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SPORTSBy Craig Lang, Prairie Advocate SportsHow Things Have ChangedCraig LangPrairie Advocate Sports DudeWith the recently completed high school baseball season I got to thinking just how much the basic rules of baseball have changed since the inception of formally organized rules over two hundred years ago. I thought it might be kind of fun, and interesting to go through some of them. I have to admit that even with my prior knowledge of the sport, some of these made me scratch my head and go, OK then. So, here we go: 1857: The game was won when one side scored 21 runs. 1876: The National league begins with eight teams: Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Louisville Grays, Mutuals of New York (Brooklyn) and the St. Louis Brown Stockings. The pitcher pitches from a 6 foot square, underhand. The batter may request either a high or low pitch. A strike is called only if a batter swings and misses. Foul balls are outs if they are caught on the fly or after one bounce (this rule was changed in 1883). If an umpire is unable to see whether a catch was made legally, he may confer with players and spectators. 1880: A base on balls occurs when there have been 8 called balls 1881: The number of balls for a base on balls is reduced to 7. 1882: The American Association is formed and consisted of 6 teams: Cincinnati Red Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Louisville Eclipse, Pittsburgh Alleghenys, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Baltimore Orioles 1884: The number of balls for a base on balls is reduced to 6. 1885: Bats may have one flat side (this rule only lasted 1 year). 1886: An umpire may introduce a new baseball at any time. Before 1886 when a ball was lost, the umpire gave the team 5 minutes to find it. The number of balls for a base on balls is reduced to 5. 1887: The batter may no longer request pitches. A strikeout is 4 strikes (1 season only). A base on balls is recorded as a hit (1 season only). 1888: The strikeout, once and for all, is set as 3 strikes. 1889: A base on balls is set as 4 balls. 1900: Home plate is changed from a twelve inch square to a five sided plate 17 inches wide. 1901: The American League joins the majors with 8 teams: Chicago White Stockings, Boston Americans, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators, Cleveland Blues, Milwaukee Brewers. 1903: The first World Series is played with the Boston Americans defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three. Next week: Rule changes through the 1900’sBaseball Facts & TriviaLou Gehrig’s salary in 1927, as a member of the New York Yankees “Murderer’s Row,” was $8,000. In 1965, Bert Campaneris of the A’s played an inning at each defensive position, a major league first. Three years later, Cesar Tovar of the Twins became the second man to play all the positions in one game. The first man to face him when he took the mound…..Bert Campaneris. In 1908, Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson pitched three shutouts in four days, allowing a grand total of twelve hits. In 1952, Bristol, Virginia pitcher Ron Necciai struck out 27 batters in a nine inning Appalachian League game against Welch, West Virginia. When National League umpire Tom Gorman passed away in 1986, he was buried in his blue umpire’s suit and with a ball and strike indicator in his hand. The count on it was 3-2. Pitcher Joe Niekro hit only one home run in his big league career. It came off his brother, Phil. Despite winning 324 games and striking out 5,714 batters, Nolan Ryan never won the Cy Young Award. Before 1859, baseball umpires sat comfortably behind home plate in padded rocking chairs. Phillies great Mike Schmidt was voted the starting third baseman for the 1989 All-Star Game but didn’t play. Why? He retired before the game. A baseball first occurred in 1960 When Detroit traded Jimmie Dykes to Cleveland for Joe Gordon. What was unique about it? They were managers. In 1962, the Cleveland Indians traded Harry Chiti to the New York Mets for a player to be named later. Who was that player? Harry Chiti, the only player to ever be traded for himself. Caesar Geronimo was the 3,000th strikeout victim of both Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan. One of the worst home run hitters of all-time was Tommy Thevenow, who in 4,164 at-bats, hit two homers. Both of Thevenow’s home runs came in 1926 with the Cardinals and both were inside the park. Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak included 56 singles and 56 runs scored. Rogers Hornsby is big league baseball’s only .400/40 man. The former Cardinal hit .401 and slugged 42 homers in 1922. In 1951, umpire Frank Dascoli ejected the entire Dodger’s bench after a protest over a controversial call at home. Among those thrown out was Bill Sharman, who became the first major leaguer ejected without ever playing in a single game. That’s the same Bill Sharman who had a Hall of Fame career with the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Pitcher Joe Nuxhall made his debut with the Cincinnati Reds on June 10, 1944, at the age of 15 years, 10 months, and 11 days, becoming the youngest major leaguer ever. 20-year-old Tony Conigliaro was the youngest player to win a home run crown when he led the AL in 1965 with 32 dingers. On August 4, 1982, Joel Youngblood became the first major leaguer to get a hit for two different teams in two different cities on the same day. In the afternoon in New York, the Mets infielder/outfielder singled in the winning run against the Cubs and Ferguson Jenkins. He was then traded to Montreal and that evening in Philadelphia, he donned an Expos uniform in time to hit another single off the Phillies Steve Carlton. IHSA Board Approves ChangesThe Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors approved a pair of recommendations at it’s regularly scheduled meeting on June 13th that make significant changes to the Association’s Multiplier Waiver Policy and Classification Policy. The Board had been reviewing potential changes to both throughout the 2010-11 school year. The new multiplier waiver policy establishes criteria for an automatic waiver of the multiplier in individual sports and activities, taking into account each program’s advancement in IHSA tournaments over the previous six years. Previously, a school had to apply for and receive a waiver that covered all of its sport and activity programs. The changes to the classification system stemmed from the need to address imbalances in the number of schools in each class in several sports and activities, while also taking into account the downward movement of programs receiving waivers. In years past, most sports and activities used the same set of enrollment cutoffs. In 2011-12, each sport and activity will have its own set of cutoffs. Area schools affected by the changes include: Galena/East Dubuque/River Ridge Boy’s & Girl’s Track moves from 1A to 2A Le-Win Basketball & Volleyball moves from 1A to 2A Fulton Basketball & Volleyball moves from 1A to 2A Rock Falls Basketball & Volleyball moves from 2A to 3A Sterling Newman Baseball & Basketball moves from 2A to 1A Carroll County Summer League SchedulePee Wee Boy’sJune 29Savanna at Chadwick Milledgeville at Lanark1 Lanark2 at Mt. Carroll Thomson at Pearl City2 Shannon at Pearl City1 Small Fry Boy’sJuly 1Lanark1 at Lanark2 Savanna2 at Pearl City2 Mt. Carroll at Savanna1 Pearl City1 at Shannon Chadwick at Thomson July 5Pearl City2 at Chadwick Shannon at Lanark1 Mt. Carroll at Milledgeville Thomson at Pearl City1 Lanark2 at Savanna1 Junior Boy’sJune 30Thomson at Milledgeville Mt. Carroll at Savanna July 4Milledgeville at Chadwick Lanark at Mt. Carroll Shannon at Thomson Senior Boy’sJuly 1Savanna at Albany Mt. Carroll at Chadwick Fulton at Shannon July 5Chadwick at Fulton Shannon at Mt. Carroll Pearl City at Savanna Carroll County Summer League Standings(as of 6/27)Pee Wee Boy’s1-Milledgeville 7-1 2-Lanark2 5-2 3-Shannon 7-3 4-Chadwick 6-3 5-Lanark1 5-3 6-Pearl City2 6-4 7-Savanna 4-4 8-Pearl City1 1-7 9-Mt. Carroll 1-8 10-Thomson 0-7 Small Fry Boy’s1-Milledgeville 7-0 2-Pearl City1 7-0 3-Chadwick 6-2 4-Lanark2 5-2 5-Savanna1 4-3 6-Lanark1 4-4 7-Shannon 3-4 8-Mt. Carroll 2-3 9-Pearl City2 1-6 10-Savanna2 0-7 11-Thomson 0-8 Junior Boy’s1-Shannon 9-0 2-Milledgeville 5-3 3-Lanark 4-3 4-Savanna 3-4 5-Mt. Carroll 3-4 6-Chadwick 2-4 7-Thomson 0-8 Senior Boy’s1-Chadwick 6-0 2-Fulton 5-1 3-Pearl City 4-2 4-Albany 2-2 5-Savanna 2-5 6-Shannon 1-4 7-Mt. Carroll 0-6 Tiny Miss Girl’s1-Savanna 9-1 2-Polo 7-1 3-Pearl City2 8-2 4-Shannon 5-3 5-Pearl City1 5-4 6-Lanark 4-5 7-Mt. Carroll 4-6 8-Milledgeville 3-7 9-Stockton 2-5 1-Chadwick 2-8 11-Thomson 1-8 Little Miss Girl’s1-Stockton1 8-2 2-Lanark 8-2 3-Milledgeville 7-2 4-Shannon 6-2 5-Mt. Carroll/Thomson 6-4 6-Savanna 4-5 7-Chadwick 3-5 8-Pearl City2 3-5 9-Polo 2-5 10-Stockton2 2-7 11-Pearl City1 0-10 Junior Miss Girl’s1-Pearl City 9-0 2-Shannon 7-1 3-Chadwick 7-3 4-Mt. Carroll/Thomson 5-4 5-Milledgeville 4-4 6-Lanark 5-5 7-Stockton 2-7 8-Savanna 1-7 9-River Ridge 0-9 Senior