baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
general
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 – January 26, 1893) was a career United States Army officer and Union major general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pi ...
in
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village in and county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the C ...
. In response to a dispute over whether baseball originated in the United States or was a variation of the British game
rounders
Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running aroun ...
, the
Mills Commission
Abraham Gilbert Mills (March 12, 1844 – August 26, 1929) was the fourth president of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (1883–1884), and is best known for heading the "Mills Commission" which controversially credited Civil Wa ...
was formed in 1905 to seek out evidence. Mining engineer Abner Graves authored a letter claiming that Doubleday invented baseball. The letter was published in a newspaper and eventually used by the Mills Commission to support its finding that the game was of American origin. In 1908, it named Doubleday the creator of baseball.
The claim initially received a favorable reception from Americans, but eventually garnered criticism from various writers. Modern baseball historians generally consider the myth to be false. Graves' testimony has been critiqued in various regards, as the details of his story and his reliability as a witness have been questioned, and the Mills Commission made departures from his letter in its report. The
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
was built in the town where Graves said the game was created, Cooperstown. The legend is well known among fans of the sport.
Background
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a dispute arose about the origins of baseball and whether it had been invented in the United States or developed as a variation of
rounders
Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running aroun ...
, a game played in Great Britain and Ireland. The theory that the sport was created in the U.S. was backed by
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
president
Albert Spalding
Albert Goodwill Spalding (September 2, 1849 – September 9, 1915) was an American pitcher, manager, and executive in the early years of professional baseball, and the co-founder of A.G. Spalding sporting goods company. He was born and raised ...
and
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
(NL) president
Abraham G. Mills
Abraham Gilbert Mills (March 12, 1844 – August 26, 1929) was the fourth president of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (1883–1884), and is best known for heading the "Mills Commission" which controversially credited Civil Wa ...
. In 1889, Mills gave a speech during a banquet to honor the Chicago team and a group of NL all-stars, both of which had participated in a world tour to promote the game. During his remarks at
Delmonico's
Delmonico's is the name of a series of restaurants that operated in New York City, with the present version located at 56 Beaver Street in the Financial District of Manhattan. The original version was widely recognized as the United States ...
restaurant in New York City, Mills declared that baseball was strictly American, which he said was determined through "patriotism and research"; his audience of about 300 people responded by chanting "No rounders!" The rounders theory was supported by prominent sportswriter Henry Chadwick, a native of Britain who noted common factors between rounders and baseball in a 1903 article. Like baseball, rounders features nine-player teams, fields with four bases, and clubs alternately batting during a selected number of innings. In contrast to baseball, in which bags are used for bases, rounders games utilize sticks; another key difference between the games is that
foul ball
In baseball, a foul ball is a batted ball that:
* Settles on foul territory between home and first base or between home and third base, or
* Bounces and then goes past first or third base on or over foul territory, or
* Has its first bounce occu ...
s do not occur in rounders. Chadwick said in his piece that "There is no doubt whatever as to base ball having originated from the two-centuries-old English game of rounders." Spalding disputed Chadwick's article in the next version of his ''Spalding Base Ball Guide''.
In 1905, Spalding called for an investigation into how the sport was invented. Chadwick supported the idea, and later in the year a commission was formed. Spalding instructed the commission to decide between the American game of "Old Cat" and rounders as baseball's predecessor. Seven men served on the commission, including Mills. Spalding chose the committee's members, picking men who supported his theory and excluding supporters of the rounders claim, such as Chadwick. The committee sought information on the beginnings of the sport from members of the public, soliciting feedback in publications. It received numerous letters, primarily from former players. Many of the details they provided pertained to early variations of baseball, but evidence supporting Spalding's theory was lacking. On April 1, 1905, the ''
Akron Beacon Journal
The ''Akron Beacon Journal'' is a morning newspaper in Akron, Ohio, United States. Owned by Gannett, it is the sole daily newspaper in Akron and is distributed throughout Northeast Ohio. The paper's coverage focuses on local news. The Beacon J ...
'' newspaper published an article by Spalding that asked for details on the beginnings of the game to be sent to
Amateur Athletic Union
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has ...
president James Sullivan, who was responsible for compiling information and presenting it to the commission. Spalding called the rounders theory "pap" and wrote that he would "refuse to swallow any more of it without some substantial proof sauce with it."
