Beginnings.

Americans had played games that were in some ways similar to baseball since the colonial era. In the 1840s and 1850s affluent New York merchants and businessmen began to form baseball clubs. Alexander Cartwright in 1845 organized the most prominent of these clubs, the New York Knickerbockers. Under Cartwright baseball became standardized: he placed the bases ninety feet apart in the shape of a diamond, positioned the pitching mound forty-five feet from home plate, limited teams to nine players, and forbade throwing the ball at the base runner. The Civil War disseminated Cartwright's game throughout the nation as Union and Confederate soldiers alike routinely played baseball. In 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings emerged as the first professional team, and in 1876 eight professional teams formed the National League. NL team owners agreed not to place more than one team in a single...