project baseball in united states

8/3/2019 PROJECT Baseball in United States

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Baseball In The United States Of America

A view of the playing field at Wrigley Field, Chicago, Illinois

Sports in the United States are an important part of the national culture.

However, the sporting culture of the U.S. is different from that of many other

countries. Compared to any other nation, Americans prefer a unique set of

sports. For example, soccer, the most popular sport in the world, is not as

popular in the U.S. compared to the four most popular team sports, namely,

baseball, American football, basketball, and ice hockey. The major leaguesof each of these sports enjoy massive media exposure and are considered

the preeminent competitions in their respective sports in the world. The

preeminence of the major leagues is partially attributed to their strong

financial power and huge domestic market, as well as the fact that relatively

few other countries play some of their dominant sports, like baseball, to any

significant extent.



American sports are quite distinct from those played elsewhere in the world.

The top four spectator team sports are American football, baseball,

basketball, and ice hockey. Baseball is the oldest of these. Professional

baseball dates from 1869 and had no close rivals in popularity until the

1960s; though baseball is no longer the most popular sport it is still referred

to as the "national pastime." Also unlike the professional levels of the other

popular spectator sports in the U.S., Major League Baseball teams play

almost every day from April to October.

The history of baseball in the United States can be traced to the 18th

century, when amateurs played a baseball-like game by their own informal

rules using improvised equipment. The popularity of the sport inspired the

semi and fully professional baseball clubs in the 1860s. By the following

decade, American newspapers were referring to baseball as the "National

Pastime" or the "National Game." The first attempt at forming a "major

league" produced the National Association, which lasted from 1871 to 1875.

In response to the shortcomings of the National Association, the current

National League was formed in 1876. After a series of rival leagues were

organized but failed, the current American League, evolving from the minor

Western League of 1893, was established in 1901. In the early part of the

20th century, known as the "dead-ball era," baseball rules and equipment

favored the "inside game" and the game was played more violently and

aggressively than it is today. This period ended in the 1920s with several

changes that gave advantages to hitters. In the largest parks, the outfield

fences were brought closer to the infield. In addition, the strict enforcementof new rules governing the size, shape and construction of the ball caused it

to travel farther when hit.

The first professional black baseball club, the Cuban Giants, was organized in

1885. Subsequent professional black baseball clubs played each other

independently, without an official league to organize the sport. Rube Foster,

a former ballplayer, founded the Negro National League in 1920. A second

league, the Eastern Colored League, was established in 1923. These became

known as the Negro Leagues, though these leagues never had any formal

overall structure comparable to the Major Leagues. The Negro NationalLeague did well until 1930, but folded during the Great Depression. From

1942 to 1948 the Negro League World Series was revived. This was the

golden era of Negro League baseball, a time when it produced some of its

greatest stars. In 1947, Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Brooklyn

Dodgers, breaking the color barrier that had prevented talented African

American players from entering the white-only major leagues. Although the



transformation was not instantaneous, baseball has since become fully

integrated. In 1948, the Negro Leagues faced financial difficulties that

effectively ended their existence.

Pitchers dominated the game in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 the

designated hitter (DH) rule was adopted by the American League, while in

the National League pitchers still bat for themselves to this day. The DH rule

now constitutes the primary difference between the two leagues. During the

late 1960s, the Baseball Players Union became much stronger and conflicts

between owners and the players' union led to major work stoppages in 1972,

1981, and 1994. The 1994 baseball strike led to the cancellation of the World

Series, and was not settled until the spring of 1995. In the wake of the 1994

players' strike, functions that had been administered separately by the two

major leagues' administrations were united under the rubric of Major League

Baseball.

Baseball: A Cultural Timeline

1823 A letter in theNational Advocate, aNew Yorknewspaper,

refers to “themanly andathletic game of ‘base ball’”– 16 years before itssupposed invention by AbnerDoubleday.

1856 The New York Mercury coinsthe phrase “the NationalPastime.”

1860s

Baseball comes to Cuba andsoon spreads to other partsof the Caribbean. In the nextdecade, it arrives in Japan.

1869 The Cincinnati Red Stockingsbecome the first admittedlyall-professional baseball club. The following year, with a



profit of $1.35, the teamfolds.

1879 Professionalbaseball adopts

the reserveclause, givingteams the right toautomaticallyrenew a player’scontract at theend of eachseason.

