Baseball is a bat and ball sport played on a field by two teams playing against each other. It was created in 1839 by a war hero named Abner Doubleday. The first ever baseball game took place in New Jersey at Elysian Fields. According to the National Baseball Hall of Fame it states, “Often referred to as America’s National Pastime, baseball has had a very active role in the shaping of this nation. The Civil war to Civil rights and all points in between and beyond. However, going on to what mostly made it America’s favorite pastime was that the game baseball supports and reflects many aspects of America’s life from culture to economics and technological advances.”

Baseball wasn’t only attached to American history but also family history. It was one of the few games that most kids from all backgrounds play or used to play. Its a sense of memory as fathers have passed it down to their sons for generations.

During the early years of baseball, it was only white men who played because they didn’t allow African Americans. That all changed because of a fellow African American guy named Jackie Robinson. According to All about Jackie Robinson, it states, “On April 15, 1947, Robinson broke the decades-old “colour line” of Major League Baseball when he appeared on the field for the National League Brooklyn Dodgers.”

At first no white person liked him playing in the big leagues because he was African American, but as he continued to play he proved that all kinds of people who want to be baseball players should have an equal chance of making it to the big leagues, which they do now. there are lots of great African American players like Barry Bonds, a guy who is up top with the most home runs (762) in history. Another great African American player was Bob Gibson. He was known for striking out 3,117 people. He was the first pitcher to accumulate more than 3,000 strikeouts since Walter Johnson in the 1920s.

There have been a lot of great players and lots of great events in baseball. According to Top 20 Greatest Baseball moments, the best moment in baseball was when Pete Rose got his 4192 hit. In the article it states, “Hit number forty-one, ninety-two! A line drive single into left-center field! A clean base hit!” That base hit led Pete Rose to pass Ty Cobb in hits and become the leader with the most hits, he would then retire a year later ending with 4,256 hits. He would still have the most hits in the whole MLB history.

There have been a lot of changes this year to baseball in the way people play. Over the past century there have been people improving in the way they play like, now during the 2023 season there have been over 200 pitchers to throw over 100 mph (miles per hour) while back then between 1839-1973 there was not one pitcher to even reach 100 mph.  It wasn’t until 1974 former player Nolan Ryan threw the first ever 100 mph pitch. After that more and more pitchers started to throw 100 mph, with some even throwing a little bit more harder than that.

The rules were another thing that have changed over the years. This year there have been changes like a pitch clock. A pitch clock is how long the pitcher has to throw his pitch and if the pitcher hasn’t managed to throw the pitch before the timer goes off then it will be a pitch violation and the batter would get a ball. So if he had a count like 2-2 then it would be 3-2.

Another thing that has been changed is that the shift is no longer allowed. That means that all the four infielders are required to be on the infield dirt or infield grass with two players on each side of second base.

Prior to this year there was none of this. Pitchers were able to take as much time as they wanted when pitching and the infielders were able to be all over the place, like all four on one side or three playing on one side while the fourth played on the other side.

Baseball is still one of the greatest sports ever played in the U.S. It has also changed lots of lives, like people of different color and different race. Baseball is still great today but it would be nice to still experience it a little bit of how it was back then.