During World War II, the U.S. military designed a grenade to be the size and weight of a baseball, reasoning that "any young American man should be able to properly throw it."

A city ordinance prohibited the Cubs from installing lights in the residential Lakeview neighborhood where Wrigley Field was located. Bluntly stating that "if there are no lights in Wrigley Field, there will be no Wrigley Field," Green threatened to move the Cubs to a new stadium in northwest suburban Schaumburg or Arlington Heights. The Chicago City Council and Mayor Harold Washington approved a change to the ordinance, allowing the Cubs to install lights in 1988.

From 1947 to 1952, Ralph Kiner dominated the Home Run Derby. A back injury forced him to retire at the age of 32, finishing his career with 369 home runs, 1019 runs batted in and a .279 lifetime batting average.

On the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II, the credits read: No pitchers were harmed in the making of this game. Except for one. Joel Zumaya. He had it coming.

After retiring from baseball, Jim Bunning returned to his native northern Kentucky and was elected to the city council, then the state senate, in which he served as minority leader. In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he served from 1987 to 1999 before moving on to the United States Senate.

Roberto Clemente was the first Puerto Rican player to help win a World Series as a starter (1960), to receive an NL MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971). He was also the first Puerto Rican player inducted into the Hall of Fame.

One of the greatest left-handed pitchers in major league history, Lefty Grove led the American League in wins in four separate seasons, in strikeouts seven years in a row, and had the league's lowest earned run average a record nine times.

On August 19, 1951, the St. Louis Browns sent Eddie Gaedel (3 feet, 7 inches) to the batter's box in a publicity stunt during the second game of a doubleheader. Gaedel had a good eye, taking a four-pitch walk before trotting down to first base. Browns owner Bill Veeck said, "He was, by golly, the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball."

Ellis threw a no-hitter on June 12, 1970 and claimed to have accomplishet the feat under the influence of LSD. He would later say, "I can only remember bits and pieces of the game. I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters, and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes, I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate."

In 1990, Ken Griffey and Ken Griffey Jr. both played for the Seattle Mariners. On September 14, 1990, they hit back-to-back home runs, creating another father-son baseball first.