Other innovations included the nine-man team and three outs ending a team's batting in their half of an inning. Thus Cartwright's version of baseball became the basis of the game as presently played. Over the years, other innovations were added, including the nine-inning standard for games, changes in the pitching distance, and so on. On June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey, the first organized baseball game was played by the New York Nine and the New York Knickerbockers. The Knickerbockers were defeated by the Nine by a score of twenty-three to one. Mostly a Northern and Midwestern phenomenon, baseball fever ran highest in the New York City area, where in the 1850s, games were being played "on every available green plot within a ten-mile circuit of the city." Spearheading the baseball boom were formally organized clubs with officers, clubhouses and playing grounds. Among the many clubs, the Knickerbockers sought to rule the game by posing as arbiters of play, rules, and decorum. Since no leagues or playing schedules existed, formal games in the 1850s were arranged by correspondence between club secretaries. By the end of the 1850s, victories and the prospect of gate receipts were becoming more important factors. As more clubs embraced these goals, greater emphasis was placed on obtaining good players at whatever affronts to amateur standards. The popularity of amateur baseball clubs that played between 1845 - 1865, led to the introduction of the first professional baseball club, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. They are called the first professional baseball team because they were the first team to pay their players. In 1869, they traveled the country playing baseball and had a total payroll of less than 9,400 dollars. While traveling across the country, the Red Stockings made a phenomenal feat, earning eighty-four consecutive wins. This record is still held today. In the year of their streak, the Cincinnati Red Stockings hit with an average of over .400, and produced baseball's first left-handed pitcher, Bobby Mitchell. The Red Stockings' success against the amateur teams provided incentive to create America's first professional baseball league, the National Association of Baseball Players in 1858. It was formed by representatives of twenty-five clubs for the purpose of codifying rules and establishing guidelines for organized clubs and team competition. The Association quickly established itself as the new arbiter of the game. Among its early rulings were the esta

Some topics in this essay:
Abner Doubleday, York City, Cartwright Cartwright, National League, Baseball Players, Massachusetts York, Red Stockings, Civil War, Harry Wright, Abner Graves, national league, professional baseball, american league, abner graves, games played, abner doubleday, red stockings, major league, baseball clubs, national association, cincinnati red stockings,