stumbleupon Email Comment The information is derived from those websites which are being browsed most in the United States of America. (The websites concerned with the individual sports are taken into consideration). The list shows which sports the people of a specific country watch and not necessarily the sports they play. #1. Football In America the term “Football” is basically used for the American Football. The competitions of the highest levels are organized under the NFL (the National Football League). It is particularly popular in specific areas of the United States which include the Southern areas (Texas, Florida) and the Western Areas (California). #2 Baseball Also known as the national pastime of the United States, Baseball is the most popular sport in the country. Speaking broadly there are two levels of competitions – the minor league baseball and the major league baseball or MLB. These league competitions are not only watched in the US but also around the world over. #3 Basketball After the baseball and the American Football the next most closely followed game in the United States is Basketball. The NBA (National Basketball Association), just like the MLB and the NFL are not only being watched in the US but are popular around the world. It is mostly popular in the eastern and the northern regions of the United States.

#4 Hockey It is among the most popular sports in the US. #5 Soccer America is one of those very few countries where Soccer does not hold the top position in terms of popularity. Soccer is regarded as the most popular sports in the world in terms of viewership and participation although it is not that much popular in the US. However it is gaining popularity in the school based programs as about 380,000 boys and 340,000 girls participated in it during the 2008 as per the U.S Census. #6 Golf Golf is the sixth when it comes to popularity in the USA as Tiger Woods is the most popular Golfing athlete presently. #7 Tennis Next in line comes Tennis or Lawn Tennis. In this sport the US also has a great record. #8 Motorsports The Motorsports including auto-car and the motorcycle racing come next line in terms of it’s following among the people in the United States. #9 Pro Wrestling Wrestling comes next as the most popular in the United States. #10 Martial Arts The youngsters in the US are developing liking for the marital arts and that is why it has crept into the top 10 most popular sports in the United States.

243 Shares Is Baseball Still the National Pastime? CLEARANCE Is Baseball Still the National Pastime? News alert: Football is now our new national pastime. At least that was the message in an article from Bloomberg.com in April 2015. The article headline read, Move Over Baseball: New Bloomberg Politics Poll Shows That 67% of Americans Now Say Football Is National Pastime. Yes, two out of three people surveyed said baseball’s reign as “the National Pastime” titleholder is over. And if you read opinions online, many sportswriters and commentators agree with that assessment—it seems that sports fans of all types have felt that way for years, if not decades. But do you believe baseball is no longer the National Pastime? Is it true? What’s in a name? Baseball has long been a sport of nicknames for players and teams. Babe Ruth is the Sultan of Swat, Lou Gehrig is the Iron Horse and Pete Rose is Charlie Hustle. The 1927 Yankees were Murderers’ Row, the 1934 Cardinals were the Gashouse Gang, the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s were Dem Bums.

And baseball in America has forever been called the National Pastime. The term “national pastime” was first linked to baseball in print long ago…as far back as 1856. That’s a couple of centuries ago. At that time, baseball was growing in popularity across the country and was played by people of all ages and just about anywhere the game could be played. Playing baseball was fun and so was watching others play the game. As time went by, “National Pastime” started to appear in articles written by journalists of the day. And although baseball was never named the official national sport of the United States, it easily became known as the National Pastime. (For the record, the U.S.A. does not have an official national sport as many countries do.) But now people say that baseball shouldn’t be able to use that long-held title. Today, as the poll indicates, a majority of sports fans say football (especially NFL football) is America’s national pastime. And they’re fairly convinced there’s no real need for a debate about it. In their opinion, the majority of Americans sports fans prefer to watch football to baseball. End of story. Case closed. Not even close.

