Matter of Fact Monday: Baseball

Matter of Fact Monday
Hosted at http://matteroffactmonday.blogspot.com/
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1. Baseball fan and comedian George Carlin states it this way: "In baseball the object is to go home." It can't get much simpler than that (though while playing the game is simple, laying out the field is another matter). Yet when one attempts to determine what players are the most skilled at "going home", or are the most talented at helping their teammates "go home", obtaining answers isn't so simple.

2. Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap while playing baseball, and he used to changed it every two innings.

3. The starting point for much of the action on the field is home plate, which is an irregular white rubber pentagon 17 inches by 8 1/2 by 12 by 12 by 8 1/2 inches (defined in the rule book as a one-foot square with "two of the corners filled in"). Adjacent to each of the two parallel 8 1/2-inch sides is a batter's box. The point of home plate where the two 12-inch sides meet at right angles, is at one corner of a ninety-foot square. The other three corners of the square, in counterclockwise order from home plate, are called first base, second base, and third base. Three canvas bags fifteen inches (38 cm) square mark the three bases. These three bags along with home plate form the four bases at the corners of the infield.