1885-

1889

Baseball’s first union forms. The Brotherhood of

Professional Base BallPlayers (unsuccessfully)demands an end to thereserve clause and salarycaps.

1893-1904

The storiesdiffer, butsome timeduring these

years baseballmeets the hotdog and anAmericanclassic is born.

1908 The Mills Commission, a“blue-ribbon panel”appointed by A.G. Spalding,concludes that baseball was

invented by Gen. AbnerDoubleday, in Cooperstown,NY, in 1839—declaring it apurely American sport.

1910William Howard Taftbecomes the first U.S.President to throw out thefirst pitch on opening day.

1919Black Sox Scandal: Eightplayers on the ChicagoWhite Sox conspire withgamblers to throw the WorldSeries. They are acquitted ina court of law—but they are

banned from baseballforever.

1920 The Negro National League,the first financiallysuccessful all-black league,is founded by Hall-of-FamerRube Foster.

1921Station KDKA in Pittsburghbroadcasts radio’s first live

major league game. (Fewerthan 10 percent of Americans own a radio.)

1935 The first night game inmajor league baseball isplayed in Cincinnati.

1974 Under court order, Little League is officially gender-integrated.

1975 An arbitrator’s ruling leads to a modification of the reserve clause

and the start of free agency. Baseball salaries begin to skyrocket.



1994 The year without a World Series: the longest and costliest strike in

baseball history begins on August 12, 1994, and lasts until the following

spring.

2000 For the first time, the Major League baseball season opens in Tokyo, Japan (Chicago Cubs vs. New York Mets).

2001 October 30, just weeks after the terrorist attacks

of September 11, President George W. Bush throws out the

first ball of the third game of the World Series in New York’s

Yankee Stadium.

2002 Tsuyoshi Shinjo, an outfielder for the San

Francisco Giants, became the first Japanese player to take part in a WorldSeries Game

Currently, baseball makes up around 20 percent of the franchise sports

industry. The team with the highest average game attendance is the New

York Yankees, with 51,848 spectators. The New York Yankees are closely

followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers (46,400) and the New York Mets

(42,327). The 30 Major League Baseball teams earned $5.11 billion in

revenue in 2006.

From the 1980s onward, the major league game has changed dramatically

from a combination of effects brought about by free agency, improvements

in the science of sports conditioning, changes in the marketing and television

broadcasting of sporting events, and the push by brand-name products for

greater visibility. These events lead to greater labor difficulties, fan

disaffection, skyrocketing prices, changes in the way that the game is

played, and problems with the use of performance enhancing substances like

steroids tainting the race for records. Through this period crowds generally

rose. Average attendances first broke 20,000 in 1979 and 30,000 in 1993. That year total attendance hit 70 million, but baseball was hit hard by a

strike in 1994, and as of 2005 it has only marginally improved on those 1993

records.

Baseball has always been more than just a game. As John S. Bowman and

Joel Zoss stated in The Pictorial History of Baseball "As part of the fabric of



American culture, baseball is the common social ground between strangers,

a world of possibilities and of chance, where 'it's never over till it's over.'" It

is an American tradition rich in legends, folklore and history, a never-ending

story where every game is a new nine-inning chapter and every player has

the chance to be the hero. Baseball is unique among American sports in

several ways. This uniqueness is a large part of its longstanding appeal and

strong association with the American psyche. The philosopher Morris Raphael

Cohen described baseball as a national religion. Many Americans believe that

baseball is the ultimate combination of skill, timing, athleticism, and

strategy. In this, baseball is similar to its cousin game cricket: in many

Commonwealth nations, cricket and the culture surrounding it hold a similar

place and affection to baseball's role in American culture.In 1866, Charles A.

Peverelly wrote, "The game of base ball has now become beyond question

the leading feature of the outdoor sports of the United States ... It is a game

which is peculiarly suited to the American temperament and disposition; ... inshort, the pastime suits the people, and the people suit the pastime."

Bibliography http://www.fieldmuseum.org/baseball

Tygiel, J. (2002). ”Past Time: Baseball as History”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball

Benjamin G. Rader :Baseball: A History of America's FavoriteGame

James , Bill(2003):The New Bill James Historical BaseballAbstract

ESPN.com (2001-07-08). "Articles show 'base ball' wasplayed in 1823".

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