Why did athletics become popular in the late nineteenth-century united states? in what ways was the rise of sports representative of broader changes in american society and culture?

By the late nineteenth century, an ever increasing number of men worked in salaried positions or for compensation. Expanding numbers likewise did "brainwork" in an office, as opposed to utilizing their muscles outside. Nerves emerged that the American male was getting to be, as one magazine proofreader cautioned, "powerless, feminine, rotting." One answer was athletics. 
Before the Civil War, there were no unmistakably American amusements aside from Native American lacrosse. The most famous group activity was cricket. Throughout the following six decades, in any case, sports turned into an essential piece of American masculinity—and a major business. 
One of the principal promoters of physical wellness was the Young Men's Christian Association. Adjusted from Britain and acquainted with Boston in 1851, the YMCA consolidated fiery exercises for young fellows with an evangelizing request. 
In urban areas and towns crosswise over America, the YMCA manufactured exercise rooms and athletic offices for men, and later ladies through the YWCA. 
In the post-Civil War years, no other game in America was as fruitful as baseball. Prior in the century, Americans had played different stick and ball games; the adaptation called baseball was first played in New York around 1842. 
Tenets kept on creating in the 1850s, and baseball's notoriety spread in military camps amid the Civil War. 
Big-time proficient baseball emerged after the war, with the starting of the National League in 1876. 

American men pull for proficient baseball groups, as well as got out on the jewel to play. Until the 1870s, most novice players were assistants and salaried specialists who had recreation and the pay to pay for regalia. 
Close out of white associations, dark players and fans swung rather to isolated proficient groups. These had developed as right on time as Reconstruction, displaying both athletic ability and race pride.