Baseball has been called the Great American Pastime by many people and it is an interesting fact that the precise history of baseball is vastly unknown. Sport historians believe that it is roughly based on an English game called rounders. The game gained its popularity in the north east around the late 1700s and early 1800s. The actual name of the sport had changed several times from base, to roundball to cricket throughout the beginnings of baseball history.

In the early nineteenth century a number of cities started to form teams and leagues. The sport began to grow in popularity to the extent that the players and patrons of the game decided to formalize the specifics of the game. So in 1845 Alexander Cartwright formulated a list of rules that all teams were to follow and interestingly a number of those rules are still followed today.

According to baseball historians, Cartwright is believed to have been the actual founder of the game and not Abner Doubleday. Cartwright was a fireman who formulated the basic premise of the sport and is credited with creating the first teams that used to play in New York with other firemen. He was credited with founding the Knickerbockers Baseball Club which sculpted baseball history. He then decided to follow the riches of the California Gold Rush and started spreading the game westward. His travels helped to expand this new game throughout the country.

The very first game of record actually took place a year after Cartwright developed his team in 1846. Unfortunately his team the Knickerbockers lost to the Baseball Club in a game at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ. As word spread of this entertaining sport it became more popular and started to have many more participants. In the 1850s a number of teams in the northeast came together to discuss rules and expanding the game and in 1858 they created the National Assoc. of Baseball Players, which is recognized as the first baseball league ever formed in the history of baseball.

The sport blossomed in the late 1850s as membership grew from 100 to over 400 teams and then the Civil War broke out in the 1860′s. This decimated any interest in baseball as there was obviously no time for baseball. However, interestingly enough baseball began to travel to other areas throughout the country. Once the war ended the sport began to gain popularity again. Teams grew and cities throughout the country started to take an interest and began to play one another.

The NABP was initially supposed to only be comprised of amateur athletes but as with any sport it became very competitive and the best players were compensated for their efforts.

The sport began to see change in 1869 when the Cincinnati Red Stockings (soon to be the Cincinnati Reds) decided to become the first professional team and pay their players. The Wright brothers as the owners of the team decided to recruit the greatest talent from around the country and they challenged all comers. They were so successful that they went 65 and 0. With such a small level of competition the idea of creating a completely professional league was sparked and in 1871 the National Association was developed.

In 1876 the National League was created as the National Association was dissolved. The National League which still exists today had a stronghold on all the major cities of the time and attracted the best players. In the early 1900s the American and National league were formed which as we all know still remains. These changes in the 1900s established the two leagues, the world series and began the practise of player contracts. The popularity of baseball had firmly been established and was well on its way to becoming known as the Great American Pastime.