Rare Billy Sunday Single rppc American League Baseball Evangelist scarce

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176305818680 Rare Billy Sunday Single rppc American League Baseball Evangelist scarce. A rare and possible unique  Rare Billy Sunday Single rppc American League Baseball Evangelist  photo is from estate of R.A. SNEED (OKLAHOMA) SEC OF STATE, TREASURER, COMMANDER GENERAL CONFEDERATE VETERANS EARLY 1900'S, PHOTO OF BILL SIGNED ON BACK

In the days before radio, Billy Sunday was the most successful evangelist America had ever known. The renowned preacher and temperance crusader found the Lord while playing for the Chicago White Stockings in the 1880s. He was an exciting player, speedy and daring on the base paths and acrobatic in the outfield. His earnest and buoyant personality made him popular with fans and players alike. Sunday chose a life of Christian service in 1891, but he never left baseball behind. Baseball was an integral part of his sermons, and he promoted games wherever he preached. Known as “the Baseball Evangelist,” Billy Sunday was always identified as a baseball player, and for his supporters he was a model of Christian manliness and American decency. William Ashley Sunday was born near Ames, Iowa, on November 19, 1862, the third son of Mary Jane (Cory) and William Sunday. Mrs. Sunday’s father owned a large farm and two mills, and she and her bricklayer husband lived on that farm. Young Billy never saw his father, who had enlisted in the Union Army in August and died of pneumonia in an army camp a month after his namesake was born. Mary Jane Sunday stayed on her family’s farm. She married again, but her second husband was a drunkard who deserted the family. In 1874 she sent Billy and one of his older brothers to the Soldiers’ Orphans Home in Davenport, Iowa. There the boys were trained in hygiene and manners and given some religious guidance. They also received a good education and the chance to participate in games and athletic events. In 1876, when his brother turned 16 and was sent home, Billy also returned to Ames. He went to work for his grandfather, but after they quarreled the youngster moved to nearby Nevada, Iowa. There he found a job that gave him room and board, and he enrolled in the Nevada high school. He played for the local baseball team and ran in regional foot races, earning a reputation for his speed. In 1881 a running team in Marshalltown, Iowa, recruited Sunday, and he moved there before the end of his senior year in high school. Sunday found a job in Marshalltown and soon joined the town baseball team along with the running team. In the fall of 1882 Marshalltown beat a stronger Des Moines team, 15-6. Sunday played left field, slugging three doubles and scoring four runs. Marshalltown was the hometown of Adrian “Cap” Anson, player-manager of the Chicago White Stockings. On a visit home, Anson heard about Sunday’s baseball skills from a relative. The veteran watched Sunday compete in a foot race, and he liked what he saw. Anson invited Sunday to train with the Chicago team in the spring of 1883and signed him as a substitute outfielder. While primarily interested in Sunday’s speed and athletic potential, Anson also liked the polite and eager twenty-year-old, and he took the newcomer under his wing. In spite of Anson’s tutelage, Sunday’s rookie year was forgettable. He played in only 14 games, collecting 13 hits with 18 strikeouts. In the field, he made ten putouts and six errors. Still, Anson was not ready to give up on Sunday, and he signed the unpolished speedster for 1884.Sunday’s second season was no better than his first, although he did impress his teammates in spring training. Anson wanted to give Sunday a chance to show off, so before an exhibition game he arranged a 100-yard race between the rookie and Fred Pfeffer, the team’s second baseman. Pfeffer was a very good runner, but Sunday won the race easily. Sunday played a total of 43 games in 1884, mostly in right field when Mike “King” Kelly appeared behind home plate and a few stints in center when George Gore was hurt. Sunday impressed no one with his play.His teammates didn’t fare well either, and that year Chicago finished fourth in the league. Both manager Anson and owner Albert G. Spalding blamed the team’s poor performance on the players’ drinking and partying. Anson had a strict training regimen for his players, but apparently most of them ignored it. Sunday did not, and that fact, along with his manager’s continuing faith in his potential, earned him another contract. Hoping to improve the team’s performance in the 1885 season, Spalding required an abstinence pledge from the Chicago players, and any of them who were caught drinking would have their salaries reduced. Sunday had no problem adhering to the policy. Although he did socialize with his teammates, Sunday was at worst only a moderate drinker. In his autobiography he wrote: “I never drank much. I was never drunk but four times in my life. I never drank whisky or beer; I never liked either. I drank wine.” When he went “to the saloons” with his teammates, “I would take lemonade or sarsaparilla.”1 Whether because of or in spite of the no-drinking rule, the White Stockings played well right out of the gate. To capitalize on the good start, Anson wanted to put his best team on the field, and Sunday did not get a lot of playing time. Again he played mostly in right field, with a few appearances in center. In all he played in 46 games, showing some improvement over his first two seasons.Even in limited appearances, Sunday was a fan favorite. The crowds enjoyed watching him sprint after fly balls in the outfield, but they cheered even louder for his daring steals and legged-out hits. In late August Anson scheduled a race between Sunday and a professional sprinter. Sunday ran the 100 yards in ten seconds, beating the professional by nearly three feet. The 1885 Chicago White Stockings dominated the National League, winning the pennant with an 87-25 record. They earned the right to play the St. Louis Browns, winners of the American Association pennant, in a best-of-seven “US Championship Series.” In spite of their great season, the Chicago team still suffered from bad off-field habits.Center fielder George Gore was reportedly drinking at the end of the season, and after a lackluster performance in the first playoff game he was suspended. Sunday took Gore’s place, playing in center and batting second in the rest of the games. He performed respectably, going six for 22 at the plate and scoring five runs, along with getting to everything that came his way in center field. The series as a whole was less respectable, characterized by unruly fans and heated arguments between the umpires and players, and the official score was three wins for each team and one tie.After the playoffs, Sunday regained some lost honor for Chicago. In St. Louis, he ran a 100-yard race against Arlie Latham, third baseman for the St. Louis Browns and the fastest runner in the American Association. Sunday won handily, with a reported time of 10.25 seconds. For the 1886 season, Spalding again had his players sign an abstinence pledge. Unbeknownst to them, he also hired detectives to follow the players and report on their off-field activities. In late July, Spalding presented the detectives’ report to the team. While Sunday, Anson, and several others were exonerated, seven players, including Mike Kelly and George Gore, were fined for drinking and keeping late hours. Regardless of the players’ behavior or their relationship with management, they played well. Chicago was locked in a tight pennant race right up to the final games of the season, when they emerged in first place again. They had a playoff rematch with St. Louis, but that time around St. Louis won. Sunday played in only 28 games in 1886, and he was not involved in the playoffs. He contracted an eye infection in late August, but the main reason for his reduced playing time was the season-long pennant race, during which Anson rarely used his bench players. On the few days when Sunday did take the field, he played a little better than in previous seasons, raising his fielding average 89 points, to .914. While the 1886 baseball season would have been a disappointment for Sunday, what happened off the field changed his life forever. Sometime in the spring he began attending services and youth group meetings at the Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church in Chicago, which was near both the ballpark and Sunday’s rooming house. There he met Helen Amelia “Nell” Thompson (1868-1957), a devout young woman whose father was a successful businessman. Although William Thompson disapproved, his daughter and the Chicago ballplayer became good friends. Sunday joined the church, and by the end of the summer he was regarded as a clean-living church-goer. The year before, he had started working in the off-season as a railroad fireman in Iowa, and over the winter he wrote to Nell Thompson from Iowa. During the holidays Sunday visited Chicago and the Thompson household. Meanwhile, A.G. Spalding had decided to remake his baseball team. He blamed the loss of the playoffs on the drinking and poor habits of several of his key players, targeting Mike Kelly as the ringleader. In1886 Kelly led the league in both batting average and runs scored, but Spalding was nevertheless exasperated with his flamboyant star. First the strong-willed Spalding sold two outfielders and a pitcher. Then in February the news broke that Kelly had been sold to the Boston Beaneaters for the then-unheard-of sum of $10,000. Spalding had chosen to replace Kelly in the Chicago outfield with the speedy, sober, and disciplined Billy Sunday. Sunday began the 1887 season in center field, fielding brilliantly but not hitting well. When Anson switched him to right field, his hitting improved measurably. At the end of June he injured his ankle, and he was out for over a month.Sunday returned to the White Stockings in early August, but for the rest of the season he did not play regularly or well. Nor did his return help his team’s performance. In early August Chicago was two games out of first, but when the season ended they were in third place. Sunday had played in 50 games, most of them in May and June. In August and September of 1887 Sunday had more on his mind than baseball. He and Nell Thompson had gotten very close. He went to Iowa in July while his ankle was healing, and when he returned to Chicago in August he took an interest in evangelical work. He started speaking to Sunday school classes and YMCA groups and regularly attending religious meetings, both in Chicago and on the road.It was probably in early August that Sunday began going to the Pacific Garden Mission, an evangelical Christian mission in Chicago. It was there that, sometime in the late summer or early fall, Sunday publicly dedicated his life to the service of Christ. During the winter of 1887-88, Sunday made arrangements to take courses in elocution and rhetoric at Evanston Academy, part of Northwestern University. In exchange for the courses, he agreed to coach the university’s baseball team during their winter practice sessions. On the night of January 1, 1888, Sunday proposed to Nell Thompson. Later that month, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys purchased Sunday’s contract from Chicago. The Pittsburgh team was new to the National League, and it had difficulties on and off the field. Several of the players drank and kept late hours, and in 1887 the team finished sixth. The Pittsburgh center fielder had been fined several times for drinking, and the team’s management was in search of a competent and sober replacement. Billy Sunday was just the kind of player they wanted. Sunday showed up in Pittsburgh in great shape, after practicing all winter with the Northwestern team. Playing center field every day improved his game. He hit well, dashed around the bases with abandon, and brought the stands to life with his running catches.By early June, Sunday was one of the team’s best hitters, and he led the league in stolen bases.Pittsburgh fans liked Sunday not only for his game but also because he attended a local Presbyterian church and taught Sunday school. In early September, Sunday left the team to go to Chicago, where he and Nell Thompson were married on September 5.Sunday rejoined the team in Pittsburgh three days later, accompanied by his new bride. He had been playing excellent baseball in August, and after his wedding he continued his dramatic play in the field and on the base paths, making good contact at the plate and running out infield hits. His fine season came to an end with a knee injury on September 29. Sunday played 120 games in 1888. He was ranked among the league’s top fielders and led his team with 69 runs scored. Although he missed the last two weeks of the season, he finished third in the league in stolen bases with 71. Still, his team finished sixth again. After Sunday had settled his 1889 contract with Pittsburgh, he and Nell took a wedding trip before returning to Chicago. He began taking Bible classes at the Chicago YMCA and was such an eager student that the YMCA offered him a job. Sunday accepted a part-time position, continued his Bible study, and started leading prayer meetings. He continued holding religious meetings at the Pittsburgh YMCA when he returned in the spring, and as the season went on he spoke at YMCAs in other cities when the team was on the road. Sunday opened the 1889 season in right field. During the off-season, Pittsburgh had signed Ned Hanlon, an accomplished outfielder, to play center. Sunday injured his thumb in the first game and was out for two weeks. When he returned in early May, he picked up where he had left off the previous year, dramatically snaring everything hit his way and making enough contact at the plate to leg out hits, steal bases, and score runs. In spite of Sunday’s contributions, once again his team wasn’t winning. At the end of June Sunday was ill, but he kept playing. His fielding was still good, but his hitting and base running tailed off. In early July he was treated for a carbuncle on his hip and missed the rest of the month. At the same time, the Pittsburgh manager was having mental health problems, and some of the players weren’t getting along. The manager eventually had a breakdown, and Ned Hanlon was appointed player-manager. When Sunday returned to the field in August, he was running well again, but he had lost his batting eye. The new manager benched him, and he didn’t get back on the field until the last two weeks of the season. Although he ended the year in good form, illness and injury cost him. Sunday had played in only 81 games, a disappointing season after his fine showing the year before. Regardless of his performance, at the end of the 1889 season Sunday wasn’t sure where he would be playing in the spring of 1890. Most of the players in the National League were in the same situation. Over the past year, John “Monte” Ward, the talented and respected shortstop of the New York Giants, and the players’ association that he led, the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players, had been arguing with the owners of National League teams over players’ contracts. In July the Brotherhood, with members from all National League teams, had considered a strike. Instead they decided to form their own league for the 1890 season, with teams in every National League city. The Brotherhood was to meet in early November to incorporate the Players’ League. Sunday, who had union experience from his railroad job, had joined the Brotherhood in the fall of 1887; in 1889 he was the vice-president of the Pittsburgh branch. In spite of his involvement with the Brotherhood, at the end of the season Sunday promised the Pittsburgh team that he would re-sign with them. However, when the Pittsburgh Players’ League team was incorporated in November, Sunday signed on with them instead. After he returned home to Chicago, Sunday reconsidered his position. His conscience told him that he was obligated to honor his promise to the National League team, and he withdrew his pledge to the Players’ League. He spent the winter working for the Chicago YMCA. After the Players’ League was formed, three-quarters of the National League’s players defected to the new league, and the Pittsburgh team was decimated. Sunday and two others were the only returning players; of the newcomers, only one, first baseman Guy Hecker, was an experienced player. Hecker was named player-manager, and he picked Sunday for team captain. Pittsburgh was, in a word, terrible, and they posted a dismal record of 23-113. Sunday did all he could, remaining a fan favorite on a team with little else to cheer about. By the end of August, Pittsburgh was in serious financial trouble. At the same time, the surprisingly good Philadelphia National League team was making a run at the pennant. Needing another good outfielder, on August 22 Philadelphia traded two capable rookies and $1000 cash to Pittsburgh for Billy Sunday. Philadelphia’s new center fielder played hard and well, but when the season ended his team finished a disappointing third. The 1890 season was an all-around disappointment for baseball.The Players’ League dissolved and most of the players returned to their former teams for the 1891 season. The Philadelphia team had retained two excellent players from their 1889 outfield, Sam Thompson and Billy Hamilton, and Ed Delahanty rejoined them for 1891. In the off-season, Philadelphia looked to be the strongest team in the National League. Sunday was signed by Philadelphia as one of two backup outfielders. Not only would he probably not see much playing time, he also had gotten more involved with the Chicago YMCA. During the winter the YMCA offered him the position of Assistant Secretary of the Religious Department. He didn’t accept it at first, but then he began seriously considering leaving baseball. By March Sunday had made his choice. He obtained his release from Philadelphia, then turned down an offer from Cincinnati. Sunday’s new position involved getting speakers for daily midday prayer meetings and leading other prayer meetings himself, as well as distributing religious tracts on street corners and talking to drunks in saloons. He worked from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., six days a week, for $83 a month. He threw his heart, soul, and considerable energy into his ministry, and his efforts were noted and appreciated by the YMCA’s leaders. In early 1893, the well-known evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman came to Chicago. He was in search of an assistant for a series of revivals in the Midwest, and the YMCA recommended Sunday. For the next three years Sunday accompanied Chapman, learning the mechanics of holding revivals and honing his pastoral skills in prayer meetings and personal visits. In late 1895, Chapman accepted a pastorate in Philadelphia, and Sunday went out on his own. Sunday’s first revival was in Garner, Iowa, in January 1896. He spent the next dozen years holding revivals in the rural Midwest. Initially, advertising was a major concern for him, along with the fact that he had only one sermon, a talk on “Earnestness in Christian Life.” He capitalized on his reputation as a ballplayer to generate interest in his revivals, making sure that local newspapers knew who he was. He began using some sermons that Chapman had given him, but as time went on he found his own voice and started telling stories about the