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.
when was the first ever baseball game played
1749