Baseball Facts

In 1968, the average AL batter hit .230 and Carl Yastrzemski won the batting championship, hitting .301; in 1930, the average NL batter hit .303. In 1904, 87.6% of starting pitchers completed their games; in 2004, of 4854 starts, only 150 were completed (3.1%). In 1997, the Texas Ranger franchise was purchased for $252 million; The Ballpark in Arlington was built for $191 million;  in 2000, Alex Rodriguez signed a ten-year contract with the same Texas Rangers for $252 million. In 2004, the New York Yankees sold 3.78 million seats at an average ticket price of $27.34;  in the same year, the Montreal Expos sold 750,000 seats at an average price of $10.82. In 1976, the average salary for a major league baseball player was $51,501; it's now $2,632,655. In the new Comiskey Park, built in 1991, the first row in the new upper deck is farther from the field than the last row in the old park. In 1932, the Giants' shortstop "Doc" Marshall was nicknamed the "ancient mariner," because "he stoppeth one of three." In 2004, the Colorado Rockies hit .305 at home; they hit just .258 on the road. In 1904, Jack Chesbro introduced the "spit ball."  He won 41 games, a record that has never been surpassed.