Cedar Rapids Kernels (1993-present)
Cedar Rapids Reds (1980-1992)
Cedar Rapids Giants (1975-1979)
Cedar Rapids Astros (1973-1974)
Cedar Rapids Cardinals (1965-1972)
Cedar Rapids Red Raiders (1963-1964)
Cedar Rapids Braves (1958-1962)
Cedar Rapids Raiders (1953-1957)
Cedar Rapids Indians (1950-1952)
Cedar Rapids Rockets (1949)
Cedar Rapids Raiders (1934-1942)
Cedar Rapids Bunnies (1904-1932)
Cedar Rapids Rabbits (1896-1903)
Cedar Rapids Canaries (1890-1891)
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting against the pitcher of the other team (the fielding team), which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. A French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball; other old French games such as théque, la balle au bâton, and la balle empoisonée also appear to be related. Consensus once held that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. In the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the New York metropolitan area. By 1856, local journals were referring to baseball as the "national pastime" or "national game". A year later, sixteen area clubs formed the sport's first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players. The more formally structured National League was founded in 1876. As the oldest surviving major league, the National League is sometimes referred to as the "senior circuit". In 1884, overhand pitching was legalized. Virtually all of the modern baseball rules were in place by 1893; the last major change was counting foul balls as strikes in 1901 The National League's first successful counterpart, the American League, which evolved from the minor Western League, was established in 1901 and the two leagues, each with eight teams, were rivals that fought for the best players. The National Agreement of 1903 was the pact that formalized relations both between the two major leagues and between them and the National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues, representing most of the country's minor professional leagues. The World Series, pitting the two major league champions against each other, was inaugurated that fall 1903, albeit without express major league sanction. Professional baseball in the early twentieth century was lower scoring and pitchers were more dominant. The inside game, which demanded that players "scratch for runs", was played much more aggressively and Ty Cobb epitomized this style. The so-called dead-ball era ended in the early 1920s with several changes in rule and circumstance that were advantageous to hitters. Strict new regulations governing the ball's size, shape and composition, coupled with superior materials available after World War I, resulted in a ball that traveled farther when hit. The rise of legendary Babe Ruth, the first great power hitter of the new era, helped permanently alter the nature of the game. Baseball, widely known as America's pastime, is well-established in several other countries as well.