Right off the bat, baseball was a big hit in the States
IT is typically kicked off with a rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.
What follows is a lengthy, seemingly incomprehensible game, where the supporters munch hot dogs and drink buckets of cola.
It’s easy to see why baseball is the national pastime of the United States.
Macho American fans might not like to admit it, but the origins of a sport – now worth £30 billion and enjoyed around the world – actually belong in France.
On April 23, 1914, the first baseball game took place at Wrigley Field, one of the most iconic stadiums in the sport of baseball, and home of the worldfamous Chicago Cubs.
But it was around 600 years earlier, in 1344, where records show that games of La Soule were played in Normandy in France.
The simple bat-and-ball game evolved over the centuries to become more familiar games such as British favourites rounders and cricket.
The idea of baseball is similar to cricket.
Put simply – very simply – teams take turns to score as many runs as possible until being caught out by the opposition.
The origins of baseball, the American version of these games, is hazy.
The first mention is an order banning the game being played within a certain distance of the Pittsfield Town Hall in Massachusetts.
The first team to play baseball under modern rules, in 1845, were the New York Knickerbockers.
Their title came from one of the old Dutch families who were among the first to populate the Big Apple.
The Knickerbockers were among the first teams to outlaw “plugging”.
Previously, runners could be eliminated from the game by being hit with the ball – which led to plenty of injuries.
Baseball’s popularity was actually aided by the American Civil War in the middle of the 19th Century.
Soldiers formed teams based around their homes, and played sides from other states.
One of those teams, the Chicago White Stockings, won the first-ever National League pennant. They would go on to become the Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs were one of the mostsuccessful teams in the early years of professional baseball and were subject of a famous jinx.
In 1945, a man called Billy Sianis bought tickets to see the Cubs – one for him, and one for his beloved goat.
He and his pet were eventually ejected from the field and Sianis uttered a curse: “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.”
The Curse of the Billy Goat was born, and the Cubs went decades without another championship.
Unbelievably, it lasted until last year, when the Cubs finally won a World Series.
The bat-and-ball game evolved into rounders and cricket