History of baseball : Timeline , facts , invention

Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. Here’s the History of Baseball.

History of baseball : Timeline , facts , invention

This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States.

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 where in England it was referenced in 1744 in the children’s book A Little Pretty Pocket-Book. In the early 1800s “baseball” and a game first mentioned in 1828 as “rounders” may have been the same or very similar.

During the 1830s and 1840s organized amateur club baseball grew up in eastern United States cities, and the rules innovations made by New York City clubs became the basis for the modern game, far removed from its English ancestor.

The history of baseball can be broken down into various aspects: by era, by locale, by organizational-type, game evolution, as well as by political and cultural influence. 

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.

History of Baseball Timeline

Many remarkable events have happened over 200+ years. This timeline takes a look at baseball throughout its history as a sport. 

• 1791: Baseball’s earliest roots founded in a bylaw in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
• 1839: Abner Doubleday is said to have invented the game of baseball in Cooperstown, New York.
• 1845: Alexander Joy Cartweight creates the rules of baseball.
• 1846: The Knickerbockers and a team of cricket players play in the first official game in New York City.
• 1866: Vassar College fields the first ever women’s baseball team.
• 1867: The first recorded curve ball is thrown by Candy Cummings.
• 1869: The Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first ever professional team.
• 1876: The National League is created when the Chicago White Stockings beat Louisville 4-0.
• 1904: Alta Weiss becomes the first woman to play professional baseball for the Vermilion Independents.
• 1936: The Baseball Hall of Fame opens inducting Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wager.
• 1941: Joe DiMaggio hits safely in 56 consecutive games from May 15th – July 17th. Ted Williams hits .406 for the entire season.
• 1957: California gets its first teams as the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers make the move out west, becoming the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers respectively.
• 1998: Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa both pass Roger Maris’ single-season home run record with 70 and 66 respectively.

Most cultures have some sort of stick and ball game, cricket being the most well-known. While the exact origins of baseball are unknown, most historians agree that it is based on the English game of rounders.

It began to become quote popular in this country in the early 19th century, and many sources report the growing popularity of a game called “townball”, “base”, or “baseball”.

Facts

Baseball has been an indispensable part of American culture for over a century.

It is considered America’s favorite national pastime and has changed and grown considerably since its inception.

Today, its popularity has grown in many countries in Latin America and Asia, particularly Japan. 

In the United States, baseball grew in popularity during the 19th century. Women have been playing baseball since the 1860s. But at present, they have no professional teams.

During World War Two, many players joined the armed forces. To keep interest of people in the game going, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was created in 1943 and lasted till 1954. 

Games of hitting balls with bats have been around in many European societies for eons. The true origin of baseball is not known with any certainty.

However, it is commonly accepted today that it has some resemblance to cricket and another British game known as rounders.

Invention 

A Civil War hero named Abner Doubleday is often credited with developing the game in 1839, but the real history is older—and more complicated.

You may have heard that a young man named Abner Doubleday invented the game known as baseball in Cooperstown, New York, during the summer of 1839.

Doubleday then went on to become a Civil War hero, while baseball became America’s beloved national pastime. 

Doubleday, who was born to a prominent family in upstate New York in 1819, was still at West Point in 1839, and he never claimed to have anything to do with baseball.

Instead, he served as a Union major general in the American Civil War and later became a lawyer and writer.