Baseball by Sammy Bozza

I. Introduction.

Baseball, also called “America’s pastime” is a thinking man’s game. It is one of the few sports in which time is not a factor. The object of baseball is to score more runs than the other team. To achieve this, one would have to hit the baseball with a baseball bat to get on base. The teammate behind him in the batting order would then try to advance him by doing the same thing.

II. History.
Americans began playing baseball on informal teams in the early 1800s. By the 1860s, the sport was obtained the name “America’s Pastime” because it was unrivaled by any other sport at the time. The modern baseball field was invented by Alexander Cartwright in New York, in 1845. Alexander Cartwright and the members of his Baseball club, the New York Knickerbockers, created the first rules and regulations for the modern game of baseball. Baseball was based on the English game of rounders. Rounders became popular in the United States in the early 19th century and was called many different things like "townball", "base", or "baseball". “The first recorded baseball game was on June 19, 1846 when Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club.” The game was held at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. In 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first organized baseball league was formed.

Figure 2. Bat comparisons

III. Inventor.
Alexander Joy Cartwright was born on April 17, 1820 in New York. “He was a member of the New York Knickerbockers Fire Fighting Brigade in 1842.” In 1845 while working at the Knickerbockers fire station, Alexander became involved in playing town ball. They found a playing field, Elysian Field, across the Hudson River in Hoboken New Jersey that charged $75 a year to rent. To pay these fees, He organized a baseball club called The Knickerbockers to collect money for the rental of the field. The Knickerbockers became an official team on September 23, 1845. Cartwright also invented the rules for baseball which are the backbone for today’s rules. These include the distance between bases, balls and strikes, and so on. In 1849, Cartwright headed west in the climax of the California gold rush to search for fortune When he arrived in California however, he became ill with dysentery and decided that he would not stay in California. He then made the decision to move to Honolulu, Hawaii where he introduced the island to baseball. “During his stay in Hawaii, Cartwright became a notable citizen. He founded the library and fire department. In Honolulu, there is a street named in his honor as well as a ballpark.” Alexander Cartwright died on July 12th, 1892 at the age of 72. He was buried in Hawaii.

Figure 3. Alexander Cartwright

IV. Baseball Today.
Baseball in the modern-era is still based on the rules and regulations of Alexander Cartwright, but many adjustments have been made to them. The MLB is a multi-billion dollar organization that is ran by the commissioner Bud Selig. There are a total of 30 teams in the MLB and about 180 minor-league teams. There is also more diversity in modern baseball as many players try to make it to the MLB from different countries such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. Jackie Robinson is known for being the first non-white person to play professional baseball. There is also more conflict today in baseball than any other time in history. These problems mainly come from the abuse of performing-enhancing drugs such as steroids. A famous case is the Barry Bonds trial who is accused of lying under oath by saying he has never taken any drugs.

Figure 4. Barry Bonds

V. Journal Article
This article tells you just about everything you need to know about the history of baseball. It talks briefly about Alexander Cartwright, but goes way into detail about how the game had advanced throughout the years.

VI. List of References
1. Baseball. (2011). (P. V. Ueberroth, Rev.). The New Book of Knowledge. Retrieved May 1, 2011, from Grolier Online http://nbk.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=a2002380-h
2. Alexander Cartwright-Founder of baseball (2011). Retrieved May 1, 2011. http://open-site.org/Sports/Baseball/History/Biographies/Cartwright,_Alexander
3. The History of Baseball (2011) retrieved May 1, 2011.
http://www.rpi.edu/~fiscap/history_files/history1.htm
4.Baseball. (2011). (J. Benagh, Rev.). Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 1, 2011, from Grolier Online http://gme.grolier.com/article?assetid=0026560-0