Modern Day Baseball ( Lanham ) Essay

Attention Material: What do you think would be happening on Thanksgiving Day in 1887? Most of you are probably thinking; eating turkey, having family over, or already thinking about Christmas. Well George Hancock had a different agenda. He created the game of softball on that cold November day.

Softball is a sport that is known throughout the United States and the world. Softball originated on Thanksgiving Day in Chicago in 1887. The game was actually said to have begun as an indoor game. Softball was started by a group of men who had gathered at a club to watch the Harvard vs. Yale football game. When the news came that Yale had defeated Harvard, 17-8, one Yale supporter, overcome with enthusiasm, picked up an old boxing glove and threw it at a nearby Harvard alumni, who promptly tried to hit it back with a stick. This gave George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, an idea. He suggested a game of indoor baseball. Naturally, Hancock's friends thought he was talking about playing a game outdoors, not indoors.

According to a passage in the 19th Century Baseball website, author Eric Miklich writes that America’s pastime may have originated in Canada. Miklich tells the story of Dr. Adam E. Ford who wrote a letter about a game which had been played in 1838 which was described to have several key differences than baseball. Many people believe that baseball evolved from games played in England- mainly cricket and rounders. Others believe the German game of town ball is where it all started. October 6, 1845 was the first baseball game on record. One of the teams playing that day were the New York Knickerbockers. The Knickerbockers, led by “The Father of Baseball” Alexander Cartwright, are known today as the first official baseball team. Cartwright published the original rules of baseball (Miklich). Throughout the years, baseball has seen it’s fair share of great players and managers while evolving into the sport we know and love today, but not without controversy.

The history of baseball can be traced back to the early 19th century when people played a baseball-like game with their own rules and homemade equipment. The earliest known mention of baseball in the United States was in 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. An ordinance was declared that banned the playing of the game within 80 yards of the town meeting house. Even though baseball was mentioned back in 1791 it wasn't officially a sport until 1839 when a man named Abner Doubleday invented the game we know and love today as baseball in Cooperstown, New York.

Every father loves getting to share his child’s first experience with baseball and playing catch with him for their first time. The history behind the game has such a humbling expression towards the game of baseball, which was first known as “rounder” earlier in the 1840’s in England until it was brought over in the US. In 1871 the Major League was born and by the 20th century most large cities in the US had professional baseball teams. The teams where divided into two leagues, American and National. During the season those teams would only play the teams in their leagues. Teams that succeeded the best during their season win what are called the “pennant” and those teams would meet in what is still to this day called the “World Series”. Baseball became of age in the early 1920’s; When Babe Ruth became a phenomenon at the game of baseball. Many wanted to fallow his footstep and become a great hero; such as the great Jackie Robinson did who was the first African American to play major league baseball. Prior to

Like the bald eagle, baseball has become an icon for the term “American”. It was the nation’s first major sport and quickly was coined America’s pastime. It was created from a combination of other games during the 1840’s and became increasingly popular during the years of the Civil War (Brinkley 392). In their

In 1845, Alexander J. Cartwright, an amateur player, organized a club in NYC and set down rules that used features of an English sport called rounder. Then five years later, 50 baseball clubs had risen up in the US. New York owned 12 clubs of their own in the mid 1860’s. The team Cincinnati Red Stocking started to tour the country in 1869. Soon more and more clubs started to do the same. This lead to the formation of the National League in 1876 and the American League in 1900. In 1903 the first World Series was help and the Boston Pilgrims beat the Pittsburgh, Pirates. Some African American baseball players were denied from both leagues, so they would form their own clubs and two leagues. These two leagues were the Negro National League and

A man by the name of Alexander Cartwright, a sportsman from New York started the first organized baseball club, the

Baseball is an immensely popular American game, known as the "national pastime," played between two teams of nine players each. The basic implements used in the game are a leather-covered ball, wooden bats for hitting the ball, and gloves for catching it. Baseball is played on a large scale in Latin America, Japan, and other places besides the United States, but it is in the United States that it thrives both as a participant's and spectator's sport. It is played at its highest level in the United States and two Canadian cities, where 26 teams make up the American and National Leagues (each with two divisions, East and West). Combined, these leagues are called major-league (professional) baseball.

The earliest known mention of baseball in the U.S was a 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, ordinance banning the playing of the game within 80 yards of the town meeting-house. In 1903, a British sportswriter Henry Chadwick published an article speculating that baseball derived from a British game called rounders. The first team to play baseball under modern rules were the New York Knickerbockers. The club was founded on September 23, 1845, as a social club for the upper middle classes of New York City, and was strictly amateur until it disbanded. The club members, which included its president Doc Adams and Alexander Cartwright, formulated the Knickerbocker Rules, which in large part dealt with organizational matters but which also laid out rules for playing the game. Among the rules

The article “America’s Pastime” by Robert S. Fay and Tom Pfannoch, teaches readers about the history of baseball. The first unofficial baseball games were played in the early 1800’s, these games otherwise known as “town ball”. One of the earliest organizations to influence modernized baseball was the knickerbockers, the knickerbockers put together a set of rules and gave the game structure which helped standardize how the game is played today. Soon after, the game spread throughout the country and gained popularity among players and spectators as well, which led to the professional sport of baseball. Following the professionalization of the sport many leagues were formed, the present day MLB (Major League Baseball) has been considered America’s

No one really knows how invented baseball, so they give credit to several different people, but mostly Alexander Cartwright. It was used in that time to pastime so the soldiers wouldn’t get bored, because it promotes

Liz Johnson 5/1/15 Big History 5th-6th Softball, The Story of It All. Softball and baseball are the same thing, right? Wrong. Softball is the same as baseball, but it has a softer ball, right? Wrong again. So if it’s not the same as baseball and it doesn’t have a softer ball then what is it? Softball is its very own sport. Yes, it has similarities to baseball, but there are many differences. To fully understand softball you have to know its history, how it is played and how it works, what it is made of, and finally what it is all about. It was 1887 in Chicago, Illinois, the Yale vs. Harvard football game, this is where softball originated. A football game is where softball originated, not baseball. Softball has its own separate history of baseball. And that is the first discipline that I am going to cross; history. When it was announced that Yale won the game, a fan threw a boxing glove at a Harvard fan. As the glove was thrown, the Harvard fan grabbed a broom handle and swung at the glove. Right then George Hancock playfully shouted out “play ball!”. And then the very first softball game was played. Before I go into detail about the history and importance of softball I am going to explain how the game is played. There are four basic elements of softball. One: bases, Two: batting, Three: catching, and four: signs. There are four plates/ bases; first base, second base, third base, and home plate. When you are batting you try to hit the ball as far as you can when the pitcher

The earliest known reference to baseball as we know it in America was in 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. There was an ordinance banning the play of the sport within 80yds a town meeting center. No one is exactly sure of the origins of baseball but many believe it to be a variation of the English game of “rounders”. The very first team to play the sport of baseball

The first game that is recorded in the hall of fame is in September of 1845 were the rules were first used in a game with the knickerbockers, led by a bank clerk named Alexander Cartwright. The first game was played in June against a team in Hoboken, New Jersey. But there is still some controversy between the two cities as who is the birthplace of baseball. But a lot of people still don’t understand the origin of the game before the Cartwright rules in 1845, as referred to by he baseball hall of fame.