United States baseball history can be traced to the 18th century, when amateurs played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules. The popularity of the sport inspired the semi and fully professional baseball clubs in the 1860s. Within ten years American newspapers were referring to baseball as the country’s “National Pastime”. The first attempt at forming an organized major league produced the National Association, which lasted from 1871 to 1875. In response to problems with the National Association, the current National League was formed. In 1901, after a series of rival leagues failed, the American League, evolving from the minor Western League of 1893, was created.
In the very early part of the 20th century, baseball rules and equipment favored the inside game. That game was played more violently and aggressively than it is today. This period ended in the 1920s with several changes that gave increasing advantages to hitters. In the largest parks, the outfield fences were moved in closer to the infield. The strict enforcement of new rules governing the shape, dimensions and construction of the ball caused it to travel farther when hit.
The first professional black baseball club was the Cuban Giants. It was organized in 1885. From then on, additional professional black baseball clubs played each other independently, without an official league to organize the sport. In 1920 a former player named Rube Foster founded the Negro national League. A second league, the Eastern Colored League, was established in 1923. These leagues became known as the Negro Leagues. These leagues never had any formal overall structure comparable to the Major Leagues. The Negro National League did well until 1930, but folded shortly after the stock market collapse in 1929.
From 1942 to 1948 the Negro League World Series was revived. This was the golden era of Negro League baseball, a time when it produced some of its greatest stars. In 1947, Jackie Robinson signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the color barrier that had prevented talented black players from entering the major leagues. Although the transformation didn’t happen overnight, baseball has since become a colorblind sport. In 1948, the Negro Leagues faced financial difficulties that put an end to their existence.
Pitchers dominated the game in the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 the designated hitter rule was adopted by the American League, while in the National League pitchers still bat for themselves to this day. The DH rule now constitutes the primary difference between the two leagues. During the late 1960s, the baseball players union became strong. Conflicts between owners and the players’ union led to major work stoppages in 1972, 1981, and 1994. In the 1994 baseball strike, the World Series was cancelled. That game was not settled until the spring of 1995. After that strike, functions that had been administered separately by the two major leagues’ administrations were comined under major league baseball.