Baseball: Pastime…or past its time? Just in case you’re wondering, here’s one dictionary definition of pastime: “An activity that you enjoy doing during your free time.” That name became associated with baseball because people across the country were captivated by playing or watching baseball games in person or by reading accounts of it in newspapers. For anybody who has followed the game or followed a team, you know that baseball’s past is tied to spirit of the game. Many of today’s baseball fans remember baseball’s past, going back three or four decades or more. (Just ask any Boston Red Sox fan.) Baseball fans remember the players, the teams they were on, the plays they made and the exciting games. They also recall games that were meaningful at certain times in our nation’s history. They remember when significant records fell and when long-suffering teams finally tasted some success. If football fans get excited about a game, baseball fans celebrate the game itself. We don’t just enjoy a few games—we enjoy the history of it. In 1994, Ken Burns, the famous documentarian, chose Baseball as his next topic to focus on.

The nine-part series covered the history of the game, dealing mostly with its past and less on its present. That’s what made it so interesting. To baseball fans, at least. Baseball is stuck in the past. And yet, those who want to steal the national pastime title away say that baseball’s history is the problem. Baseball is about the past, not about what’s exciting and entertaining today. Baseball doesn’t keep up with today’s fans who want more action, greater excitement and genuine competition. Football fans care only about action on the field in a big game, not history lessons. And they get precisely that once a year in a very big way. The Super Bowl and big television ratings. Many fans point to television ratings for the Super Bowl and say that’s evidence enough that pro football is the new national pastime. The numbers are on their side. Virtually all of the most-viewed television shows or events in history are Super Bowl Games. Last year’s Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots game drew 168 million viewers. Every year, total viewership and market share grow.

By comparison, Major League Baseball’s numbers on TV aren’t as impressive: Last year’s World Series between the Giants and the Royals averaged fewer than 14 million viewers per game. That’s under 100 million for the seven-game series. Not so fast. Football-only fans would like everyone else to think that baseball is dead. But in 2015, baseball is as popular as ever. Attendance at most parks is still high and the revenue teams generate is strong. Every year, baseball fans still look forward to Opening Day, still go to Spring Training games in March that are “meaningless.” Across the country, people of all ages still play baseball (and softball)…probably more so than they play a friendly game of football. And for a variety of factors, including competitive balance and exciting pennant races, the past decade of professional baseball has produced all 10 of the best-attended seasons in Major League Baseball history. Then-commissioner Bud Selig had this to say about the 2014 season: “Once again, I’d like to thank our great fans for their continued enthusiasm and support over the last decade and beyond.

I join our fans in looking forward to another magnificent Postseason and all the best of our National Pastime.” News alert: Baseball isn’t football. It doesn’t seem logical to give football the national pastime title simply because it draws millions of viewers on television for Super Bowl Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday is also the day more avocados (guacamole) are consumed than any other day of the year, but that doesn’t make the avocado the greatest fruit in the country. One report even revealed that 96% of those who say they prefer football to baseball have never been to an NFL game. That has to make you wonder if television ratings are all it takes for football to become the national pastime? Football fans put down baseball simply because it isn’t football, as if football is the better sport because of it. Football is exciting to watch, yet it is a hard-hitting, violent game. Many coaches compare being on a football team, and striving to win, to being part of the military. It takes sacrifice, guts and determination to win. The late comedian George Carlin had this incredibly insightful and funny routine that compared football to baseball.

His observed that football has a military war-type sensibility about it (long bombs, field general, blitzes, sudden death, helmets) while baseball terms suggest a friendly game (parks, diamonds, heading home, home runs, extra innings, ball caps). Baseball is a more leisurely sport, but it’s still competitive. It has a long history and it’s still played by people of all ages. It’s still popular with fans who very likely enjoy watching baseball and football. Many true baseball fans probably watch football every Sunday and the Super Bowl every February. They like both games for different reasons. Baseball is the National Pastime because that’s what it was named more than 150 years ago. People watched it or played it to pass the time leisurely and enjoyably. That’s still the case to this day for baseball fans. *MLB.com press release, September 29, 2014 Photo credit URL: What's the new national pastime? - CNN.com What's the new national pastime?

