The Biggest Sports Rule Changes and How They Have Affected History

Everyone knows that the only constant in life is change. 

This rule also applies to the sports world, and sometimes the rules make a huge difference on the history of the game.  In each major sport, a specific rule has changed the outcome of some of the most famous records and games, as well as the history of some of the most famous players.

Baseball

Baseball, first played in the mid-1850’s in New York’s Metropolitan area, has changed drastically over the years.  The first rule that jumped out at me on the list was that in 1887, base on balls were recorded in the stat book as a hit.  Making it an even weirder stat was the fact that five balls were needed to record a base on balls and four strikes were needed for a strike out.

If you look at the record book, the top two single-season leaders for hits, Pete Browning and Tip O’Neill, both came in 1877.  They each recorded 275 hits on the year with Browning drawing 55 walks and O’Neill drawing 50 of his own.  What is still impressive is that even if you take away the walks both drew in the season, their hits (225 and 220) would still rank in the top 100 of all-time for hits in a season.

Pete Browning had 275 hits in 1877 but walks also counted as hits that year.

The rule was changed after just one season and the walks were taken away from both players, but were later given back in 1999 by Major League Baseball.  Still, Browning and O’Neill are not recognized as the leaders on the list, but rather Ichiro Suzuki, who smacked 262 hits in 2004 to break George Sisler’s 84-year record.

On the single season hits list, nine of the top 100 players on that list accomplished their feat in 1887.

When looking at pitchers and their overall statistics, two rules jump out that might have changed the history books.  First, in 1893 the pitching distance was moved back from 50 feet to 60 feet, six inches.  Just think about that for a second.  Back when I played baseball for my town’s travel team, the fifth and sixth grade mounds were 48 feet away.

Looking back at the history book, 18 of the top 100 single-season ERA marks occurred before 1876.  Once again, the Major Leagues did away with counting stats in the official record book before 1876, but career marks included any outings before 1876.  That includes Jim Devlin who is fifth on the list, John Ward (7th), and Al Spalding (9th) amongst others.

Also, in 1917 the “spitball” and all other “freak pitches” were banned from the game of baseball because they gave pitchers too big on an advantage.  Many more of those career leaders in ERA pitched before 1917, and while there might not be a direct correlation with the spitball, there is something to be said for it.

Not that Ricky Henderson would care, but maybe Ty Cobb (4th all time in steals) and Honus Wagner (10th) would remember that in 1920, ninth inning uncontested steals were discarded and fielder’s indifference was introduced.

While times were completely different back then and starters threw innings upon innings, wouldn’t it be interesting to know who would have closed and saved the 110 wins for the 1927 Yankees?  Or the 116 wins of the 1906 Chicago Cubs?

From 1936 to 1943, a span of eight years, the New York Yankees won 799 games.  In that span, Johnny Murphy “finished” 219 games for the Yankees.  He only started 12 games for the Yankees in those eight years, so he was clearly the go-to reliever for the Bronx Bombers.

Unfortunately for Murphy, the Yankees had 77, 82, 91, 87, 76, 75, 88, and 83 complete games in that span.  For a guy coming out of the bullpen whose teams won 1259 games over his 13 year career (average of almost 97 wins per season), it stinks that the save was not around.