[FuzzyRussianHat]

Various regions in the world had ball-and-bat sports in the decades prior to baseball as we know it. Games like cricket and rounders started in England and could be viewed as distant cousins to baseball. Evidence suggests a game named baseball existing in some form even in the early 1800s in the United States, although the rules and prevalence varied wildly from town-to-town.

After the Civil War, the game saw a growth in popularity and a more standardized form. Professional teams popped up in earnest in the 1870s, but there was still a ton of inconsistencies in rules and form. There was tremendous disagreement among players, fans, business leaders, and politicians as to how professional baseball should work. Even the idea of “professional sports” in a broad sense was still a fairly new and novel concept. Regardless, it was clear that baseball was growing rapidly and that all of the stakeholders needed to establish a framework to ensure the game would grow and thrive for generations to come.

Discussions and debates continued through the 1870s and early 1880s while a mishmash of pro, semi-pro, and amateur games were played nationwide. Eventually, the details were ironed out to create Major League Baseball beginning with 1884. There would be two separate “Major Leagues” playing concurrently; the National League and American League. Each had 12 teams split evenly into two divisions across the major American cities of the day. The two leagues agreed to shared frameworks and mostly the same rules; the most notable difference being the designated hitter rule employed only by the AL. The two league champions at the end of the year would meet in the “World Series” to determine the top squad that season.



Once the charter franchises were created and ready to go, play was set to begin in 1884. For the sake of competitive balance, all professional players would be entered into an inaugural draft to fill out the teams. Players would be contracted to that team until they had accrued enough service time for free agency, were traded, or released. The initial draft would be serpentine style and 30 total rounds. The draft order was decided by random draw. The New York Giants by luck of the draw ended up with the #1 pick. They used it on 1B Dan Brouthers, considered by many to be the best all-around batter in the game. Below are the first five rounds of selections and their ratings.