History of the Game

Origins

The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. A French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball.[5] Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, and la balle empoisonnée also appear to be related. Consensus once held that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (2005), by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other, and that the game's most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball and "tut-ball". It has long been believed that cricket also descended from such games, though evidence uncovered in early 2009 suggests that cricket may have been imported to England from Flanders.

History of The Game

Where did Baseball come from?

The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British children's publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of "base-ball" and a woodcut that shows a field set-up somewhat similar to the modern game—though in a triangular rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead of ground-level bases. According to John Thorn, official MLB historian, this version of baseball may have involved hitting the ball with a hand, making it akin to today's punchball. Block discovered that the first recorded game of "Base-Ball" took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player.William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey.[13] This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants. Rounders was also brought to the United States by Canadians of both British and Irish ancestry. The first known American reference to baseball appears in a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts town bylaw prohibiting the playing of the game near the town's new meeting house.

The history of baseball can be broken down into various aspects: by era, by locale, by organisational-type, game evolution, as well as by political and cultural influence. The game evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. These games were taken to North America by immigrants, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognised as the national sport of the United States, and had begun to spread throughout the Pacific Rim and the Americas. Today, baseball is popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

References to baseball date back to the 1700s when in England it was referenced in 1744 in the children's book A Little Pretty Pocket-Book by John Newberry, though he was actually referring to the game "rounders". In the early 1800s "baseball" and a game first mentioned in 1828 as the aforementioned "rounders" may have been the same or very similar. During the 1830s and 1840s organised amateur club baseball grew up in eastern United States cities; however, the first official baseball game with a documented score card took place not in the US, but in Canada in 1838 The first “baseball” game ever played. While Canada invented the version of baseball we know today, innovations made by New York City clubs became the basis for the modern game, far removed from its English ancestor, but extremely similar to the Canadian version.

These clubs formed a national governing body with uniform rules in 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players. In 1871 the first professional league, the National Association of Professional BaseBall Players, was founded. Five years later, the National League was created; it was followed by the American League in 1901. The first World Series between the champions of the two major leagues was held in 1903, and by 1905 it became an annual event. Baseball early in the 20th century was characterized by low-scoring games, but the dead-ball era ended in the early 1920s with rule changes and the rise of power hitter Babe Ruth. The major leagues had a color barrier that lasted until 1947, when Jackie Robinson made his debut. The major leagues began the process of expansion in 1961 and attendance increased from the mid-1970s to 1994, when a work stoppage led to the cancellation of the World Series.

Professional baseball leagues featured teams from Canada as early as 1877, and the sport spread to numerous countries in the 1800s and 1900s. It was played in the Olympics as a medal sport from 1992 to 2008. Other competitions between national teams include the Baseball World Cup and the World Baseball Classic, which was first held in 2006.