One of the mysteries of the game of baseball is the origin of the term bullpen, the name for the area in which relief pitchers warm up. Several competing theories vie for the origin. About all we know for sure is the earliest recorded use of the term to refer to the pitchers’ warm-up area was not until 17 August 1913 in the Washington Post:
He corrects the faults of the youthful trajectory hurlers and takes them to the “bullpen” in the afternoon and keeps them warmed up.
And next season the same paper had this to say about the Chicago White Sox on 12 April 1914:
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At this juncture Manager Callahan crooked his index finger and “Butcher” Benz ambled in from the “bull pen.”1
Copyright 1997-2016, by David Wilton