By Bob Greene, CNN Contributor updated 10:24 AM EST, Sun November 11, 2012 Bob Greene says it's been awhile since baseball has really been the national pastime. Today that title goes to multitasking. STORY HIGHLIGHTS Bob Greene says it's been awhile since baseball has been the U.S. national pastime He says life fragmented today; few things unify Americans as a shared pastime. TV once did He says Internet has further splintered interests; is computer screen new opiate of masses? Greene: New national pastime may just be multitasking. Makes you wish for baseball Editor's note: CNN Contributor Bob Greene is a bestselling author whose 25 books include "Late Edition: A Love Story"; "When We Get to Surf City: A Journey Through America in Pursuit of Rock and Roll, Friendship, and Dreams"; and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen." (CNN) -- In a country as splintered as the United States has become, can there be any such thing as a national pastime?

The phrase has been associated with the game of baseball since late in the 19th century, when sportswriters began dropping it into their stories. It was a great promotional slogan for the sport; whether it ever was literally true is open to question. But it would be just about impossible to make the case that baseball is the national pastime today; in a country of 314 million people, this year's World Series drew, on average, a television audience of only 12.7 million viewers per game (football's Super Bowl this year attracted an audience of more than 111 million). Yet the question is not which sport has become the national pastime, but whether any single activity of any kind qualifies for that title. Cohesion is not exactly the dominating quality of 21st-century life; we are endlessly being reminded of all the choices we have about how to spend our time, and the concept of the entire country gravitating toward one leisure-time activity sounds beyond archaic. Bob Greene If baseball ever was, at least symbolically, the national pastime, it was supplanted in the early 1950s by the rapid growth in the number of television sets in American homes.

Suddenly something was happening that had never before occurred: People all over the country were looking at the same thing at the same time. Most mornings, the main topic of conversation in offices, factories and schools across the continent was something that had been on all those television screens the night before. There were only three channels to watch in most cities, and perhaps an additional "educational" channel, the forerunner to PBS. The nation had a new pastime, and it took place indoors. The great majority of Americans who are alive today have no memory at all of a world before television. The median age in the United States hovers right around 37 years old; this means that half of all Americans were born in 1975 or later. The presence of television, to them, is as unremarkable as the sight of the sun in the summer sky. Become a fan of CNNOpinion Stay up to date on the latest opinion, analysis and conversations through social media. Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion and follow us @CNNOpinion on Twitter . We welcome your ideas and comments. And a newer pastime, as we all know, has emerged, on screens of a different sort.

To take note of how free time (whatever that has come to mean) is now being spent, all you have to do is walk down any street in any city or small town, and observe your fellow pedestrians checking the screens they grasp in their palms. But the hegemony of early television, with those three channels, is a distant memory. No one can take the public's attention for granted today; first the advent of cable television fragmented viewing patterns, and then came the boundless Internet, followed by the creative forces that provide the content for all those little personal screens. Apple offers around 700,000 separate applications, as does Google. A lot of ways to pass the time, in a nation with a twitching concentration span. Staying connected without a cell phone Open Mic: Is cell phone dependency bad? Church: Go forth and tweet And there is always something around the next corner. The same way there are fewer and fewer Americans who can describe to you what the country was like before television, soon enough there will be few Americans who will be able to recall a world before the Internet. It is hard to conceive, but social history tells us that the seemingly limitless array of ways to spend time today will before long seem constricted and small.

There is a famous and provocative phrase, translated from the writings of Karl Marx, that has been used in various contexts over the years: "the opiate of the masses." The concept of people being susceptible to a symbolic opiate of any kind remains controversial and current. Do today's Americans simply enjoy the screens they carry with them, or are they psychologically addicted to them -- is it a pleasurable pastime, or are they hooked? It's not an unfair question. (And as far as opiates go -- pharmacological and figurative -- the Wall Street Journal recently reported on an intriguing development at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, as explained by Rhonda Scott, Grady's chief nursing officer: "Grady agreed to double the number of TV channels in rooms and add ESPN because 'the requests for pain medication go down during the afternoon football games,' Dr. Scott said.") Our pastimes are many, and the very idea of a national pastime goes against the contemporary aversion to doing only one thing at a time. Although the very real possibility exists that, seemingly contradictorily, we have indeed settled on a new kind of national pastime: Multitasking.

