The History of Baseball

The history of baseball dates back to the 1700s when they played a game similar to baseball using homemade materials. The popularity grew, and in the 1830s-1850s, amateur men's ball clubs were formed. Baseball is a game played between two teams who take turns batting and fielding for nine innings. The sport is most known in the U.S. and Japan but is played in other parts of the world. The MLB has professional baseball players who earn a substantial salary to play every season. Baseball is America's National Pastime!

"A Little Pretty Pocket-Book" is considered the first children's book published. It consists of simple rhymes for each letter of the alphabet. The book includes "Base-Ball," which is the first known reference to baseball in print. 

Henry Chadwick, the "Father of Baseball," was a sportswriter and baseball statistician. He edited the first baseball guide, created box scores, and created the "K" abbreviation for strikeouts. He also created the statistics of batting average and earned run average. 

On June 19, 1846, the Knickerbockers played the New York Nine on the Elysian Fields. This was the first organized game between two clubs. The New York Nine beat the Knickerbockers 23-1 in four innings. The last recorded professional baseball game at the Elysian Fields was in 1873. 

On April 14, 1910, President William Howard Taft made history by becoming the first US president to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day. Since then, the tradition has been carried on by every president except Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump. 

Rounders is a game played with a ball and a bat, is played between two teams, and is a striking and fielding team game. It involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded wooden bat. The bat could also be plastic or metal. The teams score by running around the four bases on the field. 

The New York Knickerbockers were the first organized baseball team that played with rules similar to today's rules. They were the "Knickerbocker Base Ball Club," founded by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. The team continued until the early 1870s. Cartwright organized the club to collect the money needed to rent a parkland across the Hudson River. 

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer and sang by Tin Pan Alley. The song was inspired by a sign that said "Baseball Today - Polo Grounds" while Nortworth was riding a subway train. 

The history of the baseball cap can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century. The New York Knickerbockers wore the first baseball caps, which were made from straw. They were ineffective and very itchy. The Knickerbockers ditched the straw caps a few years later and wore a wool cap that featured a flat, paneled crown and a short visor to shield the sun. 

Union soldiers introduced others, including Southerners and Westerners, to baseball during the Civil War. Thousands of soldiers learned the game. Prisoners at Salisbury Confederate Prison stated that baseball games were played nearly every day. 

The Cincinnati Red Stockings were the first all-professional baseball team in 1869. They had ten salaried players, and the Cincinnati Base Ball Club was formed in 1866. Harry Wright and George Ellard organized the professional team, and they played their first game on May 4, 1869. 

Bobby Lowe was the first baseball player to hit four home runs in a single game on May 30, 1894. The fans threw $160 in silver coins onto the field after his fourth home run. Lowe hit the fewest career home runs, with only seventy-one. 

The New York Yankees came up with the idea of making players easier to identify by having numbers for each player on the back of their uniforms. The jerseys were initially numbered based on the player's spot in the batting order. 

Kenesaw Mountain Landis was the first Commissioner of Baseball, and he is also remembered for his handling of the Black Sox scandal. He is credited with restoring public confidence in baseball because of his firm actions and iron rule over baseball. 

The Knickerbocker Rules were a set of twenty rules for baseball. The basic fly rule for putting batters out seems to have been part of baseball since the earliest English stoolball and cricket account. There were four men on the rule committee. 

During World War II, many baseball stars left to go to war. 500 Major League players left to join the military. Two MLB players died in WWII, Harry O'Neill and Eugene Gedeon. President Franklin Roosevelt gave his endorsement for baseball to continue during the war. 

The National Association of Base Ball Players ( in the 19th century, the sport was spelled with two words) was the first to govern American baseball. It was founded in 1857, with the first convention being that same year in New York City. The association also established standards for official scoring, a championship, amateurism, and the contest's integrity. 

The National League had eight original members and was founded in 1876. The teams were the Boston Red Stockings, currently the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Stockings, now the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, the Louisville Grays, Mutual of New York, the Philadelphia Athletics, and the St. Louis Brown Stockings. 

The first modern World Series to be played in Major League Baseball was the 1903 World Series in Boston. It was the American League champion Boston against the National League champion Pittsburgh. It was a best of nine series. 

Eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in the Black Sox Scandal. They threw the series in exchange for money. Arnold Rothstein ran the scandal. 

The dead-ball era was the period from 1900 to 1919. The teams played in spacious ballparks that limited hitting for power; the ball used was dead both by design and overuse. Ball scuffing and adulteration by pitchers was not against the rules. The era was known for low-scoring games and a lack of home runs. The lowest league run was in 1908; teams averaged only 3.4 runs per game. 

The color barrier in American baseball excluded players of African Americans from Major League Baseball. It was sometimes called a gentlemen's agreement. Because of the line in the early 20th century, many black baseball clubs were established during the 1920s and 1940s. 

1936 was the first year that inductees were selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Members of the Baseball Writer's Association of America were given authority to select players from the 20th century. The Veteran's Committee selected players from the 19th century.

Joe Engel actually traded Johnny Jones, his shortstop, for a turkey. Jones had played ten games with the Brooklyn Dodgers and didn't hit very well. Engel wasn't happy with Jones' performance. He traded Jones to the Charlotte Hornets for a twenty-five-pound turkey. 