things he knew, especially baseball and temperance. Sunday displayed a natural gift for rhetoric, especially in creating realistic images and catchy descriptions. Retaining his athletic energy, he was in constant motion when he preached, using acrobatics and dramatic movement to illustrate his points. Because of his baseball past and his physical preaching, along with his straightforward approach and down-to-earth language, Sunday was able to attract large numbers of men to his revivals. He embodied a man’s religion, and men understood his message. In his sermon “A Plain Talk to Men,” he said, “Many think a Christian has to be a sort of dish-rag proposition, a wishy-washy, sissified sort of a galoot that lets everybody make a doormat out of him. Let me tell you the manliest man is the man who will acknowledge Jesus Christ.”2 In 1903 Sunday was ordained by the Presbyterian Church. Although he was officially a Presbyterian, Sunday’s ministry was always nondenominational, and he didn’t emphasize theological matters. “I am an old-fashioned preacher of the old-time religion,that has warmed this cold world’s heart for two thousand years.”3He preached a simple message of temperance and salvation through Jesus Christ, an accessible Christianity expressed in the uncomplicated language of America’s heartland. “I don’t use much high-falutin’ language. I learned a long time ago to put the cookies and jam on the lowest shelf.”4 Within two years Sunday had developed a special sermon on temperance, “Booze, or Get on the Water Wagon.” He used it for the first time in Burlington, Iowa, and a few days later the town limited the hours saloons could be open. In 1907, when he couldn’t fill his tabernacle for a revival in Fairfield, Iowa, Sunday put together two baseball teams from the town’s businesses and scheduled a game between them. The evangelist showed up for the game wearing one of his old uniforms and played for both teams. In early 1908 Sunday held his first large-scale revival, in Bloomington, Illinois. That was followed by an invitation from Prohibition forces in Spokane, Washington. As his revivals grew larger, Sunday began holding services for particular groups of people, including separate services for women and men. In one of his sermons for men, Sunday talked about three of his Chicago teammates, Mike Kelly, Ned Williamson, and Frank Flint, star players who drank themselves into illness and early death. At the end of the sermon, Sunday asked, “Did they win the game of life or did I?”5 By then Sunday was widely recognized as a popular and successful evangelist who was not only a former baseball player but also a force in the Prohibition movement. In 1911 he began holding revivals in the Northeast, culminating in a 1914 appearance in Carnegie Hall. Twice during that time the national magazine Collier’s asked him to choose an all-star baseball team. During a two-month revival in 1914 in Denver, Colorado, he umpired a game between the Denver Bears and Sioux City Indians, garnering as much press coverage as the game. In early October he led a huge Prohibition parade the day before he gave his “Booze” sermon. Colorado enacted statewide Prohibition a month later. While Sunday was in Denver, American Magazine published its poll on “The Greatest Man in the United States.” Sunday placed eighth, tied with Andrew Carnegie. On January 18, 1915, Sunday met with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House. Afterwards he had lunch with William Jennings Bryan and then preached downtown, in Convention Hall. Two months later he held a large revival in Philadelphia, reportedly winning 42,000 souls to Christ. While there he played in an old-timers’ baseball game; the 53-year-old evangelist hit a home run. In the spring of 1916, Sunday held a revival in Baltimore. Five New York Yankees were there, including Frank “Home Run” Baker. The ballplayers were among those who came forward to accept Christ and shake hands with the retired outfielder. In the fall Sunday went to Detroit for two months, and he delivered his “Booze” sermon to 29,000 men. On the last night of the revival, two players from Sunday’s era, Charlie Bennett and Sam Thompson, came forward with the crowd to take his hand. Two days later, Michigan voted to enact Prohibition. Sunday was at the pinnacle of his career. After three months in Boston, where he claimed 65,000 converts, he went on to New York. There he opened his largest revival with these words:“I notice you’re the same warm-hearted, enthusiastic bunch you used to be when you sat in the grandstand and bleachers when I played at the old Polo Grounds. It didn’t matter if a fellow was on the other side or not. If he made a good play he got the glad hand rather than the marble heart.”6A few weeks later Sunday began advocating national Prohibition. When the New York revival ended in mid-June, over 98,000 people had accepted his call to salvation. The US joined the Allies in World War I while Sunday was in New York. He was an energetic supporter of the war, selling millions of dollars in Liberty Bonds and rallying thousands of volunteers. In July Baseball Magazine asked his opinion on whether baseball should be suspended during the war. He said, “Baseball is needed now more than ever before. What are soldiers if they are not good athletes?”7That fall, while appearing in Los Angeles, he and his staff played a baseball game to raise money for servicemen against a team of movie stars led by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The movie stars won, 1-0. Sunday’s stature and importance remained strong throughout World War I and the enactment of Prohibition. In the 1920s, his influence waned, and his later revivals were held in smaller cities, with smaller crowds. However, his sermons on salvation, temperance, and personal decency still commanded attention. Sunday remained popular, and he continued preaching until a week before he died. Sunday attended one game of the 1935 World Series between the Chicago Cubs, successors to his old White Stockings team, and the Detroit Tigers. He said he was so disgusted with the umpiring that he listened to the rest of the games on the radio. A month after the World Series ended, on November 6, Billy Sunday died of a heart attack at his brother-in-law’s home in Chicago. He is buried in Forest Home Cemetery there. Billy and Nell Sunday had four children. Nell often travelled with her husband, later becoming his business manager,and the couple hired a full-time governess to take care of their children. Both parents were closest to their oldest child, Helen E. Sunday (1890-1932). She married Mark P. Harris in 1913, and they lived in Michigan. The Sundays’ three sons, George M. Sunday (1892-1933), William A. Sunday Jr. (1901-1938), and Paul T. Sunday (1907-1944), worked on their father’s campaigns at various times. All three men had unstable lives, including multiple marriages and financial troubles. In 1911, the Sundays moved from Chicago to Winona Lake, Indiana. There Nell Sunday, who outlived her husband and all four of her children, continued a life of Christian service. She died on February 20, 1957, and is buried in Chicago next to her husband. The Sundays’ home in Winona Lake is preserved as a museum, maintained by the Winona History Center at Grace College. William Ashley Sunday (November 19, 1862[1] – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century. Born into poverty in Iowa, Sunday spent some years at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home before working at odd jobs and playing for local running and baseball teams. His speed and agility provided him the opportunity to play baseball in the major leagues for eight years. Converting to evangelical Christianity in the 1880s, Sunday left baseball for the Christian ministry. During the early 20th century, he became the nation's most famous evangelist with his colloquial sermons and frenetic delivery. Sunday held widely reported campaigns in America's largest cities, and he attracted the largest crowds of any evangelist before the advent of electronic sound systems. Sunday was a strong supporter of Prohibition, and his preaching likely played a significant role in the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919. Despite questions about his large income, no scandal ever touched Sunday. He was sincerely devoted to his wife, who also managed his campaigns. Though his audiences grew smaller during the 1920s, Sunday continued to preach and promote conservative Christianity until his death. Early life Billy Sunday was born near Ames, Iowa. His father, William Sunday, was the son of German immigrants named Sonntag, who had anglicized their name to "Sunday" when they settled in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. William Sunday was a bricklayer who worked his way to Iowa, where he married Mary Jane Corey, daughter of "Squire" Martin Corey, a local farmer, miller, blacksmith, and wheelwright.[2] William Sunday enlisted in the Iowa Twenty-Third Volunteer Infantry on August 14, 1862. He died four months later of pneumonia at an army camp in Patterson, Missouri, five weeks after the birth of his youngest son, William Ashley. Mary Jane Sunday and her children moved in with her parents for a few years, and young Billy became close to his grandparents and especially his grandmother. Mary Jane Sunday later remarried, but her second husband soon deserted the family.[3] When Billy Sunday was ten years old, his impoverished mother sent him and an older brother to the Soldiers' Orphans Home in Glenwood, Iowa, and later to the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport, Iowa. At the orphanage, Sunday gained orderly habits, a decent primary education, and the realization that he was a good athlete.[4] By fourteen, Sunday was shifting for himself. In Nevada, Iowa, he worked for Colonel John Scott, a former lieutenant governor, tending Shetland ponies and doing other farm chores. The Scotts provided Sunday a good home and the opportunity to attend Nevada High School.[5] Although Sunday never received a high school diploma, by 1880 he was better educated than many of his contemporaries.[6] In 1880, Sunday relocated to Marshalltown, Iowa, where, because of his athleticism, he had been recruited for a fire brigade team. In Marshalltown, Sunday worked at odd jobs, competed in fire brigade tournaments, and played for the town baseball team.[7] Professional baseball player Sunday's professional baseball career was launched by Cap Anson, a Marshalltown native and future Hall of Famer, after his aunt, an avid fan of the Marshalltown team, gave him an enthusiastic account of Sunday's prowess. In 1883, on Anson's recommendation, A.G. Spalding, president of the Chicago White Stockings, signed Sunday to the defending National League champions.[8] Sunday struck out four times in his first game, and there were seven more strikeouts and three more games before he got a hit. During his first four seasons with Chicago, he was a part-time player, taking Mike "King" Kelly's place in right field when Kelly served as catcher.[9] Sunday's speed was his greatest asset, and he displayed it both on the basepaths and in the outfield. In 1885, the White Stockings arranged a race between Sunday and Arlie Latham, the fastest runner in the American Association. Sunday won the hundred-yard dash by about ten feet.[10] Sunday's personality, demeanor, and athleticism made him popular with the fans, as well as with his teammates. Manager Cap Anson considered Sunday reliable enough to make him the team's business manager, which included such duties as handling the ticket receipts and paying the team's travel expenses.[11] In 1887, when Kelly was sold to another team, Sunday became Chicago's regular right fielder, but an injury limited his playing time to fifty games. During the following winter Sunday was sold to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys for the 1888 season. He was their starting center fielder, playing a full season for the first time in his career. The crowds in Pittsburgh took to Sunday immediately; one reporter wrote that "the whole town is wild over Sunday." Although Pittsburgh had a losing team during the 1888 and 1889 seasons, Sunday performed well in center field and was among the league leaders in stolen bases.[12] Billy Sunday, Center Fielder, Chicago White Stockings, c. 1887 In 1890, a labor dispute led to the formation of a new league, composed of most of the better players from the National League. Although he was invited to join the competing league, Sunday's conscience would not allow him to break the reserve clause, which allowed Pittsburgh to retain the rights to Sunday after his contract expired. Sunday was named team captain, and he was their star player, but the team suffered one of the worst seasons in baseball history. By August the team had no money to meet its payroll, and Sunday was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for two players and $1,000 in cash.[13] The Philadelphia team had an opportunity to win the National League pennant, and the owners hoped that adding Sunday to the roster would improve their chances. Although Sunday played well in his thirty-one games with Philadelphia, the team finished in third place.[14] In March 1891, Sunday requested and was granted a release from his contract with the Philadelphia ball club. Over his career, Sunday was never much of a hitter: his batting average was .248 over 499 games, about the median for the 1880s. In his best season, in 1887, Sunday hit .291, ranking 17th in the league. He was an exciting but inconsistent fielder. In the days before outfielders wore gloves, Sunday was noted for thrilling catches featuring long sprints and athletic dives, but he also committed a great many errors. Sunday was best known as an exciting base-runner, regarded by his peers as one of the fastest in the game, even though he never placed better than third in the National League in stolen bases.[15] Sunday remained a prominent baseball fan throughout his life. He gave interviews and opinions about baseball to the popular press;[16] he frequently umpired minor league and amateur games in the cities where he held revivals; and he attended baseball games whenever he could, including a 1935 World Series game two months before he died.[17] Conversion On a Sunday afternoon in Chicago, during either the 1886 or 1887 baseball season, Sunday and several of his teammates were out on the town on their day off. At one street corner, they stopped to listen to a gospel preaching team from the Pacific Garden Mission. Attracted by the hymns he had heard his mother sing, Sunday began attending services at the mission. After talking with a former society matron who worked there, Sunday – after some struggle on his part – decided to become a Christian. He began attending the fashionable Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church, a congregation close to both the ball park and his rented room.[18] Although he socialized with his teammates and sometimes gambled, Sunday was never a heavy drinker. In his autobiography, he said, "I was never drunk but four times in my life. ... I used to go to the saloons with the baseball players, and while they would drink highballs and gin fizzes and beer, I would take lemonade."[19] Following his conversion, Sunday denounced drinking, swearing, and gambling, and he changed his behavior, which was recognized by both teammates and fans. Shortly thereafter, Sunday began speaking in churches and at YMCAs.[20] Marriage In 1886, Sunday was introduced at Jefferson Park Presbyterian Church to Helen Amelia "Nell" Thompson, daughter of the owner of one of Chicago's largest dairy products businesses. Although Sunday was immediately smitten with her, both had serious on-going relationships that bordered on engagements.[21] Furthermore, Nell Thompson had grown to maturity in a much more privileged environment than had Sunday, and her father strongly discouraged the courtship, viewing all professional baseball players as "transient ne'er-do-wells who were unstable and destined to be misfits once they were too old to play."[22] Nevertheless, Sunday pursued and eventually married her. On several occasions, Sunday said, "She was a Presbyterian, so I am a Presbyterian. Had she been a Catholic, I would have been a Catholic – because I was hot on the trail of Nell." Her mother liked Sunday from the start and weighed in on his side, and her father finally relented. The couple was married on September 5, 1888.[23] Apprenticeship for evangelism In the spring of 1891, Sunday turned down a baseball contract for $3,500 a year to accept a position with the Chicago YMCA at $83 per month. Sunday's job title at the YMCA was Assistant Secretary, yet the position involved a great deal of ministerial work. It proved to be good preparation for his later evangelistic career. For three years Sunday visited the sick, prayed with the troubled, counseled the suicidal, and visited saloons to invite patrons to evangelistic meetings.[24] In 1893, Sunday became the full-time assistant to J. Wilbur Chapman, one of the best known evangelists in the United States at the time. Chapman was well educated and was a meticulous dresser, "suave and urbane."[25] Personally shy, like Sunday, Chapman commanded respect in the pulpit both because of his strong voice and his sophisticated demeanor. Sunday's job as Chapman's advance man was to precede the evangelist to cities in which he was scheduled to preach, organize prayer meetings and choirs, and in general take care of necessary details. When tents were used, Sunday would often help erect them.[26] By listening to Chapman preach night after night, Sunday received a valuable course in homiletics. Chapman also critiqued Sunday's own attempts at evangelistic preaching and showed him how to put a good sermon together. Further, Chapman encouraged Sunday's theological development, especially by emphasizing the importance of prayer and by helping to "reinforce Billy's commitment to conservative biblical Christianity."[27] Popular evangelist Sunday preaches Kerosene circuit When Chapman unexpectedly returned to the pastorate in 1896, Sunday struck out on his own, beginning with meetings in tiny Garner, Iowa. For the next twelve years Sunday preached in approximately seventy communities, most of them in Iowa and Illinois. Sunday referred to these towns as the "kerosene circuit" because, unlike Chicago, most were not yet electrified. Towns often booked Sunday meetings informally, sometimes by sending a delegation to hear him preach and then telegraphing him while he was holding services somewhere else.[28] Sunday also took advantage of his reputation as a baseball player to generate advertising for his meetings. In 1907 in Fairfield, Iowa, Sunday organized local businesses into two baseball teams and scheduled a game between them. Sunday came dressed in his professional uniform and played on both sides. Although baseball was his primary means of publicity, Sunday also once hired a circus giant to serve as an usher.[29] When Sunday began to attract crowds larger than could be accommodated in rural churches or town halls, he pitched rented canvas tents. Again, Sunday did much of the physical work of putting them up, manipulating ropes during storms, and seeing to their security by sleeping in them at night. Not until 1905 was he well-off enough to hire his own advance man.