Baseball Cartoons - peanuts, cracker jacks, and… softball?

Baseball is… America's Pastime.  
Softball is… where the ball is bigger, the pitches slower, BUT the egos are still MAJOR LEAGUE

Baseball’s history is a wild, winding tale that’s equal parts folklore, evolution, and American grit. Its roots stretch back further than the modern game we know, with influences from older bat-and-ball games played in Europe, like England’s “rounders” and “stoolball,” which date to the 16th and 17th centuries. Kids and adults whacked balls with sticks for fun, and British immigrants likely brought these pastimes to North America.

The origin story often pegged as “baseball’s birth” centers on Abner Doubleday, a Civil War general, supposedly inventing the game in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. It’s a charming myth—promoted by a 1907 commission—but historians debunked it. Doubleday was at West Point that year, and there’s no evidence he ever swung a bat. Still, Cooperstown got the Baseball Hall of Fame out of it, so the legend stuck.

The real groundwork for modern baseball came in the mid-19th century. In 1845, Alexander Cartwright, a New York bank clerk and volunteer firefighter, codified some of the first formal rules for what he called “base ball” (two words back then). His Knickerbocker Base Ball Club played a pivotal game on June 19, 1846, at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey—often cited as the first organized match under those rules. Cartwright’s innovations included a diamond-shaped field, 90-foot base paths, and three outs per inning—blueprints still recognizable today.

By the 1850s, baseball fever spread across the U.S., especially in the Northeast. Amateur clubs popped up, and the game’s simplicity—needing just a bat, ball, and open space—made it accessible. The Civil War (1861–1865) supercharged its popularity: soldiers played it in camps, spreading it nationwide. Post-war, it became a unifying pastime in a fractured country.

The professional era kicked off in 1869 with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly salaried team. They barnstormed the country, going 57-0 that year, proving baseball could be a business. In 1871, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players formed—baseball’s first pro league, though it was chaotic and short-lived. The National League, founded in 1876, brought stability and still exists today as half of Major League Baseball (MLB), joined by the American League in 1901. The first World Series, pitting the leagues’ champions, happened in 1903.

Baseball evolved with society. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw stars like Cy Young and Honus Wagner, while the “Deadball Era” (pre-1920) favored pitching and strategy over home runs—until Babe Ruth’s slugging revolutionized the game in the 1920s. Segregation marred its history, with Black players barred from MLB until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, ushering in a new era of talent and diversity.

Globally, baseball took root in places like Japan (introduced by American Horace Wilson in 1872), the Caribbean, and Latin America, often via U.S. influence. Today, it’s a cultural juggernaut—think hot dogs, seventh-inning stretches, and “Sweet Caroline”—with a legacy of adapting to the times while keeping its core intact. From sandlots to stadiums, it’s a sport that’s grown up with the world.

SOFTBALL - where the ball is bigger, the pitches slower, BUT the egos are still MAJOR LEAGUE