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P’S NOW HAVE NINE MISFIRES TO A BASE ON BALLS
WALKS NO LONGER SOLELY DECIDED BY UMPIRES; P’S MUST ALSO FACE BATTER BEFORE DELIVERY

NEW YORK CITY (Mar. 17-19, 1879) - Baseball’s Executive Committee met for its annual Spring Meetings at the St. Nicholas Hotel, and this year it was pitching that was the main focus of the agenda.

To date, the pitcher could be as crafty with his deliveries to the batsman as he wanted. While the man at the plate could declare a preferred area for the ball to be delivered to, there was no real consequence for the pitcher if he was off-target. However, the umpire could award a Base on Balls if the pitcher’s deliveries were repeatedly wayward and deemed unhittable. Still, that meant a batter may have to watch 12-15 wasted balls sail by before he was awarded a free base. That has changed.

Beginning with the upcoming season, a Base on Balls will automatically be awarded after the ninth called Ball of a batsman’s trip to the plate. Why nine? It seems arbitrary, but that was the number agreed upon by the majority of the Executive Committee. In any event, the Base on Balls has been moved out of the realm of the discretion of an umpire, one that may have different standards depending on which man in a suit is behind Home Plate on any given afternoon. The Base on Balls is now a uniform part of play.

The other aspect of pitching that was discussed had to do with the start of the play. Until now, while there have been hard definitions on how pitchers had to deliver the ball to the batsman there was nothing in the rulebook about what position the P had to be facing when starting his delivery. He could be facing any of the bases, with his back turned to the batter, or diagonal to the batter – it didn’t matter. Now it does.

Starting with the upcoming season, all pitchers will be required to face Home Plate directly before starting their delivery, or else a Balk will be called by the Home Plate Umpire. The Executive Committee decided that this change was needed in the interest of fairness, so that all batsmen would have a proper indication of when a pitch was about to be delivered.

It will be interesting to see if the adjustment of the Base on Balls to a uniform standard will lead to an increase in walks during the 1879 season. At first glance it seems likely to happen, but of course time will tell.