Monday, January 4, 2010

Additional Articles


Many Americans have an affinity for the historic pastime of baseball, including Aaron Matthew Breslow, an internet blogger who enjoys talking about baseball on his various blogs and websites. Aaron Matthew Breslow is one example of a young blogger carrying the torch of spreading his passion of baseball all over the country through his use of the internet.

Baseball has affected almost every American in one way or another. Growing up, many of us collected baseball cards, attended local games to cheer on our favorite team, or played little league baseball to live out every little boy’s dream of becoming a professional baseball player. The original origin of baseball though is something of debate amongst fans. Baseball was created out of early folk games which started in England. It is important to keep in mind that different variations of baseball have been played around the world for centuries, so where it originally started is hard to pin point.

It seems that baseball started in America in the early 1800’s and has gone through many different names. The first group that organized baseball was the National Association of Base Ball Players, also known as the NABBP. This group started in 1857. Around 1875 there was an active movement to put official rules in place, which was initiated by a second group, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. The group made rules, kept scores and records of games, and insisted on professionalism in baseball. There were many clubs at the time, most located on the east coast and centralized around New York.

In 1867 they decided that only white Americans could play baseball, which eventually led to a Negro League being instituted around 1920. Although the first Negro team started in 1885, the league that began in 1887 failed quickly due to low attendance and popularity. Throughout the early to mid 1900’s there were several Negro leagues that became popular. In 1945, black players began being signed, and in 1948 the Negro leagues basically folded due to lack of popularity as the sport became increasingly integrated.

Over the years, baseball spread west, and more and more teams were added to the two baseball leagues in the United States and Canada. Beginning in 1994, both leagues were split into 3 divisions, the East, West and Central, and a wild card, to allow a 4th team that had the best record of every team that finished in 2nd place, to go into the divisional playoffs each season, leading to one representative of both the American and National Leagues to play in the World Series.

Currently as of 2010, there are 16 teams in the National League and 14 in the American League. Although baseball has gone through many changes and increases and decreases in popularity over the years, it is still a great pastime for almost every American, to watch and to play. For more information on the history of baseball, a good place to look is the blog of Aaron Matthew Breslow.

See Also:

[Via Recreation & Sports]

ะพ 2:45 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)