Year In Review : 1896 National League
Off the Field…
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece as young men and women converged from all over the world to compete in various sports and represent their country. Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin believed that international competitions between amateur athletes would help promote friendly relationships between people from different countries and he assembled seventy-nine delegates from twelve countries to attend the international congress for the re-establishment of the Olympic Games. The first competition held was the first heat of the 100m which was won by Francis Lane (USA), in a time of 12.5 sec. Unlike today, the original Olympic medals were all silver and only awarded to the top winner of an event.
In the National League…
On July 12th, Ed Delahanty of the Philadelphia Phillies hit four inside-the-park homers (for seven RBIs) off Bill Terry of the Chicago Colts. Despite the standout performance, Delahanty and his teammates still fell 9-8.
The Baltimore Orioles (90-29), winners of three consecutive pennants, met the second-place Cleveland Spiders (80-48) for a classic rematch of the Temple Cup. The defending champion Spiders were swept the playoffs 7-1, 7-2, 6-2 and 5-0.
In December, Princeton University’s Professor Charles E. Hinton introduced baseball’s first automated pitching machine.
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