Baseball was not invented by a single person, but rather evolved from older bat-and-ball games. The popular myth that Civil War hero Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York, has been debunked by historians. This story originated from a letter by Abner Graves and was promoted by the Mills Commission in 1907-1908, but there is no reliable evidence that Doubleday created the game, and he was not even in Cooperstown at the time
. The more historically supported origin credits Alexander Cartwright, a New York bookseller and founding member of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, who formalized the first known set of baseball rules in 1845 and organized one of the earliest recorded games in 1846 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Cartwright’s rules established key features such as foul lines, base distances, and three outs per inning, which shaped modern baseball
. In summary:
- The Doubleday myth is considered false and largely a fabrication.
- Alexander Cartwright is recognized for creating the first formal rules of baseball.
- Baseball evolved from earlier bat-and-ball games, including English rounders, over time in the 19th century United States
Thus, baseball’s invention is best seen as a gradual development rather than the work of a single inventor.