“National Pastime” or “Flash-in-the-Pan”: Snow Skiing in the United States | Sport in American History Sport in American History andrewdlinden / 29 December 2014 In a 2014 double issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport , sport historians illustrated ways that various sports in the United States have been, are, and could be considered “national pastimes.” Baseball, American football, basketball, boxing, hunting, and horse racing all received scholarly scrutiny as to the sports’ potential status as national pastimes. As historian Mark Dyreson details, national pastimes are sports that generate money, but they also “play central roles in the construction of identities, local, regional, and global, but particularly national.” Moreover, “modern nations have used pastimes to animate patriotism and deﬁne the duties of citizenship,” while “participation in or resistance to national pastimes reveals the gender, racial, ethnic, and class dynamics of modern societies.” National pastimes both “reinforce and . . .

remake social and political boundaries” and, in the United States, they “have even invaded the constitutional debates over the rights of labour and the power of ownership, as well as in questions of the rights of equal access to pastimes regardless of gender, race, previous condition of servitude, or national origin.” [1] Because of the cultural, economic, and legal dominance of these sports, many consider them to be national pastimes in U.S. society. Many other sports—including ice yachting, ultimate Frisbee, air racing , field hockey, lacrosse—have not made it to the top of the American sport hierarchy, instead considered “fads” or “flashes-in-the-pans,” or they are constrained by region . [2] Snow skiing in the United States represents one of these activities. Outdoor winter sports present a conundrum for the definition of a national pastime. Limited by climate and geography, high-quality outdoor winter sports are only available to certain areas of the United States. Many winter sports have also long been middle- to upper-class social activities—a pattern that continues as equipment prices escalate and resort fees skyrocket. As a spectator sport, skiing has never approached national pastime status in the United States.

While alpine ski racing might be the national pastime of Austria, and Nordic ski racing might be the national pastime of Norway and Sweden , American audiences rarely pay attention to any form of ski racing outside Olympic skiing. Nevertheless, recreational snow skiing represents a popular activity for citizens in the Northeast, the Rocky Mountain West, and the Pacific Coast, as well as for affluent tourists traveling on ski vacations. Nevertheless, ski industry promoters have voiced aspirations on numerous occasions throughout the twentieth century to move their business toward national pastime status. Skiing can be traced back millennia. As the historian of skiing E. John B. Allen describes, in his book The Culture and Sport of Skiing: From Antiquity to World War II : Skiing as we know it today has utilitarian origins dating back six thousand years, which gives it one of the longest histories of any sport. Prehistoric rock carvings in northern Norway and Russia depict skis as necessary for survival in lands that were covered for much of the year in snow. [3] Skiing’s North American origins—as many other sports and recreational activities—rest in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Skiing first appeared on the continent when, according to skiing historian John Fry, in his book The Story of Modern Skiing , Siberian fur traders used skis to “cover their Alaskan trap lines.” [4] Skiing evolved in the second half of the nineteenth century when Nordic immigrants, working as postal workers, delivered mail across the cold Sierra Nevada Mountains and into California mining settlements. [5] Also called “Norwegian snowshoeing,” skiing spread rapidly in the Colorado region following the 1859 Pikes Peak gold rush that brought many Scandinavian Midwesterners to the area. [6] In its earliest years, skiing developed into an integral aspect of the Rocky Mountain economy. However, the importance of skiing to the U.S. marketplace quickly declined with advancements of railroad technology and the stock market crash of 1893, leaving the activity to grow mainly as a recreational sport. [7] Skiing became popular as local residents of old mining towns—both men and women—formed ski groups during the Rocky Mountain winters. Skiers at Snoqualmie Pass, Washington (1938). Courtesy of Seattle Municipal Archives (Wikimedia Commons).