Letter by Abner Graves
In response to Spalding's request for information on early baseball in the ''Beacon Journal'', mining engineer Abner Graves of
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
, wrote a letter to the editor stating that he had seen
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 – January 26, 1893) was a career United States Army officer and Union major general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pi ...
create a diagram of a baseball field. Doubleday (1819–1893) was a career
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
officer who attained the rank of
major general
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...
in the
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
.
According to Graves' letter, Doubleday set up the first baseball game in
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village in and county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the C ...
, in approximately 1839. The letter, dated April 3, stated that Doubleday had invented baseball as a modified version of
town ball
Town ball, townball, or Philadelphia town ball, is a bat-and-ball, safe haven game played in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, which was similar to rounders and was a precursor to modern baseball. In some areas—such as Philadelph ...
batters
Batter or batters may refer to:
Common meanings
* Batter (cooking), thin dough that can be easily poured into a pan
* Batter (baseball), person whose turn it is to face the pitcher
* Batter (cricket), a player who is currently batting
* Batter ...
who attempted to hit tosses from a
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
standing in a six-foot ring. According to Graves, the first game had matched players from "Otesego academy and Green's Select school". In his letter, Graves claimed that he and Doubleday were both students at Green's school. Graves' description of Doubleday's game indicated that each team had 11 players: the pitcher, a
catcher
Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...
, three
infielders
An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field.
Standard arrangement of positions
In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...
by the bases, two further infielders who covered the areas between the bases, and four
outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...
s. It listed the names of seven players from an early game that Graves claimed to have seen. The April 4 edition of the ''Beacon Journal'' included the first story that described Graves' Doubleday claims, with a headline that read, "Abner Doubleday Invented Base Ball".
The topic received coverage in the '' Sporting Life'' newspaper later in 1905. Spalding wrote a letter to Graves asking for evidence to back up his claim; Graves responded by sending a diagram matching the one he said Doubleday had drawn, along with a letter stating that the original had not been preserved and that most of the players at the time were no longer alive. This correspondence stated that the initial game took place between 1839 and 1841. Although Graves was unable to provide further evidence to back his claims, Spalding supported his version of events. The members of the Mills Commission received the available evidence in October 1907, and Mills wrote a report to Sullivan summarizing the findings on December 30. His report gave Doubleday credit for inventing the game of baseball and said that the sport was American in origin, listing 1839 as the year of its creation. Mills said that he understood why Doubleday would make changes to town ball, reducing the number of players in an effort to decrease the risk of injury. He noted that the number of players per team was higher than the nine in modern baseball, but explained this by indicating that he had taken part in games with 11 players per side. Additionally, Mills wrote that he thought Doubleday might have created the modern defensive
putout
In baseball statistics, a putout (denoted by ''PO'' or ''fly out'' when appropriate) is awarded to a defensive player who (generally while in secure possession of the ball) records an out by one of the following methods:
* Tagging a runner wit ...
system, which replaced the town ball method in which fielders could hit baserunners with thrown balls to record outs, even though Graves' testimony did not make this claim.
No one else on the committee sent any material to Sullivan after receiving the documentation; one member,
Arthur Pue Gorman
Arthur Pue Gorman (March 11, 1839June 4, 1906) was an American politician. He was leader of the Gorman-Rasin organization with Isaac Freeman Rasin that controlled the Maryland Democratic Party from the late 1870s until his death in 1906. Gorman ...
, had died. The surviving commission members were sent the letter by Mills, which was signed by each of them. Spalding later used the report's acceptance of the Doubleday myth to claim U.S. origins in his baseball history book, '' America's National Game''. Graves' name did not appear in the book; Spalding said that the Doubleday content had come from "a circumstantial statement by a reputable gentleman", quoting Mills, and that he had "nothing to add to he commission'sreport." In his book, Spalding expressed delight that an American Army general had been found to be baseball's creator.
A reporter for ''
The Denver Post
''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...
