6 of the most-asked sports questions, answered

6 of the most-asked sports questions, answered

By: Chris Chase | April 18, 2018 8:16 am

Why is a touchdown worth seven points? Who thought baseball managers dressing in full uniform was a good look? Why is “the wave” a thing? Watching sports leads to questions. Some of them, like the first two above, can only be answered with the vague “that’s the way it’s always been.” Others, like the query about the wave, have dozens of competing claims. But many rules and customs have a deeper story, some of which go back hundreds of years. Here are six of the most-asked sports questions, answered.

1. WHY IS A BASEBALL GAME NINE INNINGS?

This answer is hiding in plain sight, based on a simple correlation of two things that have no relation: There are nine innings in a baseball game because there are nine men on a baseball team. In the early days of baseball, the rules were being constantly tweaked to refine the sport. At first, the amount of innings was irrelevant because baseball was played like pickup basketball – first to 21. That wasn’t tenable for obvious reasons, so when the Knickerbocker club decided to set nine-man rosters in 1856 (the alternative was seven), the length of a game was also set at nine.

For the other five, click HERE