What is the baseball story and how was it invented?
developed from earlier folk games.
Although the roots of baseball are English, similar games have
also been played in other parts of the world. Oina is a Romanian
ball sport, similar in some ways to baseball. Russia had a bat and
ball game called Lapta since the 14th century. Germans played a
game called Schlagball, which was similar to rounders. A "bowler"
threw a ball to a "striker," who hit it with a club and then tried
to run around a circuit of bases without getting hit with the ball
by a defender. Americans played a version of the English game
rounders in the early 1800s which they called "Town Ball". In fact,
early forms of baseball had a number of names, including "Base
Ball", "Goal Ball", "Round Ball", "Fletch-catch", "stool ball", and
simply "Base". In at least one version of the game, teams pitched
to themselves, runners went around the bases in the opposite
direction of today's game, and players could be put out by being
hit with the ball like in Schlagball. Like today, however, it was
three strikes and you're out. Few details of how the modern games
developed from earlier folk games are known. Some think that
various folk games resulted in a game called town ball, from which
baseball was eventually born. Others believe that town ball was
independent from baseball.