Baseball

“America’s Pastime”

The Beginning

Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, New York in 1839.

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 1856.

1865- 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 1888-1889.

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 1878.1908- Professional U.S. All-Star teams began to arrive in Japan. 1934- 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.1903- 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 1921.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 1907. 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 1920- 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 PlayersPedro MartinezSammy SosaGeorge BellPedro GuerreroTony FernandezJulio FrancoJose OffermanAlfonso Soriano*Manny Ramirez and Alex RodriguezTemporary 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)