Bullpen

The term first appeared in wide use shortly after the turn of the 20th century,[1] and has been used since in roughly its present meaning. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earliest recorded use of "bullpen" in baseball is in a Cincinnati Enquirer article published on May 7, 1877,[2] in which writer O.P. Caylor noted in a game recap:

"The bull-pen at the Cincinnati grounds with its `three for a quarter crowd' has lost its usefulness. The bleacher boards just north of the old pavilion now holds the cheap crowd, which comes in at the end of the first inning on a discount."

• Another theory is that the term is a reference to dairy farms, where bulls were penned separately from the cows, but in sight of their eventual "mates" so as to get them ready for "further action."[3]
• The name may be a reference to rodeo bulls being held in a pen before being released into the main arena.
• Latecomers to ball games in the late 19th century were cordoned off into standing-room areas in foul territory. Because the fans were herded like cattle, this area became known as the "bullpen", a designation which was later transferred over to the relief pitchers who warmed up there.
• At the turn of the century, outfield fences were often adorned with advertisements for the Bull Durham brand of tobacco. Since relievers warmed up in a nearby pen, the term "bullpen" came about.[4]
• Manager Casey Stengel suggested the term might have been derived from managers getting tired of their relief pitchers "shooting the bull" in the dugout and were therefore sent elsewhere, where they would not be a bother to the rest of the team – the bullpen. How serious he was when he made this claim is not clear.
• Jon Miller, a baseball play-by-play announcer with ESPN television, said the term is derived from the late 19th century. The New York Giants first played at the Polo Grounds, which opened around 1880. The relief pitchers warmed up beyond the left-field fence, and in the same area was a stockyard or pen that had bulls in it.
• In 1913, an Ohio veteran of the Civil War contrasted a current baseball game with "a good game uv old time bull pen, the way us boys uster play it." This suggests that bullpen was the name of a game.[5]

In most major league stadiums, the bullpens are located out-of-play just behind the outfield fences. Commonly, the bullpens are separated from each other and each team's is located on the side of the field corresponding with the same team's dugout. However, there are exceptions. In a few ballparks, the team's bullpens are opposite their own dugouts which allows the manager to more easily watch the pitchers warming up from his dugout. A recent trend is the installation of mesh outfield walls in front of the bullpen to allow the bullpen to be more-easily seen by both fans and the manager in the dugout, as well as to allow the players in the bullpen to more easily see what is occurring on the field.

Two major league stadiums currently have bullpens in foul territory: RingCentral Coliseum (Oakland Athletics) and Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays). This was more common in the past and most new stadiums have opted to move the bullpens to just beyond the outfield fence where the ongoing play is less likely to interfere with the bullpen. In parks with foul-territory bullpens, the relief pitchers and bullpen staff generally sit in chairs or benches along the wall between the field and the stands. The bullpen pitching area is in foul territory and in some of the stadiums, is right up against the foul line. It is therefore not uncommon for batted balls to head towards the bullpen requiring pitchers warming up (and even those sitting along the wall) to move to avoid interfering with a live play or being hit by the ball. There is commonly a ballboy at the end of the bullpen nearest to home plate to attempt to protect the players from foul balls hit in that direction.

Certain ballparks have their outfield bullpens in unusual configurations. Petco Park features the home bullpen behind the outfield fence and the visitor's bullpen behind that and one level higher. The visitor's bullpen was moved to this location from foul territory after the 2012 season.

Between 1950 and 1995, varying numbers of MLB teams used vehicles to transport pitchers from the bullpen to the mound. These bullpen cars ranged from golf carts to full-sized cars. The 1950 Cleveland Indians were the first to use a bullpen car. The last use of a bullpen vehicle was a motorcycle and sidecar used by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1995.[6] However, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Nationals have since given relief pitchers the option of utilizing a bullpen cart in the 2018 season.

Other current uses of the term include:

• Reference to a large open work area consisting of desks with no separating walls and private offices. Bullpens were common across many business fields in the first half of the 20th century and are often used by software development teams.[7] Michael Bloomberg used this set-up and term at his media company Bloomberg L.P., and for his staff while Mayor of New York City.[8] Adrian Fenty used this setup also while mayor of Washington, D.C.[9]
• Within USAID, the Office of Transition Initiatives' bullpen represents a surge capacity of experienced professionals that can be called upon to assist in all aspect of office operations and programming.
• Marvel Comics refers to its in-house staff of writers and artists as the "Marvel Bullpen."

• Media related to Bullpen at Wikimedia Commons