Posted By:
AnonymousI grew up believing that Abner Doubleday devised a set of rules that helped transform town ball into base ball. Then I learned that he didn't, and fellows like Cartwright and others did more to enhance the game. Then I read up on this and saw that many of our current beliefs are based on a lack of first hand information. New things pop up every year about baseball's origins.
It's kind of like Lewis Black's skit about eggs...first they were good for you...then they were bad for you...and now it seems that they might just be good for you after all.
Three points are often made to discredit Doubleday's link to baseball - He was not in Cooperstown in 1839, he never mentioned baseball in his numerous writings, and Abner Graves lacked credibility.
Abner Graves was motivated enough to submit a letter to the Mills Commission that gave his opinion about baseball's early days. He even responded when asked questions about what he wrote. In his first letter he never claimed Doubleday devised new rules in the summer of 1839, merely stated it could be any of three years. The Commission concluded it had to be the summer of 1839 and now we know that they were probably wrong. Did Abner Doubleday present the three or four suggestions to improve their game or did Graves make them up in his head? Or was it some other boy?
James Fenimore Cooper mentions in a novel that boys were playing base ball on the green in Cooperstown around this same time period. Assuming they were playing town ball, it seems clear to me that nearly every single boy in town participated when they could. Abner Doubleday had two brothers so I believe that a Doubleday or two (or three) played town ball in Cooperstown when they were kids. Graves probably played ball with Abner Doubleday's younger brother who was closer in age to him.
Did Abner Doubleday possess the mental faculties and leadership qualities to convince the other kids to play a new game that didn't require 25 to 50 players? Of course he did.
But Doubleday never mentioned baseball in his writings. Does that prove he never played town ball or base ball? How many of our nation's leaders did mention baseball in their writings in the 19th Century?
I do not think we know enough about what occurred in Cooperstown back in the late 1830's or early 1840's to say for sure what happened. Did anyone who grew up with Abner Graves object when they heard the news? What research has been done on primary sources of information? Both John Ward and Al Spalding were members of the Mills Commission and no doubt had strong opinions on baseball's origins. It's hard to imagine that both were fooled by a crackpot from out West.