Excelsiors' program included a portrait of their team with Creighton, shrouded in black, featured prominently in the center. Creighton's indirect legacy is perhaps most profoundly seen in what is now considered a fundamental component of the game: the called ball and the walk. Neither existed during Creighton's lifetime, but his many imitators, who pitched with Creighton's velocity but not his control, prompted batters to stand at the plate without swinging for lengthy intervals, waiting for a pitch within reach. Consequently, the sport's then-governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players, introduced a rule for the 1864 season which penalized pitchers who repeatedly failed to deliver "good balls:" the called ball, three of which gave the batter a free pass to first base. Many think that the rule in reference to pitching will greatly promote the attractiveness of the game... The time will come when slow, twisting balls, pitched with skill and judgment, will supersede the rifle-shooter of would-be Creightons. The fast pitching system is “played out”. Spectators have become disgusted with waiting hour after hour to see three or four innings played, the pitcher and catcher tired from over-work, the batsman annoyed and irritated from waiting for good balls, the fieldsmen idle and cross for want of something to do, and all the “vim” and spirit of the game being lost, because “we want to show ‘em what a bully swift pitcher we’ve got”.These new rules, in this respect, practically take the most effective part of swift pitching out of the hands of pitchers; for, to tell the truth, not a solitary instance of fair pitching, that was very swift, have we seen since Creighton died.Posthumous postscripts The 12-foot marble obelisk marking Creighton's grave at Green-Wood was originally crowned with a large marble baseball. However, the finial went missing and was presumed stolen in the late 19th or early 20th century. In 2014, after a successful funding campaign to restore the monument, a replica of the original finial was installed and unveiled during a public ceremony.Helsel, Phil, "Historians Restore Grave of a Pioneering Brooklyn Baseball Pitcher," Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2014 Only two photographs of Creighton are known to exist, one of him posing as a pitcher, the other as a member of the Brooklyn Excelsiors. The television series The Simpsons'' made reference to Creighton in the Season 3 episode "Homer at the Bat", where Mr. Burns has