By Brian Boone

The Major League Baseball season begins today. And as 30 big-league teams get ready to hit the diamond, let’s look at how the game evolved — here are some older, little-known, and curious variants of the old ball game.

Massachusetts-style baseball

In the mid-19^th century, various versions of baseball were played on the East Coast. The style played in the present day is based on the most popular type, with a rule system codified in the 1870s. It was nearly rivaled in its reach by a baseball format developed by the Massachusetts Association of Baseball Players in 1858. It was played on a square (not diamond), bases were 60 feet apart (not 90), first base was just 30 feet away from the striker (not 60 feet from the batter), and runners were called out when a fielder threw the 2.5-ounce (not five-ounce) ball at them and hit them. It was a lot easier to score runs in “The Massachusetts Game,” and a match was over when one team made it to 100 points.

Indoor baseball

In the 1880s, baseball was so popular that amateur players in eastern and northern U.S. cities didn’t want to stop with the rain and snow arrived in the fall and winter. Indoor baseball leagues independently sprung up in multiple places, and by the turn of the 20^th century, they’d formed an association with set rules. It was to be played with a foot-wide ball in a gym on a court 40 by 50 feet by seven-man teams (one player covered the entire “outfield”). Baseball Hall of Famer Tris Speaker played the indoor game in the offseason to keep his skills sharp, and after he retired, he created the National Professional Indoor Baseball League in 1939. The 10-team league folded a month into its first and only season.

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Baseball in the U.K.

Known as English baseball or Welsh baseball, depending on where in the U.K. it’s being played, this sport emerged in the 1890s, inspired not by baseball but a common ancestor: an outdoor game from the 1500s called rounders. Organizations in England and Wales still play today using roles agreed upon in 1892. The defensive team is required to field 11 players, and no substitutions are allowed at any time — which is fine, because a game lasts just two innings. The offense’s checkpoints are called bases, but they’re marked on the field with poles sticking out of the ground, and batters use a flat bat to hit, and the entire field is fair territory.

Canadian baseball

The earliest forms of what would evolve into modern baseball were played in Canada in the 1800s years before the game took hold in the U.S. The most widespread Canadian form of baseball from the 19^th century was played in the province of Ontario and nicknamed “the Canadian game.” Like British baseball, it utilized flat bats and teams consisted of 11 players. But in the Canadian game, every player on the squad went to bat each inning — trying to get a hit and advance to one of five bases. And there wasn’t a three-out system, because a pitcher had to retire the entire opposing squad of 11 players before the inning could switch over.