Talk:History of baseball

Just wondering. Did the New York Knickerbockers wear knickers? Was that the origin of baseball's knickers? Ortolan88

Good question. Spalding's Americas National Game suggests so, saying "There is no photo of the players of that team on field, but one almost unconciously uniforms them..." Not compelling. The place to look, I'd guess is Bill James' wife's sections of the Historical Baseball Abstract. I'll have a look when I get home... -- GWO

OK, I've checked, and the answer is no. The Knickerbockers wore normal trousers, and their name derives from the fact that "Knickerbocker" was a generic term for New Yorkers, particularly those of Dutch descent. Kudos to Susie James... -- GWO

Thanks. Good to know that. Of course "knickers" are named after the kind of funny looking trousers the real Dutch Knickerbockers wore, but that would have nothing to do with the baseball team. Ortolan88

There's lots to be said about uniforms.

• Requirements in the rules, all alike, no flapping sleeves for pitchers
• Player discretion, Ted Williams tore off sleeves, how low can knickers go (Manny Ramirez practically covers his shoes!)
• History -- home and away, multi-colors, multi-uniforms (Pirates).

Probably an article, but I don't know any of this stuff. Ortolan88

The James' Historical Prospectus would be an excellent source of info here, too -- GWO

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Gareth, saw your comment for your last edit. Maybe you could even split it into more articles, since the first part only seems to go about the MLB, except for the introduction. Anyway, it's very US-centered, so the "History of Baseball" would rather link to sub-articles on "History of MLB" and "History of Baseball at the Olympics" etc. Jeronimo

Yeah. Thats pretty much what I had in mind. -- GWO

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Nice additions, seemingly-at-Berkeley editing person -- GWO

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This text has been moved from Talk:Baseball/History:

Except for the first section, the article is more the history of baseball in the US (mostly MLB). I think at least a section could be devoted to development of the sport in other countries. It's quite popular in Japan and Korea, there's a long history of baseball in Europe as well (Italy and the Netherlands the dominant powers there) and in many Latin American countries (Cuba!). What about the World Championships for amateur teams, the inclusion in the Olympics? jheijmans

You're right. What are you waiting for? -- GWO

Well, the rest of the article looks like it was written by people with far greater knowledge of baseball than I have. I could write some very basic paragraphs about the topic mentioned above (which I might do), but I hoped to trigger the experts to do so. jheijmans

Mainly RjLesch and myself. But my "expertise" doesn't touch on the areas you mention, so theres no point leaving it to me. If you write your basic paragraphs, you might trigger the actual experts

OK, I've gone and added the Olympic history of baseball (that's where I know most of), will add more later (see subsections already added). Feel free to add or re-organise, of course. jheijmans