call to change that. Side note, did you know that earlier versions of the game of baseball didn't include a designated base path? So base runners could sprint all over the field to try to get to the next base? Why? What actually sounds like it might be fun, and the rest is history. Literally, baseball has served as an American family tradition ever since it's been in the background of our nation's history all along. Major League players served in both World War One and World War Two. President Franklin Roosevelt thought the game was so important to the country's morale that he created the all American Women's League to take place while the men were away at war.
Sound Bit 5:49
Now we're talking.
Kenny Curtis 5:50
Baseball his popularity also brought a lot of attention to social issues like segregation and integration. When the legendary Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in the major leagues. He had to deal with hatred and racism throughout his career. But today, he is a symbol of equality in America, as well as a sports icon. So remember, when you tune into baseball this spring, you're not just watching a game, you're witnessing a little bit of American history.
Bethany Van Delft 6:24
What's that over there? I think it's a fact attack. Heads up Ten'ners. We wanted to give you a little batting practice by firing a few fastball facts your way about the old ball game. First up, did you know the longest game in Major League Baseball history clocked in at over eight hours. Lesson 25 innings, this 1984 matchup between the Chicago White Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers took two days to finish and ends it in its high. Up next, the player with the record for the most homeruns is Barry Bonds, who played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and then the San Francisco Giants. During his 22 season career bonds hit the ball out of the park 762 times.
Sound Bit 7:19
Oh yeah.
Bethany Van Delft 7:19
Meanwhile, the record for the fastest pitch, at least in the 21st century, belongs to Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman. He hurled 105 mile an hour fastball in 2010. But some people argue that either pitcher Nolan Ryan or Bob Feller hold the real record. There just wasn't the best technology for measuring their throws back in the day. Finally, baseball is known as America's pastime, but it's really way more international than that nickname suggests. In fact, there are major leagues in Japan, South Korea, Australia, Venezuela, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. And a record 291 players from outside the US played in the MLB last year. Wow. What's that over there? I think it's a:
Sound Bit 8:12
What? What? What's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 8:15
Trivia on The Ten. In 1990, Elaine Weddington Steward became Major League Baseball's first female what was it A) Assistant General Manager, B) Announcer or C) athletic trainer.
Did you guess it? The answer is A) Assistant General Manager.
When the Boston Red Sox hired Elaine Weddington Steward as their assistant GM, it was the first time in the league's history that a woman ever held that position. And only the second time an African American held that position. That's incredible. Rachel Robinson, wife of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the MLB said, "My husband would have had so much respect for Elaine. She has made her way with grace, dignity, and great strength." Awesome. Times up. But before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. What's up Ten'ners? It's official, we launched The Ten News Ten'ners club. It's new. It's awesome. And we want you to be a part of it. Join now as a founding member, and you'll get an exclusive shout-out on the show. Plus, your very own principal Ten'ners club press pass. Don't wait. Get in on the fun and be one of the first to join. We made it easy. Just click the link in today's show notes. Visit thetennews.com to sign up today. Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts it's distributed by iHeart Radio. The production and editorial team is made up of a full roster of pinch hitters. Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Ben Austin de Campo, Jenner Pascua, Stephen Tompkins, and Sarah Olender. Kenny Curtis contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle, and The Ten News is executive produced by Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. Do you want to be part of the show? Have a grown-up help you record a question, a joke, or a fun fact you want to share and email it to us at hello@thetennews.com and show your love for The Ten News by going to your favorite podcast app and submitting a rating and review. It helps others find the show so they can join the fun. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. We are outta here!
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Sources for this episode
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gR2tdJyoCYb0IbHO3cDucvEkK-keV-Tn/edit
https://www.mlb.com/news/longest-games-in-baseball-history-c275773542
https://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hihr1.shtml
https://www.sportscasting.com/who-has-thrown-the-fastest-pitch-in-mlb-history/
https://www.mlb.com/news/baseball-in-other-countries
