Although it is clear that modern baseball developed in North America, the exact origin of the game is difficult to determine. Most scholars believe that baseball evolved from a variety of similar games that have been played for centuries. A popular legend claims that Abner Doubleday, who was a Union officer during the American Civil War (1861-1865), invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. But there is little support for this story.
There is evidence that people played games involving a stick and a ball since the early days of civilization. Ancient cultures in Persia, Egypt, and Greece played stick-and-ball games for recreation and as part of certain ceremonies. Games of this type had spread throughout Europe by the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) and became popular in a variety of forms. Europeans brought stick-and-ball games to the American colonies as early as the 1600s. Until the late 1700s, however, they were widely considered children’s games.
By the early 1800s, a variety of stick-and-ball games had become popular in North America. Most of these games originated in England. Many people in northeastern cities such as Boston, New York, and Philadelphia played cricket, a traditional game of English aristocrats. But an English game called rounders, which was eventually played in rural and urban communities throughout North America, most closely resembled modern baseball.
Rounders called for a batter to strike a ball and run around bases without being put out. Balls that were caught on the fly, or in some cases after one bounce, were commonly outs. Rounders also involved the practice of plugging, soaking, or stinging, in which fielders could put runners out by throwing the ball at them as they ran between bases. The rules of rounders varied widely from place to place, and people used various names to describe it, including town ball, one o’ cat, and base ball (which was eventually shortened to baseball).
Source: Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia.
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Baseball History