The full history of baseball from 1845-2012

1. History of Baseball

2. June 19, 1846
• On June 19, 1846 the first baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ
• The game was played between the New York Nine and New York
Knickerbockers
• The New York Nine defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1 in 4 innings

3. The game turns professional!
• In 1856 journalists started referring to baseball as the national
pastime
• The first baseball club was created, the National Association of Base
Ball Players, which consisted of 16 teams
• In 1869 the league barred African Americans from participating
• The first professional league lasted from 1871 to 1875
• The National League was founded in 1876
• In 1884 overhand pitching was legalized
• All modern baseball rules were in place by 1895

4. Early 1900s
• In 1903 the first World Series was played between the Pittsburgh
Pirates and Boston Americans and the Boston Americans won
• The next year the World Series was not held, the New York Giants
refused to recognize the American League as a professional sports
league
• In 1905 the New York Giants reached the World Series, but this time
played in the World Series
• In the early years of baseball many players argued that they were not
payed fairly

5. Ruth and Racial Integration
• The dead-ball era ended early in the 1920s
• Strict rules regarding the ball’s size, shape, and composition were put
into place
• Babe Ruth, the first power hitter of the era, helped change the game
• In the 1930’s Branch Rickey, St.Louis Cardinals manager helped create
the farm system
• The first college world series was played in 1947
• In 1946 Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers becoming
the first African American baseball player to break the color barrier

6. Racial Integration and Movement to the
West
• Larry Doby also debuted with the Chicago White Sox
• In 1951 the first Latin American players, Chico Carrasquel and Minnie
Minoso debuted with the Chicago White Sox
• Racial integration occurred slowly
• In 1958 the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the New
York Giants moved to San Francisco
• They were the first teams to move west of St. Louis
• In 1961 the MLB moved to the west coast with the expansion team of
the Los Angeles Angels

7. Attendance Records
• After the 1960 season, pitchers started to become dominant again
• After 1968 season in an effort to increase hitting, the pitchers mound
was reduced from 15 to 10 inches and reduced the strike zone
• The first major league players strike occurred in 1972
• In 1973 the American League introduced the designated hitter
• In 1975 reserve clauses became struck down and introduced free
agency

8. Age of Steroids
• In 2001 Barry Bonds hit 73 HRs in a single season, a MLB record
• This raised suspicion of substance abuse, as many people believed a
person could hit that many HRs in a single season
• Many other players were under suspicion of performance enhancing
drugs such Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens
• In 2010 the games became mostly pitcher’s games at the runs scored
per game was at its lowest in 20 years
• In 2012 the playoff standings were altered were there would be 2 wild
card teams from each league