Have you ever wondered who created baseball? The true origins of baseball and the first baseball players is a bit cloudy. Different sources have different opinions on who exactly created baseball. Whether you’re discussing the creator of baseball while watching the game on TV or you’re at the baseball stadium taking in the game live, here’s some grist for your chats.

It is believed that the true origin of baseball comes from an English game known as rounders. In the early 1800s, this evolved in the U.S. to become what is known today as baseball.

Alexander Cartwright is often credited with officially organizing the American version of baseball. He worked to streamline all of the rules of baseball so that any team could play another without controversy (or much controversy anyway). Cartwright was a member of a team called the Knickerbockers. He got the help of the other members of the Knickerbockers to create baseball. Some of the rules that he created are still being used, such as the three strikes rule and three outs per inning, nine players per team and the distance between bases (90 feet). Cartwright then spread the baseball that he had developed across the country as he traveled to California for the gold rush.

The other man who has been called the originator of baseball was Abner Doubleday. In fact, the myth that Doubleday created baseball was constructed to give baseball a history, with a group of people taking the word of a man named Abner Graves. The people who invented the Doubleday story stated that Doubleday was a cadet at West Point who developed the game of baseball while in Cooperstown, NY. It was later determined that Graves was mentally insane; in fact, he spent the end of his life in an institution.

The Baseball Hall of Fame perpetuated the myth of Doubleday, using his story to give legitimacy to its chosen location in Cooperstown.

Today Cartwright has been named the true creator of baseball, though the Doubleday myth is fondly remembered by many fans.