Baseball has been the national pastime of America for over 100 years now. It grew from a small sport into one of the biggest sports with a multi-million dollar industry and over 32 teams. However, the history of baseball has been clouded in mystery since its beginnings.
Sports similar to baseball have been played for over 2000 years, ranging all the way back to Egypt. They played a sport simply using a bat and ball. In the 1300's, William Pagula talked about a game called "stoolball" who used milking stools as wickets. Another sport which was popularized during the time was "rounders" a sport very similar to baseball, but players could run without hitting the ball first. The most similar sport to baseball though is cricket, a sport played more commonly in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Like baseball, there is a pitcher and a hitter, but the field is very different and batters continue to hit until they are out. However, none of these sports directly evolved into baseball.
The most popular myth of how baseball was created is through Abner Doubleday. Doubleday was a Union General in the Civil War, and it is rumored that he set up the first baseball game in Cooperstown, New York, the home of the baseball Hall of Fame. However, even though this is the most popular story of how baseball originated, it is completely false. During the time Doubleday supposedly invented baseball, he was still enrolled in West Point. Because of this, Doubleday has never been inducted into the Hall of Fame to this day.
The most plausible inventor of baseball is Alexander Cartwright. Not only did he help design the field like Doubleday did, he also wrote the rules and created the first ever team, called the Knickerbockers in 1839. Soon after this, the popularity of baseball skyrocketed, becoming the first professional sport in 1850. Baseball continued to expand, especially in America as we now have an American and National league with 32 teams. Baseball also expanded globally to countries like Venezuela, Australia, Japan, and more.
Sources:
http://www.ibaf.org/en/page/the-origins-of-baseball/1d4801fb-6d5e-42c9-9ca6-37e5b85396b8
http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/who-invented-baseball
Very interesting Chase, this is very similar to the origins of basketball. Like baseball it came from a European sport and was invented at around the same time as well. In around 1891 when James Naismith was working as a Physical educator at a YMCA. When he saw Rugby players practicing he decided to draw inspirations from ""duck on a rock,' which involved trying to knock a large rock off a boulder by throwing smaller rocks at it." Soon rather really soon, in "about an hour,"Naismith drew up the rules for the new game. When boxes couldn't be found, he used peach baskets. According to Alexander Wolff, in his book 100 Years of Hoops." I know that Rugby is more associated with the growth of Football, but it is intriguing nonetheless that Rugby contributed to the start of this sport.
ReplyDeleteSorry forgot to include the link. http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0875085.html
DeleteI think the origins of tennis is more interesting considering it came from France (hence there being a French open) but I suppose it's your post.
ReplyDeleteChase: Interesting article but I think you may have your facts wrong. Alexander Cartwright didn't create the baseball team, the Knickerbockers in 1839, they were founded in 1845. It is also important to note that baseball didn't "skyrocket" as you mentioned, in popularity in the 1850s. The average baseball attendences, even after the turn of the 20th century, was only 3,200 each game. This "skyrocket" in popularity didn't occur until the the first two decades of the 20th century. With the first homerun sluggers such as Babe Ruth and Gavvy Cravath in the early 20th century, the popularity of baseball rose to an unprecedented degree.
ReplyDeleteKevin: Although I agree that tennis has a more interesting background than baseball, tennis was created by the French and this blog is meant for articles on United States History.
Source:
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baseball_in_the_United_States
As a long time baseball fan, I found this article to be very interesting. Just a quick correction though: There are actually 30 teams in the MLB now, not 32. The Astros moved to the AL West a couple of years ago, making it be 15 teams in both the AL and the NL.
ReplyDeleteI tried making this comment last night, but I don't see it showing up now, so I might have forgot to post it. If someone sees both comments, please let me know so I can delete one of them.