Baseball's Development Into America's National Pastime
             In an era when people worked extremely hard day in and day out, to only make a meager living, people searched for something more. Men would work endlessly long hours and seek anything to release their tension. They would long for a hobby , or as some would say, a pastime. However, here in the United states there was yet to be such a thing. Americans desired a game to call their own. They longed for an American pastime. The development of baseball affected the countries economy, aided in the unification of the nation, resulting in it becoming the symbol for America's culture and society.
             As everything has a story as to where it came from, or how it came about, baseball has its own. It has been said that baseball was started in Cooperstown by a man with the name of Abner Doubleday, but that is only a story. According to Ken Burns in Baseball an Illustrated History he states, "The game's real past, like that of the country that claims it, is more colorful and more complicated. Both the nation and the national pastime are the creation of many hands from many places: the history of each is filled with low comedy and high drama,
             reactionaries and revolutionaries, frauds and bigots and genuine heroes" (3). The game of stick ball, town ball, and base was
             around for many years before it ever came official. The game was played by children, men, college students, and lovers of the sport alike (Burns and Ward 3).
             "Baseball's first recorded game was played at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1845" (Holway 13) The rules were vague, the men were honest, and the revelry was immense. With the birth of a new child comes joy along with many challenges and adversities. With the conception of baseball there was the same. America was in a time were it was starting to grow, mature, and develop. Baseball was exactly the same. As the game invented within itself, m...