Home Team Batting First

[Brian McKenna]

How many times in the 20th century did the home team choose to bat first?

I'm curious - don't know the answer. I do know that the rule mandating that the home team bat last wasn't enacted until 1950.

The one I know of - on 7/16/1908 Frank Chance chose for his Cubs to bat first.

Also, does anyone have an idea of how many games per year - going back into the 19th century until it was common - wher this occurred?

[RuthMayBond]

I'd figure the home teams would bat first regularly until the 1920s when the live ball was here to stay? (and they replaced balls in play more regularly after the Chapman incident)

[Brian McKenna]

From what I've read, home teams were almost exclusively batting last after the mid or early 1890s.

[RuthMayBond]

And this is the only post-1874 and pre-1911 boxscore I can find

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/boxscore/06121880.shtml

Actually retrosheet is pretty good about telling when the home team batted first, even if they only have two really old years

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/index.html

[ipitch]

Here's some good info.

http://www.retrosheet.org/newslt14.txt

Although we now take it for granted that the home team bats last, this
was only formalized in the rules in 1950. Prior to that it was the home
team's option. It would appear that it is always advantageous to bat
last, since it gives the chance for a sudden-death win. However, there
are interesting cases where the expected did not occur. For example, in
the very first game played by the New York Yankees (called the
highlanders then), on April 22, 1903, the New Yorkers batted last
because the home town Washington Senators chose to bat first. The
reason for this selection was to have more chances to bat the new ball,
which quickly lost its resilience since games in those days were often
played with one ball for the entire contest. Ron Fisher has entered
several games from the 1901 New York Evening Telegram and has also
encountered cases of the home team choosing to bat first.

[ipitch]

If this info is correct, the last time a home team chose(?) to bat first was June 26, 1913.
EDIT: Actually, maybe they didn't choose to bat first.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070926&content_id=2231674&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Wednesday was the first time since 1913 that the "home" team batted first at its own ballpark, according to David W. Smith of Retrosheet. On June 26, 1913, the Philadelphia Athletics played a doubleheader against the Washington Senators, who batted both first and last in the double dip.

Here's the line score.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1913/06261913.htm

And, here's the game from 2007 where the Mariners batted first at Safeco.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA200709261.shtml

[DJ Starion]

I don't think it counts but this past year the Orioles and White Sox resumed a game that started in Chicago in April during a doubleheader in Baltimore in August. Chicago batted last in GM1 and first in GM2

[lastpitch]

