MLB History: First Boxscore Printed in Newspaper

The boxscore is a staple of any baseball recap, be it a MLB game or from high school level. On this day in 1845, the first ever box core was printed.

It is difficult to imagine flipping through a newspaper and reading the recap of a game without seeing a boxscore. A key part of any recap, be it in the MLB or in any other league, the boxscore is one of the best ways to get an idea as to how a game went at a glance. There, in a convenient format, one can see who performed well, and who struggled.

Perhaps it is not a surprise that the boxscore is almost as old as the game of baseball itself. It was on this day in 1845 when the first boxscore appeared in the New York Morning News, within a month of the rules of baseball being written down by Alexander Cartwright. Just as the game of baseball had its foundations in cricket, so too did the first boxscore.

Instead of the current format, the original boxscore was far more primitive. It listed the players in the order they hit, but the only statistics compiled involved the number of runs scored and how many outs were made.

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Over the years, the boxscore evolved. Within the decade, sections for hits, at bats, putouts, and assists were added. The line score, which has become a key part of the boxscore and scoreboards across baseball, was added during the latter part of the 1800’s. RBI were added in the 1920’s. Meanwhile, it took until the 1950’s for pitching lines to be developed.

Eventually, the boxscore would decrease in size. Defensive statistics were dropped due to spacing constraints, and are a bit of a rarity in the newspapers even today. Of course, as the boxscore is becoming increasingly rare in the newspapers these days, missing those defensive statistics is not that surprising.

Nonetheless, the boxscore endures as one of the symbols of the game. Plenty of online publications include some variation thereof in their recaps, and sites such as BaseballReference make sure that such an important part of the game’s evolution is preserved.

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The boxscore may not seem like such a big deal now, but it is still a vital part of MLB history. We can thank the New York Morning News for inventing the boxscore in their publication on this day in 1845.