Baseball has been recognized as America's national pastime since 1850. However, regardless of how popular the game of baseball is, there are very few baseball fans who can answer the question of when did baseball start. That is partly because the origins of baseball are slightly muddled and also because the names in baseball that are so famous did not start coming around until the 1920s. This brought in the time of men such as Ty Cobb, and then grew even more popular in the 1940s when such stars as Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson started to play.
However, no matter how much Americans want to think that they developed and created baseball, the truth is the roots of baseball come from England, much like football and even soccer (which is known as football in the UK). A form of baseball, called Rounders, has been played in England since around 1744 (which is the first written mention of baseball). It was not until 1791 that the first game of baseball was mentioned in America. This game was a little different than the modern version as it was played on a triangle rather than a diamond as it is today.
It was not until a hundred years later that the first official baseball game was recorded in America and it was not until 1876 that a professional baseball team was actually formed. This team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings and they had no other professional teams to play against so that traveled around playing against non professional teams who were willing to play against them. They were very successful during this time as they had a coordinated team dedicated to playing the game of baseball.
There was also almost no professional league as in the late 1800s the National League and the American League were constantly at odds, working to steal players from the other league, creating law suits against each other and more. Finally they settled their difference, merged and became the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues making the way for teams to form and finding venues for them to play in and growing the popularity of the game that has every since been called the national pastime.
