Baseball: Baseball Timeline

Baseball: A Cultural Timeline

		1823	A letter in the National Advocate, a New York newspaper, refers to “the manly and athletic game of ‘base ball’” – 16 years before its supposed invention by Abner Doubleday.
		1856	The New York Mercury coins the phrase “the National Pastime.”
		1860s	Baseball comes to Cuba and soon spreads to other parts of the Caribbean. In the next decade, it arrives in Japan.
		1869	The Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first admittedly all-professional baseball club. The following year, with a profit of $1.35, the team folds.
		1879	Professional baseball adopts the reserve clause, giving teams the right to automatically renew a player’s contract at the end of each season.
		1885- 1889	Baseball’s first union forms. The Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players (unsuccessfully) demands an end to the reserve clause and salary caps.

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