Baseball is an ancestral sport of more than 200 years which dates back to the beginning of the 19th century. Even if Baseball has been recognized for all time as “The American Pastime”, this sport undeniably finds its origins in England. He is even credited with origins in France. Monks were indeed playing the Soule with a pitcher, a beater and cushions from a 1344 manuscript or the Thque which we find evidence of practice in Normandy in the Middle Ages.
Nevertheless, it is admitted that Baseball is indeed inspired by an old English game very similar called rounders. Rounders is a close version of Cricket which is also played with a bat but with 4 bases instead of 2 in Cricket. The origins of Cricket go back to the 14th century.
A recent highlight recalls a Rounders match played in 1755 in a county in south London. An English book dated 1744 also relates the presence of another game made up of 4 bases, one of which is called “home”.
The practice was finally imported to the United States by Irish immigrants in the 1850s. The Americans appropriated this game and variations were even created: The Town Ball where the Round Ball. Despite its European origins, the Americans nevertheless claimed the modern codification of Baseball and the first championships were born in 1857.
Baseball became the first professional sport practiced in the world with the creation of a league in the USA in 1876.
The practice having undergone several evolving forms during the 19th century, England and the United States often disputed the paternity of Baseball. Eventually it became commonplace that the closest official inventor of Baseball in its present form is Alexander Cartwright, an American engineer, who codified the rules in 1845.
Since then, Baseball has never ceased to be played all over the world. This sport is extremely popular in many countries such as Japan, Canada, South Korea or even Venezuala. It is even considered a true religion in other countries like Cuba or the Dominican Republic.
