Most historians agree that baseball, America's favorite pastime, evolved out of an English game called rounders. In this country, the sport grew popular in the early part of the 19th century, often called 'town ball,' 'base,' or 'baseball.' During this time, small towns formed teams and larger cities formed clubs. Many believe that Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball, but it was probably Alexander Cartwright who, in 1845, created a set of formalized rules by which to play. Much of his early code is still intact to this day.

Cartwright had a team called the 'Knickerbockers' that lost to the New York Baseball Club in the earliest recorded game that took place--in 1846 at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. Around 1858, the National Association of Base Ball Players was formed from a convention of amateur teams that had met a year earlier. The game of baseball took shape rapidly after this formation. Though the Civil War put a temporary halt to baseball activity, the game was a welcome relief from the tension of post-war reconstruction.

Despite the effort to keep baseball an amateur sport, the expense of running a team grew higher and this made the pressure to win stronger. Soon, many players were being secretly paid. Baseball's fate was sealed by the number of games won by teams that paid their players.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings decided to 'go pro' and they recruited the best players from around the country. When the Cincinnati team won 65 games and lost none, professional baseball was here to stay. The National Association was the first professional baseball league, formed in 1871. Today, players' salaries are again one of baseball's most pressing issues, but their exploits are still great fun to watch in person, which explains the steady sale of baseball tickets every year, throughout the country. Whether it's seeing classic teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox or Cubs, or stars like Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter or David Ortiz, major league baseball tickets are the way fans connect with the heroes of our national pastime.

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