Did Canada invent baseball or did Europe invent baseball?

Answer 1

Neither. If you want to assign the invention of Baseball to a country, rather than to an individual person, the clear answer is the United States. As for the individual inventor, Abner Doubleday is historically given credit for inventing baseball. However, recent research reveals that Alexander Cartwright is more worthy of being called the inventor. But note that the only reason Cartwright is given credit is that he was the first to actually write down the rules. The game was being played years before Cartwright wrote down those rules (and of course, because the rules weren't written before Cartwright, there was quite a bit of variation in how the game was played. In fact, even Cartwright's rules make for a very different game than what is played today. Some would argue (myself included) that it is pointless to assign a single "inventor" to the game of baseball. First you would have to define exactly what you are referring to as "baseball". Is it the rules that exist now? If so, then the MLB "invents" baseball every year when it adds a new rule. Or maybe you want to go back to the first time baseball was "essentially the same" as it is now. But that involves subjective judgement, and yours might not be the same as mine. You might say that baseball, "as we know it", began with the establishment of the infield fly rule. Someone else might say it began when the pitcher's mound was elevated, or the rubber moved to 60.5 ft. Who's right? Who's wrong? Who knows? But the "change" that made baseball what it is today wasn't necessarily a rules change. Maybe it was the invention of the curve ball. Undoubtedly, hitters had much better averages before the curve ball, and games were more high-scoring. Or maybe it was when players started living healthy lifestyles, as opposed to that of Babe Ruth. Maybe it was the first player with a million-dollar salary. Maybe it was the beginning of steroid use. Maybe it was when the home run became something that happened in just about every game, rather than a rare event. Maybe it was the increased role of the relief pitcher. Maybe it was the invention of the padded leather glove. Maybe it was pine tar. Maybe it was when they started letting African Americans play. Maybe it was when they started letting Latinos play. Maybe it was when baseball was first shown on television. None of these changes had anything to do with the rules, but all of them, in some respect, changed the essential nature of the game. Which one of them made baseball "what it is today"? Again, any answer you might give is subjective. So I say, quite worrying about who invented baseball. Just enjoy it.