History Of Baseball

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate October 2001

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Picture yourself walking down a graveled path with your young children. It is human nature to be happy. Maybe you will skip or maybe even sing. To change the pace of things, you create something. For instance, a young child will toddle out to the road and inevitably reach down and pick up a small rock and toss it. It soon becomes a game to them. After some time it may become a personal challenge or even a contest with another sibling. See how far you can throw a rock. Try using a flat rock and see how many skips you can get before it sinks into the water. Now try making it more of a challenge by hitting the rock with a stick. A batted rock can travel farther and faster than a thrown rock. A contest has emerged into a game.

The natural instinct that drives boys to climb mountains, race cars, or compete in any athletic contest is also the same drive that it takes to aspire to be the best.

I believe that baseball came into existence in a very natural evolution of simple rock throwing.

No references go back past 5000 years ago to when the first ball was thrown. "History records that the ancient Egyptians, and later the Greeks and Romans, tossed balls back and forth as part of their religious rites and as a conditioning exercise. Some phase of ball-throwing activity probably goes back to the most primitive man." (1) The concept passed on from country to country. France and Spain were the first to employ a ball and bat. This was in the 12th century. It was a ritual that was continuously played after each Easter service. Participants from the congregation would become involved and would attempt to run up and down...