As far back as
the 1870s, American newspapers were referring to baseball as"The
National Pastime" or "The National Game." An award-winning account of
the origins of the game is David Block's BaseballBefore We Knew
It: A Search for the Roots of the Game ( University
of Nebraska Press,2005).
The publisher's description of the book notes that "David Block looks
into the early history of the game and of the 150-year-old debate about
its beginnings. He tackles one stubborn misconception after another,
debunking the enduring belief that baseball descended from the English
game of rounders and revealing a surprising new explanation for the
most notorious myth of all the Abner Doubleday Coopers town story." In
short, the debate on the game's origins may never be settled to
everyone's satisfaction.
Professional
baseball began in the United States
around 1865, and the National League
was founded in 1876 as thefirst true major league, quickly producing
famous players such as Cap Anson.Several
other major leagues formed and failed, but the AmericanLeague,
established in 1901 as a major league andoriginating fromthe minor
Western League (1893), did succeed. While the two leagueswere rivalswho
actively fought for the best players, often disregarding
oneanother'scontracts and engaging in bitter legal disputes, a modicum
of peace wasestablished in 1903, and they began playing a World Series
that year. The next year however, John McGraw, manager of the
NationalLeagueChampion New York Giants refused to participate in the
World Series against theAmerican League champion Boston Pilgrims, as
McGraw refused torecognize theAmerican League. The following year,
McGraw relented and the Giantsplayed thePhiladelphia Athletics in the
World Series.
Compared tomodern
times, games inthe early part of the 20thcentury werelower scoring and
pitchers were more successful. The "inside game",whose nature was to
"scratch for runs", was played rather moreviolently and aggressively
than it is today. Ty Cobb said
of his era especially, "Baseball is something like a war!" Thisperiod,
which has since become known as the "dead-ball era",ended
in the 1920s with several rule changes that gave advantages
tohittersand the rise of the legendary baseball player BabeRuth,who
showed the world what power hitting could produce and thus
changedthenature of the game.
During the
firsthalf of the 20thcentury, a "gentlemen'sagreement" in the form of
the baseball
color line effectively barredAfrican-American players from the
major leagues (though not NativeAmericans,oddly enough), resulting in
the formation of several Negro Leagues.Finally
in 1947,Major
League Baseball's color barrier wasbroken when JackieRobinson
was signed by the NationalLeague's BrooklynDodgers.Although
it was notinstantaneous, baseball has since become fully integrated.
The middle of
thecentury led majorleague baseball to theWest of the UnitedStates
and also became a time when pitchers dominated. Scoring became so lowin
theAmerican League, due to pitching dominance, that the designatedhitter
was introduced; this rule now constitutes the primarydifference between
the two leagues.
Despite
thepopularity of baseball,and the attendant highsalaries relativeto
those of average Americans, the players have become unsatisfied
fromtime totime, as they believed the owners had too much control.
Various jobactionshave occurred throughout the game's history. Players
on specific teamsoccasionally attempted strikes, but usually came back
when their jobsweresufficiently threatened. The throwing of the 1919 WorldSeries,
the "Black
Sox scandal", was in some sense a "strike" or at least
arebellion
by the ballplayers against a perceived stingy owner. But thestrictrules
of baseball contracts tended to keep the players "in line" ingeneral.
This began
tochange in the 1960swhen former UnitedSteelworkers
president MarvinMiller
became the BaseballPlayersUnion
president. The union became much stronger than it had been
previously,especially when the reserve clause was effectively nullified
in themid-1970s.A series of strikes and lockouts began in baseball,
affecting portionsof the1972 and 1981 seasons and culminating in the
infamous 1994
baseball strike that led to thecancellation of the World Series
and carried over into 1995 before itwasfinally settled.
The
playerstypically got what theydemanded, but thepopularity of
baseballdiminished greatly as a result of the players' actions, and
fans wereslow toreturn. CalRipken's
record-breaking 2131st consecutivegame in 1995 was a feel-good moment
that helped boost interest in thesport.The great home run race of 1998 between MarkMcGwire
and Sammy Sosa
really turned things around, captivating fans all summer. As with
othertimeswhen adversity threatened the game, positive on-field events
triggeredarenewed surge in baseball's popularity in America.
Professionalbaseball
leagues beganto form in countriesoutside
ofAmerica in the 1920s and 1930s, including the Netherlands
(formed in 1922), Japan (1936),
and Australia
(1934). Today, Venezuela
(1945), the whole of Europe
(1953), Italy
(1948), Korea
(1982), Taiwan
(1990), and mainlandChina
(2003) all have professionalleagues as well (however, the leagues in
Australia, Italy and the UnitedKingdom
have generally had a niche appeal compared to theleagues in Asia
andVenezuela andonly now is the sport beginning to broaden in scope in
those nations,mostnotably in Australia, who won a surprise silver medal
in the 2004
Olympic Games). Israel
istrying to form a professional baseball league with the help
ofAmericans. Canada
has a franchise in Major League Baseball
as well. Competitionbetween national teams, such as in the World Cup of Baseball
and the Olympicbaseballtournament,has
been administered by the InternationalBaseball
Federation since its formation in 1938. As of 2004,this
organization has 112 membercountries. The new World BaseballClassic,
first held inMarch 2006, seems likely to have a much higher profile
than previoustournaments, owing to the participation for the first time
of asignificantnumber of players from the United States Major Leagues.
The 117thmeeting of the InternationalOlympic
Committee,held in Singapore in July 2005, voted not to hold baseball
and softball tournaments at the 2012Summer
OlympicGames, but they
willremain Olympicsports during the 2008 Summer
Olympic Gamesand will be
putto
vote again for each succeeding Summer Olympics. The elimination
ofbaseballand softball from the 2012 Olympic program enabled the IOC to
consideraddingtwo other sports to the program instead, but no other
sport received amajorityof votes favoring its inclusion. While
baseball's lack of major appealin asignificant portion of the world was
a factor, a more important factorwas theunwillingness ofMajorLeague
Baseball to have a breakduring
the Games so that its players could participate, something thatthe NationalHockeyLeague now does during the WinterOlympic
Games.Because of theseasonal
nature of baseball and the high priority baseball fans placeon
theintegrity of major-league statistics from one season to the
next,however, itwould be more difficult to accommodate such a break in
MLB.
