The sport baseball became known as America's pastime long before there was a professional league. Before the National league was formed in 1876, there was already over 200 minor teams in the US. The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first pro team in 1869. The National leagues rival, the American league, was formed in 1901. In 1903 the first world series was played. The sport baseball evolved into something much more than a sport people watched for fun, many people made their money off of betting on professional games, this led to issues like the throwing of the 1919 World Series.
Gambling on sporting events has been around since the ancient Romans, who would gamble on things like chariot racing. Gambling escalated to a much higher level when it came to North America. The first form of sports gambling in North America was on horse racing. People then began to place bets on almost all forms of sports, like football, and baseball. By 1910 almost all forms of gambling were illegal in the US. Although gambling was illegal, it was just as common for people to bet on important games and races. The one sport that kept its ability to be gambled and bet on was horse racing. People thought that horse racing was a much more civil and respectable sport, so it was still legal to gamble on races. One of the biggest issues gambling caused was the 1919 World Series, an event that is still heavily talked about today.
In the 1919 World Series, the Chicago White Sox played the Cincinnati Reds. The owner of the White Sox Charles Comiskey, was known for being a very cheap man. He was so cheap that he underpaid his players, where were all easily the best group of players in the league. 8 of the players on the White Sox were fed up and decided to take money from gamblers to lose the series to a team who was much worse than the White Sox. The players followed through with their part of the deal and lost the series to the Reds. Soon after the season was over, the players were questioned and ended up admitting to what they had done. The 8 players ended up getting suspended from the league indefinitely. The players were even recorded saying in court that the men on the other side didn't carry out their part of the deal and they hadn't even gotten any money. This incident is why the White Sox are sometimes referred to as the "Black Sox."
Even though baseball had already been established as the American pastime, football still became known as the second most popular sport. Football was a more select sport, it was presented to a more elite section of males because it was played mainly at colleges and universities. The first intercollegiate game was played between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869. The sport became very popular and from the beginning of the sport to 1885, the sport was also known for having ineligible players being sneaked onto teams to compete. This made the fair players enraged, and then eventually led to the creation of the Big Ten conference.
In 1895, the leaders of the Big Ten schools got together to develop the principals for the regulation of intercollegiate athletes. It was was originally created to make sure that only eligible players were competing for the schools. The first Big Ten championship was in 1901 and it was for track and field. The championship was held at the University of Chicago. In 1902 the first Rose Bowl game was played, the first teams to play there were Michigan and Stanford. The Rose Bowl is still one of the most popular sporting events today, and it is over 100 years old. The Big Ten set the standard for what intercollegiate sports should be like, and without the creation of the Big Ten, there would have been no path for the other colleges and universities to follow.
Without the demand for more public spectator sports in the late 19th century, the way we see, and even played sports today would be completely different. Before the rise of spectator sports in the late 19th century, sports were still played, but not on the level that they became played at. Sports like baseball and football created the term "spectator sports." Without the way sports were revolutionized in the late 1800s, sports as we know them would be completely different today.
Sources:
First Paragraph: I used the textbook-------In this part of the textbook, I learned about the lifestyle for the typical American and how they used to spend their free time and how they began to use their leisure time starting in the late 19th century.
Second Paragraph: http://goo.gl/86BN4z------- In this source, I learned about the beginning of the professional baseball leagues in the US.
Third Paragraph: http://goo.gl/vUVrgK -------- In this source, I learned about the history of gambling in the US and how it changed over time.
Fourth Paragraph: http://goo.gl/MgxRxh and https://goo.gl/wwBMbC------- With these sources I read about the 1919 world series and got into depth about how it actually happened and went down.
Fifth Paragraph: I used the textbook------- In this section of the book I learned about the rise of football in America
Sixth Paragraph: http://goo.gl/GV3YYS ------- In this source I learned about the creation of the Big Ten, and why and how it was made.
This image shows the 8 men who lost the 1919 World Series for the White Sox. Theses men also ended up getting banned from the league forever.
This picture is the team that the Sox intentionally lost to, this team was much worse than the Sox, but still were the world champions in 1919.
This picture was taken at the very first Rose Bowl played in 1902.
This picture is Charles Cominskey, the owner of the White Sox during the 1919 World Series.
This picture shows Arnold Rothstein, who is the man who rigged the 1919 World Series. 
This picture describes philanthropy perfectly, philanthropy is long term, and reaches more people than just one. Philanthropy is more "big picture", as charity is just donating for an immediate cause.
This picture shows how social media is now the main source of where we get our news, instead of reading the newspaper we just look it up online.