Baseball Training - The history of baseball


The origin of baseball

One of the most interesting topics to talk about today is the origin of baseball.  Over the year, baseball schooling has been up in the air about where the actual credit goes, but one things for certain, it started overseas.  Yes, America’s National Pastime is not from the United States at all, and can take its baseball management origin back to possibly the 11th century in places such as Russia, Germany, or Britain. 

Games like Lapta, Schlagball and Stoolball were originally played mostly by peasants in the backs of alleys where bookmaking was almost prohibited at times and frowned upon.  Even America played variations of the sport in the 1800s, like "Rounders" that seemed to be a game that was a cross between baseball and dodge ball.

Lapta, however, was one of the original games ever played that was recorded like one.  It has been around for centuries and today would be considered in the states as a mixture of baseball, dodge ball, and the 100meter dash.  Where teams of no more than ten players would line up on opposite sides of a smaller field of play.  One team would toss the ball, and the other would hit it with a "lapta bat" then try to run across the field and back, touching the lines before the other team could hit them with the ball.

Schlagball was another game that resembled that of "Rounders", then Stoolball began in Ireland and Britain with using the stick more as a defense then anything else.  One team would throw the ball at a target and the object was to try to keep the ball from hitting the mark.  If you got a hit, it was possible to score points by not running the bases, but rather darting in between them.  This is the oldest known game of the three, dating back to the 11th century while the other two were have known to be around the early 14th century.

After years of different names like Base, Town Ball, Round Ball, and even Base Ball, Canada was the first to call it by the name of baseball.  It was 1838, when innings were used, there were three outs per inning, foul and fair balls were called, and journalists would provide information on a pitcher’s "technique" that had never been done before.  The upcoming years would change the sport forever.

By the time 1845 had come around, a man named Alexander Cartwright, who at the time was nothing more then a volunteer fireman and bookseller, wrote new rules for the game of baseball.  His fire company played what they knew as the "town game" that had been played for years by children all over the streets of Manhattan.  Cartwright and a few others from his own baseball club decided to agree on new rules that could be tailored more as an adult sport.

Four total bases, a passed ball on the third strike, and runners could be called out by being either tagged or forced out at any given base, were just three of the 20 different rules Cartwright and his friends conjured up for the sport.  The first game played by the new rules was played in 1846, in which Cartwright’s New York Knickerbockers lost 23-1.  Three years later, Alexander would have to move to California and later Hawaii, eventually spreading the game around the country.

However, Cartwright’s rules still had flaws and as the game progressed the rules began to change.  It started in 1857 when the nine inning game was ruled to cut down on the time it took to score 21 aces.  Shortening the game seemed to be the theme when just a year later the addition of called strikes was introduced to the game.  This helped the game tremendously, especially with daylight, but it wasn’t always about making the game shorter.  When once it was an out when you caught the ball on one bounce, the rule was changed in 1864 to allow more hits.

The landscape of America changed over the next thirty-six years with wars and railroads, but the game of baseball seemed to flourish.  While rules were constantly changing, the evolution of gloves, new uniforms, different styled bats, different styles of baseball training, baseball hitting techniques and keeping statistics, baseball had molded itself, its players, and fans alike as America’s Pastime.  It continued to grow into the sport as we know it today, and left a trail of history to enjoy forever.

Names like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle, Nolan Ryan, that have touched the hearts of so many as fans, can now be spoken of in baseball schooling as some of the greats to ever played the game.  Even baseball management will be heard at times reflecting on past events and players that helped turn the origin of baseball into the game as we know it today.

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