Colorado ski historian Annie Gilbert Coleman, in her book Ski Style: Sport and Culture in Rockies , explains that by the 1920s, “Coloradoans had organized myriad local clubs, competitions, and spectacular events designed to draw skiers to the sport and to their communities.” [8] Skiing also expanded across the country. Ski clubs opened in Midwestern states such as Michigan and Minnesota. By the 1930s, skiing developed into a commercial industry as “ski resorts,” modeled off of famous European ski areas, emerged in New Hampshire and Vermont as well as in the Rocky Mountain region. [9] During the 1930s and 1940s, the sport faded in and out of national pastime status. While writing about a national ski exhibition at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, a New York Times correspondent explained in 1936 that skiing had “arrived” and that it would “doubtlessly . . . continue as the national pastime in the snow zone.” [10] Three years later, the arrival of the famous St.

Anton (a ski resort in Austria) ski instructor Hannes Schneider in the United States persuaded a New York Times journalist to declare that the “prospects for a new national pastime are bright.” [11] The sport had clearly blossomed not just as a popular winter activity, but as a prosperous entrepreneurial industry. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1939 that the business of skis and snowshoes “swelled from a $417,155 business in 1936 to a $1,236,585 enterprise in 1937.” [12] The reporter for the New York Times declared in 1940 that “[i]t was not so long ago that the word ski was foreign to the American ear”. He continued that “[t]oday it is a national pastime.” [13] Sugar Bowl Ski Lodge, Sierra Nevada Mountains (1939). Courtesy of Sugar Bowl Lodge (Wikimedia Commons). Geographic limitations, however, continued to limit the “national-ness” of this pastime. Skiing remained a Northeast or Rocky Mountain leisurely pursuit and a majority of resort tourists remained local residents.

The peak of skiing’s slow trek to national pastime status developed after World War Two when new and more efficient ways to travel—such as the interstate highway system and faster air travel—allowed skiers to go on resort vacations more frequently. The era of “modern skiing” developed from 1950 to 1972 as new technology enhanced ski equipment, significant international competitions were held in the United States, and hundreds of new ski resorts were established in the postwar era. [14] Chairlift Near Resort Condos. Aspen, Colorado, (1974). Courtesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Photographer: Ron Hoffman (Wikiemedia Commons). Yet, social class, gender, sexuality, and racial dynamics constricted the national pastime aspirations of the ski industry. Coleman explains that although ski resorts attracted local residents across all classes, unlike other sports, “outdoor recreation appealed largely to wealthy urbanites who had the time and money to acquire expertise, purchase equipment, travel to the mountains, and practice.” [15] The average skier in 1966, according to the New York Times, was “decidedly above average in education and income.

He [sic] is about 30 years old, skis often and constantly enlarges his [sic] wardrobe and ski equipment. In most cases, he [sic] wants quality goods and he [sic] does not care about the cost.” [16] The average skier the industry attracted, according to the paper, was generally male, white, and affluent . Accordingly, Coleman explains that the “whiteness, wealth, and sex, that characterized skiing’s consumer culture and resort landscape” illuminated the constraints of the sport. [17] Though women had skied consistently throughout the twentieth century, their appearance on the slopes consisted of conventional and generalized notions of white femininity. Women skiers of mid-century were relegated to roles as sex symbols and those that exhibited athletic ability on the slopes were in constant fear of “appearing too masculine for society’s taste.” [18] Skiiers at Pico Mountain, Vermont (1938). Courtesy of Forest History Society. Photographer: Bluford W. Muir (Wikimedia Commons).

Furthermore, in the 1970s and 1980s, organizations such as the National Brotherhood of Skiers attempted to bring more minority skiers to the slopes. The group explained that many black Americans wanted to ski, but nearly all skiing advertisement only included white skiers. [19] Moreover, “[g]ay and lesbian skiers,” according to Coleman, “critiqued resort culture’s heterosexual assumptions,” such as having ads that only promoted wives and husbands as skiing couples. In response, skiiers established Gay Ski Week at Aspen, Colorado, in 1977, and the event continued throughout the remainder of the century. [20] These exclusionary patterns of skiing relate to a larger problem identifying national pastimes. Many pastimes throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were constricted by race, class, sexuality, sex, and gender. As Major League Baseball held out black players until the mid-1900s and nearly all professional sport opportunities for women were stymied throughout the twentieth century , skiing too was a pastime for only the privileged in U.S. culture. Skiiers boarding chair lift at Aspen, Colorado (1974). Courtesy of U.S.

