The game of baseball is generally considered to be a descendant of the English game of rounders. Although historians believed Abner Doubleday to have founded the game in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York, it was in fact Alexander Cartwright who published the first list of rules in 1845.
The game became very popular in the Northeast U.S., and began to spread across the border to Canada. In actuality, an early form of baseball was played in Beachville, Ontario, in 1838. Since that moment, baseball has grown in popularity in Canada and has been heralded as Canada’s unofficial summer sport.
Baseball began to be played professionally throughout the United States and Canada in 1865, with the National League being formed in 1876. Other leagues formed and folded, with the strong American League forming in the year 1893. It stood as the only true competition, encouraging an inter-league playoff, resulting in the first World Series taking place in 1903.
The Toronto Blue Jays were introduced to Major League Baseball in 1977, winning two World Championships in 1992 and 1993. The Montreal Expos were Canada’s other team; introduced in 1969, they resided in Montreal until 2005 when they moved to Washington, D.C., under the new name of The Nationals.
