History with huey: Urbanization and Baseball

       The game of baseball has been around for years. The game was not always as popular as it is today. When the game first started it was not very common. This is weird to think about considering Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the world today. It is played in many countries across the world. Many factors went in to baseball becoming the popular sport it is today, but one of the biggest factors was the urbanization of America.

   From 1840-1900 The population of America had doubled. By the 1920's most Americans were living in cities rather than the country side. The population of New York city rose from 1 million in 1860 to 3 million in 1900. As the average work hours began to decline from 70 hours a week to under 60 a week leisure time became a lot more common than in the past. The rise of organized sports in America was because of the search for public leisure.

   The first official game of baseball was played in 1846 and it just took off from there. Until the rise of urbanization and industrialization in America baseball wasn't all that popular. The advancement in technology is what really helped the popularity growth of baseball. Railroads made travel easier and more efficient for players and fans, Telegraph companies began to send out the results of the games across the country, and the printing press made it more efficient to get news out about the games. Baseball games were originally not played on Sunday until 1892 when the owners realized they could bring in larger crowds on Sundays because there was no work or school. On June 6th 1892 Benjamin Harrison became the first president to attend a professional baseball game. The rapid growth of baseball lead to the installment of professional baseball.

        The Cincinnati Red Stockings were formed in 1869; they were the first fully professional baseball team. They toured the country in 1869 playing 57 games against many different amateur teams and they won every game. This accomplishment by the Red Stockings lead to the forming of many other pro teams and in 1876 the National League was formed. This was the first real professional league. Then in 1901 the American League was formed and thus the MLB was born. The First ever world series was played in 1903 between the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Along with the formation of organized sports came Gambling.

       Gambling had always been associated with spectator sports since the beginning. One of the biggest gambling events in baseball took place on October 9th, 1919 in the world series when the Cincinnati Red Stockings beat the heavy favorites the Chicago White Sox. There had been rumors leading up to the world series that a fix was taking place. Since there was no proof the event slowly started to fade out. This was until August 31st, 1920 when evidence surfaced that gamblers had rigged a baseball game. This lead to a further investigation into the "Black Sox Scandal". Soon after this event one of the men involved with paying the players to throw the game confessed his involvement. This lead to many of the players involved also coming forward. So in October of 1920 the 8 players were charged with 9 counts of conspiracy. In June of 1921 during the trial all the papers that would prove the players guilty were "lost". So without the papers, in August of 1921 the players were found not guilty. Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis baseballs first commissioner ban the 8 players from pro baseball forever. The most famous player in the Scandal "shoeless" Joe Jackson said he had denied the opportunity when asked to take part in the event. His involvement is still debated due to the fact that he batted .375 in the series which is an amazing batting average.

   Without the urbanization of America baseball would not be were it is today. The urbanization of America was the launch point for pro baseball. It is hard to say that a sport as popular as baseball was once not very common. The urbanization of America and the population growth lead to the formation of a sport that has and will continue to impact America in amazing ways.

National League of Baseball is Founded by: History.com staff ,2009. I used this source to find information about the start of professional baseball

The Cincinnati Red Stockings played the first professional baseball game 146 years ago by: Ben Cosman 5/4/2015. I used this source to find information about the first ever professional baseball team.

The Black Sox scandal, 95 years ago by: Evan Andrews 0ctober 9, 2014. I used this source to learn about how gambling in 1919 effected one of the worlds largest sporting event during that time.

Sports in American life: A history by: Richard O. Davies. This source helped me begin to connect the start of pro baseball to urbanization/ industrialization.

American History, A Survey By: Alan Brinkley I used this source to get a good understanding of the connection between urbanization/industrialization and baseball.

Baseball progression to the turn of the century By: Roger Weber. This article also helped me see how urbanization played a role in the start up of baseball.