Baseball is called America’s favorite pastime, which speaks to the popularity of sports in the United States. It is also one of the most popular sports in parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting, which is the offensive part of the game, and fielding, which is the defensive aspect. The play starts with the pitcher throwing the ball and the batter trying to hit it. The objective of the batting team is to hit the ball into the playing field without the opponent making a straight catch, which allows the players to run the bases. The goal of the fielding team is to prevent batters from becoming runners and to prevent the runners from reaching home base. Each player that runs a full circle around the four bases scores a run.
The game of baseball evolved in England in the 18th century and was brought to the USA by immigrants, where modern baseball was developed. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery.
In the mid-1850s, baseball became popular in the New York metropolitan area, and the National Association of Baseball Players was formed. The first professional baseball team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings, formed in 1869.
The National League was formed in 1876, and the American League in 1893. The two leagues merged in 1903, forming the Major League Baseball (MLB), which is the best baseball league in the world and the oldest among the professional leagues in the United States.
The MLB is the second-wealthiest professional sports league by revenue after the NFL. Each team plays 162 games per season, with Opening Day of the regular season traditionally held during the first week of April. Teams’ schedules are mostly organized into three-game series sets of consecutive games between the same opponents at the same stadium. During the season, teams generally play games five to seven days per week.
Six teams in each league advance to a four-round playoff in October, culminating in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions, which was held for the first time in 1903.
The most attended game in MLB history was a preseason game between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers that took place on March 29, 2008, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with 115,301 spectators in the stands.
The New York Yankees are the team with the most World Series championships 27, followed by the St. Louis Cardinals with 11 and the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics with 9 each.
Babe Ruth is widely considered to be the best baseball player of all time. He played 22 seasons for the Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Boston Braves. He won seven World Series and led the American League in home runs 12 times.
