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 The baseball is the second most popular sport in United States and one of the top ten sports played all over the world. Currently, in US only, more than 70 million people attend each year major league games, but the number of baseball fans is even larger if we take into consideration all the baseball leagues found in US.
Although the baseball popularity decreased a little in the recent years because of excessive popularization of football, this sport still is among the top attractions in sports betting. The most important competitions create a real betting frenzy each season and as the whole world recovers from the financial crisis is expected that the interest for sportsbook in generally and for baseball betting in particular to start growing.
The history of baseball is not very clear but the sport is part of a large family of related sports played with bat and ball. Other sports which come from the same category include cricket and rounders. Historians consider that baseball nothing more than a variation of the game of rounders, popular in England in the 17th and 18th century. The English emigrants brought the game in United States, becoming popular during 19th century. At first the game had no written rules and there were different versions of the game with different names. The first set of general rules for the game were created in 1845 by a member of New York City's Knickerbockers club, Alexander Cartwright. A year later , the first baseball game recorded in US took place in Hoboken, New Jersey. The New York team defeated the Knickerbockers, score 23–1, in four innings. In mid 19th century the game is so popular that many journalists name it the “national game”. In late 19th century baseball becomes professional sport as the National League is founded in 1876. The rules of the game were slightly modified and by 1905, baseball was pretty much the same as now. From this point on the baseball the good players started to earn more money and become famous thanks to the media which covered the baseball games. |
