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Baseball Cards

The game of Base Ball has now become
beyond question
the leading feature of the out-door sports
of the United States.

Charles A. Peverlly
The Book of American Pastimes (1866)

During America’s War Between the States, captured Union soldiers were allowed to "play ball" inside the walls of their prison camp at Salisbury, North Carolina. By that time, baseball was becoming an important sport in the country.

In his 1866 Book of American Pastimes, Peverelly also says this about baseball and America’s civil-war generation:

It is a game which is peculiarly suited to the American temperament and disposition; the nine innings are played in the brief space of two and one half hours, or less. From the moment the first striker takes his position, and poises his bat, it has an excitement and vim about it ... in short, the pastime suits the people, and the people suit the pastime.

Baseball became popular as an organized, amateur sport in the 1840s and 1850s. How did it rise to prominence so quickly?

Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.

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