One of the Greatest sports of all time is Baseball, and no one is judging here about the greatest sports there a lot, but let's talk about the history of this one sport so here is The Birth of Baseball in the Story of America cards: Entertainment Category.

(What is Baseball?)

So let's just go over the refresher, even if some of us should already know what baseball is.

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases.

(Play Ball!)

Although the origin of the game of baseball is a widely disputed matter, it is almost certain that Abner Doubleday did not invent the game in 1839 at Cooperstown, New York. The widely held belief that Doubleday devised the sport was the result of a publicity drive conducted by major league ball clubs in 1939 to enliven public interest.

Many examples exist of similar games being played even before America was discovered. In the 12th century the Archbishop of Vienna enjoyed tossing a ball around with his clerics as they waited to begin the morning service.

At the same time a number of other sports involving kicked and thrown balls became popular as did several in which a ball was hit with a stick. France, England and colonial America abounded with various stickball games, but it was not until the 1840s that someone sat down to write a set rules for what became America's game of Baseball.

It began when Alexander Cartwright and a group of his well-to-do friends in New York City, developed a passion for one of the popular bat and ball games in their area, but they tired of the haphazard play that resulted from lack of a film body of rules. These serious ball players incorporated themselves as the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York in 1845 and Cartwright was chosen to head a committee to draw up rules for the game.

Working throughout the winter of 1845-1846, he studied the local forms of the game and produced a set of rules and a layout for a playing field. Cartwright's concept of the game has remained virtually intact.

The New York Knickerbockers then issued a challenge to any team in the New York area that was willing to adopt their system of rules. A group of players who called themselves simply "The New York Team" accepted the challenge.

When they learned that Chartwright's rules required nine men on each side, they changed their team name to the "New York Nine".

The Nine and the Knickerbockers found a field in Hoboken, New Jersey, that suited their purposes, and they set a date for a confrontation: June 19th 1846, Cartwright himself chose out this game even though he was one of the better Knickerbocker players and perhaps as a consequence, his team swarmed 23 to 1.

Cartwright actually did take part in this epic contest, but as an umpire taking full advantage of this important position, he fined a player for the New York Nine for using profanity. The fine was six cents.

(Era of the Dead-Ball)

In baseball, the dead-ball era was the period from approximately 1900 to 1920. This era was characterized by low-scoring games and a lack of home runs; league batting averages dropped as low as .239 in 1908, it wasn't until babe ruth made multiple home runs being the signal player to do so and made baseball exciting once more saving the game and he got his name "Bambino". From this

(Ending)

And that was the birth of baseball, I hope you liked it somewhat, and I'll see you next time in my other story of america cards.