THE RULES OF BASE BALL

In May 2026, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum opened The Rules of Base Ball. Featured in the exhibit are select pages from three surviving drafts of early baseball rules, which were loaned to the Museum by baseball fan Hayden Trubitt. These documents offer a rare glimpse of baseball as it made a giant leap toward the game we know today.

By the mid-1850s, the popularity of baseball was rapidly increasing in and around the booming city of New York. Local clubs across the region played games that looked very similar to one another, but there was one major problem: each club had its own version of rules. One club might require the pitcher to toss underhand, while another allowed overhand throws. Even the size of the baseball varied.

How could two clubs play each other if they followed different rules? They could agree on rules before each game—but that caused delays.

The solution was to create one set of rules that all clubs would follow. In early 1857, the well-respected Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York called for a convention of baseball clubs to do exactly that.

Before the meeting, the Knickerbockers prepared three handwritten drafts of rules, refining their ideas and reshaping the game with each new version. They brought their most complete draft to the convention as a starting point for debate.

A special rules committee reviewed the document line by line and word by word, debating and revising it before presenting a final set of rules to the convention delegates for approval. The result was a shared rulebook that introduced important changes still found in the modern game.