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Specific purpose: Today I will inform you my audience on the history of baseball.

Central Idea: There are five distant Eras in major league baseball the 19th

century era, the

dead ball era, the lively ball and Integration era, the expansion era and the era we are now in

the long ball era.

I. Introduction: Did you know that over 76 million fans attended amajor league baseball game last year alone.

A. That is a lot of fans.B. While I am no expert on the history of major league baseball Ihave researched it extensively. And today I will inform you my audience

on the history of baseball.

C. There are five distant Eras in major league baseball the 19thcentury era, the dead ball era, the lively ball and Integration era, the

expansion era and the era we are now in the long ball era.

II. Body 1: The first era was the 19th century Era which was from the1830s to around 1900.

A. Amateurs started playing a baseball like game by their owninformal rules in New York City in the 1830s.

1. During the Civil War Union Soldiers spread Baseball around the states.2. After the Civil War New York style baseball expanded into a nationalgame.

a) With that The National Association of Baseball Players now calledMajor League Baseball was formed.

b) Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first Professional team.(1) This meant they were the first team to pay their players toplay and to charge fans to attend games.

B. The original rules were different then the rules of modern majorleague baseball in many ways.

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1. First Foul balls were not strikes like today2. Second Base on balls required 7 balls to get on base.

C. Also, Pitching was a lot different than modern pitching.1. Pitchers could not throw the ball over their shoulder.2. The Pitching distance was only 45 feet.3. Which meant Pitchers could finish about 90% of their gamescompared to about 2% today.

D. Batting has also changed a lot over the years.1. Batters could call for a high or low strike for the pitcher to pitch.2. Until 1893 batters were allowed to use a bat that was flat on one side.3. Home plate was shaped like a triangle rather than a pentagon.

III. Body 2: The second era was the Dead ball era which was fromaround 1901 to 1920

A. Baseball favored pitchers.1. Runs were scarce and homeruns were far and between.2. Pitchers were allowed to use altered base balls and throw trickpitchers.

a) Pitchers used the same ball all game, because a ball cost around$3 a piece.

b) By the end of the game the ball was hard to see and not veryround.

3.

Small ball was the primary method of play.

a) Batters main goal was to Advance the runner, and to steal bases,it was uncommon for teams to score more then 2 or 3 runs pure game.

B. The Negro league was formed in 1920 by Rube Foster.1. It was formed to answer to racial discrimination in baseball.

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2. It was never as strong as the major leagues and Collapsed in the 1930sduring the depressed due to low attendance

IV. Body 3: The third era was the Lively Ball and Integration Era whichwas from around 1921 to 1960.

A. In 1921 a cork and rubber ball replaced a rubber core ball.1. Which no longer aloud a pitcher to alter a ball, or use trick pitches.2. Base balls became a lot cheaper.

a) A new baseball was used every time the umpire wanted to use anew ball.

3. Baseball also turned to favor the batter.a) Run average pure game went from 1 or 2 runs a game to 10 ormore.

b) Starting Pitchers only completed a game about 50% of the time.c) Hitting became so important that Babe Ruth was moved frompitcher to outfielder, because his batting was more valuable than his

pitching.

B. Baseball became known as Americas pastime during thedepression.

1. Baseball allowed people to forget about their hard times for a couplehours.

a) Attendance skyrocketed in the 1920s and 1930s.b) Baseball games started being broadcasted on Radio.

C. Baseball went though some hard times during World War II.1. Over 100 players served during World War II

a) Including Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.b) The Level of play was greatly diluted.c) And Attendance to games went way down and baseball was indanger of having to cancel seasons.

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D. Integration of major league baseball was a big turning point inbaseball.

1. In the late 1940s The Negro league reformed to produce one of themost famous African Americans, Jackie Robinson.

2. On April 15, 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first African American toplay Major League baseball.

a) He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers.b) He was hated by team mates and fans when he first startedplaying, but won over peoples support with his athleticism.

3. Over the next 12 years every team in the majors integrated.a) With the Boston red soxs being the last team to integrate in1959.

4. The on field performance of African Americans was outstanding andwon over fans support very quickly.

a) Between 1947 and 1960, in just 14 years, 9 black players won therookie of the year award.

V.

Body 4: The forth era was the Expansion era which was around1961 to around 1993.

A. Baseball expanded from 16 to 24 teams in the late 1960s1. Including 4 new teams in California alone the Dodgers, Giants, Angelsand Athletics.

B. With this era brought the Shift of dominance from batting back topitching which called for more rule changes for baseball.

1. In 1969 the pitchers mound was lowered.2. In 1973 the American League adopted the use of the designated hitter.3. Also in 1973 the strike zone was reduced so it was harder to throwstrikes.

C. Television was introduced into the sport during this era.

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1. With the introduction of televised games, salaries of teams variedgreatly in the 1970s and 1980s.

a) Teams in bigger cities could pay players more money becausemore of their games were being televised.

b) Because of the difference in pay players wanted to be able tobecome free agents after 6 seasons so they could go and play for a bigger

city.

2. With games being televised and the growth of merchandise like thesebaseball cards, baseball brought in more fans and attendance to games

tripled.

a) Teams had to build new stadiums that held more fans.b) Baseball started bringing in more and more advertisers like NIKEand CHAMPION.

VI. Body 5: The last era was the Long Ball era from 1994- till present.A. In 1994 the players went on strike after MLB commissionerstalked about implementing a salary cap, to keep expenses of ball teams

down.

1. Players felt that a salary cap would reduce their earnings.2. They went on strike in August forcing MLB to cancel The World Seriesfor the first time since 1904.

B. Homeruns and strike outs greatly increased in the late 90sbecause of many reasons.

1. First, Ball fields were being built smaller, so there was more room forfans.

2. Another reason was Baseballs were being wound tighter, thus travelingfurther.

3. And Different bats were more conductive to driving the ball further.4. Last New ways of strength training allowed players to hit the ballfurther.

C. The 98 season as many of you may recall was the year of records.

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1. St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGuire set the all time homerun record with70 homeruns. Just Past Chicago Cube Sammy Sosa who had 66 homeruns in

1998.

2. Also New York Yankees set the all time most wins in one season with125 wins, included going 11-2 in the play offs to win the world series.

D. With the next century brought one of the biggest problems forMLB, the issue of steroids and Enhancement drugs.

1. The push from fans and the lure of more money pushed players to turnto steroids and enhancement drugs.

a) In 2007 the Mitchell report was released by congress explainingthe affects of steroids on athletes.

(1) It also released the names of 89 players who allegedly usedsteroids while playing professional baseball including several all

stars.

(2) It also criticized MLB for turning a blind eye to the use ofsteroids

VII. Closing: While there have been a lot of ups and downs for majorleague baseball, major league baseball analyst predict to have even more

fans will attend baseball games this year than last year.

A. With almost 200 years of baseball expanding 5 great eras from the19th century era and the dead ball era, to the lively ball and expansion

era to the present long ball era.

B. I am sure baseball will live on for many more years.C. To quote baseball great Babe Ruth, Baseball was, is and always willbe the best game in the world.

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Bibliography:

Wikipedia contributors. "History of baseball in the United States." Wikipedia,

The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Apr. 2010. Web.

19 Apr. 2010.