Hey Les,
Your parents did more than rub off on you. Did you actually play or did your dad. You are like a personal baseball almanac. I'm impressed!
No particular person created baseball. It evolved out of older stick-and-ball games such as rounders and town ball.
That said, the game's first rules were written by Alexander Cartwright in 1845, and the first recorded game involved Cartwright's Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York in 1846. That game was in Hoboken, N.J. Cartwright umpired the game, and his team lost decisively to the New York Nine.
More and more over the years, evidence has shown the Abner Doubleday story to be just that: a story. Doubleday did not invent the game of baseball. It's just not true, simple as that.
Many people have tried over the years to attach a single name to the game's invention, but that is simply impossible. Baseball is a game that was evolved, not created.
Even Cartwright's 1845 game of "base ball" was VERY different from the game of "baseball" we know today. There was underhand pitching, players could catch the ball on a bound for an out, the players did not wear gloves, and the object of the game was to score 21 runs. The game continued to evolve quickly over the subsequent decades. By the turn of the century, the game had become roughly the game we know today, though there were still some significant rule changes after that.
You are totally amazing Les!
