The origins and evolution of baseball from England to America

Baseball is a sporting game, whereby only a baseball bat, baseball glove and a ball are used, it is played between two teams, one is called the batting team and the other is the fielding team each consisting of nine players. Goals are awarded depending on the numbers of runs, of which to complete one run a player has to hit a ball thrown at him and then touchdown on a series of four bases arranged at the corners of the diamond, which is a ninety-foot square playing field. A team with the most runs definitely will have the most goals, consequently making them winners of the match. Players in the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, and the other players in the fielding team strive to prevent them from scoring complete runs by challenging their hitters. However a player in the batting team can stop at any of the four bases and later move forward using another teammate's hit.

It is important to note that when the fielding team records three outs, the teams switch sides from either fielding to batting or vice versa. One turn at a bat earns the team an inning and nine innings is what constitutes a professional game (Fleming, 1981, 122-131).

History

Rader (2008, 12-17) in his studies documented about the origins of baseball, and he asserts that it can be proven baseball originated from England. Rader further claims that the direct antecedents of baseball were the English games of stoolball and the tut-ball. The earlier documentation of the game can be traced back to the British publication titled "A little Pretty Pocket" that was written by John Newbery in 1744, this book largely talked about the basics of the game including the tactics involved when playing. Mr. William Bray an English lawyer later followed in the year 1755, with his own personal record of a baseball match on the Easter Monday of 1755 in his own personal diary. Historians have used these two pieces of writings to justify that the game indeed originated from England.

The early form of baseball game in North America was reportedly brought along by English immigrants. Thou sport historians have failed to explicitly point out the date in which the game arrived in America they have consistently referred to an instance in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in the year 1791 as an arguing base of when the game arrived in America. This instance was the first recorded American reference to baseball, after a law was passed out prohibiting playing of baseball within eighty yards of a new meeting house in the town of Pittsfield, Massachusetts (Rader (2008, 45-47).

The New York Knickerbockers was the first team in the American baseball history to play the game under modern rules in the year 1845. This team was dominated by the then New York's upper middle class and it was largely perceived to be a social club strictly for amateurs. Perhaps the most outstanding team member of the team was Alexander Cartwright who is mostly remembered for the "Knickerbockers Rules" that he apparently formulated. These rules were used to develop the current rules that we have in the game. In I857, Knickerbockers and other fifteen teams from New York jointly formed the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) which was the first organization to govern the sport and establish a baseball championship (Gregory, 1992, 76-83).

The baseball league

In 1868, the National Association of Base Ball Players laid the first foundation of professionalism into the game after a meeting in which a professional category was established for the following year's season. Clubs that could afford to pay their players were set free to declare that they are professional clubs. The Cincinnati Red Stockings is mostly remembered for being the first club to go professional and as such it recruited only the best players available and by the beginning of the 1869's season twelve clubs had turned into professionals clubs.

In the American professional major league baseball, the National league (NL) is the oldest of them all as it was formed in 1876 and it is at times referred to as the senior circuit, its' main rival is the American league (AL) which evolved from the minor western league. The National Base Ball league was formed after the collapse of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players which was the first attempt to form a major league in America; it only lasted for four years in the period 1871 to 1875.

Both the National league and the American league are further divided into three divisions namely the central division, east division and west division. Every year, the major league championship is determined by playoffs by four different teams that represent each league at the World Series. The four teams are made up of three regular season division winners and a wild card team (Thorn et al., 1997, 43-49),

Conclusion

Baseball thou originally an English game it is more adored in America than in British, the English are currently perceived to love soccer more than baseball. It is also important to note that baseball not only has a large following in America but also in Japan and Cuba among other counties. The high ticket sales, including the baseball merchandise that are been bought by fans year in year out tend to prove that baseball has a large following among the Americans. As such the thesis statement of this research can be substantiated that indeed baseball is the national past time of Americans and a great sport in the World today (Moore, 2006, 69-82)

Work cited

Carlin, George. "Baseball and Football" Baseball Almanac http://www.baseball almanac.com/humor7.shtml Retrieved 2009-05-06

Fleming, G.H. (1981) the Unforgettable Season, New York: Holt, Rinehart Winston,

Gregory, Robert. (1992) the History of Dizzy Dean and Baseball during the Great Depression New York: Viking,

Thorn, John., Palmer, Pete., Gershman, Michael.,and Pietrusza, David. (1997) Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball. New York: Viking Press

Moore, Gary W. (2006) Playing with the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams. New York:

Rader, Benjamin G. (2008). Baseball: A History of America's Game (3rd Ed). University of Illinois Press