Take Me Out -- To the Ball Game

John Newberry started it. In his Little Pretty Pocket Book, written in 1744, he included a picture and wrote a poem, and that started it all. To stand for B, he wrote about base-ball.

So how did Newberry's little poem evolve into the modern-day game? The origin of baseball is a bit of a controversy. There was an early form of cricket called rounders, then 4-base play, the New York Game, and even cat-ball. Squares, diamonds, flat bats, round bats

Finally the "Knickerbocker Rules" formalized the game. On this date in 1846, the first game of modern baseball was played. Then, a mere 57 years later on this same day, another important baseball event began.

Lou Gehrig was born in 1903. Although Gehrig went to college on a football scholarship, his professional years were spent as a Yankee.

June 18 is indeed an important date in American baseball.

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