[30] In 1906, an October snowstorm in Salida, Colorado, destroyed Sunday's tent – a special disaster because revivalists were typically paid with a freewill offering at the end of their meetings. Thereafter he insisted that towns build him temporary wooden tabernacles at their expense. The tabernacles were comparatively costly to build (although most of the lumber could be salvaged and resold at the end of the meetings), and locals had to put up the money for them in advance. This change in Sunday's operation began to push the finances of the campaign to the fore. At least at first, raising tabernacles provided good public relations for the coming meetings as townspeople joined in what was effectively a giant barnraising. Sunday built rapport by participating in the process, and the tabernacles were also a status symbol, because they had previously been built only for major evangelists such as Chapman.[31] Under the administration of Nell Eleven years into Sunday's evangelistic career, both he and his wife had been pushed to their emotional limits. Long separations had exacerbated his natural feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.[32] Sunday depended on his wife's love and encouragement. For her part, Nell found it increasingly difficult to handle household responsibilities, the needs of four children (including a newborn), and the long-distance emotional welfare of her husband. His ministry was also expanding, and he needed an administrator. In 1908, the Sundays decided to entrust their children to a nanny so that Nell could manage the revival campaigns.[33] Nell Sunday transformed her husband's out-of-the-back-pocket organization into a "nationally renowned phenomenon."[34] New personnel were hired, and by the New York campaign of 1917, the Sundays had a paid staff of twenty-six. There were musicians, custodians, and advance men; but the Sundays also hired Bible teachers of both genders, who among other responsibilities, held daytime meetings at schools and shops and encouraged their audiences to attend the main tabernacle services in the evenings. The most significant of these new staff members were Homer Rodeheaver, an exceptional song leader and music director who worked with the Sundays for almost twenty years beginning in 1910,[35] and Virginia Healey Asher, who (besides regularly singing duets with Rodeheaver) directed the women's ministries, especially the evangelization of young working women.[36] Campaign platform Billy Sunday preaching on March 15, 1915 in a temporary tabernacle erected on what was to become the site of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Illustration by George Bellows. Metropolitan Magazine, May 1915[37][38] With his wife administering the campaign organization, Sunday was free to do what he did best: compose and deliver colloquial sermons. Typically, Homer Rodeheaver would first warm up the crowd with congregational singing that alternated with numbers from gigantic choirs and music performed by the staff. When Sunday felt the moment right, he would launch into his message. Sunday gyrated, stood on the pulpit, ran from one end of the platform to the other, and dove across the stage, pretending to slide into home plate. Sometimes he even smashed chairs to emphasize his points. His sermon notes had to be printed in large letters so that he could catch a glimpse of them as he raced by the pulpit. In messages attacking sexual sin to groups of men only, Sunday could be graphic for the era. A theological opponent, Universalist minister Frederick William Betts, wrote: Many of the things said and done bordered upon things prohibited in decent society. The sermon on amusements was preached three times, to mixed audience of men and women, boys and girls. If the sermons to women had been preached to married women, if the sermons to men had been preached to mature men, if the sermon on amusements had been preached to grown folks, there might have been an excuse for them, and perhaps good from them. But an experienced newspaper reporter told me that the sermon on amusements was "the rawest thing ever put over in Syracuse." I can not, must not, quote from this sermon....[a friend] says that Mr. Sunday's sermon on the sex question was raw and disgusting. He also heard the famous sermons on amusements and booze. [He] says that all in all they were the ugliest, nastiest, most disgusting addresses he ever listened to from a religious platform or a preacher of religion. He saw people carried out who had fainted under that awful definition of sensuality and depravity.[39] Billy Sunday, Evangelist and Baseball Player, [ca. 1910]. Michael T. "Nuf Ced" McGreevy Collection, Boston Public Library Billy Sunday, Evangelist and Baseball Player, [ca. 1910]. Michael T. "Nuf Ced" McGreevy Collection, Boston Public Library Homer Rodeheaver said that "One of these sermons, until he tempered it down a little, had one ten-minute period in it where from two to twelve men fainted and had to be carried out every time I heard him preach it."[40] Some religious and social leaders criticized Sunday's exaggerated gestures as well as the slang and colloquialisms that filled his sermons, but audiences clearly enjoyed them.[41] In 1907, journalist Lindsay Denison complained that Sunday preached "the old, old doctrine of damnation". Denison wrote, "In spite of his conviction that the truly religious man should take his religion joyfully, he gets his results by inspiring fear and gloom in the hearts of sinners. The fear of death, with torment beyond it—intensified by examples of the frightful deathbeds of those who have carelessly or obdurately put off salvation until it is too late—it is with this mighty menace that he drives sinners into the fold."[42] But Sunday himself told reporters "with ill-concealed annoyance" that his revivals had "no emotionalism."[43] Caricatures compared him to the extravagances of mid-nineteenth-century camp meetings, as in the famous drawing "Billy Sunday" by George Bellows.[44] Sunday told one reporter that he believed that people could "be converted without any fuss,"[45] and, at Sunday's meetings, "instances of spasm, shakes, or fainting fits caused by hysteria were few and far between."[43] Crowd noise, especially coughing and crying babies, was a significant impediment to Sunday's preaching because the wooden tabernacles were so acoustically live. During his preliminaries, Rodeheaver often instructed audiences about how to muffle their coughs. Nurseries were always provided, infants forbidden, and Sunday sometimes appeared rude in his haste to rid the hall of noisy children who had slipped through the ushers. Tabernacle floors were covered with sawdust to dampen the noise of shuffling feet (as well as for its pleasant smell and its ability to hold down the dust of dirt floors), and walking to the front at the preacher's invitation became known as "hitting the sawdust trail."[46] The term was first used in a Sunday campaign in Bellingham, Washington, in 1910. Apparently, "hitting the sawdust trail" had first been used by loggers in the Pacific Northwest to describe following home a trail of previously dropped sawdust through an uncut forest — described by Nell Sunday as a metaphor for coming from "a lost condition to a saved condition." Billy Sunday's tabernacle (Detroit 1916) New York City Tabernacle, 1917 By 1910, Sunday began to conduct meetings (usually longer than a month) in small cities like Youngstown, Wilkes-Barre, South Bend, and Denver, and then finally, between 1915 and 1917, the major cities of Philadelphia, Syracuse, Kansas City, Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, and New York City.[47] During the 1910s, Sunday was front-page news in the cities where he held campaigns. Newspapers often printed his sermons in full, and during World War I, local coverage of his campaigns often surpassed that of the war. Sunday was the subject of over sixty articles in major periodicals, and he was a staple of the religious press regardless of denomination.[48] Over the course of his career, Sunday probably preached to more than one hundred million people face-to-face—and, to the great majority, without electronic amplification. Vast numbers "hit the sawdust trail." Although the usual total given for those who came forward at invitations is an even million, one modern historian estimates the true figure to be closer to 1,250,000.[49] Sunday did not preach to a hundred million different individuals but to many of the same people repeatedly over the course of a campaign. Before his death, Sunday estimated that he had preached nearly 20,000 sermons, an average of 42 per month from 1896 to 1935. During his heyday, when he was preaching more than twenty times each week, his crowds were often huge. Even in 1923, well into the period of his decline, 479,300 people attended the 79 meetings of the six-week 1923 Columbia, South Carolina, campaign – 23 times the white population of Columbia. Nevertheless,"trail hitters" were not necessarily conversions (or even "reconsecrations") to Christianity. Sometimes whole groups of club members came forward en masse at Sunday's prodding. By 1927, Rodeheaver was complaining that Sunday's invitations had become so general that they were meaningless.[50] Wages of success 1911 bungalow in Winona Lake, Indiana Large crowds and an efficient organization meant that Sunday was soon netting hefty offerings. The first questions about Sunday's income were apparently raised during the Columbus, Ohio, campaign at the turn of 1912–13. During the Pittsburgh campaign a year later, Sunday spoke four times per day and effectively made $217 per sermon or $870 a day at a time when the average gainfully employed worker made $836 per year. The major cities of Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and New York City gave Sunday even larger offerings. Sunday donated Chicago's offering of $58,000 to Pacific Garden Mission and the $120,500 New York offering to war charities. Nevertheless, between 1908 and 1920, the Sundays earned over a million dollars; an average worker during the same period earned less than $14,000.[51] Billy Sunday at the White House, 1922 Sunday was welcomed into the circle of the social, economic, and political elite. He counted among his neighbors and acquaintances several prominent businessmen. Sunday dined with numerous politicians, including Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, and counted both Herbert Hoover and John D. Rockefeller Jr. as friends.[52] During and after the 1917 Los Angeles campaign, the Sundays visited with Hollywood stars, and members of Sunday's organization played a charity baseball game against a team of show business personalities that included Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.[53] The Sundays enjoyed dressing well and dressing their children well; the family sported expensive but tasteful coats, boots, and jewelry. Nell Sunday also bought land as an investment. In 1909, the Sundays bought an apple orchard in Hood River, Oregon, where they vacationed for several years. Although the property sported only a rustic cabin, reporters called it a "ranch." Sunday was a soft touch with money and gave away much of his earnings.[54] Neither of the Sundays were extravagant spenders. Although Sunday enjoyed driving, the couple never owned a car. In 1911, the Sundays moved to Winona Lake, Indiana, and built an American Craftsman-style bungalow, which they called "Mount Hood", probably as a reminder of their Oregon vacation cabin. The bungalow, furnished in the popular Arts and Crafts style, had two porches and a terraced garden but only nine rooms, 2,500 square feet (230 m2) of living space, and no garage.[55] Religious views Sunday was a conservative evangelical who accepted fundamentalist doctrines. He affirmed and preached the biblical inerrancy, the virgin birth of Jesus, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection of Jesus, a literal devil and hell, and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. At the turn of the 20th century, most Protestant church members, regardless of denomination, gave assent to these doctrines. Sunday refused to hold meetings in cities where he was not welcomed by the vast majority of the Protestant churches and their clergy.[56] Sunday was not a separationist as were many Protestants of his era. He went out of his way to avoid criticizing the Roman Catholic Church and even met with Cardinal Gibbons during his 1916 Baltimore campaign. Also, cards filled out by "trail hitters" were faithfully returned to the church or denomination that the writers had indicated as their choice, including Catholic and Unitarian.[57] Although Sunday was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in 1903, his ministry was nondenominational and he was not a strict Calvinist. He preached that individuals were, at least in part, responsible for their own salvation. "Trail hitters" were given a four-page tract that stated, "if you have done your part (i.e. believe that Christ died in your place, and receive Him as your Saviour and Master) God has done HIS part and imparted to you His own nature."[58] Sunday never attended seminary and made no pretense of being a theologian or an intellectual, but he had a thorough knowledge of the Bible and was well read on religious and social issues of his day. His surviving Winona Lake library of six hundred books gives evidence of heavy use, including underscoring and reader's notes in his characteristic all-caps printing. Some of Sunday's books were even those of religious opponents. He was once charged with plagiarizing a Decoration Day speech given by the noted agnostic Robert Ingersoll.[59] Sunday's homespun preaching had a wide appeal to his audiences, who were "entertained, reproached, exhorted, and astonished."[60] Sunday claimed to be "an old-fashioned preacher of the old-time religion"[61] and his uncomplicated sermons spoke of a personal God, salvation through Jesus Christ, and following the moral lessons of the Bible. Sunday's theology, although sometimes denigrated as simplistic, was situated within the mainstream Protestantism of his time.[62] Social and political views Cover of August 1914 issue of The Melting Pot: A Magazine of Protest, edited by Henry M. Tichenor, condemning Sunday as a tool of big business. Tombstones of Billy and Helen Sunday, Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois Sunday was a lifelong Republican, and he espoused the mainstream political and social views of his native Midwest: individualism, competitiveness, personal discipline, and opposition to government regulation.[63] Writers such as Sinclair Lewis,[64] Henry M. Tichenor,[65] and John Reed attacked Sunday as a tool of big business, and poet Carl Sandburg called him a "four-flusher" and a "bunkshooter."[66] Nevertheless, Sunday sided with Progressives on some issues. For example, he denounced child labor[67] and supported urban reform and women's suffrage.[68] Sunday condemned capitalists "whose private lives are good, but whose public lives are very bad", as well as those "who would not pick the pockets of one man with the fingers of their hand" but who would "without hesitation pick the pockets of eighty million people with fingers of their monopoly or commercial advantage."[69] Although he never lost his sympathy for the poor and sincerely tried to bridge the gulf between the races during the zenith of the Jim Crow era,[70] Sunday did receive contributions from members of the Second Ku Klux Klan during the 1920s.[71] For instance, in 1927, in Bangor, Maine, Sunday's music director, Homer Rodeheaver, told Klansmen who briefly interrupted the service that "he did not believe that any organization that marched behind the Cross of Christ and the American Flag could be anything but a power for good."[72][73] Sunday was a passionate supporter of America entering World War I. In 1918 he said, "I tell you it is [Kaiser] Bill against Woodrow, Germany against America, Hell against Heaven." Sunday raised large amounts of money for the troops, sold war bonds, and stumped for recruitment.[74] Sunday had been an ardent champion of temperance from his earliest days as an evangelist, and his ministry at the Chicago YMCA had given him first-hand experience with the destructive potential of alcohol. Sunday's most famous sermon was "Get on the Water Wagon", which he preached on countless occasions with both histrionic emotion and a "mountain of economic and moral evidence." Sunday said, "I am the sworn, eternal and uncompromising enemy of the Liquor Traffic. I have been, and will go on, fighting that damnable, dirty, rotten business with all the power at my command."[75] Sunday played a significant role in arousing public interest in Prohibition and in the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919. When the tide of public opinion turned against Prohibition, he continued to support it. After its repeal in 1933, Sunday called for its reintroduction.[76] Sunday also opposed eugenics, recent immigration from southern and eastern Europe,[77] and the teaching of evolution.[78] Further, he criticized such popular middle-class amusements as dancing,[79] playing cards, attending the theater, and reading novels.[80] However, he believed baseball was a healthy and even patriotic form of recreation, so long as it was not played on Sundays.[81] Decline and death Sunday's popularity waned after World War I, when many people in his revival audiences were attracted to radio broadcasts and moving pictures instead.[82] The Sundays' health also declined even as they continued to drive themselves through rounds of revivals—smaller but also with fewer staff members to assist them. Tragedy marred Sunday's final years. His three sons engaged in many of the activities he preached against, and the Sundays paid blackmail to several women to keep the scandals relatively quiet.[83] In 1930, Nora Lynn, their housekeeper and nanny, who had become a virtual member of the family, died. Then the Sundays' daughter, the only child actually raised by Nell, died in 1932 of what seems to have been multiple sclerosis.[84] Their oldest son George, rescued from financial ruin by his parents, committed suicide in 1933.[85] Nevertheless, even as the crowds declined during the last 15 years of his life, Sunday continued accepting preaching invitations and speaking with effect. In early 1935, he had a mild heart attack, and his doctor advised him to stay out of the pulpit. Sunday ignored the advice. He died on November 6, a week after preaching his last sermon on the text "What must I do to be saved?"[86] In Christianity, evangelism or witnessing is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is sometimes associated with Christian missions. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are in their home communities or living as missionaries in the field, although some Christian traditions refer to such people as missionaries in either case. Some Christian traditions consider evangelists to be in a leadership position; they may be found preaching to large meetings or in governance roles. In addition, Christian groups who encourage evangelism are sometimes known as evangelistic or evangelist. Etymology Main article: The gospel The word evangelist comes from the Koine Greek word εὐανγέλιον (transliterated as euangelion) via Latinised evangelium as used in the canonical titles of the Four Gospels, authored by (or attributed to) Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (also known as the Four Evangelists). The Greek word εὐαγγέλιον originally meant a reward given to the messenger for good news (εὔ = "good", ἀνγέλλω = "I bring a message"; the word "angel" comes from the same root) and later "good news" itself. The verb form of euangelion,[1] (translated as "evangelism"), occurs rarely in older Greek literature outside the New Testament, making its meaning more difficult to ascertain. Parallel texts of the Gospels of Luke and Mark reveal a synonymous relationship between the verb euangelizo (εὑαγγελίζω) and a Greek verb kerusso (κηρύσσω), which means "to proclaim".