Why Baseball Began Essay

The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age written by Robert Weintraub is focused on the 1946 Major League Baseball season after World War II when “America was ready to heal.” During the war, parks were empty, the balls were made with fake rubber, and all of America’s favorite players were serving in the war. When players returned, they exchanged their military uniforms for baseball uniforms and the sport of baseball quickly became a key tool which helped many American’s return to their normal, everyday lives. Parks began to fill up again and a new era of baseball was born. Although so many soldiers returning at once did cause some issues, the National League was very competitive and many thrived on it. Weintraub discusses many events considered to be baseball’s best times including: the difficult, yet rewarding transition of baseball players from military service to the major leagues, The Brooklyn Dodgers breaking the racial segregation in the league by signing a black man, Jackie Robinson, the introduction of the Mexican League, in which American players signed with to receive higher salaries, and the 1946 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, where the Cardinals defeated the Sox in the seven game series. Weintraub strongly focuses

According to a passage in the 19th Century Baseball website, author Eric Miklich writes that America’s pastime may have originated in Canada. Miklich tells the story of Dr. Adam E. Ford who wrote a letter about a game which had been played in 1838 which was described to have several key differences than baseball. Many people believe that baseball evolved from games played in England- mainly cricket and rounders. Others believe the German game of town ball is where it all started. October 6, 1845 was the first baseball game on record. One of the teams playing that day were the New York Knickerbockers. The Knickerbockers, led by “The Father of Baseball” Alexander Cartwright, are known today as the first official baseball team. Cartwright published the original rules of baseball (Miklich). Throughout the years, baseball has seen it’s fair share of great players and managers while evolving into the sport we know and love today, but not without controversy.

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and helped desegregate baseball. As America's favorite pastime, baseball has evolved in many ways with how the game is played and how there was segregation for a long time to become one of the most diverse sports in the world. The first baseball game was played in 1846 when the New York Nine defeated the Knickerbockers at the Elysian Fields. The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs or National League was created in 1876 and in 1901 the American League was created.in 1903

Negro baseball leagues have a deep historical significance. Racism and “Jim Crow” laws encouraged segregation of African-Americans and whites. Arguably, the players on the negro baseball leagues were some of the best ever. Even today they are still being recognized and honored for their wonderful contribution to baseball as a whole. It started when major league owners had made a “gentleman’s agreement” to keep blacks from playing in the game. The barrier that went up was finally broken with a few black players being signed into white teams in the 1940s. It was once said by Martin Luther King Jr., “[Segregation] gives the segregator a false sense of superiority, it gives the segregated a false sense of inferiority.” While that is true of

The history of baseball in the United States can be traced to the 18th century, when amateurs played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules using improvised equipment. The popularity of the sport inspired the semipro national baseball clubs in the 1860s.

With that ball pitchers were allowed to scuff, cut, and spit on it, affectively being able to make the ball “dance” and harder to hit. People put the end of the “dead ball” era on the 1919 season when Babe Ruth hit an unheard of 29 homeruns. People began to pack the stands to see the long ball, so owners decreased the dimensions of the fields thus increasing the odds of someone hitting a homerun. They also added rules to the pitchers against scuffing and cutting, and the balls were switched out more frequently too.

Baseball has been around for a long time, dating back to as early as 1869.

According to Lewicki, Barry & Saunders (2010), the major developments of labor-management relationship within Major League Baseball (MLB) started in the late 1960s and were characterized by the ongoing disputes between the owners and the players that resulted in the following hard bargaining agreements, work stoppages and lockouts:

they would be tagging them with the ball. The rule of forcing a player out at a base was also introduced in 1854. Finally, other

The earliest known reference to baseball as we know it in America was in 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. There was an ordinance banning the play of the sport within 80yds a town meeting center. No one is exactly sure of the origins of baseball but many believe it to be a variation of the English game of “rounders”. The very first team to play the sport of baseball

The start of the game of baseball is unknown, but some people believe they know when it started. The game of baseball believes to start in England. The start of baseball was around 1760, the game was called Rounder. Rounder had the same rules as baseball today, but it had its difference. The biggest difference was that a fielder had to throw the ball at the runner to get them out. The game changed in 1845. A group of people got together to talk about the game. They wanted to make the game safer. They changed the rules of the fielder. He would not throw at the baserunner anymore; they must tag the baserunner with the ball. The equipment changed as well when they made the rule change. They started to use a harder ball.

1903 , the two leagues decided to play a best of nine series between the winner

Baseball originates back to 1800s, from a man named Abner Doubleday, who was a Union Officer during the American Civil War. Some say he invented the game in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. There’s limited amount of information and facts on Doubleday being the original creator of the game. A more accurate response to the question of how baseball originates would be that many scholars believe that baseball was invented way before we can tell. In ancient cultures, such as those of the Persians and Egyptians, there is evidence of games being played with balls and sticks. Games similar to baseball continued to be played by civilizations throughout history but it was not until the early 1600s that Europeans first brought games involving a ball and a stick to the Americas. There were a number of various games played with a ball and a stick but the one that most resembled baseball was an English game called Rounders. The rules of Rounders are a lot simpler than the ones of modern day baseball but it was from

Baseball is a game of skill that is played with a hard ball and a bat between two teams of nine players each at a time on the playing field at once. Although many different people play Baseball all over the world it is most popular in the United States. It is so popular in fact, it is referred to as the national pastime of the United States because of the tradition and popularity associated with the game. Baseball consists of many complicated rules. It also has a very elaborate history. One can not fully understand the game America has grown to love until learning about not only the rules but also the history.

Many people always ask me one question: “What is cricket and is it like baseball?” I always tell them that cricket and baseball are two completely different sports with their own rules. The cricket ball and baseball ball are similar to each other, but they each have their own stitching. Around 1550, there was evidence that cricket was played by people in Guildford, Surrey in England. However, many historians believe that the sport was discussed by the French before 1550. The French discussed with England around 1478 and began playing cricket. The French had written a letter of some basic rules, which are still used today, to the British government and Louis XI was the King of England. He was not interested in this sport when he heard about it. Slowly, after 80 years, the word spread around and cricket was first played in Guildford, Surrey. During the summer of 1839, baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York. However, Doubleday never went to any officials to discuss about this sport, but he wrote some ideas and rules in a letter and hid it somewhere in his house. In 1907, A.J. Spalding was sent on an investigation to find out about the origins and story of Abner Doubleday. After two decades, in the 1930’s, Cooperstown started a business in Major League to recruit players and started a national sport for The United States. However, going back to my question in the beginning, many people believe that cricket and baseball are the