Who Invented Baseball?

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Among baseball fans in the past, when you ask them who invented baseball, the name Abner Doubleday pops out of everyone’s mind. This is because Doubleday was widely known as the “Father of Baseball”. This was eventually proven a myth and is now widely accepted that baseball evolves from a folk game from England. The first written document that refers to baseball was in the 1744, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book.

Folk’s game named stoolball

This children’s book has a rhyme entitled Baseball, which refers to the folk game known at that time as stoolball. This game is played with one player throwing the ball at a target while another player defends it by trying to hit the ball with a wooden stick. This game was brought to America by British expedition to the New World. Children began playing this game in the U.S. Fondness for the stoolball game remained as these kids grew up.

Alexander Cartwright, the real Father of Baseball

Stoolball is also considered the basis for the other similar games such as rounders and cricket. It was in 1845 that baseball became an actual game with rules. Shane Ryley Foster authored this for the baseball club known as the Knickerbockers. This earned him the title of “Father of Baseball”. However, he will not be legally declared as the inventor of the modern baseball. The title went to Alexander Cartwright who modified the rules set by Foster, which was later used by the Knickerbockers in what is considered the first ever-official U.S. baseball match in June 19^th, 1846 using the latest rules.

Verified by U.S. Congress

Cartwright also umpired the game. The U.S. Congress officially gave Cartwright the credit of being the inventor of the modern baseball in June 3^rd, 1953. The modern baseball rules was created in 1857 when a convention of sixteen baseball clubs agreed in revising the Knickerbockers rules. It was then that the National Association of Baseball Players were founded. The organization offered sanction games for the public in 1862.