One of the most successful all-female baseball teams was the Boston Bloomer Girls baseball club. They wore comfortable pants instead of the log skirts; that's how they got their name. Young women who went against the traditional fashion norms were often called "bloomer girls." 

Tyrus Raymond Cobb was a Major League Baseball outfielder. He spent twenty-two seasons with the Detroit Tigers and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. Cobb is credited with setting ninety MLB records during his career. 

Toni Stone (Marcenia Lyle Stone) was the first woman to play professional baseball for the Indianapolis Clowns. She also played with the San Fransisco Sea Lions, The New Orleans Creoles, and the Kansas City Monarchs. She retired from baseball in 1954. 

Nicknamed "The Iron Man," Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. played as a shortstop and third baseman for twenty-one seasons in MLB for the Baltimore Orioles. Cal won two Gold Glove Awards for his defense and was a 19-time All-Star. 

Roger Maris played right fielder in MLB. He is best known for breaking Babe Ruth's home run record that remained unbroken until 1998. Maris played for the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Athletics, the New York Yankees, and the St. Louis Cardinals. 

Little League baseball start in 1939 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was started by Carl E. Stotz and brothers Bert and George Bebble. It originally was just boys, aged eight to twelve; girls were allowed as of 1974. The game is played on a field two-thirds the size of a professional baseball field, and the games are six innings. 

Every field is slightly different but certain areas of the field of play must be uniform across baseball. Parks must have a minimum distance of 325 feet between the home plate and the nearest fence or stand. The infield must be square, with 90 feet between each base, and the bases must be the same level as the home plate. 

The baseball needs to be comprised of a rubber or cork center wrapped in yarn and then covered with white horsehide or cowhide. The ball must be 9-9 1/4 inches in circumference and a mass of 5 to 5 1/4 ounces. 108 hand-woven stitches must bind together the baseball through the cowhide leather. 

Baseballs must be rubbed in rubbing mud before games to treat the balls to give pitchers better control and a firmer grip on the balls. Before the rubbing mud was available, baseballs were rubbed in a mixture of water and infield soil. 

The wild card teams are the two teams in each of the leagues that have qualified for the postseason despite not winning their division. It was first instituted in the MLB in 1994. In 1994, one wild card team per league advanced to the Division Series. 

When a pitcher makes an illegal motion on the mound that the umpire deems deceitful to the runners, it's called a balk. The specific rules for balks were introduced in 1898. These rules were put in place to keep the pitcher from trying to deceive the baserunners. 

In the early 1800s, baseball didn't include strikes. The batters could sit back and wait for their perfect pitch before even attempting to swing. In 1858, the new rule passed that strikes could be called, but it wasn't as simple as it is now. 

Early baseball was a variation of bat-and-ball games in the medieval world. During the Revolutionary War, American soldiers wrote about playing baseball. During the War, armies had a considerable amount of downtime in camp; sports and games were a fixture of camp life. 

By the mid-nineteenth century, there were two distinct brands of baseball. In New England, the Massachusetts Game was played on a rectangular field, with overhand pitching, and the fielders could put out a baserunner by striking him with a thrown ball. 

William Hulbert was the National League's founder and president of the Chicago White Stockings franchise. Hulbert founded the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs and was elected the president of the club. He ruled with an iron fist and insured league integrity and compliance with league rules. 

Babe Ruth, born George Herman Ruth Jr., played professional baseball for 22 seasons and was called The Bambino and The Sultan of Swat. He started as a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox but became a really well-known slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. 

A fair ball is a batted ball that allows the batter to attempt to reach first base. In the early 1860s, players could catch a fair or foul ball on the fly or on the first bounce to get the batter out. The "first bounce" rule was eliminated for fair balls in 1865. 

Overhand pitching was not allowed until 1884 when National League pitchers could throw from any angle, but American Association pitchers were limited to pitching below the shoulder until 1885. The National League removed all restrictions from the pitchers. 

African-Americans played baseball and played it very well. In 1920, Andrew Foster and his fellow team owners came together and created the Negro National League. They weren't allowed to play with white players, so they formed their own teams and went across the country to compete. 

Jack Roosevelt Robinson (Jackie Robinson) was the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. He broke the color barrier and started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. The Dodgers ended racial segregation when they signed Robinson. 

Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson were signed as teens and put in the major leagues at a very young age. Throughout the first part of the 20th century, both Johnson or Mathewson were the premier pitchers in the major leagues putting up staggering numbers. 

The seventh-inning stretch is a long-standing tradition and takes place during the seventh inning of the game. Fans stand up, get a drink or snack, and stretch. It's also the point of the game where "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is played. 

The 1994 World Series was canceled because of the MLB Players Association strike. It was only the second time that a World Series was not played. It was supposed to have been the first year of a regularly scheduled three-tier playoff system. 

The season of 2010 was labeled as the Year of the Pitcher. There were six no-hitters thrown. Armando Galarraga had a near-perfect game. MLB pitchers combined a total of 329 shutouts and a record 34,306 strikeouts. 

Pitchers during the mid-1900s had a distinct advantage over hitters and had hacked the game of baseball. The public was getting tired of all the pitchers' duels. After the 1968 season, MLB officials lowered the pitcher's mound to ten inches and shrank the strike zone to its modern size. 

We play baseball as kids, we watch it and listen to it as adults, and we pass the love for it down through generations. It is closely tied to us in a very personal way, and baseball has had a very active role in shaping this nation. It inspired movements, instilled pride, and even healed cities.