The History of Baseball

Origin

    Crack! The ball flies way, way back. It's a home run! America's favorite sport, baseball, has just decided a winner of the World Series, one of the biggest sporting events in the world. But who invented this world-famous sport? Baseball has never really been invented, it's just a combination of two other games, one of which was called rounders, which was brought to America by the early settlers, and the other was cricket, both from as early as the 18th century. During the American Revolution, variations of early baseball were being played throughout the 13 colonies. Also, according to the website History, baseball became much more popular in the mid-19th century when industrialized cities were growing bigger. 

Best in Their League

        If you've ever even heard about baseball, you probably have heard about at least one of these guys. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Ted Williams are just some examples. Ted Williams was considered the greatest hitter of all time. He served in the Korean War, and was a nineteen-time All-Star. Babe Ruth is considered the greatest baseball player ever. He was one of the first five inductees into the Hall of Fame, and he has the record for highest slugging percentage (.690) ever. Lou Gehrig was the first player to have his number retired by a team (4). He was elected into the Hall of Fame, and he set the record for most consecutive games played without a break (It's since been broken by Cal Ripken Jr.). They were some of the best baseball players ever, but there are more who have been just as good as these players.

Teams and Stadiums

    Right now there are 30 MLB teams, and every team has their own stadium. The Yankees have Yankee Stadium, the Athletics have the Oakland Coliseum, the Giants have Oracle Park, and there are so many more. The Yankees are possibly the most well-known team in the MLB. They have 27 World Series titles, and some of the best players ever, like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe Dimaggio. The Red Sox, basically the Yankees' archrivals, have the oldest active ballpark in the league. The Red Sox also had to endure the "Curse of the Bambino" after they traded away Babe Ruth to the Yankees. After 1918, they couldn't win another World Series for 86 years. Finally they broke the curse after sweeping the Cardinals in four games. But the Mariners might have it even worse. They haven't even made the playoffs in 19 years! That was just a quick overview of all the teams, but every team has its share of interesting facts and great players.

Overview

    Baseball is known as "America's Game", the national pastime of the United States. It has lots of teams in stiff competition with each other, home-field-advantage sometimes deciding the game, an interesting backstory, and dozens of legends like Jackie Robinson that shaped the game. Baseball truly lives up to its name of America's Game, the favorite sport in the U.S. 

Bibliography

Works Cited

Staff, History. “Who Invented Baseball?” HISTORY, 28 Mar. 2019, www.history.com/news/who-invented-baseball#:~:text=You%20may%20have%20heard%20that. Accessed 11 Jan. 2021.

Wikipedia Contributors. “Baseball.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Dec. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball. Accessed 11 Jan. 2021.