It was summer of 1839 in Cooperstown. Abner Doubleday....Wait, wait, wait…. Not only is this story untrue it is completely and utterly unheard of. In fact, the real history of baseball is a lot more complicated. References to baseball date back to the early 18th century. Rounders, which is a children’s game brought to New England by the early colonists, and cricket appear to be the most similar origins. In September of 1845, a group of men from New York City founded the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club. One of them, named Alexander Joy Cartwright, codified a new set of rules that formed the basis for the baseball we play today. He called for a diamond shaped infield, foul lines, and the three strike rule. He also did away with the hazardous way of tagging runners by throwing balls at them. Cartwright’s changes made the growing past-time faster-paced and more difficult while differentiating it from older games like cricket. In 1846, the Knickerbockers played the first official game of baseball. Around that time, it became an organized sport. By 1860, baseball had knocked cricket as America’s most popular game. The first professional baseball team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings. It was considered a very daring move to openly pay players to play baseball. The daring move can be credited to Aaron B. Champion, the president of the club at the time. In 1869, they toured the country and won 60 games without a single loss! Next time you play or watch baseball, make sure you thank the many people responsible for starting the All American Game!

My first memory of baseball was hitting a home run in my first Little League game, but it didn't count because I stepped over home plate. That was embarrassing- Dalton Prough