From Rounders to Home Runs: A Brief History of Baseball

America’s pastime has been bringing people together for centuries. From its origins in English schoolyards to a modern-day global phenomenon, the history of baseball is a long and storied one.

Baseball Origins

The American baseball myth credits Civil War general Abner Doubleday with inventing baseball as a young man and then teaching it to his soldiers in army encampments to keep their spirits up. While patriotic, this story is almost certainly false. American baseball most likely developed from a British game called rounders that was popular in northern American towns as far back as the 1700s.

Rounders is similar to baseball in that it features a diamond, ball, and bat, with players given opportunities to hit the ball and run around the bases to score. There were many variations of the game played across northern states, and the game’s popularity increased in the years leading up to and including the Civil War.

New York Knickerbocker Rules

In 1845, it was Alexander Cartwright, not Doubleday, who first codified the rules of baseball. Known as the Knickerbocker Rules, Cartwright’s version of baseball helped to standardize regional variations of the game. The Knickerbocker Rules are largely still in place today. 

The Knickerbocker Rules outlawed “plugging,” which allowed fielders to throw a runner out by hitting them directly with the ball. That change paved the way for the smaller, harder baseballs we see today.

Not all Knickerbocker Rules survived the test of time, however. A rule allowing fielders to make an out by catching a ball on the first bounce has been eliminated. Likewise, the rule limiting pitchers to underhand lobs has been eliminated, making the game far more challenging for hitters.

Formation of the Major Leagues

Though originally designed for club use, the Knickerbocker Rules spread quickly, and soon both club and professional teams were playing this version of baseball. The National League was formed in 1876 with eight teams, two of which have undergone name changes but still exist today: the Braves and the Cubs.

The National League had a monopoly on major league baseball for many years. In 1901, the American League declared itself a major league instead of a minor one, forcing the National League into direct competition. Though some have changed names and locations, original American League teams included today’s Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Guardians, Tigers, Orioles, A’s, and Twins.

During the “baseball wars,” teams in opposing leagues directly competed for talented players. In order to remain competitive, the National League finally recognized the American League as a major league and agreed to unite as Major League Baseball. The first World Series between the champion of each league was played in 1903, bringing an end to the baseball wars and setting up professional play in the United States as we know it today.     

Other Professional Baseball Leagues

Major League Baseball consolidated its popularity after World War I. In the 1920s, the game changed to favor the long ball. Standardized baseballs were made of a material that allowed them to carry farther, and ballparks were designed with shorter outfield fences to make home runs more common. No player exemplified the excitement of slugging better than the Yankees’ Babe Ruth, who routinely hit the ball out of the park—and in doing so, changed fans’ expectations of the game.

But baseball’s success in American culture was exclusionary. Although Black players did join professional teams in the 1880s, by 1900 they were forced out of the major leagues due to Jim Crow laws in the South and racist policies among various teams. Instead, Black players formed “barnstorming” leagues that would travel the country and play anyone who challenged them. In the 1920s, the Negro Leagues were formed, and Black players competed at the highest level in this alternate baseball league. When Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Dodgers in 1947, the Negro Leagues gradually disappeared as Major League Baseball became fully integrated in the 1950s and 60s.

Though commonly considered a men’s sport, the history of baseball also includes female players. After the Civil War, women played baseball on college teams, and by 1900 had also joined men’s professional teams and served as professional umpires. In 1931, Jackie Mitchell signed with a men’s minor league team and promptly struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. Immediately thereafter, the commissioner of baseball banned women from the major leagues. When baseball players left the field to serve in World War II, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was formed to keep the game going. The league was in operation from 1943 through 1954. 

Globalization & the Future of Baseball

After World War II, baseball grew alongside the population, with major league teams moving to the West Coast and expansion teams bringing the game to the South and Southwest. In the 1960s, the major leagues expanded from their original 16 teams to 24. In the 1990s, the team count was expanded to 30, and there’s talk today of further expansion to bring major league teams into more local markets.

Integration of the sport in the 1950s also allowed more Latin American players to make their mark in the major leagues, with Roberto Clemente paving the way for more baseball players from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and other Spanish-speaking countries. Baseball had grown in popularity in Latin America throughout the twentieth century, with roots among American soldiers stationed on the islands during the Spanish-American War. 

Today, baseball is a global phenomenon, with professional leagues in many regions and countries, including the Caribbean, Central and South America, Japan, Korea, China, Italy, and Australia. The World Baseball Classic has brought together countries from around the world into a popular tournament that allows the best players to represent their home countries with pride and showcase the sport to a global audience.

As it continues to expand into other countries, the game of baseball has evolved with the times. To modernize the game, Major League Baseball recently introduced new rules designed to make play faster and more exciting. These changes include the implementation of a pitch clock and limited pickoff attempts to keep the game moving. Also, the bases are now larger to make stealing safer and easier. The rule changes have been well received and have served to inject new life into America’s pastime. 

The history of baseball is, in many ways, the history of the United States. Over the past century, the game has grown along with us, including increasingly diverse players and fans along the way. The sport is sure to continue to evolve over time, but it will always be the quintessential American game.