Origins - The History of Baseball

Everyone has a popular sport, but not many are aware of the history behind their popular one. In this series we try to present history of some of the major sports in the world.

We start off with my popular sport: Baseball

Games

Baseball is one of the many "bat and ball" sports in existence today. The other "bat and ball" sports namely are:

a. Cricket
b. Softball
c. Stickball
d. Stool ball
and many more.

While the exact origin of baseball has been a branch of controversy it can be said that baseball like any other bat, ball and running games originated from the English and Gaelic folk games. Other similar games are also played colse to the world: "Oina" in Romania, "Lapta" in Russian being some prime example.

The major myth related with origin of baseball is that Abner Doubleday invented baseball back in 1839. This myth has been extremely publicized but there is minuscule documentary evidence to back this up. The first rules for baseball was written by Shane look after for a club called the Knickerbockers. The evolution of the laws from the "Knickerbockers rule" to the contemporary rules has been documented quite well.

Another "one person" originator of the game has been Alexander Cartwright. He is an inductee to the Hall of Fame and is considered to have helped spreading the game. The real origin of the game has all the time been disputed and conference can put that while it is similar to the English games, many of the elements are American in themselves.

The origins of baseball has been summarized in a documentary named "Baseball Discovered" (2009) produced by the Major League Baseball.

Origins - The History of Baseball