Re: [閒聊] Why is a game 9 innings?

[msniper (scout)]

※ 引述《ug945 (ug945)》之銘言：
: https://goo.gl/FJKTqh
: Why is a game 9 innings?
: These are the backstories behind baseball's iconic rules.
: 為什麼一場比賽是九局?以下是棒球代表性規則的背後故事。
: By Chris Landers
: For decades, baseball has remained such a constant that its rules and
: structure have become as cherished as its greatest players. The run-scoring
: environment might have changed a bit since 1905, but the fundamental look and
: feel of the game hasn't. Legendary sportswriter and Spink Award winner Red
: Smith, as always, said it best: "Ninety feet between bases is perhaps as
: close as man has ever come to perfection."
: But, while Red certainly had a point, the story behind that perfection was
: less divine intervention than a whole lot of trial and error. So, how did
: baseball get here? Why are there four balls and three strikes, anyway? You
: have questions, we have answers.

: Why do pitchers throw overhand?
: Chad Bradfords of the world aside, baseball history has been written by men
: throwing overhand. But it wasn't always this way: For decades, every pitcher
: had to throw with their arm directly perpendicular to the ground, as you can
: make out in this illustration of a game from the 1860s:
: (Incidentally, this is also why they're referred to as "pitchers" -- they
: pitched the ball in the traditional sense of the term, with a stiff
: underhanded motion, almost like tossing a horseshoe.)
: If that sounds like a pretty easy time for hitters, well, that was the point.
: Baseball evolved from other stick and ball games like cricket, so, like in
: those games, pitchers weren't originally intended to be in opposition to the
: batter. Their purpose was simple: Offer the ball up in a hittable position
: and get out of the way. Presumably tired of getting shelled year after year,
: pitchers like Tommy Bond started pushing the envelope inch by inch, creating
: greater speed and movement with essentially sidearm deliveries -- until, in
: 1872, the perpendicular rule was relaxed to allow for greater range of motion.
: At that point, all bets were off: Pitchers -- recognizing that they could
: throw harder, locate better and throw more ferocious breaking balls -- began
: to creep their release point all the way up to a three-quarters arm slot by
: the early 1880s. Finally, in 1884, Cincinnati Red Stockings boss and "Father
: of Professional Baseball" Harry Wright made it official: Pitchers could
: deliver the ball any way they wanted. The move fundamentally changed the
: relationship to the batter, and changed much of the game with it -- from the
: rule stipulating that batters could dictate where the pitch was thrown to the
: function of balls and strikes. Speaking of which ...

早期投手的功用就是餵球投手, 最初規定投手出手一定要與投手丘成垂直並盡力投到打者
想要的位置, 但漸漸的投手們開始嘗試著加快球速與尾勁, 也試著用側投方式來投球
1872年正式取消垂直規則
1884年俗稱"職業棒球之父"的Harry Wright正式讓投手可以按照自己的方式投球
至此正式改變投打關係, 從我想辦法讓你打中球變成我想辦法不讓你打中球

: Why are batters given four balls and three strikes?
: "Three strikes you're out" has been a foundational rule of baseball since the
: very beginning -- it was even codified in the 1845 Knickerbocker Rules,
: thought to be some of the very first written rules of the game. For
: everything else, though, it's been a long and winding road.
: Again, baseball's primary objective in the mid-19th century was to let
: batters put the ball in play as much as possible. So, naturally, those
: batters were given plenty of chances to make that happen. And we do mean
: plenty: Initially, called strikes didn't even exist, and when they were
: instituted in 1858, they came with caveats -- the first pitch couldn't be a
: called strike, and umpires were required to warn each batter that a certain
: pitch would be called a strike in the future.
: [Game show voice] But that's not all! The idea of a "ball" didn't yet exist,
: either, so eventually pitchers recognized that they could continue to deliver
: pitches well wide of the plate and wait for the batter to get impatient. As
: you might imagine, this created some, uh, pretty drastic pace of play
: concerns: Batters, free to wait for the perfect pitch, would see up to 40-50
: pitches per at-bat -- in one 1860 game between the Brooklyn Atlantics and the
: Brooklyn Excelsiors, 665 pitches were thrown ... over three innings.
: Games were routinely called due to lack of daylight, so, in 1863, called
: balls were instituted. Even when the concept was introduced, though, it was
: slowly and tentatively: Only every third "unfair" pitch was called a ball,
: meaning a batter could only walk after nine (!) pitches outside of the strike
: zone.
: As run-scoring declined and pitchers began to do more than just feed batters,
: the rule was frequently adjusted -- first to eight balls, then to seven, then
: to six and so on, until in 1889, the league settled on four.

