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How did Alexander Cartwright’s rules change the way runners were put out in baseball?

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Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants swings his bat after hitting his record-breaking 756th home run, with the catcher, umpire, and a cheering crowd behind him at AT&T Park. — History of baseball Giants legend Barry Bonds hitting his record-setting 756th career home run, August 7, 2007.

Before the adoption of the 1845 rules formulated by Alexander Joy Cartwright and the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, a common method for retiring a base runner involved hitting the player with a thrown ball.12

Cartwright’s rules introduced a significant innovation by legitimizing the practice of tagging a runner with the ball to put them out. This change was pivotal for the development of baseball because it allowed for the use of a harder ball, which facilitated a larger-scale game and eventually helped the "New York game" become the predominant version of the sport.12