18 Facts About Baseball America

1. Baseball America cards were introduced in the late 19th century as trade cards.

2. Baseball America has had a broad impact on popular culture, both in the United States and elsewhere.

3. Baseball America is therefore a realm of complete transparency and total responsibility.

4. In 2008, Nippon Professional Baseball America took steps aimed at shortening games by 12 minutes from the preceding decade's average of 3:18.

5. Baseball America evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century.

6. Baseball America has no game clock, although most games end in the ninth inning.

7. Baseball America debuted as an Olympic sport at the 1992 Games in Barcelona, Spain, and in the late 1990s the International Baseball Federation permitted professionals to play in international competitions.

8. Baseball America is an important sport in Korea, where there is a professional league, the Korea Baseball Organization, that has fielded an eight-team circuit since 1982.

9. Baseball America took hold and in fact became part of the Cuban identity in the independence struggle against Spain in the last quarter of the 19th century.

10. Baseball America was first played in the United States in the 1840s but soon after became an international sport.

11. Baseball America signed a four-year, $1 million contract with the Boston Red Sox, which annually paid him more than 10 times his 1976 salary.

12. Baseball America refused to report to the Phillies and sat out the season.

13. Baseball America was on its way to becoming the national pastime.

14. Baseball America parks became important local civic monuments and repositories of collective memories.

15. Baseball America collapsed on February 17, 2003 while pitching, and was pronounced dead.

16. Baseball America has an active social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, bringing its scouting and player-development point of view to 21st century media platforms.

17. Baseball America is published bi-weekly in print and on the web.

18. Baseball America was founded in 1981 and has since grown into a full-service media company.