Baseball, a game known as americas past time, has much history behind it. It all started when the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional team in 1869. The game continued to grow and gain popularity, throughout the years, with major league baseball (MLB) being formed in the 1900’s. Players like Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson helped shape the game into a very popular sport. The game stayed the same for many, many years focusing mainly on skill and strategy.

As time went on, technology improved, and soon later it took a big role in baseball. In the early 2000’s, instant replay was introduced to help umpires make better calls on the field. Now, teams have all sorts of technology to help players and analyze performance such as computers, advanced video, and tablets. Now systems such as Stat-Cast can track speeds of a pitch, bat speed, exit velocity, and distance. Players and coaches have used this system to improve decisions of in-game play.

Along with technology taking over baseball, MLB implemented new rules to go along with it to make the game move smoother, faster, and more exciting. One major rule change, is the pitch clock. This clock limits the time the pitcher or batter can take off between pitches. This has helped the game move twice as fast, as an MLB game before the pitch clock could last up to 3 hours. This also keeps fans engaged because there’s less down time to get distracted or bored. Another rule change is the limit on defensive shifts. This used to give the team on defense an extremely unfair advantage. The goal of these rule changes were to keep the game more fair and exciting.

The game of baseball still continues to grow and change until this day. With new rules, young superstars, and technology, baseball is spreading faster than ever. The future looks even more faster, exciting, and smarter than today. Baseball isn’t a game that is just America’s past time, but a game that is still progressing and moving in forward in the right direction.