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There has been considerable controversy as to the exact origin of baseball, many writers contending that it evolved from an English game called "rounders," still others believing that it was conceived from the very popular British game of cricket. While baseball is considered more or less related to these games, it is now quite generally believed that it was not given to us through an ancient heritage but rather evolved in a more or less natural fashion out of the use of various types of bats and balls.

In 1907, a commission was appointed to study all available material and determine, as near as possible, the exact origin of baseball. After much serious study, the commission, consisting of outstanding leaders in the sport at that time, concluded that baseball originated in the United States; that Abner Doubleday of Cooperstown, New York, devised the game in 1839; that a Mr. Wadsworth presented, in 1845, a diagram of the playing field to a Mr. Curry, President of the Knickerbocker Club of New York; and that Mr. Curry assisted in drafting, in 1845, the first published rules of baseball. In September of the same year, Alexander J. Cartwright promoted the first recorded organization of baseball players in the world; namely, the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York. Mr. Cartwright is also given credit by many authorities as the designer of the "baseball square," later called a "baseball diamond."

The number of baseball teams gradually increased until the time of the Civil War when interest declined because many of the young men were called to arms. What seemed, at first, to be a retarding factor was, in reality, a reviver of interest, for numerous teams were formed in the army training camps. Up to this time most of the organized teams had been in the east but these newly made enthusiasts were laying a foundation and spreading the game to all sections of the country until it became nationalized, even tending to soothe the sectional animosities that followed the war. Because of the many participants, not only as players but spectators as well, baseball became and still is known as America's National Sport.

Because of its ever-increasing popularity, there arose a desire for a variation in the game so that it could be played indoors during the winter months. One Thanksgiving Day a group of men were assembled in a gymnasium and, just in fun, one of them threw a boxing glove which was struck with a broom by another of the group. This was a challenge for an informal game which proved so interesting that one of the men offered to devise some rules and to prepare more efficient equipment for a future contest. As a consequence, indoor baseball was originated in 1887 by George W. Hancock of the Farragut Boat Club of Chicago. The game was immediately successful and like regulation baseball soon spread all over the country where large enough indoor facilities were available.