Baseball Babble
Over the past 150 years, Baseball has been considered the American pasttime. Major League Baseball is the oldest American professional sport, going back to the founding of the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869, just four years after the end of the U.S. Civil War. The Cincinnati Reds, who toured the country for pickup games in various towns and communities, are the oldest MLB baseball franchise, though the original version of the franchise folded in 1870.
Baseball itself is much older. In recent years, baseball historians have debunked the widely-held notion that Abner Doubleday, famous Civil War general, invented the game of baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. Not only was Doubleday attending West Point in 1839, but his family also had moved from the town the year before. Doubleday himself never publicly claimed to have invented baseball, and his friends later testified he never suggested the idea to them. The evidence that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in fact comes from a 1905 Baseball Commission, who received testimony from Abner Graves, who a few years later shot his wife to death, then spent the remainder of his life in a mental institution.
Who Invented Baseball?
Instead of the Abner Doubleday story that the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and Major League Baseball continues to champion, baseball scholars have turned up references to "base-ball" in England and America in the late-1700's. Baseball probably evolved from older games like rounders, stoolball and tut-ball. A 1744 British publication first mentions a game by the name of "baseball", though their description had a triangle instead of a diamond, and the bases mentioned were posts - not the bases we know today. The pictorial description otherwise looks quite similar to today's baseball.
A prohibition of baseball games is mentioned in 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Five years later, a German scholar writing on popular pasttimes mentions baseball as a game where a batter has three attempts to hit the ball, while at a home plate. As you can see, America's official ballgame might be British, after all, but that doesn't mean we didn't make it our own.
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is, by far, the oldest continuous professional sports league in United States history. The National League formed in 1876, the same year that Reconstruction ended in the Deep South. The only franchises in the original National League that remain today are the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves, though they were known in those days as the Chicago White Stockings and Boston Red Stockings, respectively. A second incarnation of the Cincinnati Reds joined the new league, but folded in 1880.
By 1893, most of pro baseball's modern rules were in place, except for the foul rule. Before 1901, fouled balls were not counted as strikes. It was also in 1901 that the American League came into being. In that first year, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox became members of the AL, though they were known as the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Americans, at the time. Other members were the Chicago White Sox (White Stockings), Cleveland Indians (Blues), Detroit Tigers, Baltimore Orioles (Milwaukee Brewers), Oakland A's (Philadelphia Athletics) and Minnesota Twins (Washington Senators).
As you can see, there was a lot of movement from city to city in the early years, while there were significant name changes in the first part of the 20th century professional baseball leagues. By the time Babe Ruth came along in the 1910's and 1920's, American baseball was wildly popular, and recognizably a part of the American culture.
Online Baseball
These days, keeping track of the new baseball season is easier than ever, through the miracle of the Internet. You can read more news and stories about baseball than ever, researching the games of yesteryear, or enjoying up-to-the-minute updates on today's games. You can track your local team, or keep abreast of the latest baseball scandals and controversies - and there seem to be plenty of them these days.
If you think your MLB team is going to stink this year, or if you prefer competing at baseball while you watch it on tv, you might consider playing online fantasy baseball. Rotisserie baseball has been popular since the 1980's, though fantasy baseball was invented 15-20 years before, with rules for filling out a fantasy baseball roster by selecting individual pro baseball players from the major leagues. Winners are determined based on total stats compiled by your fantasy baseball starters.
Some baseball purists look askance at any mention, of fantasy baseball, but for those fans who aren't lucky enough to live in New York City, Boston or Philadelphia these days, you might find that Internet baseball enhances your enjoyment of Major League Baseball. If you have a Pirates or a Senators player, it certain make a game between Pittsburgh and Washington a whole lot more interesting.
New York Yankees
I could be wrong, but I gather New York Yankees fans are a lot more likely to be baseball purists, than fans from the outlying reaches of pro baseball. With a payroll in 2009 well over $200 million, the Yankees boast a payroll that's often the equal of the 5 lowest-paying teams in the major leagues.
However hard it is for fans of other teams to admit it, the flagship franchise in American baseball is the New York Yankees. The Yankees have won, by far, the most World Series Championships, with 27 and counting. The Yankees are the current world champions. The Yanks have the most revenue, the highest payroll and a seeming all-star lineup to pound their opponents into submission. They are the 600-lb gorilla in Major League Baseball.
That isn't to say that the Yankees are the oldest franchise, the most colorful franchise or the one with the best fans. The Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs can claim to have a far more loyal following, because those fandoms have remained loyal through decades of baseball futility - something Yankees fans have never had to worry about. Besides those early years at the turn of the 20th century, the longest championship drought the Yankees have ever had to face was 17 years. No fan of the pin-stripes has had to live, without experiencing a title win, in a century of baseball.
USA Baseball Fans - The Best Team to Follow
For all the others, USA baseball is a game where the 162-game battle for the playoffs is a journey in and of itself. If you're a baseball fan in Milwaukee or Denver or Baltimore, a playoff race is something fresh, wonderful and exciting. You are jaded by having a playoff appearance every single season, as exciting as that would be. These are the places where baseball is a game of renewal, where every spring is a time of endless possibilities.
Youth Baseball
Speaking of renewal, baseball fans come up through the little leagues. It's great to watch professional sports on tv, but some of the most entertaining baseball you'll ever watch is your kids' baseball games, when everything is new and the rival is that coach in the other dugout who won't stop screaming. In ten thousand towns across America, baseball season means more than just another year of Yankees vs Red Sox.
Even if you don't have a child in Little League or select baseball, go out to your local baseball park and watch at least one game of youth baseball every year. Like watching the seventh inning stretch at your local MLB stadium, the experience is sure to take you back to the baseball games of your childhood.
Baseball Greatness
Baseball is a great game to play. Professional baseball is a great game to watch. The history and tradition of baseball lets you connect with the American past, as well as the generations of Americans, and fellow family members, who have enjoyed baseball before you.
When I think of baseball, I think of my grandmother listening to Texas Rangers broadcasts on her old transistor radio. Eric Nadel has been broadcasting Texas Rangers baseball since 1979, so anytime I hear a Rangers broadcast, it instantly takes me back to my late, great, dear, sainted grandmother listening to games from the old Rangers Stadium. That's what a love of baseball is all about: a love of tradition.