Baseball - A National Pastime

When I was younger, I grew up on baseball. During my younger years, my friends and I would gather at the same cul-de-sac every summer and play the game from as soon as we could see the baseball to when we couldn't. I spent hours just throwing the ball around and hitting at the cages. Through my younger years, I lived on the sport. Professionals were gods, and we were kings. However I eventually had to come to the realization that we all weren't going to be kings forever. Now that I'm a freshman in college all of us still talk, but it's different. We don't all have that common dream anymore. I love baseball, don't get me wrong - I actually made a fantasy baseball team. 162 games? That's dedication. Basically what I'm saying is, baseball is just apart of life for me. So it makes my job of writing a blog on it alot easier.

Baseball is just a really old sport. So old it has ancestors, actually: variations of the game exist are all over the world. But really, American baseball is what I learned, so I'll stick with what I know. The game can be traced back to the early 18th century, where a group of 9 players played something a little like cricket with a combination of rounders, both very British (and lame) games.  Over time it has been adapted, and it's still being adapted today, changing bat regulations and rules to adapt to the changing world. The first team to play baseball under modern rules were the New York Knickerbockers in the 1840's, and the game played as it is today didn't really begin to come to be until the 1860's when the current rules came to pass, the last major change being counting foul balls as strikes in 1901 (Wikipedia "History of baseball in the United States", Thorn, John). A growing, changing game, It took off in the states, eventually becoming one of the most beloved sports in the world.

The New York Knickerbockers, 1862. www.19cbaseball.com. 

There have been many - and I mean, like, a freakin lot - of professional baseball players, and youv'e probably heard all the important ones: Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Honus Wagner, Hank Aaron, Jackie Robinson, Nolan Ryan... I could really go on for forever. This instilled a feeling of hope for me, a good while long after I realized I probably couldn't ever play professionally, that maybe I could do something like they did. Obviously these old farts I just listed weren't my direct role models, but they were for millions and millions of others. I don't really think much more convincing needs to be done: It's a great sport that I love.

Opening day at Fenway, 2014. www.boston.com

Even now, game still grows today: It has been through wars, depressions, social conflict, political turmoil, even terrorist attacks. From the American Girls Professional Baseball Team during World War II, to Jackie Robinson becoming the first black MLB player in history (Not to forget his record setting performance in the Negro League), and even to the past few years in Boston during the bombings. I couldn't be more proud of what baseball has done for the world, especially this country. There were and still are problems in this world, but baseball has been there for all of it; and it stands for something bigger than a day at the ballpark. It stand's for America. So button up the jersey and go grab a beer, America. It's gametime.