Modern Baseball

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The movement to modern sports began in the second half century of the 1800’s. Around that time baseball started to modernize. Before something can be said to be modernized, the term has to be defined. Melvin L. Adelman wrote about the characteristics of premodern and modern sports. There were six factors that could distinguish a sport from being premodern or modern. Those six factors were organization, rules, competition, role differentiation, public information, and statistics and records. A sport that was premodern had no organization and contests were arranged by individuals. The rules were simple and varied from location to location. Competition was local. Participants could be spectators along with anyone who wanted to join a game. Information …show more content…

Many cultures had this sort of game and there were different names for it at the different locations it was played in. The English called it Rounders and in the United States it became known as Townball. Small towns formed teams and clubs were formed in larger cities. The Knickerbocker Club was formed in 1845. They were the first club to publish rules. Fair and foul territory was introduced to the game. Players started to field certain positons. To record an out the runner had to be tagged by the ball or the base had to be tagged. Before this rule it was okay to throw the ball at a runner for an out. The ball was thrown underhand to the batter. To win a game a team had to score 21. The game became more formal when clubs continued to be formed. It was something for the men to do after …show more content…

It shifted from just an activity to a competitive game. The quality of the game got better. Players practiced and worked on their skills for the game. Not only did spectator interest continue to grow but press interest grew as well. Crowds of several thousands came to the games. The sport began to gain popularity across the states. In 1857 the National Association of Baseball Players was formed. They met once a year to talk about rules of how the game would be played nationally. The members of the organization were mainly from New York but they recognized baseball could be bigger so they called it a national association. The New York version of the game passed the Massachusetts version in popularity. The New York Version became the national version of the

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