Transcript: Baseball is known as America's Pastime, and it just so happens to be my favorite sport, so when I saw this assignment I knew I wanted to present my favorite sport baseball. The History of baseball is a long and confusing one, games that mimic baseball have been around since the 13th century in Europe with the most popular one being Cricket. The history of baseball itself is a complicated one, it was believed that the inventor of baseball Abner Doubleday invented it around the time of the Civil War, but that fact has been proven wrong. We now know that baseball has been around since the 1700s but are still unaware of who the actual inventor is. The "Modern Age" of baseball is defined as post World War Two to the present day, and since the days of Abner Doubleday, we have seen the game change massively. The "Golden Era" for baseball occurred between the end of World War One and the beginning of World War One. During WWII 37 players would be late inducted into the Hall of Fame that went, and served in the military. Baseballs importance to the country couldn't be more important, President Roosevelt wrote a letter that asked for baseball to be continued to be played so that it could boost Americans' morale, and this is when there was an all-women's league was created, and later on, had a film made about them that was called "League of Their Own". In recent times we have also seen baseball bring the country together for example President George W Bush threw out the first pitch at the World Series in 2001 after 9/11, and David Ortiz gave a very emotional speech at Fenway Park in Boston after the Boston Marathon bombings. Also because of its popularity, it gained the nickname America's Pastime. The most important person to ever play the game is a man named, Jackie Robinson. Robinson broke the color barrier that was in baseball when he played first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Robinson went on to be one of the best players the game has ever seen and has even had his number retired league-wide. Baseball's popularity has decreased recently mainly because of how long the season is, and the games take close to three hours to complete on any given day. One of my favorite things about baseball is how romantic it is. What I mean by that is that in the most important moments no matter how big or small special moments seem to take place. Whether it's a rookie getting the call to the "Show", or there is a walk-off home run in game seven of the world series. There always seems to be a moment that every baseball fan can point to, or player and say that's why I'm a baseball fan.
2. History of Baseball
● Baseball like sports have been around since the 13th century in Europe, and have similar sports with
one of the most popular being Cricket
● It is believed that some form of baseball has been played in the US since the 1700s
● There is no known inventor of the sport Baseball. It was widely believed that Abner Doubleday was
the man who created it during the Civil War, but that has been proven to be false.
● The game has changed greatly since it became popular during the late 1800s
● Major League Baseball considers the Modern Era of baseball being post World War Two to present
day
3. The Importance of baseball
● Arguably baseball’s and what they consider the Golden Era of baseball was between the end of
World War One and start of World War Two.
● During that time we saw some of the games greatest players 37 players made the Hall Of Fame that
went into action in World War Two, and some made the ultimate sacrifice.
● Baseball was so important to the country at that time that President Roosevelt wrote a letter that
encouraged people to keep playing the game to keep morale high.
● Baseball has also brought people from around the globe and country on many occasions such as:
President George W. Bush throwing out the first pitch during the World Series in 2001 after 9/11, and
David Ortiz giving a speech to Boston after the Boston Marathon bombings (they also went on to win
the World Series that year)
● And after all there is only one sport with the nickname “America's Pastime”
4. The Greatest Pioneer of Baseball
● Jackie Robinson is the greatest pioneer of Baseball because he is one of the driving
forces that got baseball's color barrier removed, and has paved the way for baseball
players from all over the world, and of every race to play the game.
● He was a four sport athlete at UCLA playing: baseball, basketball, football, and track & field
● Baseball was his worst sport as UCLA hitting just .097 in his only season
● After his years at UCLA he joined the Military in 1941, and was honorably discharged in 1944
● Broke the color barrier on April 15, 1947, with the Brooklyn Dodgers
● In 1997 his number 42 was retired league wide, and MLB created Jackie Robinson Day in
2004
● The last player to wear the number 42 was Mariano Rivera who is considered to be the best
closer of all time.
5. Baseball in the Present Day
● Baseball’s popularity has decreased since the times of it being known as “America’s
Pastime”
● One thing that has affected baseball’s popularity is the time that it takes to play a regular
season game. Most games take just about three hours which for people today is too
long, there are also 162 regular season games that are played so people can not watch
for a month, and not a whole lot change.
● With all that last years World Series had more viewers than this years NBA Finals, so the
game of baseball is still alive and thriving.
6. Baseball is Romantic
● If you have read about baseball, watched baseball, or listened to baseball. You’ve prolly seen or
heard the saying “ How can you not be romantic about baseball?”. This saying encaptures baseball
pretty well
● Baseball has people that spend almost their entire careers in the minor leagues with their only goal to
make it to the major leagues, and sometimes you will see them hit a homerun, get a hit, pitch a good
game and it always seems to happen at the best moments
● Baseball in its truest form is just a kids game, and some of the best players will say you just have to
approach it like that.
● Baseball just has a way to give us fans amazing moments that we will never forget, and that’s what
baseball is romantic
