I was watching Ken Burns' Baseball many years ago and this reminded me of an interesting bit of trivia: Many years ago, fans were allowed in the outfield at ba

I was watching Ken Burns' Baseball many years ago and this reminded me of an interesting bit of trivia: Many years ago, fans were allowed in the outfield at baseball games and were held back by a rope. A home run was when the ball flew (or rolled) past the rope. Since the "line" was just a flexible rope, when the home team was batting the crowd would push the rope forward to help raise the odds of there being a home run. When the away team was batting, they would pull the rope back to lessen the odds. Also, reminds me of the old Gatorade commercials with Old Shaq were he talks about how basketball changed (in the future) and he says "And then they put in the moving backboard..."