The Invention Of Modern Day Baseball

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Abner Doubleday is the man that is responsible for the invention of modern day baseball. Alexander Cartwright formed and developed the rules for baseball in 1845, and went on to develop and manage the baseball clubs in New York. As we know today, the teams have spread throughout the entire U.S. to make up the 30 teams that are present in our MLB today. How has the baseball equipment and game changed from when it was first started to what it is today? The credibility was granted to Abner Doubleday (Encyclopedia 2016) for creating the sport of baseball in Cooperstown, New York, although most people don 't agree. Doubleday was born June 26, 1819. Abner was a United States Army officer and Union general in the Civil War. After being relieved …show more content…

In the early years of baseball they used a much heavier and thicker bat, some bats were even flat on one side. The bats had a knob at the end of the handle and a painteds ring to determine who 's bat was whose. In 1887, the MLB (Major League Baseball 2016) proposed that the bat would be round shaped, 42 inches long with a 2 inch diameter at the barrel, and weighted 48 ounces. These dimensions are still used with bats today. (Epic Sports 2016) You have a bat and a glove, so what are you going to hit and catch? From 1857 to 1872 there was a ball that had no specific size or weight and was usually made by players or local merchants. Early baseballs were very lightweight and soft. In 1858, a factory in Massachusetts decided a rubber ball wrapped in string with two figure eight leather patterns sewn together would be a decent ball. It would weigh 5-½ to 6 ounces. (19c Baseball 2016)
One of the first famous producers of this ball was Harvey Ross of the Atlantic club in Brooklyn. He eventually sold his baseballs all over the country. Around that time it became customary for the game winning player would get to keep the game baseball. Dimensions are still continuously changing. Today the baseball weighs five ounces, nine inches in circumference, and contains 108 stitches forming the figure 8 stitching. (Epic Sports

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