同樣的, 19世紀中投手的任務就是投給打者打, 所以打者就是盡量把球打進場內
1858年以前棒球比賽根本不存在好球規則
1858年起正式引進好球規則, 但每個打者面對的第一球不會被判為好球, 而裁判必須要先
警告打者除了第一球之外, 後面有些球會被判為好球

除了不存在好球規則外, 其實原本也不存在壞球規則
因此造成一個現象也就是投手只能盡量投, 打者就是慢慢等到自己喜歡的球再出棒即可
這也就導致打者每個打數都可以面對40~50球的球數
(1860年布魯克林大西洋隊(?)與布魯克林始終向上隊(?)的比賽中, 3局兩隊就投了665球)
當時比賽常常因為天黑而裁定結束, 所以在1863年便引進壞球規則
但起初壞球規則規定每三個投在好球帶以外的球才會被判定為ㄧ個壞球, 這代表著當打者
獲得保送時, 他已經看過九個投在好球帶以外的球, 之後九壞球規則才慢慢演變成為八壞
球, 七壞球, 六壞球, 然後一直到1889年才有四壞球規則

: Why nine innings (and why nine men in a lineup)?
: In baseball's infancy, not only was it a game without a clock, but it was
: also a game without a set number of innings. Instead, teams played until one
: of them scored 21 aces -- the 19th century equivalent of a run.
: This wasn't a problem at first, in an age in which scoring runs was pretty
: commonplace -- games lasted an average of only six innings in the 1840s, and
: featured scores as high as 60-100 combined runs. A problem was brewing,
: though: As skill levels increased and pitching caught up to hitting, those 21
: aces were harder and harder to come by. After an 1856 game ended in a 12-12
: tie on account of darkness, it was clear that a change needed to be made.
: Enter Alexander Cartwright, founder of the Knickerbocker Club and definitely
: not a real fireman:
: That begged the question: Exactly how many innings was the right amount? At
: that point, the Knickerbockers were torn between seven or nine men to a side
: -- it all depended on how many were available that day -- and for
: consistency's sake, the number of players dictated the number of innings
: played. Alas, this couldn't be decided without some good old-fashioned
: squabbling. From MLB official historian John Thorn:
: In an 1856 Knickerbocker meeting, [two members] backed a motion to permit
: nonmembers to take part in intramural games if fewer than eighteen Knicks
: were present ... Duncan F. Curry countermoved that if fourteen Knickerbockers
: were available, the game should admit no outsiders and be played shorthanded,
: as had been their practice since 1845.
: Sensing that an official ruling was necessary as more and more baseball teams
: were formed, the Knickerbockers decided to form a committee in 1856 to tackle
: the issue. The desire for more competitive defense won out, and nine innings
: -- and nine men -- became the standard for good.

原先棒球比賽並沒有局數規定, 只要兩隊誰先得到21張王牌(也就是21分)比賽就結束
早期棒球比賽得分非常容易, 但隨著球員的球技逐漸進步且投手開始可以挑戰打者,
球隊越來越難在比賽中得到21張王牌, 在1856年某場比賽因為天黑時仍12-12平手而結束
棒球比賽勢必要為此情形而產生改變, 但問題來了"到底幾局才是適當的局數?"
這就要提到Knickerbocker Club這個俱樂部, 當時這俱樂部採用一個方法, 也就是將當天
可以打棒球的人數拆分為兩隊, 多半是7個人或9個人ㄧ隊, 根據每隊人數來決定當天比賽
的局數, 但當時俱樂部成員也為了這個方法吵個不停, 有成員提出一項動議如果低於18個
成員參加, 比賽應該允許非會員參賽, 但Duncan F. Curry則認為如果僅有14個會員參加,
比賽不應該允許非會員參加, 也因此應該縮短比賽
該俱樂部體認到由於制定正式規則之必要性與棒球比賽場數逐漸增加, 決定在1856年成立
一個委員會來解決這問題, 至此棒球比賽每隊9人打9局的架構算是成形了

: Why 162 games?
: Initially, baseball's scheduling was simple: In 1920, the American and
: National Leagues both had eight teams, and each team would play its league
: rival 22 times, giving us the 154-game slate that would last for four
: decades.
: And then expansion happened. In 1961, the AL added the Los Angeles Angels and
: Washington Senators. The next year, the NL welcomed the New York Mets and the
: Houston Colt .45s. (Yes, this did lead to one year in which the AL's schedule
: was slightly longer -- they both covered the same number of days, but the NL
: got more days off.) Suddenly, the simple math was slightly more complicated:
: Each team playing every other team in the league 22 times would have resulted
: in an untenable 198-game schedule.
: So, MLB cut it to 18 games against each league rival, and 162 games was born.
: But, while that number has endured, it hasn't been without some controversy
: as further expansions made the calculation a bit trickier: 76 games within
: the same division, 66 against non-divisional league opponents and 20
: Interleague games. A bit involved? Sure. But, as Thorn explained to Mental
: Floss back in 2014, good luck changing it: "Baseball is a religion. It
: becomes the 11th commandment: 162 games."

