Editing Baseball (section)

==== Establishment of professional leagues ====
In the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the [[New York metropolitan area]],<ref>Rader (2008), pp. 9, 10.</ref> and by 1856, local journals were referring to baseball as the "national pastime" or "national game".<ref>Tygiel (2000), p. 6.</ref> A year later, the sport's first governing body, the [[National Association of Base Ball Players]], was formed. In 1867, it barred participation by [[African Americans]].<ref>Rader (2008), p. 27; Sullivan (1997), pp. 68, 69.</ref> The more formally structured [[National League (baseball)|National League]] was founded in 1876.<ref>Sullivan (1997), pp. 83, 130, 243.</ref> Professional [[Negro league baseball|Negro leagues]] formed, but quickly folded.<ref>Sullivan (1997), p. 115.</ref> In 1887, [[softball]], under the name of indoor baseball or indoor-outdoor, was invented as a winter version of the parent game.<ref>Heaphy, Leslie, "Women Playing Hardball", in ''Baseball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Batter's Box'', ed. Eric Bronson (Open Court, 2004), pp. 246–256: p. 247.</ref> The National League's first successful counterpart, the [[American League]], which evolved from the minor [[Western League (original)|Western League]], was established in 1893, and virtually all of the modern [[baseball rules]] were in place by then.<ref name=R71>Rader (2008), p. 71.</ref><ref>Sullivan (1997), pp. 243–246.</ref>

The National Agreement of 1903 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 league baseball|minor professional leagues]].<ref>Rader (2008), p. 110; Zimbalist (2006), p. 22. See {{cite web|title=National Agreement for the Government of Professional Base Ball Clubs|url=http://roadsidephotos.sabr.org/baseball/1903NatAgree.htm|publisher=roadsidephotos.sabr.org|access-date=January 29, 2009}}</ref> The [[World Series]], pitting the two major league champions against each other, was inaugurated that fall.<ref>Sullivan (1997), pp. 13–16.</ref>  The [[Black Sox Scandal]] of the [[1919 World Series]] led to the formation of the office of the [[Commissioner of Baseball]].<ref>Powers (2003), pp. 39, 47, 48.</ref> The first commissioner, [[Kenesaw Mountain Landis]], was elected in 1920. That year also saw the founding of the [[Negro National League (1920–1931)|Negro National League]]; the first significant Negro league, it would operate until 1931. For part of the 1920s, it was joined by the [[Eastern Colored League]].<ref>Burgos (2007), pp. 117, 118.</ref>