George A. Baird, a Chicago inventor, developed the first electric scoreboard for baseball in 1908. His invention tracked balls, outs, and strikes.
Baird’s invention found its way to two Boston major league clubs. However, this particular scoreboard wasn’t able to quickly catch the attention of the rest of the league.
Some team owners were still quite hesitant to purchase the technology back then. It was in fear of cutting scorecard sales. But, buyers would soon see the convenience of electronically displaying numbers with buttons and dials than using ladders to manually place scorecards.
The succeeding years have been fruitful for this preliminary invention as updated models surfaced carrying and displaying more information than before. Player names and lineups were soon viewable by the masses, along with pitchers’ numbers for different games across the professional baseball league.