America's Pastime

Often simply referred to as 'America's pastime'governing body of the professional league is
baseball trivia will show that there are few sportsknown simply as the MLB or Major League
as beloved by the American people. The game isBaseball. Major League Baseball became an
played with nine players active to a team, withextremely popular sport for the American public
one team playing the field and one team batting.to listen to on the radio, and Babe Ruth is largely
The history of the game is a long one. Ball andcredited as being the reason that it became so
bat games have been around in Europe in variouspopular in its earlier years.
forms for hundreds of years, and it appears thatA baseball quiz will show that it has been plagued
a game very similar to baseball was being playedby controversy in recent years. Although all
by the mid seventeen hundreds.professional sports have been faced with trials
A Baseball quiz will show that most historians ofregarding performance enhancing drugs, in no
the sport consider the first game in the currentother sport has this been as widespread as in
form to have been played in 1846. The gamebaseball. The other reason that this has been such
was played between the New Yorkan issue is because of the attention that steroid
Knickerbockers and the New York Nine, and ituse in baseball has gained in the media, with it
was only a decade after this that the gamebeing a major story for several years. The drug
began to experience extreme popularity.use scandal also called into question for many the
Baseball trivia shows that the sport has evolvedrecords which had been set by those who later
to become one of the most popular minor leagueproved to have been using.
and professional sports in the country. The