This stamp design commemorated the elevation of baseball, "America's pastime," to an official Olympic sport. Baseball evolved from cricket and rounders, with similar games popular in the eastern United States by the 1820s. In 1846 a New York team defeated the Knickerbocker Baseball Club, which had drafted rules setting the team at nine players and the diamond at four bases. In 1857 a convention of baseball clubs set the length of a game at nine innings rather than 21 runs. The first baseball league was established a year later. The Cincinnati Red Stockings, now the Cincinnati Reds, was the first professional team. It won 91 games and lost only one during 1869 and 1870.