National Archives and Records Administration. Photographer: Ron Hoffman (Wikiemedia Commons). In the last quarter of the twentieth century, participation dipped as a result of the sport’s growing cost. “Middle-class skiers dropped by the wayside as the cost of lift tickets and the trappings of destination resort culture grew beyond their means,” explains Coleman. [21] Furthermore, other outdoor winter activities lured some skiers to change sports. Cross-country skiing, backpacking, and hiking became a less expensive hobby for those who could not afford alpine skiing’s upper-class mentality. Some ski enthusiasts became weary of the environmental damage done by large ski resorts. [22] A brand new rival, snowboarding, created “a whole new set of mountain and gear consumers.” According to Coleman, some snowboarders believed their new sport was an “explicit rejection of the ski industry.” [23] Participatory decline, the rise of alternate opportunities in the “snow zone,” and a continuing socioeconomic class divide on the slopes has turned skiing from once a possible “national pastime” to a secondary sport in the United States. All of these factors led to an overall decline in ski participation by the end of the century.

[24] In response, ski resort owners have had to change their market-approach in order to remain profitable. For example, ski resorts opened new luxury hotels, new family entertainment centers, and built extravagant condos and homes around the edges of the ski terrain. [25] Some resorts also began to accommodate snowboarders in order to attract a wider audience. [26] No longer do the entrepreneurs of the mountain resorts expound their aspirations of being a “national pastime.” A New York Times writer explained in 2007 that people in Austria “take their ski racing as seriously as Americans take their baseball.” [27] Americans take skiing seriously; but only Americans who are wealthy, mainly white, local residents in the Northeast or Rocky Mountain West, or affluent holidaymakers. And even those Americans invested in skiing only take it seriously as a recreational activity and not as a spectator sport. Skiing in the United States represents an American ethos, but only a certain outdoorsy upper-class, and socialite identity participates in the “imagined community” of this culture. Its aspirations as a national pastime—clearly visible in mid-century U.S.

society—deteriorated by the turn-of-the twenty-first century into a comfortable vision of niche sport and a popular vacationers’ pastime. Andrew D. Linden is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Pennsylvania State University. He is the co-editor of Sport in American History. Currently, he is the Student Member-at-Large on the Executive Board of the North American Society for Sport History . He can be reached at adl5182@psu.edu and can be followed on Twitter @AndrewDLinden . He maintains his own website at . Notes: National pastime definition by Babylon’s free dictionary Wikipedia Dictionaries English Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia A national sport or national pastime is a sport or game that is considered to be an intrinsic part of the culture of a nation. Some sports are de facto (not established by law) national sports, as baseball is in the United States and cricket is in England, while others are de jure (established by law) national sports, as lacrosse and ice hockey are in Canada.

These sports do not have to be necessarily the most played or most followed, which would be either association football or basketball in all but a few countries, but are widely considered to be important to the country or significant for its culture. See more at Wikipedia.org... CONTACT WELCOME TO NPA BASEBALL National Pastime Athletics is a leader in tournament and event competitions held throughout the United States. The organization, founded by Mark Heiser, continually strives to present creative and innovative sporting events for all ages and levels in Baseball, Lacrosse, Cheer & Dance, as well as LifeFitness Events. Our Team consists of top administrators who are experts in their respective sports. National Pastime Athletics manages events throughout United States. We target destinations that are participant friendly and that offer the amenities that athletes who are traveling seek, including; excellent but affordable hotels, restaurants, and attractions that will appeal to families and athletes alike. National Pastime Athletics consistently seeks out partnerships with sport facilities, youth sports programs, Convention and Visitor Bureau groups, sports commissions, and sponsors from the business community. Our mission is to place an emphasis on managing events that have a positive influence on the local community.