Miss Girl’sPearl City1 10-0 2-Pearl City2 8-1 3-Chadwick 5-2 4-Milledgeville 6-3 5-River Ridge 5-4 6-Shannon 5-4 7-Stockton 3-5 8-Mt. Carroll 3-6 9-Thomson 2-7 10-Lanark 1-7 11-Savanna 0-9 2011 Football Schedule To Be ReleasedThe IHSA has announced that the 2011 high school football schedules for the season will be released on June 29th. The first games of the new season will kick off on Friday, August 26th. The schedules will be available for viewing on the IHSA website and we will have all the area football team’s schedules in the July 6th edition of The Prairie Advocate. Keep reading the Prairie Advocate sports pages for the upcoming schedules as well as preseason looks at all the area football teams. Midwest League ScheduleJune 29Fort Wayne at Lake County Lansing at Dayton South Bend at West Michigan Bowling Green at Great Lakes Kane County at Burlington Beloit at Clinton Cedar Rapids at Quad Cities Peoria at Wisconsin June 30Bowling Green at Dayton Fort Wayne at West Michigan South Bend at Lake County Lansing at Great Lakes Beloit at Kane County Peoria at Burlington Wisconsin at Cedar Rapids Clinton at Quad Cities July 1Bowling Green at Dayton Fort Wayne at West Michigan South Bend at Lake County Lansing at Great Lakes Peoria at Burlington Wisconsin at Cedar Rapids Beloit at Kane County Clinton at Quad Cities July 2Beloit at Kane County Bowling Green at Dayton Fort Wayne at West Michigan South Bend at Lake County Lansing at Great Lakes Peoria at Burlington Wisconsin at Cedar Rapids Clinton at Quad Cities July 3Burlington at Cedar Rapids Quad Cities at Kane County Lake County at Lansing West Michigan at Fort Wayne Clinton at Peoria Dayton at South Bend Wisconsin at Beloit Great Lakes at Bowling Green July 4Wisconsin at Beloit Burlington at Cedar Rapids Clinton at Peoria Quad Cities at Kane County Lake County at Lansing West Michigan at Fort Wayne Dayton at South Bend Great Lakes at Bowling Green July 5Dayton at South Bend Quad Cities at Kane County Lake County at Lansing West Michigan at Fort Wayne Burlington at Cedar Rapids Clinton at Peoria Wisconsin at Beloit Great Lakes at Bowling Green MLB ScheduleJune 29Cincinnati at Tampa Bay LA Dodgers at Minnesota Kansas City at San Diego Atlanta at Seattle Cleveland at Arizona St. Louis at Baltimore Washington at LA Angels NY Mets at Detroit Milwaukee at NY Yankees Boston at Philadelphia Pittsburgh at Toronto San Francisco at Chicago Cubs Texas at Houston Chicago White Sox at Colorado Florida at Oakland June 30NY Mets at Detroit Milwaukee at NY Yankees Boston at Philadelphia San Francisco at Chicago Cubs Chicago White Sox at Colorado Florida at Oakland St. Louis at Baltimore Pittsburgh at Toronto Texas at Houston July 1Philadelphia at Toronto Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs San Francisco at Detroit Pittsburgh at Washington Cleveland at Cincinnati NY Yankees at NY Mets St. Louis at Tampa Bay Baltimore at Atlanta Florida at Texas Boston at Houston Milwaukee at Minnesota Kansas City at Colorado LA Dodgers at LA Angels Arizona at Oakland San Diego at Seattle July 2Philadelphia at Toronto Pittsburgh at Washington Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Cleveland at Cincinnati NY Yankees at NY Mets San Francisco at Detroit Boston at Houston Pittsburgh at Washington Milwaukee at Minnesota Baltimore at Atlanta St. Louis at Tampa Bay Florida at Texas Kansas City at Colorado LA Dodgers at LA Angels Arizona at Oakland San Diego at Seattle July 3San Francisco at Detroit Philadelphia at Toronto Cleveland at Cincinnati NY Yankees at NY Mets Baltimore at Atlanta Pittsburgh at Washington St. Louis at Tampa Bay Boston at Houston Milwaukee at Minnesota Chicago White Sox at Chicago Cubs Kansas City at Colorado Arizona at Oakland San Diego at Seattle LA Dodgers at LA Angels Florida at Texas July 4Chicago Cubs at Washington Toronto at Boston Houston at Pittsburgh Tampa Bay at Minnesota Seattle at Oakland Arizona at Milwaukee San Diego at San Francisco Philadelphia at Florida Cincinnati at St. Louis NY Yankees at Cleveland Kansas City at Chicago White Sox Colorado at Atlanta Baltimore at Texas Detroit at LA Angels NY Mets at LA Dodgers July 5NY Yankees at Cleveland Chicago Cubs at Washington Houston at Pittsburgh Toronto at Boston Colorado at Atlanta Philadelphia at Florida Baltimore at Texas Kansas City at Chicago White Sox Arizona at Milwaukee Tampa Bay at Minnesota Cincinnati at St. Louis Detroit at LA Angels Seattle at Oakland NY Mets at LA Dodgers San Diego at San Francisco
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