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How did baseball become connected with the changing seasons in the United States?

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Freddie Freeman of the Los Angeles Dodgers, wearing a white uniform and helmet, watches his hit while holding a bat during a game at Dodger Stadium. — Baseball Freddie Freeman, shown here in a 2023 game, was named World Series MVP in 2024 after hitting four home runs and driving in 12 runs for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Baseball became deeply connected to the changing seasons in the United States as industrialization standardized time, distancing people from the natural rhythms of the daylight hours and traditional calendars. In this context, baseball provided a new, culturally significant structure for the year:1

Spring: The arrival of the season was signaled by the opening of baseball training camps.1
Summer: The period of regular-season play became synonymous with the summer months.1
Fall: The World Series marked the arrival of autumn, becoming a major annual rite that captured the nation's attention.1
Winter: Fans engaged in "hot stove leagues," a term for the period when they reminisced about past games and speculated about the upcoming season.1

By aligning its schedule with these seasonal transitions, baseball helped reshape the American experience of time, weaving the sport into the fabric of the nation's annual life.1