[2] Methods See also: Approaches to evangelism Billy Graham in Düsseldorf (1954) Evangelism can include preaching or distributing bibles, tracts, newspapers and/or magazines, by the media, street evangelists, etc.[3][4][5] The Bible records that Jesus sent out his disciples to evangelize by visiting peoples homes in pairs of two believers (cf. Luke 10:1–12).[6] In the same text, Jesus mentioned that few people were willing to evangelize, despite there being many people who would be receptive to his Gospel message.[7] The child evangelism movement is a Christian evangelism movement that originated in the 20th century. It focuses on the 4/14 Window which centers on evangelizing children between the ages of 4 and 14 years old.[8] Beginning in the 1970s, a group of Christian athletes known as The Power Team spawned an entire genre of Christian entertainment based on strong-man exploits mixed with a Christian message and usually accompanied by an opportunity to respond with a prayer for salvation.[9] New opportunities for evangelism have been provided in recent decades by increased travel opportunities and by instant communications over the internet.[10] Instant chalk board drawings (while storytelling), using bright poster chalk on large boards, along with ventriloquism and humor, have also been used in schools and churches and at beaches and river banks. In the 90's (and now in the 2000's) Geoffrey Moran of Australia uses these "old school" methods as they are now new again for both children and adults. Ventriloquism is also returning to radio in the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy style. World Youth Day, an evangelistic event, in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2013. Missionary work Further information: Christian mission Catholicism Main article: New evangelization Protestantism In 1831, the Presbyterian Mission Agency was founded by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.[11] Evangelicalism Passion Conferences, a music and evangelism festival at Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, in 2013 Further information: Evangelicalism Various evangelical mission organizations have specialized in evangelism throughout history. In 1792, BMS World Mission was founded in Kettering, England by William Carey.[12][13] In 1814, the American Baptist International Ministries was founded by the American Baptist Churches USA in United States.[14] In 1865, OMF International was founded by Hudson Taylor in England.[15] In 1893, in Lagos in Nigeria, SIM was founded by Walter Gowans, Rowland Bingham, and Thomas Kent.[16] Samuel E. Hill, John H. Nicholson, and William J. Knights founded Gideons International, an organization which distributes free Bibles to hotels, motels, hospitals, military bases, prisons, schools, and universities, in Janesville in Wisconsin, United States, in 1899.[17] In 1922, Canadian evangelical evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, founder of the Foursquare Church, was the first woman to use radio to reach a wider audience in the United States.[18] In 1951, producer Dick Ross and Baptist evangelist Billy Graham founded the film production company World Wide Pictures, which would make videos of his preaching and Christian films.[19] In 1960, more than half of the Protestant American missionaries were evangelical.[20] American and European Pentecostal missionaries are also numerous, Pentecostalism can develop independently by non-foreign residents in various regions of the world, notably in Africa, South America, and Asia.[21] Youth with a Mission was founded in 1960 in United States by Loren Cunningham and his wife Darlene.[22][23] The Christian Broadcasting Network was founded in 1961 in Virginia Beach, United States, by Baptist minister Pat Robertson.[24] In 1974, Billy Graham and the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization organized the First International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne.[25] In 2004, South Korea became the second-largest source of missionaries in the world, after the United States and ahead of England.[26][27] In July 1999, TopChrétien, an evangelical Christian web portal and social network, was launched by Éric Célérier, pastor of the Assemblies of God of France and Estelle Martin.[28] In January 2007, GodTube, a site for sharing videos related to Christianity, especially evangelical, was founded by Christopher Wyatt of Plano, Texas in the United States, then a student at Dallas Theological Seminary.[29] In 2007, there were over 10,000 Baptist missionaries in overseas missions around the world.[30] Controversies Some consider evangelism to be proselytising, while others argue it is free speech.[31][32][33] The fact that evangelicals speak about their faith in public is often criticized by the media and it is often associated with proselytism.[32] According to the evangelicals, freedom of religion and freedom of expression allow them to discuss their faith like they would discuss other topics.[33] Christian films made by American evangelical production companies are also regularly associated with proselytism.[34][35] According to Sarah-Jane Murray, screenwriting teacher at the US Film and Christian Television Commission United, Christian films are works of art, not proselytism.[36] For Hubert de Kerangat, communications manager at SAJE Distribution, a distributor of these American Christian films in France, if Christian films are considered proselytism, all films are a form of proselytism, since films of all genres could each be said to carry a message.[37] Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of organized baseball in the United States and Canada. One of the big four major leagues, MLB comprises 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world. They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball.[3][7][17][18] MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.[7] Baseball's first all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was founded in 1869. The first few decades of professional baseball saw rivalries between leagues, and players often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 was the dead-ball era, when home runs were rarely hit. Professional baseball survived the Black Sox Scandal, a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, then rose in popularity in the following decade. It survived the Great Depression and World War II. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. The 1950s and 1960s saw the AL and NL add clubs; some moved around the country. Modern stadiums with artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s. Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s. In the mid-2000s, media reports disclosed the use of anabolic steroids among MLB players; a 2006–07 investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which found that many players had used steroids and other performance-enhancing substances, including at least one player from each team. Each team plays 162 games per season, with Opening Day traditionally held during the first week of April. Six teams in each league then advance to a four-round postseason tournament in October, culminating in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions first played in 1903. The New York Yankees have the most championships with 27. The reigning champions are the Texas Rangers, who defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 World Series. MLB is the second-wealthiest professional sport league by revenue after the National Football League (NFL).[19][20][21] Baseball games are broadcast on television, radio, and the internet throughout North America and in several other countries. MLB has the highest total season attendance of any sports league in the world; in 2018, it drew more than 69.6 million spectators.[22] MLB also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises lower-tier teams affiliated with the major league clubs. MLB and the World Baseball Softball Confederation jointly manage the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Organizational structure MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution. This document has undergone several incarnations since its creation in 1876.[23] Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball. This is due in large part to the 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law; MLB is the only league that has such a status, and has not faced any competition since this case.[24][25] This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.[26] The weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates.[26][27] There were several challenges to MLB's primacy in the sport, with notable attempts to establish competing leagues occurring during the late 1800s, from 1913 to 1915 with the short-lived Federal League, and in 1960 with the aborted Continental League.[26] The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, Rob Manfred. The deputy commissioner of baseball administration and chief legal officer is Dan Halem. There are seven other executives: executive vice president and general counsel, chief operations and strategy officer, chief communications officer, chief financial officer and senior advisor, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, chief revenue officer, and chief baseball development officer.[28][29] The multimedia branch of MLB is MLB Advanced Media, which is based in New York City. This branch oversees MLB.com and each of the 30 teams' websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, but it is under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media. MLB also owns 67 percent of MLB Network, with the other 33 percent split between several cable operators and satellite provider DirecTV.[30] It operates out of studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, and also has editorial independence from the league.[31] League organization In 1920, the weak National Commission, created to manage relationships between the two leagues, was replaced with the much more powerful Commissioner of Baseball, who had the power to make decisions for all of professional baseball unilaterally.[3] From 1901 to 1960, the American and National Leagues fielded eight teams apiece. In the 1960s, MLB expansion added eight teams, including the first non-U.S. team (the Montreal Expos). Two teams (the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays) were also added in the 1970s. From 1969 through 1993, each league consisted of an East and West Division. In 1993, the National League expanded with two teams, the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, to even up the number of teams in both leagues. A third division, the Central Division, was formed in each league in 1994. Until 1996, the two leagues met on the field only during the World Series and the All-Star Game. Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997.[32] In March 1995, two new franchises, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now known as the Tampa Bay Rays), were awarded by MLB, which began play in 1998. This addition brought the total number of franchises to 30. In early 1997, MLB decided to assign one new team to each league: Tampa Bay joined the AL and Arizona joined the NL. The original plan was to have an odd number of teams in each league (15 per league, with five in each division), but in order for every team to be able to play daily, this would have required interleague play to be scheduled throughout the entire season. However, it was unclear at the time if the interleague play would continue after the 1998 season, as it had to be approved by the players' union. For this and other reasons, it was decided that both leagues should continue to have an even number of teams, and therefore, one existing club would have to switch leagues. The Milwaukee Brewers agreed in November 1997 to move from the AL to the NL, thereby making the NL a 16-team league. At the same time, the Detroit Tigers agreed to move from the AL East to the AL Central (to replace Milwaukee), with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays joining the AL East.[33] Later, when the Houston Astros changed ownership prior to the 2013 season, the team moved from the NL Central to the AL West,[34][35] resulting in both leagues having three divisions of five teams each and allowing all teams to have a more balanced schedule.[35] Interleague play is now held throughout the season.[35] In 2000, the AL and NL were dissolved as legal entities, and MLB became a single, overall league de jure, similar to the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL)—albeit with two components called "leagues" instead of "conferences". The same rules and regulations are used in both leagues, with one former exception: the AL operated under the designated hitter (DH) rule, while the NL did not.[36][37] This difference in rules between leagues was unique to MLB, as the other major professional sports leagues in the U.S. and Canada have one set of rules for all teams.[citation needed] In 2020, the National League (NL) used the designated hitter (DH) rule for the first time.[38] As part of the settlement of the 2021–22 Major League Baseball lockout, this change was made permanent thus making the rules in the two leagues identical.[36][39] Teams See also: Timeline of Major League Baseball BravesMarlinsMetsPhilliesNationalsCubsRedsBrewersPiratesCardinalsDiamondbacksRockiesDodgersPadresGiantsOriolesRed SoxYankeesRaysBlue JaysWhite SoxGuardiansTigersRoyalsTwinsAstrosAngelsAthleticsMarinersRangers Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap Download coordinates as: An asterisk (*) denotes a relocation of a franchise. See respective team articles for more information. Overview of MLB teams League Division Team City Stadium Capacity Coordinates Founded Joined American League East Baltimore Orioles[40] Baltimore, Maryland Oriole Park at Camden Yards 45,971 39°17′2″N 76°37′18″W 1901* Boston Red Sox[41] Boston, Massachusetts Fenway Park 37,949 42°20′47″N 71°5′51″W 1901 New York Yankees[42] New York, New York Yankee Stadium 47,309 40°49′45″N 73°55′35″W 1903 Tampa Bay Rays[43] St. Petersburg, Florida Tropicana Field 31,042 27°46′6″N 82°39′12″W 1998 Toronto Blue Jays[44] Toronto, Ontario Rogers Centre 41,500 43°38′29″N 79°23′21″W 1977 Central Chicago White Sox[45] Chicago, Illinois Guaranteed Rate Field 40,615 41°49′48″N 87°38′2″W 1901 Cleveland Guardians[46] Cleveland, Ohio Progressive Field 34,830 41°29′45″N 81°41′7″W 1901 Detroit Tigers[47] Detroit, Michigan Comerica Park 41,297 42°20′21″N 83°2′55″W 1901 Kansas City Royals[48] Kansas City, Missouri Kauffman Stadium 37,903 39°3′5″N 94°28′50″W 1969 Minnesota Twins[49] Minneapolis, Minnesota Target Field 38,871 44°58′54″N 93°16′42″W 1901* West Houston Astros[50] Houston, Texas Minute Maid Park 41,676 29°45′25″N 95°21′20″W 1962 (NL) 2013 (AL) Los Angeles Angels[51] Anaheim, California Angel Stadium 45,957 33°48′1″N 117°52′58″W 1961 Oakland Athletics[52] Oakland, California[B] Oakland Coliseum[B] 46,847 37°45′6″N 122°12′2″W 1901* Seattle Mariners[54] Seattle, Washington T-Mobile Park 47,943 47°35′29″N 122°19′57″W 1977 Texas Rangers[55] Arlington, Texas Globe Life Field 40,300 32°45′5″N 97°4′58″W 1961* National League East Atlanta Braves[56] Cumberland, Georgia Truist Park 41,500 33°53′24″N 84°28′4″W 1871* (NA) 1876 (NL) Miami Marlins[57] Miami, Florida LoanDepot Park 36,742 25°46′41″N 80°13′11″W 1993 New York Mets[58] New York, New York Citi Field 41,922 40°45′25″N 73°50′45″W 1962 Philadelphia Phillies[59] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Citizens Bank Park 43,651 39°54′21″N 75°9′59″W 1883 Washington Nationals[60] Washington, D.C. Nationals Park 41,313 38°52′22″N 77°0′27″W 1969* Central Chicago Cubs[61] Chicago, Illinois Wrigley Field 41,268 41°56′54″N 87°39′20″W 1870 (NA) 1876 (NL) Cincinnati Reds[62] Cincinnati, Ohio Great American Ball Park 42,319 39°5′51″N 84°30′24″W 1882 (AA) 1890 (NL) Milwaukee Brewers[63] Milwaukee, Wisconsin American Family Field 41,900 43°1′42″N 87°58′16″W 1969* (AL) 1998 (NL) Pittsburgh Pirates[64] Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania PNC Park 38,362 40°26′49″N 80°0′21″W 1882 (AA) 1887 (NL) St. Louis Cardinals[65] St. Louis, Missouri Busch Stadium 44,383 38°37′21″N 90°11′35″W 1882 (AA) 1892 (NL) West Arizona Diamondbacks[66] Phoenix, Arizona Chase Field 48,519 33°26′43″N 112°4′1″W 1998 Colorado Rockies[67] Denver, Colorado Coors Field 46,897 39°45′22″N 104°59′39″W 1993 Los Angeles Dodgers[68] Los Angeles, California Dodger Stadium 56,000 34°4′25″N 118°14′24″W 1884* (AA) 1890 (NL) San Diego Padres[69] San Diego, California Petco Park 42,445 32°42′26″N 117°9′24″W 1969 San Francisco Giants[70] San Francisco, California Oracle Park 41,915 37°46′43″N 122°23′21″W 1883* History Main article: History of baseball in the United States Founding In the 1860s, aided by soldiers playing the game in camp during the Civil War, "New York"-style baseball expanded into a national game and spawned baseball's first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP). The NABBP existed as an amateur league for 12 years. By 1867, more than 400 clubs were members. Most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the Northeastern United States. For professional baseball's founding year, MLB uses the year 1869—when the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was established.[71] A schism developed between professional and amateur ballplayers after the founding of the Cincinnati club. The NABBP split into an amateur organization and a professional organization. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, often known as the National Association (NA), was formed in 1871.[72] Its amateur counterpart disappeared after only a few years.[73] The modern Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves franchises trace their histories back to the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in the 1870s.[74] In 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (later known as the National League or NL) was established after the NA proved ineffective. The league placed its emphasis on clubs rather than on players. Clubs could now enforce player contracts, preventing players from jumping to higher-paying clubs. Clubs were required to play the full schedule of games instead of forfeiting scheduled games when the club was no longer in the running for the league championship, which happened frequently under the NA. A concerted effort was made to curb gambling on games, which was leaving the validity of results in doubt. The first game in the NL—on Saturday, April 22, 1876 (at Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia)—is often pointed to as the beginning of MLB.