BASEBALL Sports History

Game played with a bat, a ball, and gloves between two teams of nine players each on a field with four white bases laid out in a diamond (a square oriented so that its diagonal line is vertical). Teams alternate positions as batters (offense) and fielders (defense), exchanging places when three members of the batting team are ―put out.‖ As batters, players try to hit the ball out of the reach of the fielding team and make a complete circuit around the bases for a ―run.‖ The team that scores the most runs in nine innings (times at bat) wins the game.

History:

The term baseball was first recorded in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, published in 1744. The book also contained a picture of the game. Early games similar to baseball were known by several names—town ball, rounders, or one old cat. Abner Doubleday is said to have developed the basic rules of baseball at Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. A few years later Alexander Cartwright helped found the Knickerbockers Base Ball Club, an organization of amateur players. The rules Cartwright developed form the basis of the rules in use now. Among his ideas were the nine-member team and the ―diamond‖ infield with bases 90 feet apart. He also decided that a player had to be tagged, not hit, with the ball to be called out. By 1858 the National Association of Base Ball Players was formed with 25 amateur teams.