The History of Major League Baseball

Baseball is as much a part of America as anything else possibly could be, however, the origins might not even actually start in this country. The belief that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839 has basically been debunked as being a myth and a fraudulent invention of the baseball leagues themselves. Mentions of the early versions of the game of baseball go as far back as 1744 in England.

The modern game however, definitely did take shape in the United States. Alexander Cartwright, a volunteer firefighter from New York is said to have diagramed the diamond shaped field still used today. This was around 1845, and his club, the New York Knickerbockers, were the first organized team to play under the new rules they formulated.

12 years later, in 1857, the first form of organized sports league for baseball was put into place. This was called the National Assocation of Base Ball Players. The original 16 New York based club teams soon exponentially expanded into over 400 teams just 10 years later. And by 1869, the first professional teams were being put into place, such as the Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Boston Red Stockings.

The rise of the professional teams led to the development of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which was the first true professional baseball league. This league was short lived however and was followed by the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs in 1876. This is the same National League that is still operating in Major League Baseball today, over 125 years later.

It is interesting to note that at this time, African-Americans were allowed to play for the various clubs. In the following years they were banned by behind the scenes agreements, and of course would not return until Jackie Robinson broke, (or really, broke once again) the color lines of the major leagues. There were many other leagues besides the National League, however it had the most prominence, due in large part to having teams in many major cities.

However, more leagues and more teams were sprouting up everywhere, and the most successful and widespread of those was the Western League, founded in 1893. In 1900 the Western League changed its name to the American League, which it is still called today. With two major leagues, and other smaller leagues banded together as well, there was intense rivalry for players.

This led to a meeting between the leagues in 1902, which in turn led to the first World Series being held in 1903. The World Series was to pit the winners of the two major leagues, the National League and the American league, against each other.

Thus, Major League Baseball as we know it was born. Of course during this time there were also the Negro Leagues. As mentioned, black players were no longer allowed to play in the major leagues, so new teams and new leagues were formed. While these varied in success, some were able to maintain great talent and a large fan base for many decades while the major leagues operated in the main public’s spotlight.

Today Major League Baseball is run under commissioner Bud Selig. The sport is trying to recover from its self inflicted steroids wounds. This would not be the first time the sport took a major blow only to bounce back. Just 16 years after the first World Series, the Black Sox scandal took place. Major League Baseball has survived many trials and tribulations, many set up by their own shortcomings, but is still going strong today as America’s National Pastime.