By the early 1830s, there were reports of a variety of uncodified bat-and-ball games recognizable as early forms of baseball being played around North America. These games were often referred to locally as "
town ball", though other names such as "round-ball" and "base-ball" were also used.
[9] Among the earliest examples to receive a detailed description—albeit five decades after the fact, in a letter from an attendee to Sporting Life magazine—took place in Beachville, Ontario, Canada, in 1838. There were many similarities to modern baseball, and some crucial differences: five bases (or
byes); first bye just 18 feet (5.5 m) from the home bye; batter out if a hit ball was caught after the first bounce.
[10] The once widely accepted story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839 has been conclusively debunked by sports historians.[11] In 1845,
Alexander Cartwright, a member of New York City's Knickerbockers club, led the codification of the so-called
Knickerbocker Rules.
[12] The practice, common to bat-and-ball games of the day, of "soaking" or "plugging"—effecting a
putout by hitting a runner with a thrown ball—was barred. The rules thus facilitated the use of a smaller, harder ball than had been common. Several other rules also brought the Knickerbockers' game close to the modern one, though a ball caught on the first bounce was, again, an out and only underhand pitching was allowed.
[13] While there are reports that the
New York Knickerbockers played games in 1845, the contest now recognized as the first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history took place on June 19, 1846, in
Hoboken, New Jersey: the "New York Nine" defeated the Knickerbockers, 23–1, in four innings.
[14] With the Knickerbocker code as the basis, the rules of modern baseball continued to evolve over the next half-century.
[15]