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Posted By: Corey R. Shanus

As has been pointed out, the concept of a game played with bats and balls and safe havens (e.g. bases) long predates both the New York Knickerbockers and the Philadephia Olympics. However, let's not shortchange what the Knickerbockers did. Their club, organized in 1845, specifically defined the rules its members would have to abide by in playing baseball (and yes, unlike the Olympics, they do use the term "baseball") in order to be a member of the club. These rules, explicitly set forth in the Knickerbocker Rules and Bylaws, formally became the modern game of baseball. For the first time all games would have nine players to a side, three outs to an inning, a set batting order, and a diamond infield with the pitcher in the middle and 90 feet (defined then as 42 paces) between the bases. While undoubtedly some or all of these rules predated the Knickerbockers, for the first time they all appear and finally "baseball" everywhere began playing by one uniform set of rules (the Knickerbocker rules (a/k/a as the New York game)). However, as significant as this all was, in my view the single most important accomplishment (first elucidated to me by the former head of the National Baseball Library in Cooperstown) of the Knickerbockers was their codification of the concept of fair and foul territory. Why is this particular concept so important? Because it allowed baseball to become a spectator sport, and it is that development, more than any other, that promoted the explosive growth in the game and the perception of the sport as our national pastime.