The Rise of Baseball

Many people love baseball and what it is today, but how did it start off and how have the rules changed over the past 2 centuries? People may love this sport, but they probably don’t know about the complicated background about the game that we love today.

Many people are probably hearing that a man named Abner Doubleday founded baseball in the summer of 1839, but that is not the case. A man named A.J Spalding used little evidence to make up the story of Abner Doubleday and the real person who made the starting rules of baseball was named Alexander Joy Cartwright who established the basic rules of baseball in the year of late 1845.

The game of baseball was based off of 2 other sports, rounders (a children’s game brought to New England from the colonies) and cricket. Cartwright mixed these 2 sports to create a fast paced and challenging sport to play. This is significant because of the fact that the founding person wasn’t what everyone expected, but instead was a bank clerk and a firefighter who made the basic rules (a diamond-shaped infield, 3 strikes, and foul lines. In 1846, the Knickerbockers faced cricket players in the first ever game of baseball that would soon become America’s national tradition. Based on this info from the text, one can conclude that one of America’s favorite sports was founded by a not important person created such a beloved game today.

Over time, the rules of baseball that were founded in 1845 would soon be changed. When the rules were first founded, you could hit a runner to get him out! That must have gotten a lot of injuries. Also, some pitches were allowed, such as the spitball which could put the ball in a weird motion when pitched. Since the major league started to right now, the rules have changed 94 times! This is significant because it shows how the rules have evolved over time and how because of this, the game of baseball has changed forever. Another example is that back in the 1850s, a game ended when one team scored 21 aces, or runs. Now, it is a 9 inning game with the team that scores the most runs wins. Back in the day, the base runners didn’t have to run the bases in order! They could have touched any base in any order in order to score a run. This proves that in the olden days, baseball was very different than it is now. But certain changes to the game would soon change baseball forever. Chub Feeney said that, “”The use of the DH (Designated Hitter) takes something away from the game.”” These “”small”” changes are why the game of baseball as we now know it has changed forever.

All in all, baseball’s history and rules had a very unique start to it and every day, the rules of baseball change, but even if they change, the history of baseball will still stand.

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