Baseball | Live Scores

Baseball is America's Pastime — a sport woven into the cultural fabric of the United States, Japan, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, South Korea, and Latin America. Called "the thinking man's game" for its strategic depth and "a sport of moments" for its dramatic potential, baseball has produced more statistical records, legendary figures, and mythologised stories than almost any other sport. From Babe Ruth calling his home run shot to Jackie Robinson breaking the colour barrier, baseball is inseparable from American history.

Ball-and-stick games existed across multiple cultures for centuries. English rounders, colonial American "town ball," and various informal bat-and-ball games all contributed to baseball's origins. The widely repeated story that Abner Doubleday "invented" baseball in Cooperstown, New York in 1839 has been thoroughly debunked by historians. The first written rules that closely resemble modern baseball were the Knickerbocker Rules, devised by Alexander Cartwright and adopted by the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club in September 1845.

The first professional baseball team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings, founded in 1869, which became the first club to pay all its players openly. The National League was founded in 1876, the American League in 1901, and the first modern World Series was played in 1903, establishing baseball as America's premier sport. For the first half of the 20th century, baseball stood unchallenged as the US national sport, with legends like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio becoming cultural icons.

Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball's colour barrier on April 15, 1947, when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers — one of the most significant moments in both sports and civil rights history. Robinson endured extraordinary hostility but excelled, winning Rookie of the Year and helping the Dodgers reach six World Series in ten years. His number 42 is now retired across all of MLB — the only number retired league-wide in any major North American sport.

Baseball has spread globally, particularly in Japan, where the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league has operated since 1950. The Dominican Republic, Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, and South Korea have produced generations of MLB All-Stars. The World Baseball Classic, first held in 2006, created a genuine international competition. Japan's Shohei Ohtani — a once-in-a-generation player who pitches elite innings and hits for extraordinary power — has captivated a new global generation of baseball fans from his arrival in MLB in 2018.

As of June 8, 2026, baseball is 181 years old since the Knickerbocker Rules. The 2026 MLB season is in full swing — a 162-game regular season running from March through October, culminating in the October World Series. Baseball's statistics culture makes it uniquely suited to the data era, with advanced analytics (sabermetrics) transforming how teams are built and games are managed. ZakGT covers live MLB scores and standings through the full season.