The English Baseball Association (known by the abbreviation EBA) is the governing body of the traditional code of British baseball in England, with responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the domestic game and the body responsible for the creation and development of the original rules of the game. The EBA was formed in 1892, though this was a continuation of the much older National Rounders Association, who created the first codified rules of British baseball, between 1887 and 1888. The EBA is based in Liverpool and is a member of the International Baseball Board.

The National Rounders Association were based in Merseyside, England, where in April 1886 they were one of a number of locally based sporting institutions with elected representation onto the directorate of the Liverpool Athletic Grounds Company Ltd. Calls were made to follow the success of other working class sports such as football, on Merseyside, and rugby in Wales to adopt a distinct set of rules and bureaucracy. The National Rounders Association were one of a number of national organisations supported by the National Physical Recreation society, created in 1886 with Herbert Gladstone as President, "to promote physical recreation amongst the working classes".

The National Rounders Association duly created a new game, drawing on the much older game of rounders but with new rules that they hoped would appeal to adults. With plans to spread this new game across the entire United Kingdom, Gloucester adopted the sport in 1887, with the Gloucester Rounders Association formed in 1888. In a June 1888 edition of the South Wales Daily News, the now codified rules of this new sport were discussed and it was noted that "the National Rounders Association is the authority". It was also noted that the National Physical Recreation society had supplied a copy of the rules of this new game to the author and "the present mode of playing the game is a great improvement on the old style".

The rules of the new game, created by the National Rounders Association were as follows. "The bases are four, and the runs are made to the right. Eleven is the correct number of players, as at cricket, the bowler, man behind batsmen, longstop, one at each of the bases and cover bases. A regulation bat, not to exceed 30 inches in length or 3 1/2 inches in breadth, is used instead of the 'timmy'. Runs are scored individually to the striker, and collectively to the side; a run for each base that the striker succeeds in reaching without stopping. The ball must be delivered over the striking base above the knee and below the head to be a 'good ball'; two bad balls count one point to the opposite side.

In 1892, in “finding there was so much prejudice against the name” the National Rounders Association and the South Wales Rounders Association dropped ‘rounders’ and replaced this with ‘baseball’. This resulted in the governing body, the National Rounders Association, being known as the English Baseball Association and the South Wales Rounders Association becoming the South Wales Baseball Association. In May 1892, it was reported that the Gloucestershire Rounders Association had become the Gloucester English Baseball Association, with leagues already under way.

In April 1899, at the annual meeting of the English Baseball Association in Liverpool, it was resolved that the rules of the game would be changed, to speed up play and tackle the “waiting tactics adopted by batsmen”. The change would see batters face two “good balls” instead of three, and that on the third “good ball” the batter would get an “extra” ball.

By September 1922 the need for better officiating of games was recognised and the Umpire’s Association was formed. In September 1925 it was reported in the Liverpool Echo that a “revolutionary change in bowling” was being mulled over by the English Baseball Association. The new proposed rule would be “that when the bowler has sent up the third bad ball before he has sent up the second good ball, the batter shall be allowed to go to the first base, and the batting side shall have a bye recorded in their favour. If the first base, at the time, is occupied by another batter, that batter should go to second base. If two or three bases are occupied by batters at the time, each batter shall proceed to his next base, the batter at third base reaching home; but no batter at second or third base shall go to his next base except to make way for the batter occupying the next previous base.”

Finally, in May 1929, the rules of British baseball were copyrighted by the English Baseball Association.