What Is America’s National Sport?
Although it lags behind football in popularity, baseball is still widely considered America’s national sport and is commonly referred to as “America’s pastime.” Baseball, as it is widely known, was invented by Alexander Cartwright in 1845.
Cartwright based the sport on the English game called Rounders. The first recorded baseball game was played in 1846 between Cartwright’s Knickerbockers and the New York Baseball Club. By the 1860s, the sport’s popularity was undeniable, and it was already being described as America’s “national pastime.” Football’s Super Bowl routinely outpaces baseball’s World Series in terms of television ratings, but baseball still holds a special place in American culture and in the American imagination, according to The Atlantic.
