Baseball “America’s Pastime”

The Beginning Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, New York in A.G. Spalding influenced people to believe Doubleday was the inventor of our national pastime. Some believed that baseball evolved from the English game of rounders. Spalding traced baseball back to the American game of One Old Cat.

Our National Spirit Called our “national game” in President Andrew Johnson welcomed the Brooklyn Atlantics to the Whitehouse. Theodore Roosevelt saw baseball as a game for “mollycoddles”.

Baseball As America William Henry Taft- was a a former semiprofessional pitcher. Also he started the presidential first pitch. As WWII took place the National Anthem became a rule before each game.

Baseball Goes Global Albert Spalding owner of the Chicago White Stockings toured the World in Traveled to Australia, Egypt, Italy, France and the British Isles. Cubans were introduced to baseball by American sailors in the 1860s.

Baseball Goes Global 1873-Baseball was introduced to Japan. American college teams began to tour Japan in Professional U.S. All-Star teams began to arrive in Japan Eligi Sawamura struck out Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx in an exhibition game, however the Americans won 1-0.

Japanese Style The Japanese view of life stressing group identity, cooperation, respect of age, seniority and “face” has permeated almost every aspect of the sport. The Japanese play baseball the way they lead their lives-by following others, by submerging themselves in grinding Japanese collective and by not insisting on asserting themselves as individuals.

The Rise of the World Series An 1884 series between the National League champions and those of the rival American Association has sometimes been labeled the first World Series National League and American League Champions started today’s format for the World Series. Pittsburgh and Boston played in a best-of-nine competition.

The Rise of the World Series After 1904 it became a best-of-seven series, except for the brief employment of a best-of-nine formula from 1919 to The World Series began to offer a powerful challenge to the advancing football season. In 1915, Woodrow Wilson became the first sitting President to attend a Series game, buying his own tickets and bringing his fiancee to Philadelphia to watch the Red Sox beat the Phillies.

The Front Lines to the Backyard By WWII baseball was a national obsession. Both professional basketball and pro football were struggling to get established at the time. Baseball players who fought during WWII and the Korean War included: Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg and Bob Feller. Ted Williams devoted four and a half seasons in his prime to fly fighter planes.

Women and Baseball To compete at baseball, women had to alter their appearance. Amelia Bloomer invented the Turkish trousers that bear her name. The “properly dressed” woman of that time wore nearly 30 pounds of clothing most of it hoops, petticoats and skirts.

Women and Baseball Alta Weiss, a doctor’s daughter whose father bought her a baseball team so she could pitch started her career near Cleveland in She tried to wear a proper skirt but it did not prove well. Maud Nelson wore a true baseball uniform in the early 1890s. Around the 1920 the thought of women playing ball in proper dresses was crazy.

Ila Borders

Women and Baseball When the Great Depression came, softball and shiny new textiles and bright colors and fast underhand pitching and lights came with it. Philip K. Wrigley began the ALL- American girls Professional Baseball League in 1943.

Women and Baseball Jackie Mitchell, who was a 17 year old, struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig making her mark as a player in the semiprofessional and barnstorming. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League filled a void for fans in the Midwest during WWII. More recently the Colorado Silver Bullets, an all-women’s team toured the nation.

Ideals and Injustices For most immigrants, baseball embodied the “melting pot” ideal that people from many lands and backgrounds could come together and become acculturated in the American way of life.

Ideals and Injustices Jackie Robinson broke the Major League color barrier in 1947 and paved the way for many people. In 1997 Robinson’s number 42 was permanently retired by all the major league ball clubs.

Ideals and Injustices Today on the field, the game is thoroughly integrated: Native born Caucasians and Hispanics play alongside African Americans; athletes from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua and other Caribbean nations have joined Cubans on the baseball diamond. In addition Japan and Korea have entered stars into the game.

Bud Fowler In no other profession has the color line been drawn more rigidly than in baseball. As far back as 1872 the first colored ball player of note playing on a white team was Bud Fowler, the celebrated promoter of colored ball clubs, and the sage of baseball.

1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Judy Johnson were all great players for the Negro National League baseball.

Baseball and Ethnicity Irish Americans, the poorest of the old European immigrant groups, were baseball fanatics and saw baseball as a vehicle of social mobility. WASPS- White Anglo Saxon Protestants. There were just seven Bohemian, Jewish or Italian rookies in the years of 1901 to 1906, none in 1910, and three in and they encountered a lot of discrimination.

Baseball and Ethnicity Baseball teams integrated slowly, with the Boston Red Sox being the last team to integrate. African Americans make up nearly 14 percent of major leaguers today. Latin Americans make up over 20 percent of MLB players. (1 out of 10 are from the Dominican Republic).

Famous Dominican Ball Players Pedro Martinez Sammy Sosa George Bell Pedro Guerrero Tony Fernandez Julio Franco Jose Offerman Alfonso Soriano *Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez Temporary work visas for minor league system 35

Roberto Clemente Native Puerto Rican People tried to Americanize him by calling him “Bob Clemente” “Any time you have the opportunity to accomplish something for somebody who comes behind you and you don’t do it” said Clemente, “you are wasting you time on this Earth.”

Rules Nine innings and 90 feet between bases (1857) Dimensions of baseball (1872) Three strikes (1879) Four balls (1889) 60 feet 6 inches from home to pitchers mound (1893) Bat dimensions (1895)