Not So Stupid Question....About Playing

[therefump]

Hey folks,

I've read countless books about baseball including the origin of baseball rules (quite fascinating for me). I discovered, for example, why there is the foul-tip and why runners can/can't advance:wow:. HOWEVER, why has baseball been deemed a sport that cannot be played in adverse conditions such as rain, snow, and muddy fields unlike football?

I was asked this today after we shutdown a game because of poor field conditions (rain was going to occur again) and I did not have an answer as to the history. I hated to give the answer "just because it's always been played that way".

Roy

[ShinySideUp]

My guess is that baseball is the only outdoor sport (in the US, anyway) that involves throwing 5 ounces of leather-covered yarn at up to 100 miles per hour, then hitting it with a stick so it goes back at the thrower at twice the speed.

Never mind the potential injuries on the basepaths - even WITH armor, I have no interest in standing behind an amateur catcher with the ball is slippery.

Footballs hurt when they hit you when it's -10 degrees, but the players wear pads. Tennis players quit when the conditions are such that baseball could continue. Soccer doesn't count.

And you think the basketball players would play in the rain? Not a chance.

[Umpire in Chief]

I got a theory not anything from a source other than my imagination.

First we play on a muddy infield cut out and can lead to injury. In football soccer there is generally grass to give you traction.

Second, we have a pitcher throwing a baseball at high speed and if it's wet they loose some control making things a bit more dangerous. :WTF

[therefump]

It's funny that both Shinnysideup and Warren (Umpire in Chief) both responded the way I did to the question I was asked today. Having a wet baseball hurled at you is not a safe thing.

I'd still like to find the history behind it. Seems to me from reading early baseball (1870s, etc.) that it was one of those sunny day things to do. :WTF