Tom Harris from Bluebell, Pennsylvania, wonders: In baseball, when a batter is said to take a ball, what exactly does take mean in that context? Batters have been advised to take a ball since the mid-1850s, when rule changes established the modern strike zone and forced batters to make split-second decisions about whether to swing. The 1854 source documented in Edward J. Nichols’s Penn State thesis, An Historical Dictionary of Baseball Terminology, describes it as letting a fair pitched ball go past without offering to strike it. To take a ball is to deliberately hold back, putting yourself at a slight disadvantage in the moment, but betting on a more favorable pitch ahead. For a really deep dive into the history of the game, check out Protoball, which catalogues old rules, early statistics, and games that resemble baseball but aren’t quite. This is part of a complete episode.
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