[75] National League Baltimore Orioles, 1896 The early years of the NL were tumultuous, with threats from rival leagues and a rebellion by players against the hated "reserve clause", which restricted the free movement of players between clubs. Teams came and went; 1882 was the first season where the league's membership was the same as the preceding season's, and only four franchises survived to see 1900. Competitor leagues formed regularly and also disbanded regularly. The most successful was the American Association (1882–1891), sometimes called the "beer and whiskey league" for its tolerance of the sale of alcoholic beverages to spectators. For several years, the NL and American Association champions met in a postseason championship series—the first attempt at a World Series. The two leagues merged in 1892 as a single 12-team NL, but the NL dropped four teams after the 1899 season. This led to the formation of the American League in 1901 under AL president Ban Johnson, and the resulting bidding war for players led to widespread contract-breaking and legal disputes.[citation needed] The war between the AL and NL caused shock waves throughout the baseball world. At a meeting at the Leland Hotel in Chicago in 1901, the other baseball leagues negotiated a plan to maintain their independence. A new National Association was formed to oversee these minor leagues.[76] After 1902, the NL, AL, and NA signed a new National Agreement which tied independent contracts to the reserve-clause contracts. The agreement also set up a formal classification system for minor leagues, the forerunner of today's system that was refined by Branch Rickey.[77] Other recognized leagues Several other early defunct baseball leagues are considered major leagues, and their statistics and records are included with those of the two modern major leagues. In 1969, the Special Baseball Records Committee of Major League Baseball officially recognized six major leagues: the National League, American League, American Association, Union Association (1884), Players' League (1890), and Federal League (1914–1915).[78] The status of the National Association as a major league has been a point of dispute among baseball researchers; while its statistics are not recognized by Major League Baseball, its statistics are included with those of other major leagues by some baseball reference websites, such as Retrosheet.[79] Some researchers, including Nate Silver, dispute the major-league status of the Union Association by pointing out that franchises came and went and that the St. Louis club was deliberately "stacked"; the St. Louis club was owned by the league's president and it was the only club that was close to major-league caliber.[80] In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced its recognition of seven leagues within Negro league baseball as major leagues: the first and second Negro National Leagues (1920–1931 and 1933–1948), the Eastern Colored League (1923–1928), the American Negro League (1929), the East–West League (1932), the Negro Southern League (1932), and the Negro American League (1937–1948).[81] In 2021, baseball reference website Baseball-Reference.com began to include statistics from those seven leagues into their major-league statistics.[82] Dead-ball era Main article: Dead-ball era Cy Young, 1911 baseball card The period between 1900 and 1919 is commonly referred to as the "dead-ball era". Games of this era tended to be low-scoring and were often dominated by pitchers, such as Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Mordecai Brown, and Grover Cleveland Alexander. The term also accurately describes the condition of the baseball itself. The baseball used American rather than the modern Australian wool yarn and was not wound as tightly, affecting the distance that it would travel.[83] More significantly, balls were kept in play until they were mangled, soft and sometimes lopsided. During this era, a baseball cost three dollars, equal to $50.64 today (in inflation-adjusted USD), and owners were reluctant to purchase new balls. Fans were expected to throw back fouls and (rare) home runs. Baseballs also became stained with tobacco juice, grass, and mud, and sometimes the juice of licorice, which some players would chew for the purpose of discoloring the ball.[84] Also, pitchers could manipulate the ball through the use of the spitball (In 1921, use of this pitch was restricted to a few pitchers with a grandfather clause). Additionally, many ballparks had large dimensions, such as the West Side Grounds of the Chicago Cubs, which was 560 feet (170 m) to the center field fence, and the Huntington Avenue Grounds of the Boston Red Sox, which was 635 feet (194 m) to the center field fence, thus home runs were rare, and "small ball" tactics such as singles, bunts, stolen bases, and the hit-and-run play dominated the strategies of the time.[85] Hitting methods like the Baltimore chop were used to increase the number of infield singles.[86] On a successful Baltimore chop, the batter hits the ball forcefully into the ground, causing it to bounce so high that the batter reaches first base before the ball can be fielded and thrown to the first baseman.[87] The adoption of the foul strike rule—in the NL in 1901, in the AL two years later—quickly sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring runs became a struggle. Before this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes: a batter could foul off any number of pitches with no strikes counted against him; this gave an enormous advantage to the batter.[88] After the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, baseball was rocked by allegations of a game-fixing scheme known as the Black Sox Scandal. Eight players—"Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Claude "Lefty" Williams, George "Buck" Weaver, Arnold "Chick" Gandil, Fred McMullin, Charles "Swede" Risberg, and Oscar "Happy" Felsch—intentionally lost the World Series in exchange for a ring worth $100,000 ($1,712,780.35 in 2022 dollars).[89] Despite being acquitted, all were permanently banned from Major League Baseball.[90] Rise in popularity Baseball's popularity increased in the 1920s and 1930s. The 1920 season was notable for the death of Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians. Chapman, who was struck in the head by a pitch and died a few hours later, became the only MLB player to die of an on-field injury.[91] Both leagues quickly began to require the use of new, white baseballs whenever a ball became scuffed or dirty, helping bring the "dead-ball" era to an end. The following year, the New York Yankees made their first World Series appearance.[92] By the end of the 1930s, the team had appeared in 11 World Series, winning eight of them.[93] Yankees slugger Babe Ruth had set the single-season home run record in 1927, hitting 60 home runs; breaking his own record of 29 home runs.[94] Afflicted by the Great Depression, baseball's popularity had begun a downward turn in the early 1930s. By 1932, only two MLB teams turned a profit. Attendance had fallen, due at least in part to a 10% federal amusement tax added to baseball ticket prices. Baseball owners cut their rosters from 25 men to 23, and even the best players took pay cuts. Team executives were innovative in their attempts to survive, creating night games, broadcasting games live by radio, and rolling out promotions such as free admission for women. Throughout the Great Depression, no MLB teams moved or folded.[95] World War II era The onset of World War II created a shortage of professional baseball players, as more than 500 men left MLB teams to serve in the military. Many of them played on service baseball teams that entertained military personnel in the US or in the Pacific. MLB teams of this time largely consisted of young men, older players, and those with a military classification of 4F, indicating mental, physical, or moral unsuitability for service. Men like Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder, got the chance to advance to the major leagues. However, MLB rosters did not include any black players through the end of the war.[96] Black players, many of whom served in the war, were still restricted to playing Negro league baseball.[97] Wartime blackout restrictions, designed to keep outdoor lighting at low levels, caused another problem for baseball. These rules limited traveling and night games to the point that the 1942 season was nearly canceled.[97] On January 14, 1942, MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pleading for the continuation of baseball during the war. Roosevelt responded, "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before."[98] With the approval of President Roosevelt, spring training began in 1942 with few repercussions. The war interrupted the careers of stars including Stan Musial, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio, but baseball clubs continued to field their teams.[99] Breaking the color barrier Main article: Baseball color line Jackie Robinson comic book, 1951 Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began making efforts to introduce a black baseball player to the previously all-white professional baseball leagues in the mid-1940s. He selected Jackie Robinson from a list of promising Negro league players. After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to any racial antagonism directed at him, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month. In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment", Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s, joining the Dodgers' farm club, the Montreal Royals, for the 1946 season.[100] The following year, the Dodgers called up Robinson to the major leagues. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. Black baseball fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning the Negro league teams that they had followed exclusively. Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspaper writers and white major league players. Manager Leo Durocher informed his team, "I don't care if he is yellow or black or has stripes like a fucking zebra. I'm his manager and I say he plays."[101] After a strike threat by some players, NL President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended. Robinson received significant encouragement from several major-league players, including Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese who said, "You can hate a man for many reasons. Color is not one of them."[102] That year, Robinson won the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate NL and AL Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949).[103] Less than three months later, Larry Doby became the first African-American to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians.[104] The next year, a number of other black players entered the major leagues. Satchel Paige was signed by the Indians and the Dodgers added star catcher Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, who was later the first winner of the Cy Young Award for his outstanding pitching.[105] Women in baseball Main article: Women in baseball MLB banned the signing of women to contracts in 1952, but that ban was lifted in 1992.[106] There have been no female MLB players. Relocation and expansion Main article: Major League Baseball relocation of 1950s–1960s 1959 World Series action at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum From 1903 to 1952, the major leagues consisted of two eight-team leagues[a] whose 16 teams were located in ten cities, all in the northeastern and midwestern United States: New York City had three teams and Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and St. Louis each had two teams. St. Louis was the southernmost and westernmost city with a major league team. The longest possible road trip, from Boston to St. Louis, took about 24 hours by railroad. After a half-century of stability, starting in the 1950s, teams began to move out of cities with multiple teams into cities that had not had them before. From 1953 to 1955, three teams moved to new cities: the Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves, the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles, and the Philadelphia Athletics became the Kansas City Athletics. The 1958 Major League Baseball season began to turn Major League Baseball into a nationwide league. Walter O'Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and "perhaps the most influential owner of baseball's early expansion era,"[107] moved his team to Los Angeles, marking the first major league franchise on the West Coast.[108] O'Malley also helped persuade the rival New York Giants to move west to become the San Francisco Giants. Giants owner Horace Stoneham had been contemplating a move to Minnesota amid slumping attendance at the aging Polo Grounds ballpark[109] when O'Malley invited him to meet San Francisco Mayor George Christopher in New York.[110] After Stoneham was persuaded to move to California, Time magazine put O'Malley on its cover.[111] MLB Commissioner Ford Frick had opposed the meeting,[112] but the dual moves proved successful for both franchises—and for MLB.[108] Had the Dodgers moved out west alone, the St. Louis Cardinals—1,600 mi (2,575 km) away[113][114]—would have been the closest NL team. Instead, the joint move made West Coast road trips economical for visiting teams.[110] The Dodgers set a single-game MLB attendance record in their first home appearance with 78,672 fans.[110] In 1961, the first Washington Senators franchise moved to Minneapolis–St. Paul to become the Minnesota Twins. Two new teams were added to the American League at the same time: the Los Angeles Angels (who soon moved from downtown L.A. to nearby Anaheim) and a new Washington Senators franchise. The NL added the Houston Astros and the New York Mets in 1962. The Astros (known as the "Colt .45s" during their first three seasons) became the first southern major league franchise since the Louisville Colonels folded in 1899 and the first franchise to be located along the Gulf Coast. The Mets established a reputation for futility by going 40–120 during their first season of play in the nation's media capital—and by playing only a little better in subsequent campaigns—but in their eighth season (1969) the Mets became the first of the 1960s expansion teams to play in the postseason, culminating in a World Series title over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles. In 1966, the major leagues moved to the "Deep South" when the Braves moved to Atlanta. In 1968, the Kansas City Athletics moved west to become the Oakland Athletics. In 1969, the American and National Leagues both added two expansion franchises. The American League added the Seattle Pilots (who became the Milwaukee Brewers after one disastrous season in Seattle) and the Kansas City Royals. The NL added the first Canadian franchise, the Montreal Expos, as well as the San Diego Padres. In 1972, the second Washington Senators moved to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to become the Texas Rangers. In 1977, baseball expanded again, adding a second Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays, as well as the Seattle Mariners. Subsequently, no new teams were added until the 1990s and no teams moved until 2005. Pitching dominance and rule changes Graph showing, by year, the average number of runs per MLB game By the late 1960s, the balance between pitching and hitting had swung in favor of the pitchers. In 1968—later nicknamed "the year of the pitcher"[115]—Boston Red Sox player Carl Yastrzemski won the American League batting title with an average of just .301, the lowest in the history of Major League Baseball.[116] Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain won 31 games, making him the only pitcher to win 30 games in a season since Dizzy Dean in 1934.[117] St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Bob Gibson achieved an equally remarkable feat by allowing an ERA of just 1.12.[118] Following these pitching performances, in December 1968 the MLB Playing Rules Committee voted to reduce the strike zone from knees to shoulders to top of knees to armpits and lower the pitcher's mound from 15 to 10 inches, beginning in the 1969 season.[119] In 1973, the American League, which had been suffering from much lower attendance than the National League, sought to increase scoring even further by initiating the designated hitter (DH) rule.[120] New stadiums and artificial surfaces Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as baseball expanded, NFL football had been surging in popularity, making it economical for many of these cities to build multi-purpose stadiums instead of single-purpose baseball fields. Because of climate and economic issues, many of these facilities had playing surfaces made from artificial turf, as well as the oval designs characteristic of stadiums designed to house both baseball and football.[121] This often resulted in baseball fields with relatively more foul territory than older stadiums. These characteristics changed the nature of professional baseball, putting a higher premium on speed and defense over home-run hitting power since the fields were often too big for teams to expect to hit many home runs and foul balls hit in the air could more easily be caught for outs.[citation needed] Teams began to be built around pitching—particularly their bullpens—and speed on the basepaths. Artificial surfaces meant balls traveled quicker and bounced higher, so it became easier to hit ground balls "in the hole" between the corner and middle infielders. Starting pitchers were no longer expected to throw complete games; it was enough for a starter to pitch 6–7 innings and turn the game over to the team's closer, a position which grew in importance over these decades. As stolen bases increased, home run totals dropped. After Willie Mays hit 52 home runs in 1965, only one player (George Foster) reached that mark until the 1990s.[citation needed] Scandals and a changing game During the 1980s, baseball experienced a number of significant changes the game had not seen in years. Home runs were on the decline throughout the decade, with players hitting only 40 home runs just 13 times and no one hitting more than 50 home runs in a season for the first time since the Dead-ball era (1900–1919).[122][123] The 1981 Major League Baseball strike from June 12 until July 31 forced the cancellation of 713 total games and resulted in a split-season format. In 1985, Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's all-time hits record with his 4,192nd hit, and in 1989 Rose received a lifetime ban from baseball as a result of betting on baseball games while manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Rose was the first person to receive a lifetime ban from baseball since 1943.[122][124] 1985 also saw the Pittsburgh drug trials which involved players who were called to testify before a grand jury in Pittsburgh related to cocaine trafficking. The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike from August 12, 1994, to April 25, 1995, caused the cancellation of over 900 games and the forfeit of the entire 1994 postseason.[125] Steroid era, further expansion and near contraction Mark McGwire was one of several central figures in baseball's steroids scandal Routinely in the late 1990s and early 2000s, baseball players hit 40 or 50 home runs in a season, a feat that was considered rare even in the 1980s. It later became apparent that at least some of this power surge was a result of players using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. In 1993, the NL added the Florida Marlins in Miami and the Colorado Rockies in Denver. In 1998, the Brewers switched leagues by joining the National League, and two new teams were added: the NL's Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix and the AL's Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Tampa Bay. After the 2001 season, the team owners voted in favor of contraction. Several MLB teams had been considered for elimination in early talks about contraction, but the Montreal Expos and the Minnesota Twins were the two teams that came closest to folding under the plan. Plans for MLB contraction were halted when the Twins landlord was awarded a court injunction that required the team to play its 2002 home games at their stadium. MLB owners agreed to hold off on reducing the league's size until at least 2006.