46 – Why Nine Players on Each Team?


RUBBERY SHRUBBERY Post 46

This is the Rubbery Shrubbery blog, where you’ll learn how Yachats (YAH-hots), Oregon, acquires a Major League Baseball franchise. To learn more about Yachats and its inhabitants—called Yachatians (yah-HAY-shuns)— please go to this page or go to GoYachats.

For this post, we stray from the Yachats Smelt story to give you a tale of baseball’s early history. It might not be historically accurate, but it is precise.

Why Nine Players on Each Team?
by Dave Baldwin

One day in the 19th century three guys were lounging around ye olde tavern with nothing much to do, so they decided to invent baseball. Let’s call them Alexander Cartwright, Henry Chadwick, and Abner Doubleday because those were, in fact, their names. See Figures 1, 2, and 3.

Figure 1. Alexander Cartwright (middle, second row). The New York Knickerbockers Baseball Club, 1847. Only six members on the team—obviously before the invention of baseball.

When it came to specifying how many players would be in each team’s line-up, they dithered. Finally, Alex said, “I have an idea. Here’s how we’ll resolve this. We’ll take a random number… say, my birth date (4/17/1820) without the slashes and parentheses. Then we’ll scramble the digits good and proper to make a second random number (e.g., 2011874), and subtract the smaller number from the larger. Like, 4171820 minus 2011874 equals 2159946. Am I going too fast?”

Figure 2. Henry Chadwick. An inveterate jokester with an enviable sense of humor. See the sparkle in his eyes?

Abner grunted and Henry groaned. “Good,” Alex enthused. “Now let’s sum up the digits in that number: 2+1+5+9+9+4+6 = 36. Next, we’ll sum those two digits: 3+6 = 9. So that’s how many players we’ll have on each team.”

“Okay,” Abner yipped. “Now, I’ll figure out how many innings we’ll play. But I’m going to use my birth date instead. I was born on June 26, 1819. I’ll shuffle that 6261819 to give me 8619261. So, 8619261 minus 6261819 gives me 2357442. I add those digits to get 27 and add those to get 9. Wow! We’re going to play nine innings.

Figure 3. Abner Doubleday. We’re not sure who taped the squirrel to his head.

Henry scowled. “Wait a minute. I don’t trust you hornswogglers. Let me calculate using my birth date – October 5, 1824.” He whipped up a jumbled version of 1051824 and hammered out the math.

“Holy mongoose, Hank!” Alexander shouted. “You came up with 9, too. That cinches it. Nine it will be.”

Figure 4. Mongoose. Just minding his or her own business. Not claiming to be holy.*

We are indeed fortunate that they stumbled on nine as the number of players on a team, because that is actually the correct number. To demonstrate this, we’ll use the precise total number of players who have played in the majors and the Negro Leagues since that fateful tavern rendezvous: 19,623. We’ll yank out the comma and rearrange that number (randomly, of course) to get 62193. Now we’ll subtract: 62193 minus 19623 equals 42570. Summing these digits gives us 4+2+5+7+0 = 18 and 1+8 = 9. QED.

* Helogale parvula in Korkeasaari zoo. Photo by Miika Silfverberg (MiikaS) from Vantaa, Finland

Next time: We’ll have big news regarding the selection of the Smelt general manager. Very big news. Frightening, too.

NOTE: Our tavern trio sipped a bit more and continued with exuberance, using their method to determine the number of strikes for a strikeout, balls for a walk, outs for a half inning, bases on the infield, foul lines, goal posts, and cows in the outfield. Fortunately, Ms. Eliza Mae Rizzleblurt, proprietor, saw the trio was topsy, stepped in, and made them rewind to the point at which our story ended. Unfortunately, in the only photo we could find of Ms. R., the woman who saved baseball, she had her eyes closed.

NOTE AGAIN: Dave Baldwin borrowed this tale from “Baseball Paradoxes” on his own website, http://www.snakejazz.com .

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4 Responses to 46 – Why Nine Players on Each Team?

  1. Tom Kerns says:

    Hey Dave, I was just now trying to puzzle out how many years it will be until the Smelt play their first game in the (yet to be) newly refurbished Yachats stadium, so I estimated the birthdate of my friend’s next child’s third child’s youngest nephew (to insure randomness), did the calculations and discovered that the Smelt’s first game will be played here in 2022. Is that really true?

    • Dave Baldwin says:

      Tom, I got exactly the same answer! So, 2022 must be right. I just guessed at which friend you chose for your calculation. I must have been right on. Just pure luck, there. But 2022 will give us plenty of time to get that roof off Safeco Field in Seattle, transport it to Yachats, and get it set up over our town. Can hardly wait!

  2. Steve Gillis says:

    Now that I know why there is 9 innings.
    Could you figure out which came first, the Chicken or the egg?
    How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie Roll pop?
    Why do Woman like talking on the phone?
    Then I will have all of life’s answers.

  3. Dave Baldwin says:

    Steve, I can only give you one of life’s answers. The egg came long, long before even the first chicken. As for the Tootsie Roll, it depends on tongue properties of the licker. A St. Bernard (which shouldn’t be eating chocolate) can devour the whole thing with one casual lick. No comment on your last question.

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