The history of baseball began in 1846 with the first recorded baseball game between the New York Nine and New York Knickerbockers. Baseball turned professional in the late 1800s with the creation of leagues and rules standardization. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, integrating African Americans into the MLB. The late 1900s and 2000s saw changes to the game through the introduction of the designated hitter, expansion to the West Coast, and controversy around the use of performance enhancing drugs.

1. History of Baseball

2. June 19, 1846
• On June 19, 1846 the first baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ
• The game was played between the New York Nine and New York
Knickerbockers
• The New York Nine defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1 in 4 innings

3. The game turns professional!
• In 1856 journalists started referring to baseball as the national
pastime
• The first baseball club was created, the National Association of Base
Ball Players, which consisted of 16 teams
• In 1869 the league barred African Americans from participating
• The first professional league lasted from 1871 to 1875
• The National League was founded in 1876
• In 1884 overhand pitching was legalized
• All modern baseball rules were in place by 1895

4. Early 1900s
• In 1903 the first World Series was played between the Pittsburgh
Pirates and Boston Americans and the Boston Americans won
• The next year the World Series was not held, the New York Giants
refused to recognize the American League as a professional sports
league
• In 1905 the New York Giants reached the World Series, but this time
played in the World Series
• In the early years of baseball many players argued that they were not
payed fairly

5. Ruth and Racial Integration
• The dead-ball era ended early in the 1920s
• Strict rules regarding the ball’s size, shape, and composition were put
into place
• Babe Ruth, the first power hitter of the era, helped change the game
• In the 1930’s Branch Rickey, St.Louis Cardinals manager helped create
the farm system
• The first college world series was played in 1947
• In 1946 Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers becoming
the first African American baseball player to break the color barrier

6. Racial Integration and Movement to the
West
• Larry Doby also debuted with the Chicago White Sox
• In 1951 the first Latin American players, Chico Carrasquel and Minnie
Minoso debuted with the Chicago White Sox
• Racial integration occurred slowly
• In 1958 the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the New
York Giants moved to San Francisco
• They were the first teams to move west of St. Louis
• In 1961 the MLB moved to the west coast with the expansion team of
the Los Angeles Angels

7. Attendance Records
• After the 1960 season, pitchers started to become dominant again
• After 1968 season in an effort to increase hitting, the pitchers mound
was reduced from 15 to 10 inches and reduced the strike zone
• The first major league players strike occurred in 1972
• In 1973 the American League introduced the designated hitter
• In 1975 reserve clauses became struck down and introduced free
agency

8. Age of Steroids
• In 2001 Barry Bonds hit 73 HRs in a single season, a MLB record
• This raised suspicion of substance abuse, as many people believed a
person could hit that many HRs in a single season
• Many other players were under suspicion of performance enhancing
drugs such Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens
• In 2010 the games became mostly pitcher’s games at the runs scored
per game was at its lowest in 20 years
• In 2012 the playoff standings were altered were there would be 2 wild
card teams from each league