[126] The Montreal Expos became the first franchise in over three decades to move when they became the Washington Nationals in 2005. This move left Canada with just one team, but it also returned baseball to Washington after a 33-year absence. This franchise shift, like many previous ones, involved baseball's return to a city that had been previously abandoned. Not counting the short-lived Federal League, Montreal is the only city to host an MLB franchise since 1901 that, as of December 2023, does not have a team. The modern game In recent years, with the advent of technologies such as Statcast and its use of Hawk-Eye starting in 2020[127] as well as with advanced statistics as provided by sites such as FanGraphs and Baseball Savant, MLB has evolved. With the ability to see precise movements of pitchers and batters, teams can assess the mechanics of a player and help them improve. Statcast also provides some features such as tracking the paths of most batted balls, tracking the speed of most batted balls, and tracking the exit velocity of most batted balls. Statcast has allowed for advanced defensive analytics that have not been possible before tracking of players due to how subjective fielding can be. The rate of teams using a defensive shift has gone up from 13.7% in 2016 to 33.6% in 2022 because advanced statistics support this as an effective way to stop hitters from getting hits.[128] Because the shift reduces the amount of balls in play that result in hits and MLB wishes to increase interest in baseball, MLB announced in September 2022 that extreme infield defensive shifts would be banned starting in 2023. In order to be compliant, there must be two fielders on each side of second base, and those fielders must have both of their feet on the infield dirt at the time the pitch is thrown. If this rule is not followed, the choice of an automatic ball or the outcome of the play is given to the batting team.[129] The game of baseball has also slowed down significantly due to an increased number of strikeouts and walks—two outcomes that generally take many pitches to complete—and an increased amount of time taken for a pitcher to pitch. In 2020, it took an average of three hours and six minutes to complete a 9 inning game, a number which has steadily ticked up for years.[130] Along with the restrictions on defensive shifts, MLB announced the introduction of a pitch clock for the 2023 season and beyond, which is something that has been an experiment in MiLB for a few years. The pitch clock starts at 15 seconds. By the time the clock reaches 10 seconds, the catcher must be in their crouch behind home plate. When the clock reaches 8 seconds, the batter must be in the batter's box and be "alert". Before the 15 second timer reaches 0 seconds, the pitcher must have started their "motion to pitch". If any of these deadlines are violated, the count of the batter will be increased by one ball if the defending team violated the pitch clock or one strike if it is the offensive team who violated the pitch clock. Additionally, in order to prevent circumventing these rules pickoffs and step-offs which reset the pitch clock are only allowed two times total per plate appearance and, if a pitcher attempts a third pickoff and fails to get the runner out, a balk will be called. Similarly, a batter is restricted to calling a timeout (an action which resets the pitch clock) just once per plate appearance.[129] In 2019, Major League Baseball opened an investigation into allegations that members of the 2017 World Series champion Houston Astros stole signs from opposing teams using technology during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Astros were found guilty in January 2020 and while no active players faced any repercussions due to an immunity agreement in exchange for testimony, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager A. J. Hinch were suspended for the entire 2020 season. The Astros were fined the maximum allowable $5 million and forfeited their first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts.[131] The Boston Red Sox were also found guilty of stealing signs during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, with the latter season ending in a World Series victory.[132] Red Sox manager Alex Cora was suspended for a year and the team was fined with the loss of a second round draft pick in the 2020 draft as a result.[133] 21st-century relocation and potential expansion In November 2023, the Oakland Athletics relocation to Las Vegas was approved by MLB owners.[134] As of early 2024, MLB has discussed preparations for another round of expansion, and several investment groups are vying for an MLB franchise. Main article: Potential Major League Baseball expansion Uniforms Cleveland Indians throwback uniform Main articles: Major League Baseball uniforms and Baseball uniform A baseball uniform is a type of uniform worn by baseball players, and by some non-playing personnel, such as field managers and coaches. It is worn to indicate the person's role in the game and—through the use of logos, colors, and numbers—to identify the teams and their players, managers, and coaches.[135] Traditionally, home uniforms display the team name on the front, while away uniforms display the team's home location. In modern times, however, exceptions to this pattern have become common, with teams using their team name on both uniforms.[136] Most teams also have one or more alternate uniforms, usually consisting of the primary or secondary team color on the vest instead of the usual white or gray.[136] In the past few decades throwback uniforms have become popular.[137] The New York Knickerbockers were the first baseball team to use uniforms, taking the field on April 4, 1849, in pants made of blue wool, white flannel shirts (jerseys) and straw hats.[138][139][140] Caps and other types of headgear have been a part of baseball uniforms from the beginning.[141][142] Baseball teams often wore full-brimmed straw hats or no cap at all since there was no official rule regarding headgear.[143] Under the 1882 uniform rules, players on the same team wore uniforms of different colors and patterns that indicated which position they played. This rule was soon abandoned as impractical.[144] In the late 1880s, Detroit and Washington of the National League and Brooklyn of the American Association were the first to wear striped uniforms.[145] By the end of the 19th century, teams began the practice of having two different uniforms, one for when they played at home in their own baseball stadium and a different one for when they played away (on the road) at the other team's ballpark.[136] It became common to wear white pants with a white color vest at home and gray pants with a gray or solid (dark) colored vest when away.[136] By 1900, both home and away uniforms were standard across the major leagues.[146] In June 2021, MLB announced a long-term deal with cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which includes the FTX logo appearing on umpire uniforms during all games.[147] FTX is MLB's first-ever umpire uniform patch partner.[148] On November 11, 2022, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. MLB removed the FTX patches from umpires' uniforms before the 2023 season.[149] Season structure Main articles: Major League Baseball schedule and List of Major League Baseball seasons Spring training Main article: Spring training A Grapefruit League game at the former Los Angeles Dodgers camp in Vero Beach, Florida Spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Teams hold training camps in the states of Arizona and Florida, where the early warm weather allows teams to practice and play without worrying about the late winter cold. Spring training allows new players to compete for roster and position spots and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play. The teams that hold spring training in Arizona are grouped into the Cactus League,[150] while teams that hold camp in Florida are known as the Grapefruit League.[151] Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warmer climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with spring break for many students. Autograph seekers also find greater access to players during spring training.[citation needed] Spring training typically lasts almost two months, starting in mid-February and running until just before the season-opening day, traditionally the first week of April. As pitchers benefit from a longer training period, pitchers and catchers begin spring training several days before the rest of the team.[152] Regular season Each team plays 162 games per season. A team's schedule is typically organized into three-game series, sets of consecutive games against the same opponent, with occasional two- or four-game series.[153] Postponed games or continuations of suspended games can result in an ad hoc one-game or five-game series. All games of a series are usually hosted by the same team and multiple series are typically grouped together. I.e, a team usually hosts several series in a row, called a homestand, and follows that by going on several road series in a row. Teams generally play games five to seven days per week. Most games are scheduled at night, although teams will often play day games on Opening Day, holidays, and for the last game of a series to allow teams extra time to travel to their next opponent. Sunday games are generally played during the afternoon, allowing teams to travel to their next destination prior to a Monday night game. In the current three-division structure, each team plays 19 games against each of its four divisional opponents. It plays one home series and one away series, amounting to six or seven games, against the 10 other teams in its league. A team also plays one of the divisions in the other league, rotating each year, with two opponents in a three-game home series, two in a three-game away series, and one with four games split between home and away. Furthermore, each team has an interleague "natural rival" (in many cases its counterpart in the same metro area) with which it plays two home games and two away games each year. With an odd number of teams in each league (15), it is necessary to have two teams participate in interleague play for most days in the season, except when two or more teams have a day off. Each team plays 20 interleague games throughout the season, usually with just one interleague game per day, but for one weekend in late May, all teams will participate in an interleague series. Before 2013, interleague play was structured differently: there would be one weekend in mid-May and another period consisting typically of the last two-thirds of June in which all teams played interleague games (save for two NL teams each day), and no interleague games were scheduled outside those dates. (Before 2013, season-long interleague play was not necessary, because each league had an even number of teams. In 2013, the Houston Astros moved to the American League, so that each league would have 15 teams.) Prior to the adoption of the universal designated hitter in 2022, whether the DH was in use depended on whether the home team was from the AL, where the DH was used, or the NL, where it was not. Starting with the 2023 season, the scheduling formula is set to change, with each team playing at least one series against every other team every year. Each team will play 14 games against teams in the same division, with one 3-game and one 4-game series at each park, six games against teams within the same league but in other divisions, with one 3-game series at each park, and one 3-game series against teams in the other league, alternating home teams each year, except for each team's designated interleague rival, which will continue to consist of two 2-game series at each of the teams' home parks. Beginning with the 2022 season, teams compete for the six playoff berths in their respective leagues. To secure a berth, a team must either win its division or capture a wild card spot by having one of the three best records among the non-winners in its entire league.[154] With the adoption of a third wild card, the former practice of breaking ties with an additional regular-season game, known as game 163, was dropped in favor of a tie-breaker formula. All-Star Game Main article: Major League Baseball All-Star Game President John F. Kennedy throwing out the first pitch at the 1962 All-Star Game at DC Stadium In early-to-mid July, just after the midway point of the season, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is held during a four-day break from the regular-season schedule. The All-Star Game features a team of players from the American League (AL)—led by the manager of the previous AL World Series team—and a team of players from the National League (NL), similarly managed, in an exhibition game. From 1959 to 1962, two games were held each season, one was held in July and one was held in August. The designated-hitter rule was used in the All-Star Game for the first time in 1989. Following games used a DH when the game was played in an AL ballpark. Since 2010, the DH rule has been in effect regardless of venue.[155] The first official All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois, and was the idea of Arch Ward, then sports editor for The Chicago Tribune.[156] Initially intended to be a one-time event, its great success resulted in making the game an annual one. Ward's contribution was recognized by Major League Baseball in 1962 with the creation of the "Arch Ward Trophy", given to the All-Star Game's Most Valuable Player each year.[157] (In 1970, it was renamed the Commissioner's Trophy, until 1985, when the name change was reversed. In 2002, it was renamed the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player Award.)[citation needed] Beginning in 1947, the eight position players in each team's starting lineup have been voted into the game by fans.[156] The fan voting was discontinued after a 1957 ballot-box-stuffing scandal in Cincinnati: seven of the eight slots originally went to Reds players, two of whom were subsequently removed from the lineup to make room for Willie Mays and Hank Aaron. Fan voting was reinstated in 1970 and has continued ever since, including Internet voting in recent years.[citation needed] The 2002 contest in Milwaukee controversially ended in an 11-inning tie when both managers ran out of pitchers. In response, starting in 2003 the league which wins the All-Star game received home-field advantage in the World Series: the league champion hosted the first two games at its own ballpark as well as the last two (if necessary). The National League did not win an All-Star game and thus gain a home-field advantage until 2010; it was able to overcome this disadvantage and win in three of the seven World Series from 2003 to 2009.[158][159] This was discontinued after the 2016 season.[citation needed] MLB All-Stars from both leagues have worn uniforms from their respective teams at the game with one exception. In the 1933 All-Star Game, the National League All-Star Team members wore special gray uniforms with "National League" written in navy blue letters across the front of the jersey.[160][161] On July 3, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 Major League Baseball All-Star Game scheduled to be held in Los Angeles would not be played due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[162] As compensation, Los Angeles was awarded the next available All-Star Game in 2022.[163] Postseason Main article: Major League Baseball postseason See also: World Series and List of World Series champions World Series Records Team Series won Last Series won Series played New York Yankees (AL) 27 2009 40 St. Louis Cardinals (NL) 11 2011 19 Oakland Athletics (AL) 9 1989 14 Boston Red Sox (AL) 9 2018 13 San Francisco Giants (NL) 8 2014 20 Los Angeles Dodgers (NL) 7 2020 21 Cincinnati Reds (NL) 5 1990 9 Pittsburgh Pirates (NL) 5 1979 7 Detroit Tigers (AL) 4 1984 11 Atlanta Braves (NL) 4 2021 10 Chicago Cubs (NL) 3 2016 11 Baltimore Orioles (AL) 3 1983 7 Minnesota Twins (AL) 3 1991 6 Chicago White Sox (AL) 3 2005 5 Philadelphia Phillies (NL) 2 2008 8 Cleveland Guardians (AL) 2 1948 6 Houston Astros (NL to AL, 2013) 2 [AL] 2022 5 (4 [AL], 1 [NL]) New York Mets (NL) 2 1986 5 Kansas City Royals (AL) 2 2015 4 Miami Marlins (NL) 2 2003 2 Toronto Blue Jays (AL) 2 1993 2 Texas Rangers (AL) 1 2023 3 Arizona Diamondbacks (NL) 1 2001 2 Washington Nationals (NL) 1 2019 1 Los Angeles Angels (AL) 1 2002 1 Tampa Bay Rays (AL) 0 2 San Diego Padres (NL) 0 2 Colorado Rockies (NL) 0 1 Milwaukee Brewers (AL to NL, 1998) 0 1 [AL] Seattle Mariners (AL) 0 0 The regular season ends after the first Sunday in October (or the last Sunday in September), after which twelve teams enter the postseason playoffs. These twelve teams consist of the six division champions and six "wild-card" teams: the team with the best overall win–loss record in each of the six divisions, and the three teams in each league with the best records other than the division champions. Four rounds of series of games are played to determine the champion:[citation needed] Wild Card Series, a best of three games playoff between the lowest seeded division champion and three "wild-card teams", the higher seeds will host all three games American League Division Series and National League Division Series, each a best-of-five-games series. American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series, each a best-of-seven-games series played between the winning teams from the Division Series. The league champions are referred to as the pennant winners. World Series, a best-of-seven-games series played between the pennant winners of each league. Within each league, the division winners are the 1, 2, and 3-seeds, based on win–loss records. The teams with the first, second, and third best records among non-division winners will be seeded 4, 5, and 6 respectively. Throughout the postseason, home-field advantage is awarded to the team with the higher win-loss record, with tiebreakers being applied if necessary. In the Wild Card Series, the 3-seed will host the 6-seed, and the 4-seed will host the 5-seed, with the winners advancing to the Division Series. Unlike the NFL, there is no reseeding between each series. In the Division Series, the 1-seed goes up against the 3/6-seed and the 2-seed goes up against the 4/5-seed. The winners of those matches will compete in their respective League Championship Series for their League Pennant, and the Pennant winners will advance to the World Series.[164] Since 2017, home-field advantage in the World Series is determined by regular-season records of the two league champions, replacing a system used for the prior 14 seasons where the champion of the league that won the All-Star Game would receive home-field advantage.