Baseball In The Late 1800s

The history of Baseball has dated back to the late 1700s and early 1800s. In fact, 1792 in Pittsfield, MA by law, they banned the playing of the game if you were within 80 yards of the town meeting house and also in 1823, on the outskirts of New York City which is now known as Greenwich Village. There wasn't many rules, but as time went on, the game of baseball soon would be the greatest American sport of all time.

As America progressed, so did the game of baseball. More Americans know more records in baseball like Roger Maris's 61 home runs in 1961 broke Babe Ruth's record of 60 in 1927 than Ronald Reagan's 525 electoral-college votes in 1984. In 1871, the first professional league of baseball was born. Baseball turned big at the start of the 20th Century, many large cities in the eastern part of the United States had a professional baseball team.

They formed two leagues, the National and American; in the regular season, you played against the teams that are in your league.

By the end of the season, the most conquering teams of each league were considered to have won the "pennant," or the winners of both the American and National league, in which the two winners of the pennant then faced off in what was called the World Series. The team with the most games won out of seven is the World Series champion and the champion of that year.

Baseball soon started taking age in the 1920s, Babe Ruth was one of the greatest players of all time. He and the New York Yankees won several World Series titles and Ruth was soon to be well known for his many home runs. People who do know much about baseball still know who the famous Jackie Robinson is, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Very brave and courageous, Robinson was the very first African American to play in the major leagues in 1947. Before Robinson though, African American players were restricted to the Negro

League.
In the 1950s, future Hall of Famers such as Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron began their careers. Mays made the play of where he followed a deep fly ball into center field with his back to the plate, and then turned 180 degrees to throw it into the infield in the 1954 World Series. Soon, only 6 od the 16 teams in the major leagues included at least one African American around 1953. But many teams limited the number of African Americans to play on their teams because many based on a fear that they would soon divide white fans. Some teams soon started to change their names and move to different locations by 1953, the Boston Braves soon moved to Milwaukee and the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles in 1954. And the Philadelphia Athletics soon went to Kansas City. Then the Dodgers and Giants soon moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
By the 1980s and 90s, baseball took some changes. Like in 1993, the National League soon expanded to 14 teams introducing the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins, now known as the Miami Marlins. And by 1994 both the American League and the National League were divided into three divisions, the East, West, and Central, but because of the 1995 MLB strike the rules did not go into effect until the 1995 World Series.
Baseball soon took shape and becoming Americas go to sport. In the 21st Century, baseball is one of Americas biggest known sports. Since then, baseball has changed drastically, from the rules, to the teams, and to the players. Just this year it is crazy to think that over 40 million people tuned in to watch the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, and they won. So from the 1800s to today, it's safe to say that baseball, will always be great.