Baseball: America's Pastime?

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Baseball has long been called “America’s Pastime.” But that name will not fit for long. Baseball was first found in England. It was first known by the names of “rounders”, “one o’ cat”, and “base”. The name “base” seems to fit, but “one o’ cat” and “rounders” just don’t make sense to me. The first baseball team in America was established in 1845 in Manhattan. Some young men established and wrote down the rules of the game they were playing. They called themselves the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. Baseball was first nicknamed the “national pastime” around 1865. Dozens of baseball clubs in New York and Brooklyn, along with their journalists, created this name, and the national pastime was born (Garraty).
Since then baseball has gone down in popularity and can no longer be called a “national” pastime. Baseball has seemed to remain popular because it has been played in so many different cultural divisions. African Americans and Central Americans are two races that dominate baseball and have a large number of players in the majors. It is not uncommon for whites to be a minority on a major league team roster (Garraty). Latin America probably has the most players in the majors, that aren’t U.S born. If you counted all of the players from Latin America, you would have enough good pitchers and enough good hitters that they could form their own Major Caribbean League. These players come from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico. These countries have some of the best known players in the majors (Anderson 11-14).
Baseball is spreading out from just North America. It is becoming an international game.
Baseball clubs can be found in Croatia, Ireland, and Switzerland along with dozens of countries in Europ...

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...ve more Latin Americans playing and Americans playing. People from Asia are also playing in America. Baseball has become dominated by immigrants and other people from foreign countries. Baseball is going down in popularity. There are stats to prove it and studies that show the trend. Basketball and football are coming to be the major sports in America. They are becoming more popular to play and also more popular to watch on TV. More kids are playing baseball videogames, but less are playing real baseball. Baseball is my favorite sport. I like to watch baseball and play baseball with my friends. I don’t like the idea of baseball going down in popularity by forty percent over twenty years. Baseball needs someone to make it big again. It needs someone to play well, and not cheat. If someone doesn’t do anything, baseball will no longer be “America’s Pastime.”

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