[citation needed] The team with home-field advantage in the Wild Card Series will host all three games, and subsequent series' will split home fields between the two teams in a 2-3-2 format, with the advantaged team hosting games 1 and 2, as well as 6 and 7 (if necessary). With this format, the home-field advantage does not usually play a large role in the postseason unless the series goes to its maximum number of games. However, because the first two games of a postseason series are hosted by the same team, a team starting with two wins will likely have momentum heading into the venue switch.[165][166] International play See also: List of Major League Baseball games played outside the United States and Canada, MLB Japan All-Star Series, MLB Taiwan All-Star Series, and 2019 MLB London Series Since 1986 an All-Star team from MLB is sent to a biennial end-of-the-season tour of Japan, dubbed as MLB Japan All-Star Series, playing exhibition games in a best-of format against the All-Stars from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) or recently as of 2014 their national team Samurai Japan. In 2008, MLB played the MLB China Series in the People's Republic of China. It was a series of two spring-training games between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. The games were an effort to popularize baseball in China.[167] MLB played the MLB Taiwan All-Star Series in Taiwan in November 2011. It was a series of five exhibition games played by a team made up of MLB players called the MLB All-Stars and the Chinese Taipei national baseball team. The MLB All-Stars swept the series, five games to zero.[168] At the end of the 2011 season, it was announced that the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics would play their season openers in Japan.[169] In October 2013, Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune wrote that MLB was considering postseason all-star tours in Taiwan and Korea; baseball is increasing in popularity in both countries.[170] The Arizona Diamondbacks opened the 2014 season against Los Angeles Dodgers on March 22–23 in Australia.[171] The teams played each other at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, which has a seating capacity of 46,000. The two games represented the first MLB regular-season play held in that country. The games counted as home games for the Diamondbacks, so they played 79 home games at Chase Field.[172] In 2019, the Red Sox were the home team in a regular-season two-game series against the Yankees. The games, which were the first regular-season MLB games held in Europe, were played on June 29–30 at London Stadium with the Yankees winning both games.[173] The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers opened the 2024 regular season on March 20–21 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. The ceremonial first pitch of the opening game was thrown by the first Korean-born MLB player Chan Ho Park, who made his debut with the LA Dodgers in 1994. The two-game Seoul Series resulted in a split between the two teams. There were also four exhibition games played during March 17–18, where the Dodgers took on the Kiwoom Heroes and Team Korea, and the Padres faced the LG Twins and Team Korea.[174] Together with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB sponsors the World Baseball Classic, an international baseball tournament contested by national teams.[citation needed] Performance-enhancing drugs See also: Doping in baseball and List of Major League Baseball players suspended for performance-enhancing drugs Rafael Palmeiro (batter), one of the MLB players suspended for steroid use[175] In 1998, both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa hit more home runs than the record of 61 set by Yankees right fielder Roger Maris in 1961. Barry Bonds topped the record in 2001 with 73 home runs. McGwire, Bonds, and Sosa became the subjects of speculation regarding the use of performance-enhancing substances. McGwire later admitted that he used a steroid hormone that was still legal in baseball during the 1998 season.[176] Baseball's original steroid testing policy, in effect from 2002 to 2005, provided for penalties ranging from a ten-game suspension for a first positive test to a one-year suspension for a fourth positive test. Players were tested at least once per year, with the chance that several players could be tested many times per year.[177] A 2006 book, Game of Shadows by San Francisco Chronicle investigative reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, chronicled alleged extensive use of performance enhancers, including several types of steroids and growth hormone by baseball superstars Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi. Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was appointed by Selig on March 30, 2006[178] to investigate the use of performance-enhancing drugs in MLB. The appointment was made after several influential members of the U.S. Congress made negative comments about both the effectiveness and honesty of MLB's drug policies and Commissioner Selig.[179] The day before the Mitchell Report was to be released in 2007, Selig said, "I haven't seen the report yet, but I'm proud I did it."[180][181] The report said that after mandatory random testing began in 2004, HGH treatment for athletic enhancement became popular among players, as HGH is not detectable in tests. It pointed out that HGH is likely a placebo with no performance-enhancing effects.[182] The report included substance use allegations against at least one player from each MLB team.[183] According to ESPN, some people questioned whether Mitchell's director role with the Boston Red Sox created a conflict of interest, especially because no "prime [Sox] players were in the report".[184] The report named several prominent Yankees who were parts of World Series clubs; there is a long-running and fierce Yankees–Red Sox rivalry. Former U.S. prosecutor John M. Dowd brought up Mitchell's conflict of interest,[185] but he later said that the former senator had done a good job.[186] Mitchell acknowledged that his "tight relationship with Major League Baseball left him open to criticism",[187] but he said that readers who examine the report closely "will not find any evidence of bias, of special treatment of the Red Sox".[187] On January 10, 2013, MLB and the players union reached an agreement to add random, in-season HGH testing. They also agreed to implement a new test to reveal the use of testosterone for the 2013 season.[188] The current MLB drug policy provides for an 80-game suspension for a first positive test, a 162-game suspension for a second positive test, and a lifetime suspension for a third positive test.[189] In 2009, allegations surfaced against Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for banned substances. In early April 2011, Ramirez retired from baseball rather than face a 100-game suspension for his second positive steroid test.[190] He would later unretire, having the suspension dropped to 50 games, and would serve those in 2012.[citation needed] Media coverage Television Main article: Major League Baseball on television See also: List of current Major League Baseball broadcasters Several networks televise baseball games, including Fox, ESPN, TBS, and MLB Network. Since 2008, Fox Sports has broadcast MLB games on Saturdays throughout the entire season; Fox previously only broadcast games from May to September.[191] Fox also holds rights to the All-Star Game each season. Fox also alternates League Championship Series broadcasts, broadcasting the American League Championship Series (ALCS) in odd-numbered years and the National League Championship Series (NLCS) in even-numbered years. Fox broadcasts all games of the World Series.[192] ESPN continues to broadcast MLB games as well, beginning with national Opening Day coverage.[193] The network airs the program Baseball Tonight prior to its weekly regular season game titled: Sunday Night Baseball. ESPN also has the rights to the Home Run Derby every July and in the postseason broadcasts the Wild Card Series exclusively..[194][195] TBS has aired Sunday afternoon regular season games (non-exclusive) nationally, but beginning in 2022 this will be replaced by Tuesday night games.[196][197] In 2007, TBS began its exclusive rights to any tiebreaker games that determine division or wild card champions. It also airs exclusive coverage of the Division Series round of the playoffs.[198] TBS carries the League Championship Series that are not included under Fox's television agreement; TBS shows the NLCS in odd-numbered years and the ALCS in even-numbered years.[199] In January 2009, MLB launched the MLB Network, featuring news and coverage from around the league, and airing 26 live games in the 2009 season.[200] Each team also has local broadcasts for all games not carried by Fox on Saturdays or ESPN on Sunday nights. These games are typically split between a local broadcast television station and a local or regional sports network (RSN), though some teams only air local games through RSNs or through their own team networks. As Canada only contains one team, Sportsnet broadcasts Toronto Blue Jays games nationally.[201] The channel is owned by Rogers Communications, who is also the parent company of the Blue Jays.[201] Sportsnet also televises Fox's Saturday afternoon games, the All-Star Game, playoff games, and the World Series.[201][202] In April 2011, TSN2 began carrying ESPN Sunday Night Baseball in Canada.[203] TVA Sports airs Blue Jays games in French.[204] Several MLB games are broadcast exclusively on Internet television. After a year of exclusive games on Facebook,[205] MLB partnered with YouTube to stream weekly games on the service beginning in the 2019 season, and extending until 2022.[206][207][208] In 2022, MLB made a deal with Apple Inc. to launch Friday Night Baseball on its Apple TV+ streaming service, and NBC Sports to broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, a package of early Sunday afternoon games on Peacock.[209][210] ESPN+ broadcasts one out-of-market game per day throughout the whole regular season. Since the 2023 season Division Series the streaming service Max began to simulcast the games broadcast by its sister channel TBS (both owned by Warner Bros. Discovery).[211] Blackout policy Main article: Major League Baseball blackout policy See also: Syndication exclusivity MLB blackout map in the United States Canadian regions subject to   Toronto Blue Jays exclusively   Shared with Seattle Mariners   Shared with Minnesota Twins   Shared with Boston Red Sox Note: Toronto Blue Jays territory covers all of Canada MLB has several blackout rules.[212] A local broadcaster has priority to televise games of the team in their market over national broadcasters if the game is not exclusive to the national broadcaster. A market that has a local team playing in a non-exclusive game will receive an alternative programming feed on the national broadcaster.[213] MLB's streaming internet video service is also subject to the same blackout rules.[214] Commissioner Robert Manfred has expressed interest in changing the blackout policy to loosen the rules for streaming options.[215] Radio and Internet Main article: Major League Baseball on the radio The first baseball game ever broadcast on radio was a Pittsburgh Pirates versus Philadelphia Phillies game on August 5, 1921. The game was broadcast by KDKA of Pittsburgh, and the Pirates defeated the Phillies 8–5. It was broadcast by KDKA staff announcer Harold Arlin.[216][217][218][219][220][1] That year, KDKA and WJZ of Newark broadcast the first World Series on the radio, between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees, with Grantland Rice and Tommy Cowan calling the games for KDKA and WJZ, respectively.[217][218][219] However, the broadcasters were not actually present at the game, but simply gave reports from a telegraph wire.[217] In 1922, WJZ broadcast the entire series, with Rice doing play-by-play.[218][219] For the 1923 World Series, Rice was joined on Westinghouse for the first time by Graham McNamee.[217][221] During the 1923 World Series, Rice was the main broadcaster, but during the fourth inning of Game 3, he turned the microphone over to McNamee.[219][221] This was the start of McNamee's career, and McNamee became the first color commentator.[222] Although frequently criticized for his lack of expertise, McNamee helped popularize baseball.[217][221][223] In 1998, national radio broadcasts moved to ESPN Radio.[224] ESPN Radio currently broadcasts Sunday Night Baseball games during the regular season, as well as Saturday and occasional weekday games, along with the All-Star Game and all postseason contests.[225] Since 2021, TUDN Radio airs Spanish-language coverage of select regular season and postseason games, including the World Series.[226] In addition, each team employs its own announcers, who broadcast during the regular season. Most teams operate regional networks to cover their fan bases; some of these supposedly regional networks (such as the New York Yankees Radio Network) have a national reach with affiliates located across the United States.[227] Major League Baseball has an exclusive rights deal with XM Satellite Radio, which includes the channel MLB Network Radio and live play-by-play of all games.[228] Many teams also maintain a network of stations that broadcast their games in Spanish; as of 2022, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the only team that produces radio broadcasts in a third language, with selected games broadcast in Korean.[229] Both Canadian teams (the Montreal Expos before their move to Washington, DC in 2005, and the Toronto Blue Jays) have produced radio broadcasts in French.[230] MLB games are also broadcast live on the internet. All television and radio broadcasts of games are available via subscription to MLB.tv at Major League Baseball's website, MLB.com, and radio-only broadcasts are also available via subscription to MLB.com Gameday Audio.[231] Radio station affiliates are officially forbidden from streaming games through their Internet feeds. Blackout rules are still applied for live television broadcasts, but not radio broadcasts.[citation needed] Since 2005, Major League Baseball has a partnership with XM Satellite Radio, launching a 24-7 channel MLB Home Plate which carries every major league game.[232][233] Games are also carried on MLB Gameday Audio.[234] While all teams maintain a network of stations carrying their games in English, many teams also maintain a Spanish-language network as well. In addition, when the Washington Nationals were based in Montreal as the Montreal Expos, their games were broadcast in both English and French. Selected games of the Los Angeles Dodgers are broadcast in Korean by KMPC.[235][236] International broadcasting Disney Media Networks Latin America through its linear channels (ESPN, FS2, FS3, ESPN Caribbean, ESPN Brazil) and Star+ owns the broadcast rights to more than 180 regular season games (at least 1 game per day), the Home Run Derby, the All Star Game and the post season including: the Wild Card Series, the Division Series, the Championship Series and the World Series for all of Latin America and the Caribbean.[237][238][239][240] In Mexico, as of 2022, Fox Sports airs five regular season games per week[241] and post-season games that belong to the league that broadcasts its American namesake (including the Wild Card Series). Likewise, TUDN carries 4 matches a week until 2022: through the pay television signal, games were broadcast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, while on Saturdays (generally at 12:00 pm) and Sundays (rotating between NBA games, until the start of the NFL season) games were broadcast on Canal 9. Starting with the Championship Series, it only broadcast one division and the whole World Series, these were broadcast on free-to-air television for 59 years.[242] Starting with the 2023 season, it was confirmed that Imagen Televisión would begin broadcasting a regular season game every Saturday and Sunday as well as the playoffs and the World Series on open television and its website for all of Mexico.[243] In Argentina, Fox Sports carries 5 regular season games per week and post-season games that belong to the league that broadcasts its American namesake (including the Wild Card Series). In Venezuela, since the 2016 season the cable channel IVC has the broadcast rights, they currently air 7 games per week.[244] Starting with the 2022 season, Televen broadcasts two games a week and the postseason on free-to-air TV[245][246][247] While Venevisión, starting with the 2023 season, would return with the space "El Juego de la Semana" that carries a game every Sunday and non-working days on free-to-air television.[248] In the Dominican Republic since 2009 Grupo Altice has broadcast the entire regular season, playoffs and World Series through pay TV while on free-to-air television and radio Grupo Corripio airs 7 games per week and the entire postseason.[249][250][251] In Spain, Movistar Plus+ has the rights to broadcast the entire season, including one game daily, and the postseason, covering all games in the championship series and all games in the World Series.[252] Channel 5 in the United Kingdom previously screened MLB games, including the All-Star Game and the postseason games, on Sunday and Wednesday usually starting at 1 a.m. BST. Most recently, Johnny Gould and Josh Chetwynd presented MLB on Five on that station.[253] The channel covered baseball beginning on its opening night in 1997, but for financial reasons, the decision was made not to pick up MLB for the 2009 season.[254] BT Sport ESPN show live and recorded games several times a week—it is available with BT Sport and (on a subscriber-basis) Virgin Media in the UK.[255] ESPN America televised many games in the UK and dozens of other countries; in May 2013, ESPN announced that it would shut down the channel on July 31, 2013.[256][257] In Australia, MLB games are regularly shown on ESPN Australia (subscription).[258] In the Middle East, North Africa and France, MLB games are broadcast on beIN Sports channels.[259][260] In Germany, Austria and Switzerland as many as 500 MLB games will be broadcast from 2022 exclusively on the Sport1 platforms until 2026.[261] In Hungary, MLB games are broadcast on Sport1 as of 2020.[262] See also icon Baseball portal Australian Baseball League Baseball Assistance Team (B.A.T.) Baseball in Canada Baseball in the United States Bob Feller Act of Valor Award Comparison of Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball KBO League List of all-time Major League Baseball win–loss records List of American and Canadian cities by number of major professional sports franchises List of current Major League Baseball stadiums List of former Major League Baseball stadiums List of Major League Baseball awards List of Major League Baseball managers List of Major League Baseball retired numbers List of Major League Baseball spring training ballparks List of professional sports leagues List of professional sports teams in the United States and Canada Major League Baseball attendance records Major League Baseball draft MLB Industry Growth Fund Nippon Professional Baseball Billy Sunday (born Nov. 19, 1862/63, Ames, Iowa, U.S.—died Nov. 6, 1935, Chicago) American evangelist whose revivals and sermons reflected the emotional upheavals caused by transition from rural to industrial society in the United States. Sunday grew up as an orphan and worked as an undertaker’s assistant before entering professional baseball in 1883. In 1891 he gave up baseball to become a YMCA worker but turned in 1896 to conducting religious revivals in major American cities. Ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1903, Sunday was theologically a Fundamentalist. Following the lead of the American evangelist Dwight L. Moody, and with the aid of a choir director named Homer A. Rodeheaver and a score of revival “specialists,” he conducted more than 300 revivals with an estimated attendance of 100,000,000. Also prominent in the movement to prohibit liquor sales in the United States, Sunday reached the peak of his fame in his New York City revival of 1917, two years before prohibition became national policy by constitutional amendment. He claimed that 1,000,000 “hit the sawdust trail” to come forward and profess their conversion to Christ as a result of his preaching. Considered by some critics a sensationalist, he nevertheless gained the enthusiastic support of evangelical churches and influential laymen. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. Reformed church Table of Contents Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics Quizzes Holy week. Easter. Valladolid. Procession of Nazarenos carry a cross during the Semana Santa (Holy week before Easter) in Valladolid, Spain. Good Friday Christianity Quiz Read Next Candles Burning On Table In Church What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World? Discover Red eggs, which symbolize happiness and the renewal of life. Commonly consumed at Easter in the Orthodox Christian faith, symbolizing Christ's blood. What Do Eggs Have to Do with Easter? Encyclopaedia Britannica First Edition: Volume 1, Plate XXXVIII, Figure 2, Ark, Ark of the Covenant, a small chest, coffer, contains Aaron's rod, manna pot, tables of covenant, Schechinah, Divine Presence, oracle, shittim-wood, acacia tree Where Is the Ark of the Covenant? Hindu Holi Festival celebrations with colored water, powder and colorful flower petals thrown over celebrants at a Hindu temple in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India on March 24, 2021. Holi: Festival of Colors Pluto. The Changing Faces of Pluto. Most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003. 10 Important Dates in Pluto History Alexander the Great on his deathbed How Did Alexander the Great Really Die? Colorful winter sunset What's the Difference Between a Solstice and an Equinox? Close-up of ostriches (Struthio camelus) necks and heads; location unknown. 6 of the World's Most Dangerous Birds Home Philosophy & Religion Religious Beliefs History & Society Reformed church Christianity      Written and fact-checked by  Article History Category: History & Society Key People: Antoine Court Daniel Ernst Jablonski Claude Pajon John Dury Related Topics: Reformed and Presbyterian churches Arminianism presbytery Orthodox Presbyterian Church Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster Reformed church, any of several major representative groups of classical Protestantism that arose in the 16th-century Reformation. Originally, all of the Reformation churches used this name (or the name Evangelical) to distinguish themselves from the “unreformed,” or unchanged, Roman Catholic church. After the great controversy among these churches over the Lord’s Supper (after 1529), the followers of Martin Luther began to use the name Lutheran as a specific name, and the name Reformed became associated with the Calvinistic churches (and also for a time with the Church of England). Eventually the name Presbyterian, which denotes the form of church polity used by most of the Reformed churches, was adopted by the Calvinistic churches of British background. The modern Reformed churches thus trace their origins to the Continental Calvinistic churches that retained the original designation. The Reformed and Presbyterian churches are treated jointly in the article Reformed and Presbyterian churches. This article was most recently revised and updated by Brian Duignan. revivalism Table of Contents Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics Images Methodist camp meetingJonathan EdwardsGeorge Whitefieldrevival meeting on a Southern plantationDwight L. MoodyBilly Graham For Students revivalism summary Read Next poem. A poet in a Heian period kimono writes Japanese poetry during the Kamo Kyokusui No En Ancient Festival at Jonan-gu shrine on April 29, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. Festival of Kyokusui-no Utage orignated in 1,182, party Heian era (794-1192). World Poetry Day Discover Orange basketball on black background and with low key lighting. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society The 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time Solar eclipse of the sun. The Sun Was Eaten: 6 Ways Cultures Have Explained Eclipses Government officials are erasing graffiti of Islamic State (ISIS) banner in Solo, Java, Indonesia. Is It ISIS or ISIL? Easter Procession of Maria Santisima del Sacromonte in Granada, Spain. This statue is known as Virgen de los Gitanos or The Virgin of the Gypsies. What is Holy Week? Red eggs, which symbolize happiness and the renewal of life. Commonly consumed at Easter in the Orthodox Christian faith, symbolizing Christ's blood. What Do Eggs Have to Do with Easter? Statue of Nostradamus Nostradamus and His Prophecies Aspirin pills. 7 Drugs that Changed the World Home Philosophy & Religion Religious Beliefs History & Society revivalism Christianity      Written and fact-checked by  Article History Methodist camp meeting Methodist camp meeting See all media Category: History & Society Key People: Jonathan Edwards Billy Graham Aimee Semple McPherson Alma Bridwell White William Booth Related Topics: Christianity Protestantism Methodism Puritanism mission Revivalism, generally, renewed religious fervour within a Christian group, church, or community, but primarily a movement in some Protestant churches to revitalize the spiritual ardour of their members and to win new adherents. Revivalism in its modern form can be attributed to that shared emphasis in Anabaptism, Puritanism, German Pietism, and Methodism in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries on personal religious experience, the priesthood of all believers, and holy living, in protest against established church systems that seemed excessively sacramental, priestly, and worldly. Of central importance, however, was the emphasis on personal conversion. Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Edwards George Whitefield George Whitefield George Whitefield preaching to a crowd. Among the groups that contributed to the revival tradition, the English Puritans protested against what they saw as the sacramentalism and ritualism of the Church of England in the 17th century, and many migrated to America, where they continued their fervour for experiential religion and devout living. The Puritan fervour waned toward the end of the 17th century, but the Great Awakening (c. 1720–50), America’s first great revival, under the leadership of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and others, revitalized religion in the North American colonies. The Great Awakening was a part of a larger religious revival that was also influential in Europe. From the late 17th to the mid-18th century, Protestantism in Germany and Scandinavia was revitalized by the movement known as Pietism. In England a revival led by John Wesley and others eventually resulted in the Methodist movement. Toward the end of the 18th century, another revival, known as the Second Great Awakening (c. 1795–1835), began in the United States. During this revival, meetings were held in small towns and the large cities throughout the country, and the unique frontier institution known as the camp meeting began. The Second Great Awakening produced a great increase in church membership, made soul winning the primary function of the ministry, and stimulated several moral and philanthropic reforms, including temperance, emancipation of women, and foreign missions. revival meeting on a Southern plantation revival meeting on a Southern plantation Revival meeting on a Southern plantation, illustration from Harper's Weekly, 1872. After 1835 revivalists traveled through the towns and cities of the United States and Great Britain, organizing annual revival meetings at the invitation of local pastors who wanted to reinvigorate their churches. In 1857–58 a “prayer meeting revival” swept U.S. cities following a financial panic. It indirectly instigated a revival in Northern Ireland and England in 1859–61. Dwight L. Moody Dwight L. Moody Dwight L. Moody, detail from a drawing by Charles Stanley Reinhart in Harper's Weekly, March 1876. The preaching tour of the American lay evangelist Dwight L. Moody through the British Isles in 1873–75 marked the beginning of a new surge of Anglo-U.S. revivalism. In his subsequent revival activity, Moody perfected efficient techniques that characterized the urban mass evangelistic campaigns of early 20th-century revivalists such as Reuben A. Torrey, Billy Sunday, and others. The interdenominationally supported revivalism of Moody and his imitators in 1875–1915 constituted, in part, a conscious cooperative effort by the Protestant churches to alleviate the plight of urban industrial society by evangelizing the masses and, in part, an unconscious effort to counter the challenge to Protestant orthodoxy—namely, an understanding of the Bible as literal and inerrant—brought on by the new critical methods of studying the Bible and by modern scientific ideas concerning evolution. Billy Graham Billy Graham Although American Protestantism in general lost interest in revivalism in the first half of the 20th century, tent revivals as well as annual revivals in churches in the South and Midwest continued to be an important feature of Protestant church life. After World War II, however, a renewed interest in mass evangelism was especially evident in the widespread support given to the revival “crusades” of the American evangelist Billy Graham and various regional revivalists. Graham’s crusades, often conducted in major metropolitan centres, were but the best known of many such revivals. Special offer for students! Check out our special academic rate and excel this spring semester! The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello. Christian fundamentalism Table of Contents Introduction Origins Doctrinal and institutional development References & Edit History Related Topics Images Dwight L. Moodyanti-evolution book saleJerry FalwellU.S. Pres. George W. Bush For Students Christian fundamentalism summary Quizzes Holy week. Easter. Valladolid. Procession of Nazarenos carry a cross during the Semana Santa (Holy week before Easter) in Valladolid, Spain. Good Friday Christianity Quiz Read Next Candles Burning On Table In Church What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World? poem. A poet in a Heian period kimono writes Japanese poetry during the Kamo Kyokusui No En Ancient Festival at Jonan-gu shrine on April 29, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. Festival of Kyokusui-no Utage orignated in 1,182, party Heian era (794-1192). World Poetry Day Discover Close-up of ostriches (Struthio camelus) necks and heads; location unknown. 6 of the World's Most Dangerous Birds King George V of Britain, c. 1910, shortly after his accession to the throne How Did King George V Really Die? Alexander the Great on his deathbed How Did Alexander the Great Really Die? Orange basketball on black background and with low key lighting. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society The 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time Figure 13: A Maxim machine gun, belt-fed and water-cooled, operated by German infantrymen, World War I. 7 Deadliest Weapons in History Hindu Holi Festival celebrations with colored water, powder and colorful flower petals thrown over celebrants at a Hindu temple in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India on March 24, 2021. Holi: Festival of Colors Aspirin pills. 7 Drugs that Changed the World Home Philosophy & Religion Religious Beliefs History & Society Christian fundamentalism American Protestant movement      Written by  See All Fact-checked by  Last Updated: Feb 15, 2024 • Article History Dwight L. Moody Dwight L. Moody See all media Category: History & Society Key People: Billy Graham Phoebe Worrall Palmer Dwight L. Moody Billy Sunday C.H. Spurgeon Related Topics: Protestantism fundamentalism Christian fundamentalism, movement in American Protestantism that arose in the late 19th century in reaction to theological modernism, which aimed to revise traditional Christian beliefs to accommodate new developments in the natural and social sciences, especially the theory of biological evolution. In keeping with traditional Christian doctrines concerning biblical interpretation, the mission of Jesus Christ, and the role of the church in society, fundamentalists affirmed a core of Christian beliefs that included the historical accuracy and inerrancy of the Bible, the imminent and physical Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and Christ’s Virgin Birth, Resurrection, and Atonement. Fundamentalism became a significant phenomenon in the early 20th century and remained an influential movement in American society into the 21st century. See also Evangelical church. Fundamentalist worship practices, which are heavily influenced by revivalism, usually feature a sermon with congregational singing and prayer, though there can be considerable variation from denomination to denomination. Although fundamentalists are not notably ascetic, they do observe certain prohibitions. Many fundamentalists do not smoke, drink alcoholic beverages, dance, or attend movies or plays. At most fundamentalist schools and institutes, these practices are strictly forbidden. Origins During the 19th century, major challenges to traditional Christian teachings arose on several fronts. Geologic discoveries revealed Earth to be far older than the few thousand years suggested by a literal reading of the biblical book of Genesis and the various scriptural genealogies. The work of Charles Darwin (1809–82) and his colleagues established that human beings as a species had emerged over millions of years through a process of evolution, rather than suddenly by divine fiat. Social scientists and philosophers influenced by Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) advocated a parallel theory of progressive social evolution that refuted the traditional religious understanding of human sin, which was predicated on the notion that, after the fall from grace, the human condition was corrupt beyond repair. Meanwhile, some ministers in various denominations ceased to emphasize the conversion of individuals to the religious life and instead propounded a “social gospel” that viewed progressive social change as a means of building the kingdom of God on Earth. A more direct challenge to traditional Christianity came from scholars who adopted a critical and historical approach to hermeneutics—that is, the study and interpretation of the Bible. This perspective, known as modernism, treated the books of the Bible—especially the first five (the Pentateuch)—not as simple documents written by a single author but as complex texts constructed by multiple authors from several older sources. Although modernism offered a solution to many problems posed by seemingly contradictory biblical passages, it also raised severe doubts about the historical accuracy of the biblical text, leading scholars to revise the traditional history of the biblical era and to reconsider the nature of biblical authority. (For a discussion of modernism in the history of Roman Catholicism, see Modernism.) Holy week. Easter. Valladolid. Procession of Nazarenos carry a cross during the Semana Santa (Holy week before Easter) in Valladolid, Spain. Good Friday Britannica Quiz Christianity Quiz The issue of biblical authority was crucial to American Protestantism, which had inherited the fundamental doctrine of sola Scriptura (Latin: “Scripture alone”) as enunciated by Martin Luther (1483–1546) and other 16th-century reformers. Thus, any challenge to scriptural integrity had the potential to undermine Christianity as they understood and practiced it. In response to this challenge, theologians at the Princeton Theological Seminary argued for the verbal (word-for-word) inspiration of Scripture and affirmed that the Bible was not only infallible (correct when it spoke on matters of faith and morals) but inerrant (correct when it spoke on any matters, including history and science). As the theologians at Princeton developed their new approach, John Nelson Darby, one of the earliest leaders of the Plymouth Brethren (a British free church movement emphasizing biblical prophecy and the Second Coming of Christ), introduced a very different theological perspective, called dispensationalism. First taught to the Brethren in the mid-19th century, dispensationalism maintained that history is divided into distinct periods, or “dispensations,” during which God acts in different ways toward his chosen people. The present period, according to dispensationalism, was one of expectant waiting for the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Dispensationalists believed in an apocalyptic millennialism that foretold the Rapture (the bodily rescue of the chosen by God) and the subsequent cataclysmic events of the Last Days, such as the persecutions by the Antichrist and the Battle of Armageddon (see also eschatology). Special offer for students! Check out our special academic rate and excel this spring semester! Although most Protestant churches rejected the broad teachings of the Plymouth Brethren, many accepted the “premillennialism” of Darby’s followers. They believed that the next important event in human history would be the coming of Christ to justify and redeem his people and establish them in leadership over a millennial (thousand-year) kingdom. Singular interest in the Second Coming—an issue promoted by William Miller (1782–1849) and the Adventist churches in the 1830s and ’40s—inspired a popular movement through the Niagara Bible Conference, held every summer at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Initiated by James Inglis, a New York City Baptist minister, shortly before his death in 1872, the conference continued under James H. Brookes (1830–97), a St. Louis, Missouri, Presbyterian minister and editor of the influential millennial periodical The Truth. Other early millennial leaders included George C. Needham (1840–1902), a Baptist evangelist; William J. Erdman (1834–1923), a Presbyterian minister noted for his skill as a biblical exegete; and William R. Nicholson (1822–1901), who left the Episcopal Church in 1873 and later became a bishop in the Reformed Episcopal Church. Near the end of the century, the millennial movement attracted other prominent leaders, such as Adoniram J. Gordon (1836–95), a Baptist minister in Boston; and Maurice Baldwin (1836–1904), the bishop of Huron in the Church of England in Canada. The millenarians associated with the Niagara Conference also sponsored public conferences in major cities beginning in 1878, such as the International Prophetic Conferences in New York City. Chicago evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–99) provided an influential platform for millennial expression in his Northfield, Massachusetts, conferences. Millennialists were also active in the late 19th-century missionary revival that was eventually institutionalized as the Student Volunteer Movement.
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