Ball Sports in America

The three most popular sports in the United States are American football, basketball, and baseball. The market for professional sports in the United States is roughly $69 billion, roughly 50% larger than that of all of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa combined.

Football:

American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first match of American football was played on November 6, 1869, under rules based on the association football rules of the time. During the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. A set of rule changes drawn up from 1880 onward established the snap, eleven-player teams, and the concept of downs; later rule changes legalized the forward pass, created the neutral zone, and specified the size and shape of the football. American football also plays a significant role in American culture. The Super Bowl is considered a de facto national holiday, and in parts of the country like Texas, the sport has been compared to a religion. Football is also linked to other holidays; New Year's Day is traditionally the date for several college football bowl games, including the Rose Bowl. However, if New Year's Day is on a Sunday, the bowl games are moved to another date to not conflict with the typical NFL Sunday schedule. Thanksgiving football is an American tradition, hosting many high school, college, and professional games.  People of various beliefs and backgrounds – a melting pot, if you will – must unify for a common goal for the team to be successful. Implicit rules such as playing through pain and sacrificing for the better of the team are promoted in football culture.

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Basketball:
Basketball was created in a high school P.E. class in which the teacher needed to keep the students exercising on rainy days. Over time, the sport evolved and many aspects of the game were changed over time like removing the bottom of the basket so that the ball could fall through like it does today. The ball itself evolved over time as well. The laces were removed to make the bouncing pattern more reliable and the ball was turned orange to make it more visible. Backboards were added, and rules were defined. Basketball has been adopted by various social groups, which have established their own environments and sometimes their own rules. Basketball is especially popular in urban cities where space is limited and playing fields are few and far between. Many kids grow up playing in their neighborhood court, on private traveling teams, representing their schools, or a combination of the three. College basketball at the national level offer what many call the most competitive and entertaining games; as a result, offices across the country have competitions or “pools" in which entrants predict which of the initial 64 teams will win the annual NCAA tournament.

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Baseball:
Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. In the mid-1850s, a baseball craze hit the New York metropolitan area. By 1856, local journals were referring to baseball as the "national pastime" or "national game." A year later, sixteen area clubs formed the sport's first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players. The sport has seen pretty drastic changes over the years that changed the way the game was played. Stricter regulations on pitches and ball size and shape and material all favored hitting and made games consistently have higher scores as the years went on. The major league game in the United States was originally targeted toward a middle-class, white-collar audience. A century later, the situation was very different. With the rise in popularity of other team sports with much higher average ticket prices—football, basketball, and hockey—professional baseball had become among the most blue-collar-oriented of leading American spectator sports. Baseball has had a broad impact on popular culture, both in the United States and elsewhere. Songs, radio broadcast, movies, collectibles, and books have most notably all been largely impacted by baseball culture.

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