Baseball has been called America's pastime for well over a century, packed with quirky records, larger-than-life characters, and history that stretches back further than most fans realize.
Here are 13 fact-checked facts about baseball that go beyond the usual trivia.
Eddie Gaedel holds the record for shortest player in Major League Baseball history at 3 feet 7 inches. He made a single plate appearance for the St. Louis Browns in 1951, drew a walk on four pitches, and was immediately replaced by a pinch runner.
Baseball wasn't invented from scratch in America—it evolved from older English bat-and-ball games like rounders and stoolball. The modern rules were codified in New York in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, which is why Cartwright is often called the 'father of modern baseball.'
The Cincinnati Red Stockings, founded in 1869, are considered the first fully professional baseball team (every player was paid a salary). They finished that inaugural season undefeated, with contemporary accounts crediting them with as many as 57 official wins and no losses.
Fenway Park in Boston, home of the Red Sox since it opened in 1912, is the oldest ballpark still in use in Major League Baseball.
The longest game in professional baseball history was a Triple-A matchup between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings that began on April 18, 1981. It ran 32 innings before being suspended around 4 a.m. and was finally finished two months later, on June 23, when Pawtucket won in the 33rd inning.
The largest contract in baseball history is Shohei Ohtani's 10-year, $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, signed in December 2023—the richest contract in the sport's history, though most of the money is deferred until after the contract ends.
Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record by hitting 61 home runs for the New York Yankees in 1961, topping Ruth's mark of 60 set in 1927. The all-time single-season MLB record now belongs to Barry Bonds, who hit 73 home runs in 2001.
The 1916 New York Giants set the longest winning streak in Major League Baseball history at 26 consecutive games (the streak included one tie, which under the rules of the time did not break it).
Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's color barrier when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, becoming the first African American player in the modern major leagues.
The most expensive baseball card ever sold is a T206 Honus Wagner card, printed between 1909 and 1911 in extremely limited numbers after Wagner reportedly objected to his image being used to promote cigarettes. A rare surviving copy sold in a private sale for $7.25 million in 2022.
The New York Yankees have won more World Series titles than any other team in Major League Baseball history, with 27 championships.
A regulation baseball diamond has its bases set exactly 90 feet apart, a distance established in the sport's earliest official rules in 1857 and never changed since.
Nolan Ryan holds the all-time MLB career strikeout record with 5,714 strikeouts and threw a record seven no-hitters across his 27-year career.
We write every article to be genuinely fun — and genuinely true. Each fact is checked against reputable sources before it goes live. Spotted something off? Tell us and read our fact-check policy.
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