Baseball History Essay

872 Words4 Pages

The origins of baseball can be traced as far back as the fourteenth century in early Britain. There were folk games during this time which involved similar concepts as modern day baseball: if the batter successfully hits the ball, then the hitter could score points by running around the bases, while the fielders attempt to retrieve the ball and make the runner out in some way. However, it is said that the modern day baseball we play in America today was invented in 1839 by a man named Abner Doubleday. As this game developed over time, baseball become part of a more organized community known as the MLB (Major League Baseball) in 1869. The sport of baseball is now one with many rules. An essential rule to understand throughout this paper is that …show more content…

One of the most stressful situations in this sport is when there is full count. If this full count pitch is a ball then the batter walks, but if it is a strike he is out, or the batter can make contact with the ball and earn a hit. This pitch tends to be vital to the game, therefore, research must be done to find the best decision for a batter to make in this situation.
While watching the national sport of America, we sometimes overlook how the batters are able to decide whether to swing or not swing in such a short period time. A batter roughly has .40 seconds to decide if he should swing or not. During this short time span a batter determine the type of pitch, determine if it's a strike or a ball, approximate the speed of the pitched ball, finish the stride and get their foot down, and get the bat to the ball. This may be tough especially when the there are 3 balls and 2 strikes, a full count pitch. The pitching is roughly 60.5 feet away from home plate and I calculated the how long it would take for a 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 mph pitch to travel to home plate as shown in the graph below. I calculated this by using ratios. Since the original ratio is