1920年美聯與國聯各有8隊, 每隊與同聯盟球隊各要打22場, 因此賽制訂為154場, 並維持
了40年, 直到1961年美聯增加洛杉磯天使隊及華盛頓參議員隊, 而1962年國聯增加紐約大
都會隊及休士頓.45口徑手槍隊, 造成每隊與同聯盟各打22場, 而賽制衍變成過多的198場
, 大聯盟則決定將各隊間對戰場數減至18場, 也就產生了目前的162場賽制
然而, 往後隨著球隊數量不斷增加, 賽制也變得日趨複雜:
76場同聯盟同分區比賽, 66場同聯盟不同分區比賽, 20場跨聯盟比賽

: How did home plate get its shape?
: Believe it or not, home plate wasn't always the square-triangle hybrid we
: know today. Until the turn of the 20th century, games used just about any
: object teams could find, be it made of metal, marble or even glass. The only
: thing that mattered was the shape: Home plate had to be circular.
: As you may have already guessed, this posed a problem: Imagine sliding into
: home, only to find your leg scraped or sliced by a piece of rock. (Robert
: Keating, the man who patented the design for the rubber, even complained that
: tapping one's bat on home would "jar the batter's hands".) So, in the 1880s,
: changes were made. The National League mandated a rubber or marble plate in
: 1885, and in 1887, home plate was transformed into a 12 inch-by-12 inch
: square -- in line with the other three bases.
: This posed difficulties of its own, though -- it was awfully hard to tell
: whether or not a ball caught the corner when the corner was as small as a
: single point. The solution? Create a base that was a forward-facing square in
: the front, to allow for a longer line demarcating the strike zone, while
: maintaining the diamond look at the back.

最早本壘板不是長現在這樣, 球隊只要找到可以用的任何物品都可以當本壘板, 可以是金
屬, 也可以是大理石, 或者是玻璃, 唯一要符合的規定就是要"圓形"
1885年國家聯盟規定只能使用橡膠或大理石作為本壘板
1887年本壘板形狀由圓形改為12英吋x12英吋的正方形, 但這產生另外一個問題: 當好球
帶角落只有一個點時, 難以判斷球是否削過好球帶角落?
解決方法? 就是你現在看到本壘板的樣子

: Why is it 60 feet, six inches to home?
: If you think Aroldis Chapman is impressive now, consider: If Chapman had
: pitched back in 1888, when the mound was just 50 feet away from home plate,
: he likely would have been clocked at around 125 mph.
: For much of the game's early history, the distance from pitcher to home plate
: was a fuzzy concept -- the Knickerbocker Rules didn't settle on a fixed
: distance, and by the 1870s, pitchers simply had to stay within a box whose
: front edge was 45 feet from the front of home plate (again, similar to
: cricket, though the pitcher wasn't allowed a running start).
: This worked for a while ... until pitchers began to move beyond the simple
: underhand delivery. In 1880, Lee Richmond tossed the first perfect game in
: Major League history, and John Ward followed up with one of his own just five
: days later. The two games -- along with the fact that the National League ERA
: that year was an absurd 2.93 -- sent shockwaves through professional baseball
: ... and not simply because of Ward's Snidely Whiplash facial hair.
: Over the next few years, pitching moved closer to what we know today. Looking
: to goose offense, the front of the pitcher's box was moved back to 50 feet
: away, and by 1887 -- with overhand deliveries now the law of the league --
:  pitchers were required to start their delivery with their feet 55.5 feet
: from home.
: Desperate for some offense with fan attendance on the decline, the Senior
: Circuit moved the box back one more time. They settled on five more feet --
: pushing the pitcher's starting point back to 60 feet, six inches.

早期投手板到本壘板的距離是個模糊的概念, 在1870年代投手只要站在一個前端距離本壘
只有45英呎的方框內即可, 後來逐漸移到50英呎遠, 而到了1887年投手被規定要站在距離
本壘板55.5英呎處進行投球, 為了增加球隊進攻及拯救日益下滑的觀眾人數, 便決定將投
手板距離再加長至現今60英呎6英吋遠

以上概略翻譯, 有錯請指正, 謝謝大家


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推 yogi: 本壘板那段看不懂 為什麼正方形可能造成難以判斷好球帶?..
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→ madboy: "in line with the other three bases"
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