| Often simply referred to as 'America's pastime' | | | | governing body of the professional league is |
| baseball trivia will show that there are few sports | | | | known simply as the MLB or Major League |
| as beloved by the American people. The game is | | | | Baseball. Major League Baseball became an |
| played with nine players active to a team, with | | | | extremely 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 and | | | | credited as being the reason that it became so |
| bat games have been around in Europe in various | | | | popular in its earlier years. |
| forms for hundreds of years, and it appears that | | | | A baseball quiz will show that it has been plagued |
| a game very similar to baseball was being played | | | | by 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 of | | | | regarding performance enhancing drugs, in no |
| the sport consider the first game in the current | | | | other sport has this been as widespread as in |
| form to have been played in 1846. The game | | | | baseball. The other reason that this has been such |
| was played between the New York | | | | an issue is because of the attention that steroid |
| Knickerbockers and the New York Nine, and it | | | | use in baseball has gained in the media, with it |
| was only a decade after this that the game | | | | being 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 evolved | | | | records which had been set by those who later |
| to become one of the most popular minor league | | | | proved to have been using. |
| and professional sports in the country. The | | | | |