'' interviewed Graves for a 1912 article, which contained a version of the Doubleday story that varied from what had been given to the Mills Commission in several respects. Graves placed the year of the first game as 1840, one year later than Mills had reported. In the interview, he said that he had played in the game, as a "Green College" student. No university of that name in Cooperstown is known to have been in existence. Graves was possibly referencing Major Duff's Classical and Military Academy, an elementary school whose pupils were nicknamed "Duff's Greens", which could have been the source for Graves' previous identification of "Green's Select" school. The college claim contradicted a previous letter in which he said he had been at Frog Hollow School, another elementary school, when baseball was created by Doubleday. The reporter did not question Graves' account, which included a statement that the 78-year-old was preparing to play in a local exhibition game. Graves again claimed to have taken part in the first game in a 1916 letter published in ''The Freeman's Journal''.
Creation of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown
The
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
was built in the village that served as the location of Doubleday's alleged first game, Cooperstown. An article in the 1920 edition of the ''Spalding Baseball Guide'' supported the idea of a monument to Doubleday in Cooperstown. NL president
John Heydler
John Arnold Heydler (July 10, 1869 – April 18, 1956) was an American executive in Major League Baseball. After working as a National League (NL) umpire, he was the secretary to the NL president and then became the secretary-treasurer of the NL b ...
offered his backing for Cooperstown's efforts to purchase the grounds where Doubleday was said to have created baseball. In 1923, the village succeeded in buying the property. A baseball stadium—
Doubleday Field
Doubleday Field is a baseball stadium in Cooperstown, New York named for Abner Doubleday and located two village blocks from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
The grounds have been used for baseball since 1920, on what was Elihu Ph ...
—was erected there. Around 1934, a baseball said to be from Graves' family was found and purchased by
Stephen Carlton Clark
Stephen Carlton Clark (August 29, 1882 – September 17, 1960) was an American art collector, businessman, newspaper publisher and philanthropist. He founded the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Biography
Clark was the young ...
, a powerful figure in Cooperstown who created an exhibit in what became the National Baseball Museum around it. The concept of a baseball museum was supported by new NL president
Ford Frick
Ford Christopher Frick (December 19, 1894 – April 8, 1978) was an American sportswriter and baseball executive. After working as a teacher and as a sportswriter for the ''New York American'', he served as public relations director of the Natio ...
, who suggested that a Hall of Fame be created in connection with it. The Hall was subsequently built in Cooperstown. Clark's purchase came to be known as the "Doubleday ball", as the belief arose that it was used by him.
A committee from the
New York State Legislature
The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official ...
traveled to Cooperstown in 1937, and its subsequent report declared that the town was "the birthplace of baseball" and recommended a 100th anniversary celebration in 1939; events that were held included the dedication of the Hall and an all-star game. Prior to the ceremonies, the Doubleday claims were criticized by multiple parties: author Robert Henderson wrote that rounders and baseball were related, and
Alexander Cartwright
Alexander Joys Cartwright Jr. (April 17, 1820 – July 12, 1892) was a founding member of the New York Knickerbockers, New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in the 1840s. Although he was an inductee of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Mu ...
's son Bruce reported that his father had invented the sport. (Some sources have reported that fourteen years later, in 1953, the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
formally recognized Cartwright as the inventor of modern baseball, but no documentation of such a declaration exists in the ''
Congressional Record
The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...
''.) As part of Bruce Cartwright's efforts, the manager of
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
's Chamber of Commerce sent Hall promoter Alexander Cleland a letter that questioned Graves' account. In response, Cleland promised that a "Cartwright Day" would be included in the anniversary events at Cooperstown, which went ahead as scheduled.
Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour Mills wrote, "Some sports columnists pointed out the discrepancy; others got around it as gracefully as possible." The
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...
marked the anniversary by releasing a commemorative stamp, which did not feature an image of Doubleday. The Hall's day honoring Cartwright was held in the summer of 1939. By this time, Cartwright was a member of the Hall; in 1938, the Centennial Committee had elected him. The honor came weeks after Clark had investigated Doubleday's role in baseball's origins in response to the Cartwright reports.
