TITLE Baseball, the game that we know as America’s national past time, is a game that started out as a recreational activity between friends and neighbors and grew into the professional sports league we know today as Major League Baseball. It is believed that the game of baseball was created out of two British games that that were played by the early colonists, Cricket and Rounders (Fischer 5). Cricket was a game played with a flat bat, ball and two wickets. The game was played on a rectangular field, or pitch, and each team had eleven players. A wicket was set up on each end of the field. Teams took turns batting and fielding. The striker, or batter, stood in front of a wicket with his bat. The bowler, or pitcher threw the ball to
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The players in the Knickerbockers Base Ball Club were men from many different professions who came together after work and on weekends to play games for exercise and recreation (Ward and Burns 4). Cartwright and his friends also created a set of rules to be followed during the games. These rules were known as the “Cartwright Rules,” and resemble many of the rules that are followed in baseball today (Grabowski 14). Under the “Cartwright Rules” the game was played on a diamond shape field, rather than a square one, with four diamond shaped bases. Each team played nine players and took turns hitting and playing in the field. The batter stood at one corner of the diamond and the pitcher stood in the middle of the diamond. The ball was pitched to the batter and the batter had to hit the ball between the first and third bases because anything outside of that was considered foul under the new rules. Once the batter hit the ball, the batter ran around the bases until he was called out. A count, or run, was scored when the batter went all four bases and the game was played until a team scored twenty-one counts. The new rules also established the distance between bases and required players to tag batters out with the ball instead of pegging, or hitting them with the ball (“The Official Site of Alexander
The players in the Knickerbockers Base Ball Club were men from many different professions who came together after work and on weekends to play games for exercise and recreation (Ward and Burns 4). Cartwright and his friends also created a set of rules to be followed during the games. These rules were known as the “Cartwright Rules,” and resemble many of the rules that are followed in baseball today (Grabowski 14). Under the “Cartwright Rules” the game was played on a diamond shape field, rather than a square one, with four diamond shaped bases. Each team played nine players and took turns hitting and playing in the field. The batter stood at one corner of the diamond and the pitcher stood in the middle of the diamond. The ball was pitched to the batter and the batter had to hit the ball between the first and third bases because anything outside of that was considered foul under the new rules. Once the batter hit the ball, the batter ran around the bases until he was called out. A count, or run, was scored when the batter went all four bases and the game was played until a team scored twenty-one counts. The new rules also established the distance between bases and required players to tag batters out with the ball instead of pegging, or hitting them with the ball (“The Official Site of Alexander