In the Zone

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - Many consider baseball an unchanging game of tradition allowing fans to compare the statistics of today's stars to yesterday's, but it's a myth. For example, the strike zone has changed numerous times over the years, and many
believe it changes depending on who's calling balls and strikes.

On this date in 1963 the manager of the San Francisco Giants, Alvin Dark, bemoaned the fact that the strike zone had been raised from the top of the batter's arm pits to the top of the shoulders. Dark told the Associated Press (AP) that he was worried that his pitchers will have trouble keeping the ball down even though the bottom of the strike zone had not changed, "It's the way they [the umpires] stand that raises or lowers the strike zone. If they're up higher [to see the higher strike] it may pull the strike zone up."

Each umpire's strike zone notwithstanding, here, according to mlb.com, are the "official" changes over the decades to just the strike zone:

1876 - One foot above the ground to the shoulders, and the batter calls whether he wants the pitch low or high.
1887 - Knees to shoulders, and batter could no longer call for high or low pitch (Well, he could call for it but the pitcher didn't have to listen.)
1950 - Top of the knees to the armpits
1963 - Knees to the top of the batter's shoulders
1969 - Top of batter's knees to the armpits
1988 - Top of the knees to the midpoint between the shoulders and the top of the pants
1996 - Bottom of the knees to midpoint between the shoulders and the top of the pants

There have also been changes to how many balls is a walk, whether foul balls are counted as strikes, the makeup of the baseball, the height of the pitcher's mound, just to name a few.

Contributing sources:
Associated Press (AP), San Francisco, California, February 21, 1963
Official changes to strike zone

This daily dose of baseball history is brought to you by TODAY in BASEBALL.