The history of baseball in the United States can be traced to the 18th century, when amateurs played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules using improvised equipment. The popularity of the sport inspired the semipro national baseball clubs in the 1860s. During the civil war a rumor began flying around that Abner Doubleday started baseball, but in reality baseball as we know it probably was first documented by Alexander Cartwright. The answer to the question of who started baseball is still unanswered and will likely remain that way.