<P> The evolution of baseball from older bat - and - ball games is difficult to trace with precision . Consensus once held that today 's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders , popular among children in Great Britain and Ireland . Baseball Before We Knew It : A Search for the Roots of the Game ( 2005 ) , by American baseball historian David Block , suggests that the game originated in England ; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position . Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other , and that the game 's most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball and `` tut - ball '' . The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication , A Little Pretty Pocket - Book , by John Newbery . Block discovered that the first recorded game of `` Bass - Ball '' took place in 1749 in Surrey , and featured the Prince of Wales as a player . This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants . </P>
<P> The evolution of baseball from older bat - and - ball games is difficult to trace with precision . Consensus once held that today 's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders , popular among children in Great Britain and Ireland . Baseball Before We Knew It : A Search for the Roots of the Game ( 2005 ) , by American baseball historian David Block , suggests that the game originated in England ; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position . Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other , and that the game 's most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball and `` tut - ball '' . The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication , A Little Pretty Pocket - Book , by John Newbery . Block discovered that the first recorded game of `` Bass - Ball '' took place in 1749 in Surrey , and featured the Prince of Wales as a player . This early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants . </P>
when was the first ever baseball game played
when was the first ever baseball game played
1749
1749