Many children in the United States grow up believing that Abner Doubleday. According to legend, in 1839 Doubleday invented a game called town ball. A man who claimed to be a Doubledays’ childhood friend told a group investigating the origins of baseball that he was there in 1839 when Doubleday created the national pastime. When a tattered baseball was found among Doubleday’s belongings after his death, the legend was accepted as fact. The 1907 commission believed the Doubleday story. That tattered ball is now enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, which was built in Cooperstown, New York, near the field where Doubleday supposedly gave birth to the game.
It makes a great story, but further investigation shows it probably isn’t true. Doubleday’s friend may have been in Cooperstown in 1839, but Doubleday himself was 170 miles away at West Point where he was a cadet at the United States Military Academy. Doubleday kept detailed journals of his life but never once mentioned baseball. Hmmm…
Base ball (it was often written as two words) was mentioned in published material well before 1939. In a children’s alphabet book published in England in 1744, the letter B is represented by base ball. The first reference to baseball in a book printed in the United States occurred in 1834, five years before the game was even officially invented by Doubleday
The History of Baseball - The Truth
If not Doubleday, then who? The truth is that baseball, like most sports, evolved over time. The roots of baseball can be found in the English games of cricket and rounders. English emigrants brought these games with them to the United States
Rounders was played with four bases. A feeder tossed a ball to a striker who hit the ball with a stick. The striker was “out” if he swung and missed three times or if a defender caught a hit ball. The striker was also out if a defender threw a ball and hit him as he ran. Sounds an awful lot like baseball.
The First Game
Regardless of exactly how the game started, by the early 1840s, baseball-type games were being played in vacant lots and fields along the eastern seaboard. Alexander Cartwright, a clerk in Manhattan, helped organize the first baseball club in 1945. Cartwright wrote down rules for the Knickerbockers based on rounders. It was Cartwright who limited the number of outfielders to three, and came up with tagging the runner rather than throwing the ball at him. Cartwright also introduced the idea of three outs to end an inning. The Knickerbocker Rules became the basis for American baseball.
The Knickerbockers mostly played scrimmage games against themselves. They would divide into “nines” and play afternoon games. In 1946, the Knickerbockers rented Elysian Field in Hoboken, New Jersey and played the New York Club. This contest, which New York won 23-1, is considered the first baseball game between two teams. In this first game, pitches were thrown underhand and players did not wear gloves.
23-1? You’ve Got to Be Kidding
The score of that first game, 23-1, doesn’t sound much like a modern baseball score, unless you consider that recent 26-5 debacle between Kansas City and Detroit (Sept. 9, 2004, won by Kansas City). When baseball first stated, games were played until one team reached 21. The concept of limiting a game to nine innings rather than 21 runs was introduced in 1857.
Baseball Writers Get in the Game
Baseball is the most written about and analyzed sport in history of America. The game lends itself to all kinds of statistics and record keeping. It is a true sportswriter’s dream. It didn’t take long for the early reporters to begin writing about baseball, even about games between members of the same club. Henry Chadwick, a New York journalist, became the first prominent baseball writer. Chadwick made the box score, the batting average and the ERA (earned run average) part of baseball. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.
The First League
1858 was a big year for the young game of baseball. In that year the first organized league was formed. The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) formed and agreed to play under the Knickerbocker Rules. That was also the year that another major factor entered the game– money. Enterprising baseball organizers set up a series of games between all-star players from Brooklyn and New York. More than 5,000 fans paid to watch the games. Now it was evident that baseball could be a moneymaking venture.
Though the NABBP prohibited players from receiving salaries, clubs found a way around these rules. The first official baseball salaries were paid in to players on the Rockford, Illinois, club in 1867. The Cincinnati Red Stockings (now the Red Sox) became the first semi-pro team when they hired “ringers” to help avenge a loss to the Washington Nationals. The Red Stockings went on a 57-game barnstorming tour. They won 56 of those games and tied one. The Red Stockings were also the first team to have a labor dispute. When players demanded higher salaries, club directors
disbanded the team.
Professional Baseball Becomes Firmly Established
Numerous baseball leagues came and went for 13 years. In 1871, nine teams formed the National Association of Professional Baseball Players. The nine teams were from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., Rockford, Troy, New York and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Brooklyn joined the league in 1872. These teams paid just $10 to join the league. Problems including teams folding, domination by the Boston team, players moving between teams and even signing with more than one team, and gambling plagued the league and it folded after five seasons.
Out of the problematic NAPBP (Are you keeping all of these initials straight?), came the beginnings of the National League. William Hulbert talked to other financial backers about starting a professional league run by owners, not players. In early 1876, while the NAPBP was technically still in operation, Hulbert called a meeting with representatives from seven other teams. The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs (no more initials, just the plain old National League) played its inaugural season in the summer of 1876.
The National League brought stability and respectability to baseball. Other rival leagues formed but only one would last—the Western League, which in 1901 became the American League.
The Rivalry Begins
When the Western League started it had teams in midwestern cities that had no National League clubs. In 1900, however, the new league started invading National League cities. Charles Comiskey moved his club from Minnesota to Chicago. Moves followed into Cleveland, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
Needless to say, there was no love lost between to the two leagues. In 1903, the leagues did sit down and create the concept of their respective champions meeting in the World Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League met the Boston Pilgrims of the American League in the first World Series. Boston won the eight-game series 5-3. The next year, the National League champion New York Giants refused to play Boston. Since 1905, the World Series has been played every year except 1994 when it was cancelled by a players’ strike.
Players and Teams Emerge
With a stable league structure in place, teams and players could get down to the business of playing ball. From 1905-20, teams like the Chicago Cubs, New York Giants and Philadelphia Athletics displayed their prowess. The first baseball stars began to emerge. Names like Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Cy Young and Walter Johnson and Cy became common on the sports pages.
In 1914, a young left-handed pitcher joined the Boston Red Sox. In 1916, he won 23 games and had an ERA of 1.75. Yet pitching is not what made George Herman Ruth famous. Babe Ruth knew how to hit a baseball. He became the games first great hitter. In 1920, Ruth hit 54 home runs, more than any American League team except the Yankees who he happened to play for.
Scandal Hits the Big Leagues
Since the days of the NAPBP, baseball had always been somewhat suspect in the eyes of its fans. Rumors of gambling and underhanded activitiesregularly circulated. The suspicion reached a fever pitch when the talented Chicago White Sox somehow managed to lose the 1919 World Series to the underdog Cincinnati Reds.
In 1921, eight White Sox players were tried on charges of accepting $100,000 to intentionally lose the series. The players were acquitted but the damage was done. The Black Sox scandal, it became known, had besmirched the game.
To help recover from the scandal, baseball appointed its first commissioner, a truly independent party who had no financial stake in the game. Baseball chose a federal judge, Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Landis laid down strict conditions for taking the job.
He wanted absolute control. The leagues gave it to him and his first act as commissioner was banning the eight White Sox players implicated in the game-fixing scandal from baseball for life.
On the Rebound
It took the heavy hand of Commissioner Landis, the star power of Babe Ruth along with exciting teams and rivalries to bring baseball back into favor with its fans. The New York Yankees emerged as the powerhouse team of the 1920s. The 1927 Yankees had an amazing lineup of hitters anchored by Ruth. The Yankee batting order was so strong it was called “Murderer’s Row.” Joining Ruth on “the row” were centerfielder Earle Combs (batting average .356), shortstop Mark Koenig (.285), first baseman Lou Gehrig (.373), left fielder Bob Meusel (.337) and second baseman Tony Lazzeri (.309). Ruth’s 1927 batting average was .356. Between 1920-40, the Yankees won eight World Series championships, and another three American League titles.
