The Sport Of Baseball

Baseball is an offense/defense bat-and-ball team sport.Baseball, like softball, is unlike most other competitive sports in that thedefense is given control of the ball. The number of players on the field at anygiven time is lopsided heavily in favor of the defense, which always has nineplayers on the field, while the offense has between one and four. Each teamassigns nine defensive players on the field of play to face the other team's(the "opponents") players who are engaged in batting and base-running.

Baseball will be played by 7 inning or 9 innings (pro). Theteam with the must runs at the end of the game will be the winner.

From Alexander Cartwright to Derek Jeter, some of baseball'smost important figures have ties to the Garden State.

Alexander Cartwright is the father of baseball. In 1845, hedeveloped the basic rules of the game as we now know it. On September 23, heorganized the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York. The members of the clubtraveled to Hoboken to practice the game under his new rules at Elysian Fields.

On October 6, 14 members of the Knickerbocker Club took partin the first baseball game. The two sides battled for three innings withCartwright's team losing 11-8. (Box Score) Between October 6 and November 18,the club played at least 14 more intrasquad games in Hoboken.

With some practice behind them, the Knickerbockers wereready for their first game against a rival team. On June 19, 1846, at theElysian Fields, baseball was born.

The New York Nine annihilated the Knickerbockers 23-1 infour innings. However, things were not as bad for the Knickerbockers as theyappeared. Most of the New York Nine's players were originally Knickerbockerswho did not like to travel to Hoboken for practice.

 Americans began playing baseball on informal teams, usinglocal rules, in the early 1800s. By the 1860s, the sport, unrivaled inpopularity, was being described as America's "national pastime.