Changes

In the 1860s, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) developed, which was an amateur association for players and clubs. By the late 1860s, the popularity of baseball led to the development of the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. Even before the development of the Red Stockings, some of the best amateur players were now getting paid to play for specific clubs, indicating the increasingly competitive nature of baseball. Soon in the 1870s other teams followed, including the Chicago White Stockings and Boston Red Stockings and a league of professional teams playing each other was formed. The first professional association was called the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, although it only lasted from 1871-1875. With the professionalization of baseball, players now had contracts and given strict rules to follow.<ref>For more on the early professional development of baseball, see: Furst, R.T. (2014)

Early professional baseball and the sporting press: shaping the image of the game. [Online]. Available from: http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=1664166.</ref> Unfortunately, this was also the beginning of open racism, where African American players were excluded from playing in the early professional teams. Although the convention is Jackie Robinson was the first African American player to play professional Major League baseball after this ban was lifted in 1947, in actuality several African American players played professional baseball either before the ban or as pretending to be Native Americans.