The Futility Infielder

Enshrined writer Leonard Koppett has an enlightening piece about a key rule change which just passed its 100th anniversary. As of the American League's season opener on April 20, 1903, the first two foul balls hit by a batter counted as strikes. The National League had adopted the foul-strike rule in 1901, but the AL, which was born that year, still clung to the old fouls-don't-count rule, and it skewed results so much that Nap Lajoie led the league with a .426 batting average. The AL's adoption of the foul-strike rule was part of its peace agreement with the NL, in which the two leagues agreed to honor each other's player contracts, coordinate schedules and hold a World Series between the two league champions.

Koppett calls the foul-strike rule "the last fundamental playing rule change baseball made, after many evolutionary changes in the preceding 25 years... the true birth of baseball as we know it." There's more:

Changes did come later, like the designated hitter, but that's a lineup rule, not a playing rule. Adjustments were made about ground-rule doubles and homers, and the height of the mound, and other things of such secondary nature.

But the foul strike -- made universal in 1903 -- was the final step in completing the truly basic rules of play: nine men, three outs to an inning, three strikes you're out, four balls for a walk, 90 feet between bases, the 60-foot, 6-inch pitching distance, the size and weight of the ball, nine innings for a complete game and over the fence is a home run.

While many would quibble with Koppett's classification of the designated hitter (which just saw its own 30th anniversary) as non-fundamental, it's interesting to view the foul-strike change as sort of a Golden Spike which not only unified the two leagues but also the game of a century ago with the one we know today. But then, that's why Koppett has earned his tag as "The Thinking Fan."

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Speaking of great old writers still teaching the kids new tricks, Newsday catches up with 82-year-old Roger Angell, who has a new anthology out called Game Time. The book packages some (but, sadly, not all) of his recent work with pieces dating all the way back toThe Summer Game (1962), including a piece on the writer's first trip to spring training from which I drew inspiration recently.

The most sorely overlooked Angell piece, in my opinion, is his one following the 1995 postseason, in which he discusses the Mariners' Randy Johnson coming out of the bullpen in Game Five of the AL Divisional Series against the Yankees (a moment which sitll gives me goosebumps to think about), Orel Hershiser doing the same for the Dodgers in the 1988 NL Championship Series (exponentially more goosebumps there) and the consequences of such heroism on the pitchers' careers, with the post-rotator cuff surgery phase of Hershiser's career as illustration.

If there's anybody out there reading this who clips and files Angell's New Yorker pieces (like I've been doing since '97 or so) and has that one, I'll trade you a Futility Infielder T-shirt (which I'll soon be unveiling) for a copy in either electronic or paper form.