With this in mind, we proudly partner with local and national non-profit organizations providing theme based events that pay it forward to those programs and individuals in need of assistance. Our events are truly a community outreach. This is the DivTag Drag & Drop Footer. If you don't insert anything here, this gap will be hidden when site is published National Pastime Athletics Baseball as a National Pastime Baseball as a National Pastime Maryland State Archives e-mail: archives@mdsa.net Overview Baseball as we know it today began as a folk game in many civilizations throughout the world, but can be traced back most closely to England. Several alternate versions were played in Colonial America, including stoolball, cricket, and other "bat and ball" games. References to "baseball" can be traced back to 1791, but modern day baseball first came to light, according to many, when Abner Doubleday wrote the rules for the game in 1939 in Cooperstown, New York. Another version of the rules, this time written by Alexander Cartright in 1845, came about for the first official baseball team, the New York Knickerbockers.

By 1857, adult baseball clubs came together and created the National Association of Base Ball Players, forming the first official Baseball League. The National League of American Baseball Players would evolve to the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs in 1875. Until the 1880s, African American, "Indian", Southern and Central Americans, played in these baseball clubs, including players Fleet and Welday Walker. However, these players would be demoted out of the Major Leagues in the 1880s, and Major League Baseball would remain a "White Only" sport until 1947 with the signing of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Players were amateur players until the formation of the Cincinatti Red Stockings in 1869. By 1880, the idea of playing baseball as a career became the norm in Major League Baseball. In addition to the National League, the minor Western League evolved into the American League, and joined with the National League to begin the World Series in 1903.

The 1920s brought to light many of the Baseball legends such as Cy Young, Ty Cobb, and Baltimore's own Babe Ruth, known for their strong hitting skills in a time where hitting homeruns was not as common as it is tody. the 1920s also produced the Negro Leauges, created by Rube Foster. Scandals also ran through the sport of baseball, including accusations of throwing games. Proof that baseball had become a national pastime was clearly visible with the building of several of the great ballparks, including Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston during this time. In the 1930s, baseball playing on all levels continued to expand. In 1938, the beginnings of Little League comes together in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. By 1960 Little League Baseball would garner over 27,000 teams from the US, Canada, Mexico, and Europe, and its World Series would be televised nationally on ABC.

In Major League Baseball, the 1930s brought the beginning of the annual "All Star" game in 1933, and in 1936, the National Baseball Hall Of Fame inducted the first five players: Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner. World War II devastated baseball, as many of its stars also became immortalized as national heroes as they fought on the front lines for their country rather than in a baseball field. Such baseball stars turned war heroes include Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. In light of many of the Major League baseball players fighing for the US, women stepped up to the plate, and in 1946, the All American Girls Professional Baseball League began play. Women continued to play professional baseball until 1954 when the league was disbanded. Throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Major League Baseball expanded from being a New England dominated game to a Coast to Coast organization, trading teams and creating expansion teams to California, Seattle, Kansas City, and Texas, just to name a few. In this time, the St.

Louis Browns came to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles. Washington, DC, also switched teams, sending the first Washington Senators to Minnesota in 1961 and creating a new expansion team with the same name. Washington would only keep the second Washington Senators until 1972, when they moved to become the Texas Rangers. The current move by the Montreal Expos to Washington in 2005 is the first move of a professional team since the Senators left for Texas. Baseball players fought and struck for their rights in two devastating strikes in 1981 and 1994, both of which deterred many spectators from the game. The strike in 1981 caused 713 Major League games to be cancelled while players and owners argued over the rights of players to be free agents. in 1994, players struck most of the season, forcing the cancellation of the World Series, the only time it has been cancelled in its history. Players struck over salary caps in their contracts.

