Play Ball! Memorable Moments in Baseball History

PLAY BALL! IN BASEBALL HISTORY 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 RUNS HITS ERR 2 THEN I NOW 000 100 I00 O 02 0S O 02 O OOS 100 AT BAT BALL STRIKE OUT 25 0O. Each millions of fans fill stadiums across the country to year, celebrate America's favorite pastime. Baseball is one of our oldest traditions, and it's changed a lot since the game was in- vented almost 200 years ago. Take a look at the events that shaped modern baseball into the sport we know today. 62 1846 The first official game of baseball was played 1868 The first pack of baseball cards was created 1876 The first professional baseball league was formed 1920 The average baseball ticket cost $1.00 1921 Baseball was broadcast on the radio for the first time 1929 Teams began wearing numbers on the back of their jerseys 29 1935 The first professional night game was played 1939 A baseball game was televised for the first time 1963 The average baseball ticket cost $2.25 1973 The designated hitter rule was established 1982 Average baseball ticket price broke $5 1994 The average baseball ticket broke $10 2008 Instant replay in baseball games was approved for home run calls 2013 The most expensive hotdog at a baseball stadium costs $6.25 21 million hotdogs are purchased each year at baseball games. End-to-end, they'd round the bases 29,691 times. Longest professional game: 1984 - 8 hours 6 minutes Shortest game: 1919 - 51 minutes Average length today: about 2 hours 50 minutes The Star Spangled Banner was first played during the seventh-inning stretch at Game One of the 1918 World Series. The song became th official national anthem in 1931. More than 74.8 million fans attended professional games in 2012. SOURCES http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/timeline/ http://sportscards.about.com/od/baseballcards/a/bbtimeline.htm http://www.softschools.com/timelines/baseball_history_timeline/88/ http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haupert.mlb http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/timeline/ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1157233-200-events-that-defined-shaped-and-changed-major-league-baseball http://www.delish.com/food-fun/baseball-stadium-hot-dogs#slide-1 http://tampabay.rays.mlb.com/tb/history/national_anthem.jsp http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_gmlg.shtml; http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1271178- major-league-baseball-why-games-need-to-be-shortened-and-how-it-can-be-done http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121004&content id=39483214&vkey=pr_mlb&c_id=mlb http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/31/pf/baseball-prices/index.html Nationwide Nationwide On Your Side