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God Invented Baseball
Of that, there is no doubt. And those poor misguided souls who believe there are no absolutes—absolutely don’t have a clue!
90 feet between bases could only be a Divine inspiration. Ponder on it for a second. 100 feet from home to first and everyone is out. 80 feet and every runner is safe. Think of all the excitingly close plays at the initial sack we have enjoyed over the years. That is not by happenstance!
Baseball is a gift from Heaven. God knew before Cap Anson, Albert Spalding and Cy Young pulled on their first uniform that 90 feet was the number!
And listen, 60 feet, 6 inches from the pitcher’s mound to home plate is no accident either. You back the pitcher up 10 feet and Nolan Ryan might have trouble sneaking his fast ball past major league hitters. Move it up 10 feet and Aunt Matilda can throw it by you.
It is 127 feet, 3 and 3/8 inches from home plate to second base. Odd number you think? Not if you like exciting slides into second. A fairly quick big league pitcher can get the ball to the catcher’s mitt in 1.5 seconds. A good catcher can throw to second in 2.0 seconds. If you want to steal a base in the majors, you need to cover the above discussed 90 feet in 3.4 seconds or less.
The poetry in this game never stops.
God might have used Doc Adams and Alexander Cartwright to write down some baseball basics for us. He allowed those early New York Knickerbockers and Cincinnati Red Stockings to have some leeway in how they interpreted the game to get things going…..but He was always in charge!
It was the same way back home. We didn’t play in Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field. As a matter of fact Paul David Campbell’s backyard was so small we had to declare a ball hit off the garage a ground rule double. If we’d backed the pitcher’s mound to the official distance, we’d’a been throwing the ball out of a mimosa tree.
God allows you to “make do”.