A Brief History of Major League Baseball

Baseball, like many modern American sports, started as an amalgamation of different styles and rules of play. From sports like cricket to regional versions of town ball, baseball as we know it formed as a hybrid of these games in the early nineteenth century. Clubs from different areas of the country played their own style of ball, and likewise it has been difficult for historians to trace the modern game to its true origins.

By the 1840s, amateur clubs rose up in the northeast United States and in 1845 the earliest known club to operate by modern baseball's rules was established, the New York Knickerbockers. The rules established by the Knickerbockers and other New York amateur clubs became known as the "New York Game", as opposed to other regions whose style of play faded out in favor of New York's.

Amateur Organization

In the lead-up to the American Civil War, sixteen amateur groups from the eastern United States gathered together to form an amateur league, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP). The club grew enormously throughout the years, reaching nearly 400 amateur clubs in 1867. The war itself helped spread the game across the country, and soon clubs all the way to California were a part of the NABBP.

In 1869, the beginning of the end for the NABBP came when the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first team to go "professional", or pay their players exclusively for playing baseball. While the NABBP reluctantly allowed professional clubs, they created a new category for these teams to segregate them from playing amateur clubs. The proliferation of professionalism led these teams to break off and form their own association, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, or NA for short.

Baseball Goes Pro

With the rise of the NA in the 1870s, the NABBP went the other way and spiraled downward into nonexistence. Perhaps because professionalism was new to baseball, this first professional association failed after only five years (1871-1875) due to unstable scheduling and non-parity among the clubs. Its influence would last, however, and in 1876 the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or the National League, was instated when an officer of the Chicago White Stockings (now the Chicago Cubs), William Hubert, approached some of the stronger NA teams with the idea of a league with better authority and rules.

The National League was established with eight charter members from the larger cities in America, two of which still exist today: the Cubs and Braves (known as the Boston Red Stockings, its name influenced by the now-defunct Cincinnati team). Part of the new authority included territorial restrictions, causing some uproar from other professional clubs that were forced to turn amateur or minor. Some of the clubs were expelled after playing local amateur teams to boost standings rather than travel to play the other League members. After a few years, only Chicago and Boston remained from these charter clubs.

League Rivalries

In 1882, a new professional league sprouted, the American Association (AA), giving the NL its first taste of competition. To broaden its appeal, the AA formed teams in cities not occupied by the NL and also went against the NL's stricter rules, allowing Sunday games and alcohol sales as well as cheaper tickets. Seeing an opportunity for more revenue, the two leagues agreed to participate in baseball's first World Series, with the two league champions pitted against each other.

Other leagues to compete with the more financially stable NL included the Union Association and Players League, baseball's first Player's Union. While both offered unique opportunities for baseball fans, these two leagues folded after only one year, with a few of the teams defecting to the NL. By the 1890s, the AA experienced financial woes as well, and was also forced to disband. Although some of their teams (the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Trolleydodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates) had already merged, the NL absorbed three more teams, of which only the St. Louis Browns (Cardinals) would survive into the next century.

Rise of the Junior Circuit

The NL had survived the economic downturns that destroyed the other professional leagues, and by 1900 decided to contract its membership down to eight teams, eliminating franchises in Baltimore, Cleveland and Washington. Seeing an opening, the Western League, operating as a minor league, took hold in these cities and began to formulate plans to turn to a major league. Newly christened as the American League, it quickly drew the ire of the NL, which forced the AL to sign a National Agreement. This agreement regarded the AL as a lesser league, but it was the only way for the AL to continue operations.

In 1901, however, perhaps sensing it had gained a foothold in the American public, the AL refused to renew the National Agreement and declared itself a new major league. Soon, new AL teams emerged in the already NL-established cities of Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis. After two years of ignoring the AL, the NL finally gave in and signed a new agreement in 1903 - an agreement that also formed the nucleus of a new World Series matching between the two league's champions.

The game of baseball has since truly established itself as "America's Pastime", and there is a bevy of history since the agreement of the two leagues that one could expound on. Baseball, just like its home country of America, has grown immensely, and through these traits the two will forever be inextricably combined.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baseball_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Base_Ball_Players