Reception
Contemporary reactions
After the release of Mills' report, which was published in the 1908 version of Spalding's ''Guide'', the belief that Doubleday had invented baseball "gained currency among the general public" in the U.S., according to author Brian Martin. Textbooks recorded the Civil War veteran's creation of the game, as many Americans accepted the idea that it had originated in their country. By 1909, critiques of the report began to appear in the media. In the May 1909 edition of the magazine ''
Collier's
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Collie ...
'', writer
William Henry Irwin
William Henry Irwin (September 14, 1873 – February 24, 1948) was an American author, writer and journalist who was associated with the muckrakers.
Early life
Irwin was born in 1873 in Oneida, New York. In his early childhood, the Irwin fam ...
offered multiple criticisms. First, he expressed the belief that, prior to both Doubleday's purported invention and the existence of rounders, Britain had a sport with the baseball name. In addition, he noted that Doubleday was in
West Point, New York
West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
, in 1839. That year, he was a
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
(USMA) plebe. It is unlikely that Doubleday traveled to Cooperstown in 1839, as first-year cadets such as Doubleday were rarely given leave at the time. Also in 1909, ''
The Sporting News
The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...
founder,
Alfred Henry Spink Alfred Henry Spink (August 24, 1854 – May 27, 1928) was a Canadian-born American baseball writer and club organizer based mainly in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1886, he established a weekly newspaper, ''The Sporting News'' (TSN), that emerged from ...
, received a letter from sportswriter William M. Rankin, which called the Doubleday claims false, citing
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department (and occasionally War Office in the early years), was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, a ...
and West Point records, and said that the
New York Knickerbockers
The New York Knickerbockers were one of the first organized baseball teams which played under a set of rules similar to the game today. Founded as the "Knickerbocker Base Ball Club" by Alexander Cartwright in 1845, the team remained active unt ...
had invented baseball in 1845. The articles did little to change popular sentiment at the time.
More stories critical of the Doubleday claims were published in 1939, the 100th anniversary of the supposed invention in 1839. Sportswriter Frank Menke, who believed that baseball evolved from cricket, authored the book ''Encyclopedia of Sports'', in which he published the report from the Mills Commission and critiqued it. Among other comments, he wrote that a reference had been made to a drawing by Doubleday, which had not been known to exist. Another point he raised regarded a link between Doubleday and Mills. Despite having been around Doubleday during the Civil War and later, Mills mentioned no personal involvement in baseball by Doubleday before Graves' testimony was released. Menke's views were given publicity by New York City newspaper reporter
Bob Considine
Robert Bernard Considine (November 4, 1906 – September 25, 1975), was an American journalist, author, and commentator. He is best known as the co-author of ''Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo'' and ''The Babe Ruth Story''.
Biography
As a student, ...
. Later in 1939, Henderson wrote that the sport had been detailed in documents dating back to the mid-1830s. A story in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called Henderson's work "a regular bomb on the big baseball program" that was scheduled for Cooperstown, but suggested that the 1839 origin story had "been accepted for centennial celebration by common agreement among peace loving citizens." Skepticism of the Doubleday myth took hold by the middle of the century, though. Clark himself eventually expressed doubt that a single person had created the sport.
Modern analysis
The Doubleday story is widely discredited among modern baseball historians. The recollections of Graves have been criticized because Graves was five years old in 1839, and 71 when he first made the Doubleday claims, leading to the possibility of inaccurate memories. Author William Ryczek notes that Graves did not claim to have attended the first game in his initial letter, but stated that he learned of it having been in Cooperstown. Although Spalding referred to Doubleday and Graves as "playmates" in his submission of evidence to the Mills Commission, Doubleday was more than a decade older than Graves, turning 20 in 1839. Ryczek describes Graves as an unreliable witness. One of his other claims, which he made to reporters, was that he was a deliveryman for the
Pony Express
The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pik ...
. Graves said that he had worked for the service in 1852, eight years before it was founded. Late in his life, he shot and killed his wife; he was found
insane
Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
by a jury and committed to a psychiatric hospital. Graves also expressed anti-English sentiments in a letter to the Mills Commission, writing, "Just in my present mood I would rather have Uncle Sam declare war on England and clean her up rather than have one of her citizens beat us out of Base Ball."
