Baseball has had a long history. There have been good times and bad times. Historians argue how baseball was created so we will give our idea. Since man became civilized, kids and adults have played games with a stick and a ball. Russians had a game called lapta and the English played rounders and one-old-cat just to mention a few. Many people claimed to have witnessed a game of "baseball", but our group is convinced that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday in 1839 in the tiny village of Cooperstown, New York.

The rules were not really laid out until Alexander J. Cartwright, a member of the New York Knickerbocker Club, made up the rules for the "New York game." We now play a game very similar to this game and Cartwright's rules. In the next two sections, you will learn about rule changes from the 1860s to the present.

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Our group knows many changes have been made during baseball's history. Since there are so many, we chose the top 10 and wrote about them. Here are the five from the past.

1. If a batter gets 3 strikes he is OUT!

 This was very important for many reasons. First of all it was necessary to keep batting averages down. Players in 1887 had incredibly high averages because of the old rule of four strikes. Fortunately it was changed and now everyone is out after 3 strikes.

2. If a pitcher throws four balls the batter gets a walk.

This was another important rule. Pitchers could not purposely throw badly and not need to worry about it. This kept pitchers on guard, and the batters got a break.

3. You cannot change the ball, etc.

 Does this seem self-explanatory? Yes, of course. Well as you know pitchers used to change the ball. They shined it on their shirts, rubbed it in the dirt, and so on. That was pretty unfair.

4. But look at this loophole.

 William Doak, Phil Douglas, Dana Fillingim, Ray Fisher, Marvin Goodwin, Burleigh Grimes, Clarence Mitchell, Richard Rudolph, A.W. Ayers, Ray Caldwell, Stanley Coveleskie, Urban Faber, H.B. Leonard, Jack Quinn, Allan Russell, Urban Shocker, and Alan Sothoron are the exceptions to the rule above.

 This was a very unfair decision in our opinion. It is like saying one person can pitch a pitch, but another person can't which is pretty unfair. Even with this advantage these guys were good, but not as good as other pitchers could have been with this advantage.

5. The strike zone is from the armpits down to the area right above the knees.

 This was quite controversial and still is. Now-a-days umpires call the zone much smaller. Yet without this rule a wild pitch could be considered a strike. The area of the strike zone was changed a few times.

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1. There are two divisions in the NL and the AL alike.

This rule was modified but still has a pretty important impact on the game. This gave many more teams a chance at the playoffs. Next up is the modification made in 1996.

2. There will be three divisions in each league.

This is how the leagues are now. Baseball in our opinion benefited from having more teams, more playoffs, more upsets, and more fun.

3. A player, set off from others, will only get to hit and not have to field. This only applies for the AL.

This has given more players a spot in the MLB association. Some great players who were not that good at fielding moved to this position and became superstars. A couple of examples are Frank Thomas and Edgar Martinez.

4. The 2nd place team from each division that has a better record then any other 2nd place team gets to go to the playoffs.

This was pretty important. Many times teams made the playoffs even though other teams had better records then them. This made that less of a problem and more teams went to the playoffs.

5. All players must wear a protective helmet.

Now-a-days everyone wears batting helmets. Why? Well because you want to stay safe, and you are using common sense!

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In 1935 in Cooperstown, New York, the Hall of Fame opened in and the first five people were inducted. Walter Johnson, Christy Matthewson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, and Ty Cobb were the first inductees. After that more people were inducted, more records were set, and the Hall of Fame grew dramatically. Now there are nearly 250 people in the Hall of Fame along with more information than you could find in any baseball book. The Hall of Fame is an incredible place to visit especially if you love baseball. There are many exhibits to see that date back from more than a century ago. Outside the Hall of Fame there are many memorabilia stores and one of the first baseball fields in America, Doubleday Field. Our group strongly recommends you visit the Hall of Fame.

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