[Choi Min-gyu's Baseball Prism] How Did Baseball Overcome Risks Associated with Innovation?

Corporate Clubs and Innovative Rules like Strike Zone Established
Risk Minimized through Work Separation and Employment Expansion, 21st Century Korean Innovative Companies Are...

The American National Game of Baseball: Championship Grand Match held at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey (Currier & Ives, 1866)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, houses a colored lithograph depicting early baseball. This lithograph, published in 1866 by the specialized lithography company Currier & Ives, portrays a baseball game held at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The date written in red ink, July 15, 1845, appears to be the date the game took place. Elysian Fields was the site of the first baseball game on June 19, 1845. According to the date, this scene shows a baseball game 26 days after the sport’s birth.

The scene is quite different from today’s baseball stadiums. The pitcher attempts to throw the ball underhand. Overhand pitching was prohibited at the time. The catcher prepares to catch the ball almost standing up without any protective gear. This was before the invention of masks, protectors, and shin guards. Fielders did not wear gloves. Gloves to protect the hands were initially not welcomed by players because they were considered ‘unmanly’ for some time after their invention.

There is another difference. There was only one umpire. As briefly introduced in the column dated last month on the 17th, baseball originally had a single-umpire system. Article 2 of the first baseball rules, the Knickerbocker Rules established in 1845, states that “the president or vice president shall appoint one umpire.”

Although baseball rules underwent several important changes afterward, the principle that one umpire oversees the game remained unchanged for a long time. The increase in the number of umpires is closely related to baseball’s innovations, specifically the invention of the strike zone.

Baseball is a game where the batter is out after three strikes. However, in early baseball, strikes were only called when the batter swung and missed. The batter could wait indefinitely for a good pitch to hit. This caused game times to extend indefinitely.

Baseball, born in the United States, developed quite differently from soccer, which originated in the United Kingdom. The early history of soccer can be summarized as an attempt to preserve amateurism in opposition to professionalization. Baseball initially started in British-style gentlemen’s clubs but soon professionalism became dominant. In 1871, the first major league called the National Association was formed, an organization of professional baseball players. The Association was reorganized in 1876 into the National League, whose members were clubs rather than players.

The official name of the National League, still considered one of the two major leagues today, is the “National League of Professional Baseball Clubs.” Here, “clubs” refers to companies, not social groups. Unlike other North American sports, baseball calls its head coach a manager rather than a head coach. In 19th-century American companies, there was typically one executive responsible for labor and one for accounting. Baseball clubs followed this model and operated with a field manager and a general manager system.

Commercialized baseball clubs wanted large revenues, meaning large audiences. Spectators who had to return home after the game did not want the pitcher-batter duel to drag on indefinitely. Therefore, clubs allowed umpires in the major leagues to call strikes on pitches that the batter could hit but did not swing at. This is called a called strike. A standard for what constitutes a “hittable pitch” was needed. The strike zone was devised as the width of the home plate horizontally and vertically from the batter’s knees to shoulder height. The National League codified the strike zone into baseball rules in 1887.

However, the strike zone is an imaginary space. Even today, the calls of strikes and balls by umpires are the most complained about by pitchers, batters, and fans. In the lithograph held by the Metropolitan Museum, the umpire’s position is behind the catcher. After the strike zone was devised, umpires often moved to a position beside the pitcher, which is the best spot to judge the strike zone. However, this position is disadvantageous for tracking batted balls and runners, inevitably leading to incorrect calls. Consumers, the spectators, are unwilling to pay for games with many incorrect calls.

Therefore, 11 years after the introduction of the strike zone, in 1898, Major League Baseball revised the rules to allow an assistant umpire in addition to the home plate umpire. The system changed from single-umpire to two-umpire. Duties were also divided. The home plate umpire mainly judged the strike zone from behind the batter, while the assistant umpire focused on calls related to batted balls and safe/out calls on runners.

Coupang Bucheon Logistics Center Work Site

I received a photo from an acquaintance who worked at the e-commerce company Coupang. Workers wearing navy uniforms stand in a line in front of the warehouse entrance at a logistics center in Bucheon, alongside carts loaded with blue baskets. They are daily or contract workers. After entering the warehouse, they pack items into baskets according to the PDA information they receive and send them down to the packaging floor. A directly employed manager wearing yellow clothes supervises them.

Coupang achieved innovation by drastically reducing delivery times using AI. However, in the process, workers were burdened with excessive workloads. Efficiency was prioritized, but working conditions were poor. Work-related injuries and illnesses surged. There were even fatalities. The fire at the Icheon logistics center on June 17 was criticized as a foreseeable disaster. There are testimonies that managers ignored employees’ fire reports. Angry consumers are responding with membership cancellations and boycotts.

In the 19th century, American baseball companies attempted the innovation of introducing the strike zone to realize greater profits. As a result, umpires’ duties increased and became more complex. Accidents occurred, and the possibility of losing consumers grew. After various trials and errors, Major League Baseball concluded with ‘division of duties’ and ‘expansion of employment.’ It will be interesting to see how 21st-century Korean innovative companies respond.

Director, Korean Baseball Society