Baseball has its origins in a New York founded game called Knickerbockers and was first introduced into the public eye way back in 1845, though this early version of the game is very different to the sport Americans and baseball lovers all over the world know it as today.

It first started off as a team game played across 5 bases the batsman had to cover with pitcher and fielders situated at pre-determined positions on the field and the runner having to cover all bases without being ‘hit out.’ However, by 1846, baseball acquired newer rules and proper regulations when it came to be called the New York game, with new regulations pertaining to the baseball bat also introduced to the sports loving public of the times.

The baseball bat thus, evolved into better-formed hitting equipment and changed the nature of the game for all concerned about the history of baseball, raising the excitement to another level altogether.

In the following years, the game became the favorite leisure activity of wealthy young men, though it is widely believed that more than the gentlemen that came from ‘old money,’ it was actually the Civil War soldiers who restored the game to its refined status by playing it behind the lines and popularizing it with a ‘heroic’ touch when they played in their hometowns. Thereafter, the game was a hit with Americans from all possible social strata with spectator sports and actual players emerging from the elite crowds as much as they did from the regular, working class and every other level sociologists could describe when it came to categorizing social status.

When the National Association was formed in 1858, it was further institutionalized and developed a higher status too; soon after, baseball got its first pro team, called the Cincinnati Red Stockings (that was in 1869). Its rivals followed soon – namely, the National (in 1876) and the American (1903) Leagues, with both teams competing for the first ever World Series of Baseball that took place in 1903.

The All-Star Game of course, came 30 years later (1933).

However, it was only much later – in the year 1947 – which color prejudices against black players ‘referred to as the Brooklyn Dodgers officially removed the Negro Leagues’ with the signing on of Jackie Robinson as a pro team player.

From then onward, race, age, sex and social background notwithstanding, the game has managed to hold its own against every possible area of discrimination and sought to integrate players and fans from varied categories in all the top Baseball playing nations of the world, not just Central America and Japan.

Though there have been ups and downs experienced in the history and evolution of the game during the past century, which necessitates the mention of a particularly discouraging strike by the Major League strike through the years 1994-95, the sport has been unrivalled in its being regarded as THE standard American pastime. We think that’s true – with good reason.