Let’s think about other popular sports, like football and basketball. In a
game of football, the attacking and defending team continuously
changes based on the possession of the ball. 22 players actively run
around the football pitch, trying to create space in the pitch to maximize
the opportunities for the team. There are an extensive amount of factors
you need to consider in football, therefore it is relatively difficult to
quantify the plays. Basketball is in the middle of baseball and football. It
sort of divides offense and defense with its turn-based rules, but 10
players still constantly move around and make a play using the areas of
the basketball court.
For this reason, baseball is deeply related to numbers and data.
However, baseball and data were not very connected since the very
beginning of baseball. Since when did these two subjects get together?
// Father of Baseball Records: Henry Chadwick
In answer to ‘Who invented baseball?’, there is no definite evidence of
where and how baseball started.
Though there is no clear proof of it, there is a ‘mythical inventor of
baseball’. The story is about that during the summer of 1839, Major
General Abner Doubleday invented the game known as baseball in
Cooperstown, New York. However, it turns out that the story was
untrue. He was still at West Point in 1839, and he never claimed to have
anything to do with baseball. Despite the lack of solid evidence linking
Doubleday to the origins of baseball, he was dedicated to half of fame in
19391,^