This is a call up from the archives from an article I posted on December 7, 2016.
The game we all love has changed considerably since the first published rules of baseball were written in 1845 for a New York baseball club called the Knickerbockers. Alexander Cartwright authored the rules and is considered to be one of “the fathers of baseball” along with Abner Doubleday, Henry Chadwick and the most likely true “father of baseball” Daniel Lucius “Doc” Adams.
https://www.macvintagebaseball.org/19crulesandcustoms
Changes to the game in our lifetime – in the name of progress – seem to have been accelerated but have, in fact, proceeded at a snail’s pace.