In the National League, from 1876 until 1886, with the exception of 1877, the team that batted first was determined by a coin flip. In 1877 the home team batted first. In 1885 in the American Associa- tion, at the time a major league (1882-1891), the home team was given the option of when to bat; the National League followed suit starting in 1887. In the NL 1894 season, for instance, the home team batted first in 324 of the 793 games played (40.9%)
Games in which the home team has batted first since 1901: 5/5/1901 AL: Chicago at Milwaukee Mil (H) 21-7 5/6/01 AL: Chicago at Milwaukee Chi (V) 6-3 5/23/01 NL: Chicago at Brooklyn Chi (V) 9-2 6/8/01 AL: Cleveland at Baltimore Cle (V) 13-5 6/19/01 AL: Detroit at Washington Was (H) 7-2 8/8/01 NL: Brooklyn at New York, 2^nd game NY (H) 4-1 9/7/01 NL: St Louis at New York NY (H) 5-2 9/16/01 NL: Boston at New York, 1^st game Bos (V) 3-2 . . . . (8, 4,4) 4/23/1902 AL: Boston at Washington Was (H) 7-3 5/15/02 AL: Boston at Philadelphia Bos (V) 6-3 8/2/02 NL: Chicago at Philadelphia Chi (V) 12-0 8/17/02 NL: New York at Chicago, 2^nd game NY (V) 3-1 8/23/02 NL: Boston at Chicago Chi (H) 14-5 8/24/02 NL: Brooklyn at Chicago, 2^nd game Chi (H) 8-5 9/11/02 NL: Pittsburgh at Philadelphia Pit (V) 8-3 9/15/02 NL: Cincinnati at Chicago Chi (H) 6-3 9/21/02 NL: Pittsburgh at Chicago, 2^nd game Pit (V) 4-1 . . . . (9, 7,2) 4/18/1903 NL: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati Pit (V) 5-4 4/19/03 NL: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati Pit (V) 6-4 4/22/03 AL: New York at Washington Was (H) 3-1 5/10/03 AL: Detroit at Cleveland Cle (H) 6-2 6/4/03 AL: St Louis at Washington StL (V) 9-1 6/8/03 NL: Boston at Chicago Chi (H) 8-6 7/8/03 NL: Philadelphia at Chicago Chi (H) 7-5 7/28/03 NL: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati Pit (V) 10-3 7/29/03 NL: Pittsburgh at Cincinnati Pit (V) 7-3 8/30/03 AL: Cleveland at St Louis, 1^st game Cle (V) 7-4 8/30/03 AL: Cleveland at St Louis, 2^nd game Cle (V) 10-1 9/7/03 NL: St Louis at Cincinnati Cin (H) 7-3 . . . . (12, 7,5) 5/15/1904 NL: Philadelphia at Chicago Chi (H) 4-2 5/22/04 NL: New York at Chicago Chi (H) 3-1 8/18/04 NL: St Louis at Philadelphia, 2^nd game StL (V) 4-2 8/25/04 NL: New York at Chicago, 2^nd game NY (V) 12-1 9/11/04 NL: St Louis at Cincinnati, 2^nd game Cin (H) 8-5 . . . . (5, 5,0) 4/29/1905 NL: Boston at Philadelphia Phi (H) 6-4 5/3/05 NL: Philadelphia at Brooklyn Brk (H) 13-9 5/7/05 NL: Philadelphia at Brooklyn Brk (H) 4-2 5/11/05 NL: Cincinnati at Brooklyn Cin (V) 8-7 x Cincinnati scored in the last of the 10^th. 6/1/05 NL: Philadelphia at Brooklyn Phi (V) 3-2 x Philadelphia scored in the last of the 12^th. 6/3/05 NL: Philadelphia at Brooklyn Phil (V) 2-0 6/4/05 NL: Pittsburgh at Chicago, 2^nd game Pit (V) 5-4 7/12/05 NL: Cincinnati at Boston, 2^nd game Bos (H) 3-2 7/13/05 AL: New York at Detroit Det (H) 6-3 7/20/05 NL: Boston at Chicago, 2^nd game Chi (H) 3-1 8/22/05 NL: Chicago at Brooklyn, 1^st game Chi (V) 6-3 8/29/05 NL: Pittsburgh at Philadelphia, 2^nd game Pit (V) 6-5 x Pittsburgh scored in last of the 9^th. . . . . (12, 11,1) 4/13/1906 NL: Chicago at Cincinnati Chi (V) 5-1 4/25/06 NL: St Louis at Cincinnati Cin (H) 8-5 5/21/06 NL: Philadelphia at St Louis Phi (V) 1-0 x Philadelphia scored in the last of the 9^th. . . . . (3, 3,0) 6/9/1907 NL: Brooklyn at Cincinnati, 2^nd game Cin (H) 11-2 6/11/07 NL: Boston at Cincinnati Cin (H) 7-3 9/3/07 AL: Washington @ Philadelphia, 1^st game Phi (H) 15-6 . . . . (3, 2,1) 7/16/1908 NL: New York at Chicago NY (V) 4-3 x Last time in NL history w/home team option. 8/14/1908 AL: Chicago at Washington Was (H) 1-0 . . . . (2, 1,1) . . . . No occurrences in either 1909 or 1910. X Note that the cork-centered ball was introduced on x an experimentation basis at the 1910 World Series. 8/25/1911 AL: Washington at Detroit, 2^nd game Det (H) 7-6 x Detroit scored in both 9^th and 10^th innings. . . . . (1, 0,1) . . . . No occurrences in 1912. 6/2/1913 AL: Boston at New York, 2^nd game Bos (V) 8-6 6/26/13 AL: Philadelphia @ Washington, 2^nd game Phi (V) 10-3 x Last time in ML history w/home team option. . . . . (2, 0,2) . . . . (57, 40,17) Grand Total . . . . No occurrences from 1914 to 1949 which includes the x games of the Federal League from 1914-1915. . . . . Starting with the games from 1950, a rule change was x made, whereby the visiting team has to bat x first. The home team no longer has the option x to bat first; only in unusual situations that will x have been authorized by the commissioner’s x office will a home team be permitted to bat x first.
Recap: All of the then existing 16 major league franchises (1901-1913) appeared in these games at one time or another. Of the 17 American League affairs, the home team won 9 and lost 8; of the 40 National League contests, the home team won 19, but lost 21. So when combined, the home teams were 28-29 during this period, which goes to show one, that anything can happen in a baseball game.