However horrible the strikes, baseball and Americans' love of the game helped it to recover, and throughout the 1980s, professional baseball hit several highs, including the breaking of Ty Cobb's record by Pete Rose in 1986 who achieved a total of 4,256 hits in his career. Major League baseball took longer to recover after the 1994 strike, having lost many of its fanbase when cancelling the World Series. Baseball earned its place in Americans' hearts when Baltimore's Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutively played games. Ripken broke the 2,130 game record in September of 1995, a memory that lives in the hearts of not only Baltimorians, but baseball fans around the country. By 1995, Little League and children's baseball had also grown tremendously. Several of the modern Major League Baseball Players were graduates of the Little League program, including Jason Varitek, Marc Pisciotta, Dan Wilson and Derek Bell. Other notable celebrities, including Kareem Abdul-Jabar, Tom Selleck, George Will, and President George W. Bush, also graduated from Little League Baseball.

Little League also expanded to include a girls league, Big, Junior, Senior, and Challenged Leagues to accommodate children who had grown out of Little League, as well as mentally and physically handicapped children. Dwight D. Eisenhower, and later John F. Kennedy, pronounced a "National Little League Week" in June and by 1964, Little League earned a Federal Charter from the US Congress. Little League International hosts teams and leagues from over 100 countries by 2000. Baseball as a sport is more widely organized in the US than any other game, and in numbers of ticket buyers per year, baseball is also the most widely spectated sport, not including television audiences. Whether truly an American invention by Abner Doubleday, or an evolution from other stick and ball games from England and other civilizations, Baseball is truly an American sport, and our national pastime. National History Standards Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades K-4: STANDARD 2: The history of students’ own local community and how communities in North America varied long ago. Standard 2A: The student understands the history of his or her local community.

K-4: Identify historical figures in the local community and explain their contributions and significance. [Assess the importance of the individual in history] Materials compiled in this document can be used by educators to fulfill the following National History Standards for Grades 5-12: Era 7: The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930) Standard 3: How the United States changed from the end of World War I to the eve of the Great Depression Standard 3C: The student understands how new cultural movements reflected and changed American society. 5-12: Assess how increased leisure time promoted the growth of professional sports, amusement parks, and national parks. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]. Primary Resources Secondary Resources Henderson, Robert. Bat, Ball, and Bishop: The Origin of Ball Games. Champaign-Urbana; University of Illinois Press, 2001. Sullivan, Neil J. " Baseball and Race: The Limits of Competition ." The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 83, No. 3. (Summer, 1998), pp. 168-177. Tygiel, Jules. Past Time: Baseball as History.

London; Oxford University Press, 2001. Ritter, Lawrence. The Glory of Their Times : The Story of Baseball Told By the Men Who Played It. San Franscisco: Perennial Currents, 1992. Zingg, Paul J. " Diamond in the Rough: Baseball and the Study of American Sports History ." The History Teacher Vol. 19, No. 3. (May, 1986), pp. 385-403. Password Access to Journal Articles Some journal articles linked to this site require password access due to copyright and other restrictions. Teachers participating in the Teaching American History in Maryland program with a valid University of Maryland (UMBC) Library card can access these materials through ResearchPort . Associated Heritage and Preservation Organizations (888) 848-BIRD Copyright and Other Restrictions Access to materials linked within these document packets is intended for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or holders of other rights (such as publicity and privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions.

The responsibility for making an independent legal assessment and independently securing any necessary rights rests with persons desiring to use particular items in the context of the intended use. Password Access to Materials The use of any user name and password to access materials on this web site constitutes an agreement by the user to abide by any and all copyright restrictions and is an acknowledgement that these materials will be used for personal and educational use only. In most instances, the username aaco and password aaco# will work. Contact ref@mdsa.net if you have any questions or have difficulty accessing files. Credits Teaching American History in Maryland is a collaborative partnership of the Maryland State Archives and the Center for History Education (CHE), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), and the following sponsoring school systems: Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Baltimore City Public School System, Baltimore County Public Schools, and Howard County Public Schools. Other program partners include the Martha Ross Center for Oral History, Maryland Historical Society, State Library Resource Center/Enoch Pratt Free Library, with assistance from the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress. The program is funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Education. This document packet was researched and developed by Samantha Howe.

An Archives of Maryland Online Publication © Copyright, Maryland State Archives, November 01, 2005

Question: What is the "national pastime" of the United States?
Answer: Baseball