Alexander Cartwright
First baseball card
Mel Allen
Jack Brickhouse
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- 1845
The first important set of written rules was authored by Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. The "original 20 rules of baseball" were not very specific and only 14 actually were rules pertaining to the field and the play. Rule 13 stated that a player could not be put out by being hit by a thrown ball.
- 1889
First salary cap - $2,400 per man with a club ceiling of $30,000 in the National League.
- 1902
First pinch-hit grand slam in major league history - Mike O'Neill of the Cardinals on June 3.
- 1933
First baseball bubble-gum card set every issued; #1 was St. Louis Browns C Benny Bengough
- 1934
Cincinnati Reds became the first team to fly during the season.
- Television firsts
1939
NBC produced its first MLB game on an experimental TV station
NBC telecasts baseball game from Ebbets Field, Brooklyn
The first televised All-Star game took place on July 11 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
1951
WCBS-TV in New York aired the first baseball game in color on August 11.
NBC provided the first coast-to-coast telecast of a baseball game on October 1 - the third game of the National League playoff between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants from the Polo Grounds - Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'Round the World" game.
1955
First World Series broadcast entirely in color (NBC)
1959
First use of what today is called instant replay when Mel Allen asked his director to replay a base hit that broke up the no-hitter that Yankee Ralph Terry was pitching.
1962
First baseball game televised via satellite - July 23, 1962 when Jack Brickhouse announced the Cubs vs the Phillies.
- 1971
First night game in World Series history: Game 4 - Orioles @ Pirates
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