Knock Out of The Box

In the earliest days of baseball, there was no rubber at the pitcher's mound. Pitchers stood inside a six-foot square that looked much like today's batter's box. The front line of the box was only 45 feet from the plate. (The batters were also allowed to call their pitches -- high, low or fair.) The pitcher had to start his motion from within the box as well as release the ball before leaving the box. By the way the pitch had to be thrown underhand

In 1881 the rules moved the front of the box to 50 feet from the rear point of home plate. In 1884 pitchers were allowed to throw overhand.

In 1887, the box was set at 4 feet wide and 5 1/2 feet deep, with the front edge still 50 feet from the plate. However, the pitcher was compelled to deliver the ball with his back foot at the 55 1/2 foot line of the box, thus somewhat restricting his ability to "power" the ball with his overhand delivery.

In 1893, the box was replaced by the pitcher's plate, although the term "knocked out of the box" is still sometimes used when a pitcher is replaced for ineffectiveness. Exactly 5 feet was added to the point the pitcher had to toe, again "to increase the batting" (and hopefully to increase attendance, as fan interest had flagged somewhat), resulting in the seemingly peculiar pitching distance of 60 1/2 feet.

Many sources tend to say that the pitching distance evolved from 45 to 50 to 60 1/2 feet. However, the first two were the "release point" and the third is the "pushoff point", so the 1893 increase was not quite as dramatic as is often implied; that is, the 1893 rule change added only 5 feet to the release point, not 10 1/2 feet.

It became a common expression to say that the pitcher was knocked out of the box when the opposing team constantly hit his pitchers forcing the manager to remove the pitcher from the game.