When Did Baseball Start Using a Bullpen?

Have you ever wondered why the bullpen is called a bullpen and when baseball started to use it? The term "bullpen" has been in use since the Civil War, when it was used to describe the cramped conditions at Union prison camps. The term got its start as a description of how cattle are herded from one place to another. The narrow corridor created by fencing that was used to guide the cattle was called a bull pen and the term stuck with ranchers. It was also a place where cattle were kept prior to moving them from one ranch to another.

But how does a term that is used to describe cattle ranching find its way into the "Great American Pastime"? One of the theories is that the term "bullpen" has nothing to do with cattle ranches at all. Some people speculate that the term "bullpen" was applied to 19th century prisons where prisoners were kept in narrow rooms guarded by large, bullish men. Another theory speculates that the term was originally applied to the small pen used to hold a rodeo bull just before the bull is launched into the rodeo arena. But none of that explains how such a colorful term made it into the baseball vocabulary.

In the late 1800's, teams started to create their own areas where pitchers could warm up before games. Relief pitchers did not become common until after the 1910's, so there was no need for a warm-up area during the game. That is why starting pitchers would warm up next to the homerun fence in the outfield. Back in those days, Bull Durham was a popular tobacco company and MLB sponsor that had ads on homerun fences all around the league. Since starting pitchers would decide to warm up near the Bull Durham ads, the term "bullpen" started to be used.

Once ballparks started to construct enclosed bullpens near the foul territories along the first and third base lines, the concept of a bullpen started to take hold. Starting pitchers moved their pregame warm-ups to the bullpen, and teams started putting benches in the bullpens to keep relief pitchers handy in case they needed to start warming up.

When the Polo Grounds in New York was built in 1880, the pitching warm-up area was built as a pen near the bull stockyards that were adjacent to the ballpark. Over the decades, all of these factors melted together to create the bullpen.

Teams started to utilize the bullpen, and a more liberal relief pitcher strategy, in the late 1910's. But there were still pitchers on into the 1920's who would start 40 and 50 games a season and routinely pitch complete games. Overworking the starting pitchers started to fade as the 1950's came around and the bullpen became a very busy place.

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