Sports in 60
Guides
History of Baseball
Watch How Baseball began on Sports in 60
A short timeline from the pages those leagues publish. How the leagues work has the championships and the clubs. Rules of Baseball is the way a game is played.
A game called baseball
Olympics.com says the earliest record of a game called baseball was in Surrey, England, in 1749, and that the sport was in the United States by the 1770s.
A professional league
The same Olympics.com page says the first organised professional league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, was founded in 1875.
The National League
MLB.com’s modern-era glossary says the National League was established in 1876. It also lists the American Association (1882–91), the Union Association (1884), and the Players’ League (1890) as the other recognised major leagues from before 1901.
The American League, and MiLB
That glossary says the American League was founded in January 1901.
MiLB.com says Minor League Baseball was founded the same year, as the developmental system for the major leagues.
The first World Series
MLB.com says the champions of the American and National Leagues met in the first World Series in 1903. The Boston Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in a best-of-nine series, in eight games. The Fall Classic became a best-of-seven in 1905.
The Federal League
The modern-era glossary lists the Federal League, from 1914 to 1915, as a major league alongside the American and National Leagues.
The Negro National League
MLB.com’s Negro Leagues history says club owners met on February 13, 1920, at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City and formed the Negro National League.
Jackie Robinson
MLB.com’s Jackie Robinson Training Complex history says Robinson made his major league debut on April 15, 1947, at Ebbets Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
The Commissioner's Trophy
MLB.com’s World Series trophy profile says Major League Baseball created the trophy in 1967, and that the St. Louis Cardinals were the first club to receive it. The official name is the Commissioner’s Trophy.
An Olympic medal sport
Olympics.com says baseball was a demonstration sport before it became a medal event at Barcelona 1992. It stayed on the programme through Beijing 2008, left, and returned at the Tokyo 2020 Games, where Japan won the men’s gold.
The World Baseball Classic
Olympics.com’s Classic FAQ says the inaugural tournament was in 2006 and was won by Japan. MLB.com’s 2026 rules note calls that year’s event the sixth Classic, with the championship on March 17 in Miami. That page reports the final as Venezuela 3, United States 2.
Negro Leagues in the record
MLB.com says that in December 2020, Commissioner Rob Manfred bestowed major league status on seven Negro Leagues that operated from 1920 to 1948. About 3,400 players from those leagues are counted as major leaguers.
The seven are the Negro National League (1920–31), the Eastern Colored League (1923–28), the American Negro League (1929), the East-West League (1932), the Negro Southern League (1932), the Negro National League (1933–48), and the Negro American League (1937–48).
Los Angeles
Olympics.com says baseball and softball were off the programme at Paris 2024 and return at Los Angeles 2028.
MLB · MiLB · NCAA · WBC · Olympics
Sources
Baseball softball at the Olympics