Historians date the game of baseball back to the Egyptian temples more than 4,000 years ago, where drawings depicting something resembling baseball were found. The most popular theory seems to be that the game was invented by the English and was then brought to America by early settlers.
Baseball became very popular in the Northeast U.S., and began to spread across the border to Canada. An early form of baseball was played in Beachville, Ontario, in 1838 and since that moment, baseball has grown in popularity in Canada and has been heralded as Canada’s unofficial summer sport. Baseball has been included intermittently in the Olympics but was removed for the 2012 and 2016 Games. It will make its return to Olympic competition in 2020.
Baseball is a game that demands blinding speed and explosive power involving individual action within a team sport. It is played everywhere from playgrounds and back alleys, to community fields and state-of-the-art stadiums. Played right, baseball looks like the easiest game in the world. As quoted in a famous baseball movie from 1988, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains."