Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Government & Politics baseball baseball As I sat and watched the college world series this weekend I began to wonder about baseball and several questions came to mind: where did we get the game of baseball? Who should we give credit to for the formation of the game we see today? How has it withstood the tests of wartime? And what helped this game thrive to what it is today, the nation’s pastime? Baseball grew out of various ball and stick games that had been played throughout the United States during the first half of the 19th century. It was a game that was played in small towns to big cities, people of all ages played and of all social classes. Common laborers would play with bank presidents and doctors. During the Civil War both Yankee and Rebel soldiers would play this beloved pastime when fighting ceased for a while. “ For Americans, baseball was their game, a sport that had links to British games such as cricket and rounders but gad been adapted by colonists into their own.” Nemec, (6). The most common early version was called town ball. There were no foul lines or fixed positions, and infielders had to hit the baserunner with the ball to get him/her out. In 1845 a group of local Manhattan men led by Alexander Cartwright formed the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. This group was the first to lay out foul lines on the baseball diamond and rules like three strikes to a batter. On June 19. 1846 the Knickerbockers played the first known organized baseball game in a 23 to 1 loss to the New York Base Ball Club on Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The game seemed to spread rapidly after this and in a decade there were approximately 50 teams and the New York Mercury identified baseball as the National Pastime. Alexander Cartwright was a New York bank teller in the spring of 1845 when he suggested that him and his friends organize themselves into a formal baseball club. The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club was the first of its kind and it made the child’s game of “town ball” into an adult sport that has turned into our nations pastime. The Knickerbocker Club first increased the distance between bases to 90 feet. “ Second, they brought the game an adult sense of order by dividing the field into fair and foul territory, narrowing the hitter’s range to the space between the foul lines and reducing the number of defensive players needed.” Idea, (2). Third, the Knickerbockers got rid of the old rule of throwing the ball at a player to get them out. This made the game safer and enabled them to use a harder ball, which made it a faster sharper game. “As American as apple pie, baseball served as a morale booster and a poignant reminder of back-home traditions for GIs serving overseas in World War II and the national pastime helped many to forget the daily horrors they faced in combat.” History, (1). These young men sent overseas to live the rough military life didn’t have much to keep them going. One thing they all shared a passion for was baseball, the infantrymen, airmen, and sailors all loved to play baseball. They would create a makeshift baseball diamond where a picked lineup would play the game that let them forget about the troubles they’d faced and the troubles that lie ahead. From London to Berlin they played impressing all whom watched. And even with the war going on baseball was still very popular in the U.S. They even formed a women’s professional baseball league to compensate for the lack of men’s professional baseball. “ Organized baseball emerged at a time when the American nation was transforming from an agrarian to an urban industrial society.” Voight, (3). The game of baseball really picked up after the Civil War as baseball clubs now ventured west and spread quickly. As the 1900s approached baseball became a more seriously ruled game with many more restrictions. By 1889 they had moved the pitchers mound to 50 feet and enforced the four balls three strikes rules. Another key that helped baseball spread was the growth of newspapers and magazines. The Sporting News and Sporting Life were weekly journals that were devoted only to baseball. All of these things helped the game of baseball thrive and bring it to what it is today, but there would never had been the push for these rules and magazines if it hadn’t been for the spirit of the game. I have played this game for a long time and I do believe it has a spirit. Baseball lets you forget all your troubles, it teaches you about life, and most of all it is a game that we can call ours and be proud to say that it is our national pastime. So in conclusion I hope I have informed you of why this is such a great game and how it has captured America. Baseball was started by not just one man but a nation that took it in and developed it into the game we know today. So I hope you can understand that baseball is not just a game it is much more to a lot of people, and how quickly it was picked up by America proves that it is much more to a lot of people. Bibliography: Word Count: 931
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