Baseball

628 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of baseball

Baseball

As I sat and watched the college world series this weekend I began to wonder about baseball and several questions came to mind: where did we get the game of baseball? Who should we give credit to for the formation of the game we see today?

How has it withstood the tests of wartime? And what helped this game thrive to what it is today, the nation’s pastime?

Baseball grew out of various ball and stick games that had been played throughout the United States during the first half of the 19th century. It was a game that was played in small towns to big cities, people of all ages played and of all social classes. Common laborers would play with bank presidents and doctors. During the Civil War both Yankee and Rebel soldiers would play this beloved pastime when fighting ceased for a while. “ For Americans, baseball was their game, a sport that had links to British games such as cricket and rounders but gad been adapted by colonists into their own.” Nemec, (6).

The most common early version was called town ball. There were no foul lines or fixed positions, and infielders had to hit the baserunner with the ball to get him/her out. In 1845 a group of local Manhattan men led by Alexander Cartwright formed the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. This group was the first to lay out foul lines on the baseball diamond and rules like three strikes to a batter. On June 19. 1846 the Knickerbockers played the first known organized baseball game in a 23 to 1 loss to the New York Base Ball Club on Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The game seemed to spread rapidly after this and in a decade there were approximately 50 teams and the New York Mercury identified baseball as the National Pastime.

Alexander Cartwr...

... middle of paper ...

...l of these things helped the game of baseball thrive and bring it to what it is today, but there would never had been the push for these rules and magazines if it hadn’t been for the spirit of the game. I have played this game for a long time and I do believe it has a spirit. Baseball lets you forget all your troubles, it teaches you about life, and most of all it is a game that we can call ours and be proud to say that it is our national pastime.

So in conclusion I hope I have informed you of why this is such a great game and how it has captured America. Baseball was started by not just one man but a nation that took it in and developed it into the game we know today. So I hope you can understand that baseball is not just a game it is much more to a lot of people, and how quickly it was picked up by America proves that it is much more to a lot of people.

Show More
Related

  • Effects Of Racial Inequality In Baseball

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    In terms of racial inequality in baseball there have been many eras of integration. Baseball originally is seen as America’s national game belonging to the white men of America. However, throughout history there have been steps taken in recognizing and integrating those groups deemed “less favorable” by the American community. These groups include German immigrants, Irish immigrants, African Americans, Latinos, Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Asians. America used the game of baseball as a tool to indoctrinate the American ideals and values of teamwork, working hard, and collaborating for the greater good into the cultures of the “uncivilized world.” These groups used baseball as a medium to gain acceptance into the American community as racially equal counterparts.

    Read More

  • Book Report on Baseball: A History of America's Game by Benjamin G. Rader

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rader states that baseball was founded by Abner Doubleday in 1839 at Cooperstown, New York. In the next couple decades, the game developed the simple concept of bases. After having bases introduced into the game, the kids in bigger cities started club based teams which played each other. These teams started to develop a personal passion and respect for baseball which led them to adopt written rules. He conveys the idea of fellowship within the team and how the players celebrated all aspects of the game. He gives an example of a club team called the New York Knickerbockers and how they celebrated with their opponents and teammates whether they won or l...

    Read More

  • How Did Baseball Changed American Culture

    886 Words  | 2 Pages

    During World War 1 half a million people died but millions of people became veterans. But one thing of American culture stayed the same; their love for baseball. On July 4th, 1918, America’s

    Read More

  • Drugs, Cheating, and the Purity of America's Pastime

    2872 Words  | 6 Pages

    Baseball, America’s pastime, is embedded in the fabric of society. The players and teams have come and gone, but the thing that remains constant is baseball’s ability to unite people as well as families. My own personal experience of this came right after September 11th, 2001. Following the tragedy that was 9/11, the country needed something to help everyone return to normalcy. In our moment of weakness and uncertainty, baseball helped calm my nerves. Fifty three thousand three hundred and twelve brothers stood up in unison and took back their lives. The electricity of that game, the sense of regularity in my life, and the knowledge that millions of people were finding comfort together with me during such a hard time, helped me feel a sense of closure that the worst was behind us.

    Read More

  • Essay On Baseball

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a faithful follower and player of American Baseball, this topic was of extreme interest to me. The origins and history of a lifestyle that I have dedicated the overwhelming majority of my life to has always caught my attention. Baseball, being America’s national sport, is a crucial illustration to understand when discussing the overall societal circumstances at that time. One of baseball’s most important tasks was integrating the sport and allowing people of every ethnicity to have a chance to play the sport at an equal playing field. Although we now know that the efforts to desegregate baseball were ultimately a success, to what extent were the efforts a direct success during that time period? Did the unification of different ethnicities in America’s national sport have an effect on the amount of time desegregat...

    Read More

  • Why Baseball Began Essay

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    If baseball had relatives, town ball would be its first cousin. It was so similar , and by 1800 townball was played everywhere. The only difference was that town ball did not have rules, and people were getting away with more than they would if they was playing baseball. Someone thought that not having rules for a game was not fair, so he sat down and thought of some rules and that’s how baseball came about. His name was Albert Doubleday. Baseball is a competitive sport, and so many people that play this sport wants to be in the spotlight all the time. 1744, the ball flies in the air and the boy runs to the home plate and they have scored a point. Of course, he feels that he is great at that sport, and so does his friends around him. When a team feels as though they are doing well, it brings great joy to them.

