Inventors
The
History of Baseball - Alexander Cartwright
The
Maine Baseball Club 1898
Americans began playing baseball
on informal teams, using local rules, in the early 1800s. By the 1860s,
the sport, unrivaled in popularity, was being described as America's "national
pastime."
Alexander Joy Cartwright (1820-1892)
of New York invented the modern baseball field in 1845. Alexander Cartwright
and the members of his New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, devised the
first rules and regulations for the modern game of baseball.
Baseball was based on the English
game of rounders. Rounders become popular in the United States in the early
19th century, where the game was called "townball", "base", or "baseball".
Cartwright formalized the modern rules of baseball.
The first recorded baseball game
in 1846 when Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbockers lost to the New York
Baseball Club. The game was held at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New
Jersey. In 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first
organized baseball league was formed.
1845: Alexander Cartwright published
a set of baseball rules for the Knickerbocker Club of New York, and his
rules were widely adopted.
1869: The Cincinnati Red Stockings
became the first openly-salaried team and are thus considered the first
professional team.
1871: The first professional
baseball league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players,
was established.
1876: The first major league,
the National League, was formed.
1878: Frederick Winthrop Thayer
of Massachusetts (captain of the Harvard University Baseball Club) received
a patent for a baseball catcher's mask on February 12.
The
History of Baseball - Alexander Cartwright
Baseball was invented by Alexander
Cartwright.
Alexander
Cartwright
In 1845, in New York City, the 25
year old Alexander Cartwright took various elements that were used in these
different forms of early baseball and, adding a few wrinkles of his own,
fused them into regulations that stand today.
Baseball
in 1845
It was called the Knickerbocker
game or the New York game, and yes, it differed in several respects from
what we now know as baseball...but nevertheless it was definitely the basis
for the game we play today.
The
History and Evolution of the Baseball Bat
The evolution of baseball bats has
provided spectators with a more exciting game by changing the sport entirely.
Traditional
Baseball History
From About's own Baseball site.
Trivia
A combined cap & baseball mitt
patent #4,768,232 was granted on September 6, 1988.
Related Innovations
The
History of Softball
More
Sports History
Sporting
Goods Innovations
©Mary
Bellis
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