In the United States, baseball is one of the most popular sports. Baseball is a game played with a bat and ball by two opposing teams of nine players. Each team plays alternately in the field and at bat. If players at bat hit the ball they have to run a course of four bases laid out in a diamond pattern. To score the player needs to go through all four bases. Of course someone had to invent the game of baseball. This person was Alexander Cartwright. He earned the title of “the father of organized baseball”. There are many famous baseball players that are very important to baseball. Some baseball players that were very successful were Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and Ty Cobb.
Baseball was invented in America in 1845, but baseball at this time was also similar to rounders. Rounders was a game played in England in the 1600’s. Rounders is also similar to dodge ball. Through the years, about the 1700’s, men in the American colonies played their own version of rounders, which they called it “town ball”. One man named Alexander Cartwright always played this game every Sunday. One Sunday in 1845, Alexander had an idea. He had a piece of paper with rules on it. He also had a picture of a diamond to show how the field would be. He called his new game baseball. Alexander Cartwright and his friends formed the first official baseball team, called the Knickerbocker Baseball Club. The first game ever to be officially played was in Hoboken, New Jersey on June 19, 1846. The game we play today still follows many of the rules that Cartwright thought of. Through the years some rules have changed. For example, in 1845, there were no balls or strikes. The batter would tell the pitcher what kind of pitch to throw.
Willie Mays was a great American baseball player. Some say he was the greatest player to ever play the game. He won many awards and set many records. He was the league M.V.P twice and played in the all-star game 24 times. Willie Mays was also rookie...