Depression and Baseball in United States history
Baseball was important to national moral during the Great Depression. Radio had began to broadcast baseball games during the 1920s bringing action to fans who couldn’t make it to the ballpark for afternoon games. This connection to the game proved especially valuable during the dark decade of the 1930s. To keep fan interest in the game alive, baseball created the Most Valuable Player award in 1933. The all-star game was started in 1936 and the Baseball Hall of Fame was established in 1936. These actions all helped baseball survive the depression and created much-needed national heroes.
MVPs and Inaugural Hall of Fame Class
In 1935, the first ever major league night game was played at Crosley field in Cincinnati. Now fans who worked during the day could enjoy an evening ball game. By 1941, 11 of the 16 major league clubs had lighted fields. The Chicago Cubs waited until 1988 to add lights to Wrigley Field.
When the United State entered the Second World War, many professional baseball players joined the military. Chicago Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley was slow to light his ballpark, but quick to provide a wartime alternative to professional baseball. Wrigley started a women’s pro league. Fans flocked to see the women play.
Baseball’s Best Move
In 1946, major league baseball did what it should have done decades before. In that historic year, Jackie Robinson signed a minor league contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1947 when Robinson joined the Dodgers, he became the first black major league baseball player of the 20th century. In the 1840s, two black players, brothers Moses and Welday Walker had played pro ball for Toledo, until the atmosphere and abuse they endured from fans, opponents and even teammates became unbearable.
There was no official rule keeping black players out of major league baseball. Before the Dodger’s Branch Rickey, however, club owners simply wouldn’t sign them. Robinson’s introduction into major league baseball was not easy. Fans would taunt the first baseman and opposing pitchers threw at his head. But Robinson handled it all with dignity and let his talent quiet the critics. He was named 1947 Rookie of the Year after he scored 125 runs and stole a league-leading 29 bases.
While black players were shut out of the majors, they formed their own league. Negro League teams crossed the country on barnstorming tours playing any team that would take them on. As many as 50,000 fans attended Negro League All Star games. The talent and quality of play in the Negro Leagues was on par with the major leagues and everyone knew it.
From the Diamond to the Courtroom
Much of the history of baseball since the mid-20th century has unfolded in the courtroom rather than on the diamond. Club franchises fought for their right to move from one city to another and players fought for the right to become free agents after a certain length of time in the league. In Players had very little power to negotiate with owners until the Major League Baseball Players Association, a player union, was formed in 1966. In 1972, baseball players went on strike for 13 days to get a better pension plan for retired players. The threat of a strike loomed again in 1973 when players demanded the right to salary arbitration. The owners consented in the 11th hour and a strike was avoided.
It was an arbitrator who, in 1975, granted players the right to become free agents and move from one team to another after playing for a certain number of years. In 1981, the players were on strike again after owners tried to limit free agency. The strike lasted 50 days. Unfortunately, the labor disputes were not over. Owners locked players out in both 1976 and 1990. The players staged a two-day strike in 1985 and in 1994 the entire post season was cancelled when players and owners could not reach agreement on a salary cap.
Meanwhile…Play Ball!
Even when strikes and courtroom dramas drive fans away from the game, baseball players and games slowly draw them back. Fans are quick to join in watching and cheering on a record-setting streak. Such streaks include Hank Aaron’s quest to break Babe Ruth’s all-time homerun record in 1974, Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb’s career hit record in 1985, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and later Barry Bonds setting season homerun records, and Cal Ripken, Jr., playing in 2,632 consecutive games
A Worldwide Pastime
From its somewhat cloudy official beginnings to today, baseball remains a truly unique sport that is played and watched throughout the world. Outside of the United States, baseball is most popular in Japan. Youth baseball is played around the globe. In 1940, Little League Baseball was founded and has it own World Series competition.
Baseball is one of the few sports that does not use a clock. Players and fans are able to let the game take its course without worrying about time running out on a heroic come-from-behind effort. The only thing that can stop a team is its opponent or its own errors. And until the final strike of the final inning, truly anything can happen.
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Major League Baseball - Rules