Author Brian Martin adds that Graves' account was tweaked by the Mills report in multiple ways. Information on fielders throwing at runners was removed, which Martin considers an attempt to show similarity to the baseball being played at the time. In addition, 1839 was called the year of the game's creation by Mills when 1841 was also a possibility according to Graves, who had written that the invention occurred before or after the 1840 presidential campaign of
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
, during the spring months.
Doubleday himself made only one mention of baseball in his letters or diaries before his 1893 death; the only time the sport appears in his papers dates from 1871, when he penned a request for equipment. One obituary of Doubleday noted that he had displayed no real interest in outdoor sports during his life. A theory expressed by historian David Block is that Graves had actually known one of Doubleday's cousins, Abner Demas or John—both Cooperstown residents—and eventually the more famous Abner was who he remembered. While denying that the Doubleday family factored into baseball's creation, fellow historian Peter Morris noted that it is "conceivable that Graves's recollections had some slim basis in fact." Historian
John Thorn
John A. Thorn (born April 17, 1947) is a German-born sports historian, author, publisher, and cultural commentator. Since March 1, 2011, he has been the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball.
Personal profile
Thorn was born in ...
said that Spalding had a connection to Doubleday: he financially supported the
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...
, a group in which Doubleday served as a chapter vice president.
Author Robert Elias credits the Doubleday myth for contributing to the idea of
American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations.
Legacy
Long after the Doubleday myth was declared false by historians, it remains an object of fascination. Tim Arango of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote that the story "has taken a position in the pantheon of great American myths, alongside George Washington's cherry tree,
Paul Bunyan
Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His exploits revolve around the tall tales of his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox. The character originated in the or ...
and
Johnny Appleseed
John Chapman (September 26, 1774March 18, 1845), better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario, as well as the northern coun ...
." It was written about in numerous publications, and became well known among baseball fans. Thorn described Doubleday as "the man who did not invent baseball but instead was invented by it." The myth has received the backing of
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
commissioner
Bud Selig
Allan Huber "Bud" Selig
(; born July 30, 1934) is an American baseball executive who currently serves as the Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball. Previously, he served as the ninth Commissioner of Baseball from 1998 to 2015. He initially served as ...
, who said in 2010 that "I really believe that Abner Doubleday is the 'Father of Baseball.'" At one time, the state of New York made similar statements in promotions for Cooperstown.
While Chadwick biographer Andrew Schiff noted that "there is no clear inventor of the game", further research has been done on the origins of baseball. In 2004, a document was found that dated a sport called baseball to at least 1791, almost 50 years before Doubleday's supposed invention. It was an ordinance from
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfieldâ ...
, which banned baseball from being played within 80 yards of a meeting house in the city; this implies that the game already existed at the time. The theory that activities such as rounders led to modern baseball remains common among modern historians, and older bat-and-ball games have been cited as well.
An extension of the legend developed later involving the growth of baseball in Mexico. Doubleday, who was in the country as part of the Mexican–American War, was alleged to have organized games for military camps, which drew interest from Mexican spectators.
In 1996, the Auburn Astros Minor League Baseball franchise changed its name to the
Auburn Doubledays
The Auburn Doubledays are a collegiate summer baseball team of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) that is located in Auburn, New York. From 1958 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League (NYPL) ...
to honor the purported inventor of baseball. A motel in Cooperstown is also named after Doubleday, but unlike Cartwright, Doubleday was never inducted into the Hall. Nonetheless, the Hall supported the Doubleday myth for many years. More recently, the Hall has taken a small step away from the myth; when it announced special events in conjunction with its 75th year of operation in 2013–14, it made the following statement in its official press release:
The Hall states that Cooperstown is "representative" of the location of baseball's birthplace, although Doubleday Field has a plaque and sign that repeat the myth's claims. In the Hall's museum, the Doubleday ball's modern display rejects the Doubleday myth, with writings that call it "a thriving legend that reflects Americans' desire to make the game our own."
References
Bibliography
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* {{cite book, last=Williams, first=Victoria, title=Weird Sports and Wacky Games Around the World: From Buzkashi to Zorbing, publisher=ABC-CLIO, year=2015, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lpDdBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA248, isbn=978-1-61069-640-1
American legendsHistory of baseballMisconceptions