Emergence of baseball

The tradition of bat-and-ball games played by youngmen and boys before the 1840s and 1850s evolved into the popular pastime of baseball，which emerged as the premier sport in the United States by the latter part of the nineteenth century.Alexander Cartwright，a bank clerk and secretary of the New York Knickerbockers5 baseball club，recorded the rules in 1845 and as a result has been accorded the title“Father of American Baseball.”This“manly”game，as it came to be heralded by followers，was played by fellow clerks，tradesmen，and laborers，but not，at this time，by professional baseball players.The early rules of baseball，as codified by the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club，established in baseball a key element of modern sport，and some other teams adapted the club's rules.Cartwright put forward the field for baseball in the shape of a diamond and placed bases 90 feet（27.4 meters）apart at the corners.

Various versions of the baseball rules abounded，with the Knickerbocker Rules or others being played in baseball games in sundry towns and cities，especially in the Northeast.New York businessmen and newspapers appeared，they carried with them their local sport，and with New York gaining prominence as the largest and most powerful city in the United States，itwas also exporting and promoting its native sport as the American national pastime.

7-3　A lexander Cartw right

7-4　A Diamond Shape Baseball Field

By turning the field diagram to create a diamond shape，Cartwright created equal distances between all bases.In 1858，22 clubs in the New York area organized an affiliation grandiosely titled the National Association of Base Ball Players，which adhered to amateur guidelines.