RCW: A Look Back 4.23

 

With the home opener for Kansas baseball last weekend, today let’s take A Look Back at the baseball field design.

The modern rules for baseball were first set down in 1845 by the New York Knickerbockers. The game was played without gloves and on a full-grass field. This fact aided the spread of the game – baseball didn’t require perfectly manicured grounds, which made it easily playable by anyone, anywhere.

Kansas baseball has played in several locations both in Lawrence and on campus since it began the varsity athletics program in 1879. Its earliest official campus home, McCook Field, also served the football team and therefore was just a solid grass field without dirt base paths. Its current home, Hoglund Ballpark, was a dirt-and-grass baseball field until KU had an all-turf surface installed in 2010 (field and base paths) and 2014 (pitching mound) to better combat unpredictable early-season Kansas weather.