I don't know if David Block's research has been shared here before so I figured I would share this enlightening article. In summary, baseball (in some form) actually dates to the 18th, not 19th century, and does not have one mastermind who created the whole thing.
This isn't entirely new information but since I had no idea about this I figured some others among the group wouldn't have heard of it either and find it a worthwhile read.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...st-david-block
http://sabr.org/latest/new-discovery...-england-1700s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_Before_We_Knew_It