    Read More

  • Impact of Baseball on American Culture and Society

    1610 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the sport first emerged, baseball and America have shared the same values, responded to the same events, and struggled with the same social and economic issues. To learn of the ideals concerning the sport of baseball in America, is to know the heart and mind of America. Baseball developed before the Civil War but did not achieve professional status until the 1870s (The Baseball Glove, 2004). In 1871, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was formed. Unfortunately, the organization ran into financial hardships and was abandoned in 1875.

    Read More

  • The History of Baseball

    1295 Words  | 3 Pages

    Baseball was based on the English game of rounders. Rounders becomes popular in the United States in the early 19th century, where the game was called "townball", "base", or "baseball". Cartwright formalized the modern rules of baseball. The first recorded baseball game in 1846 when Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club. The game was held at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first organized baseball league was formed.

    Read More

  • The History of Baseball

    1321 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deeply embedded in the folklore of American sports is the story of baseball's supposed invention by a young West Point cadet, Abner Doubleday, in the summer of 1839 at the village of Cooperstown, New York. Because of the numerous types of baseball, or rather games similar to it, the origin of the game has been disputed for decades by sports historians all over the world. In 1839, in Cooperstown, New York, Doubleday supposedly started the great game of baseball. Doubleday, also a famous Union general in the Civil War, was said to be the inventor of baseball by Abner Graves, an elderly miner from New York. In response to the question of where baseball first originated, major league owners summoned a committee in 1907. Abner Graves stepped before the committee and gave his testimony. In Graves' account of "the first game," the Otsego Academy and Cooperstown's Green's Select School played against one another in 1839. Committeeman Albert G. Spalding, the founder of Spalding's Sporting Goods, favored Graves' declaration and convinced the other committeemen that Graves' account was true. As a result, in 1939, the committee and the State of New York named Cooperstown and Abner Doubleday as the birthplace and inventor of baseball, respectively. Today, many baseball historians still doubt the testimony of Abner Graves. Historians say the story came from the creative memory of one very old man and was spread by a superpatriotic sporting goods manufacturer, determined to prove that baseball was a wholly American invention. According to Doubleday's diary, he was not playing baseball in Cooperstown, but attending school at West Point on that day in 1839. Also, historians have found that nowhere in Doubleday's diar...

    Read More

  • Informative Speech About Baseball

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    Support: In History website (Who invented Baseball),March 27, 2013. The closest ancestor to baseball would be two games from new england which were “rounders and cricket“. But later in september in 1845, a group was founded in new york city where men founded the New York Knickerbocker baseball Club. They were the ones that stated new set of rules stating for the diamond shape infeld, the three strike rule and then abolishment of the danger of tagging the runner by throwing the balls at them.

    Read More

  • Playing Baseball: How Baseball Has Changed My Life

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now, I play baseball whenever in my spare time, which helps me reach my overall goal of playing the sport. It used to be for fun, but now I am trying to go farther than just having fun in the sport. I have had to do many things to get where I am, but I do not want to be finished yet, I want to keep going throughout my life and keep succeeding. “Baseball is a good thing”. Always was, always will be.”

    Read More

  • Cultural Artifact: Baseball

    1137 Words  | 3 Pages

    Impact: Alexander Cartwright’s changes made the game faster-paced and more challenging while setting it apart from games like cricket and rounders. In 1846, the Knickerbockers (Cartwright’s team) played the first official game of baseball against a team of cricket players, beginning a new, uniquely American tradition. In a matter of years, baseball became a professional

    Read More

  • Baseball is the National Pastime

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Baseball was first introduced into the American culture, by English immigrants in the early 18th century, and its popularity slow grew. It wasn’t until the Civil War the popularity of the game spread, and both Union and Confederate soldiers played baseball during lulls in the fighting. After Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, soldiers from both the Army of Northern Virginia (Confederate) and the Army of the Potomac (Union) played baseball. (Schackelford Jul 4, 2009) This was the beginning of the American people love of Baseball began. It was also the first mention of baseball being the national game. During the bloodiest war in our countries history Baseball was there to help the two sides heal. It was another fourteen years till 1879 when Football would be invented.

    Read More

  • African American Athlete: Their Role in American Culture

    3732 Words  | 8 Pages

    Tygiel, Jules. 2001; 2000. Past time: Baseball as history. Oxford England; New York: Oxford University Press.

    Read More

  • Descriptive Essay - The Baseball Diamond

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many people don't understand the point in playing baseball. Why would someone swing a stick, hit a ball, and try to get back to where they started before the ball returns? What pleasure is there in that? Why not participate in a sport like wrestling or track where there is an obvious level of individual improvement and therefore pleasure. Well, I play baseball because of the love I have for the sport, and because of the feeling that overwhelms me every time I walk onto a baseball field. When I walk onto a field I am given the desire to better myself not only as an athlete, but also as a person. The thoughts and feelings I get drive me to work hard towards my goals and to be a better person. The most relevant example of these feelings is when I stepped on the field at Runyon Complex in Pueblo, Colorado during our high school state playoffs in 2003. This baseball field will always be an important place to me.

    Read More

More about Baseball

Open Document