History of Baseball Informative Speech

Did you know Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his hat to keep him cool? Did you know the odds of a fan getting hit by a baseball are 300,000 to 1? And did u know the shortest baseball player that ever played was recorded to be 3 feet and 7 inches? These are interesting facts I stumbled upon research, but I bet most of you did not know. There are many interesting facts that people like you and I don’t know about baseball throughout its history. Have you ever asked yourself where did baseball come from, who created it, or even ask what baseball went through in the past to receive its highly respected title?

We watch baseball games for the sake of enjoyment like every other sport but most people, like myself, don’t know how it all began. For the past week I researched various websites about the history of baseball and found interesting facts about how baseball was created, what baseball itself has gone through up until today’s date to earn the title of “The American past time”, and how special its Hall of Fame really is. Babe Ruth once said that baseball was is, and always will be the greatest sport ever played.

Baseball athletes and the baseball community as a whole continues to grow year after year as young athletes and sports fans gain respect for the hardship and practically year round battles players endure for the love of the game. From the little league series held annually in Williams Port Pennsylvania all the way to the major league, where every player has the same dream to hoist the world series Commissioners Trophy in front of their home crowd as they cruise the streets of their home city during the traditional World Series Championship parade. Baseball is based off of the English games of rounder’s.

Alexander Cartwright founded it here in the United States. He would host games at Elysian Fields in New Jersey. The first major league wasn’t created until 1871 and it was called the National association. Baseball began as what is known as the “Dead ball” era. It was a time period of larger fields, less home runs, and speed was a vital importance. The ball that was used to pitch with was typically used to the point where it began to unravel clever tricks. With that ball pitchers were allowed to scuff, cut, and spit on it, affectively being able to make the ball “dance” and harder to hit.

People put the end of the “dead ball” era on the 1919 season when Babe Ruth hit an unheard of 29 homeruns. People began to pack the stands to see the long ball, so owners decreased the dimensions of the fields thus increasing the odds of someone hitting a homerun. They also added rules to the pitchers against scuffing and cutting, and the balls were switched out more frequently too. The MLB didn’t start until 1876 with the National league and then they brought in the American league in 1901. The first World Series was held in 1903 with the Boston Americans beating the Pittsburg pirates 5-3.

Baseball hasn’t always been glorified as it was though. It experienced rough times in the 1940’s when African Americans weren’t allowed to play in the major league but thanks to Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, they eliminated the racial discrimination in baseball and outside the baseball world. Baseball has also experienced rough times during the WWII and Vietnam era. During the time of war, players would go and serve in the military and baseball would have to replace them with less talented players. But Upon return, baseball returned to its once prestige self.

The major league today consists of 30 teams. 29 spread across the U. S. and 1, the Toronto Blue Jays in Canada. We are now in what is called “the power age” because homeruns are much higher than what its worth and pitching is not as great. Every baseball player dreams to have their name put in the national baseball Hall of Fame. The Hall of fame is located in Cooperstown New York. Several feet’s are intoed there. 27 players hit 3000 hits in their careers. The most recent was Houston Astros Craig Biggio and only 3 players Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, and Barry Bonds have more than 700 homeruns.

But it’s not all about the hitters. There are great pitching sets Too. Only 2 pitchers have more than 400 wins and also there are only 4 with more than 4000 strikeouts. One of which Nolan Ryan, has 5000. So as you can see Baseball is a growing sport from the dead ball era all the way until the World Series today. Baseball has a long history. Understanding where baseball came from, what it went through, who created it, and mainly knowing its history and its impact it made is important to know in order to understand baseball.

Work cited Wikipedia contributors. “History of baseball in the United States. ” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 8 Oct. 2012. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. “Weird Facts, Interesting Facts, Fun Fact, Trivia, Photos and Videos. ” Weird Facts. N. p. , n. d. Web. 09 Oct. 2012. <http://weirdfacts. com/weird-fact/3240-baseball-facts. html>. “History. ” Baseball Hall of Fame |. N. p. , n. d. Web. 09 Oct. 2012. <http://baseballhall. org/museum/experience/history>.