Today the idea of paying to see a baseball game is perfectly normal, but there was a time when this notion was insane, and this new breed of human, known as the fan, was considered out of their minds. In this episode, I explore with a number of expert guests, the very beginning of professional baseball, and how it changed so much in America.

Over the last 100+ years, we've come to associate amateur sports (Olympics, college sports), with purity, sanctity, honor. In many cases, athletes trying to turn professional and make money from their performance has been seen as dirty, dishonorable. This conflict is at the heart of a scandal surrounding Jim Creighton, and it has to do with a skewed understanding of where amateurism came from in the first place. Tonight we discover the truth.

In this episode, I talk to a living, breathing reincarnation of Jim Creighton, to shed light on historical mysteries that have been lost to time. I'll also talk with Tom Gilbert to figure out exactly how fast Creighton was throwing, and what the difference between his speed and the speed of his contemporaries would look like today. Here's a hint. It would have looked bonkers!

The knuckleball is not only the most mysterious, most fascinating pitch in baseball, it might also be the most interesting phenomenon in all of sports. In this episode, I talk with journalist and documentarian Brian Gaffney about the story of the knuckle ball and how his three sons pursued this elusive pitch, and are still pursuing it. The full story can be found in Brian's book, The School of Hard Knucks, recently published and available online.

We've been talking about how Jim Creighton broke the game of baseball. In this episode, we pull back the curtain and see exactly how he did something no other player could do.

If you lived in New York in the 1850s, you would have heard of a game catching on that was extremely fast-paced. Blink and you'll miss it. What was this lightning-quick game? Baseball. Hard to believe, but this was the reality at the time. And then, in 1859, in stepped a pitcher who did something that stunned the baseball world. And the game would never be the same.

In this episode, I begin to explore the strange and still familiar game of baseball during Jim Creighton's day, and how the restrictions paved the way for his rebellion. Also, beyond the historical story is often the incredible work of the investigative historian, and here we begin to see the amazing work of Tom Gilbert and fellow historians in untangling the mess of the past to bring us some wonderful gems.

There are stories that come along once in a while that send sparks flying inside your brain. That's what happened to me when Tom Gilbert first told me about Jim Creighton, this young ballplayer alluded to in The Simpsons' episode, Homer at the Bat. Once seen, you can't unsee the hidden truths and amazing twists and turns of this story, beginning with the fact that when Jim Creighton died in 1862, he was already a superstar, his impact on baseball was monumental, and yet his death was distorted and changed, until eventually he and his story was erased from history. This is the beginning of an amazing tale.