Weird History: 3

Doubleday Double Play

When asked, “Who invented the idea of baseball?” Most people (at least those with a knowledge of sports) would say, Abner Doubleday—and most people would be wrong. Baseball was invented in England.

It was first named and described as far back as 1774 in a booklet titled: A Little Pretty Pocket Book.

Doubleday got the credit via a propaganda campaign. The Major League’s Executive Board wanted to score a “home run” b y claiming baseball was invented in America, so stated a commission report dated in 1907. In this report it was claimed that baseball was credited to Civil War General Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York in 1839.

Though with Doubleday’s diaries, not once did he ever mentioned inventing baseball, or the fact that he never was in Cooperstown.

Sort of makes you wonder about the origin of apple pie, and Chevrolet, now, doesn’t it?

Going One Step Further

So who should be credited for inventing baseball? A name you may have never heard of by most authorities say it is Alexander Cartwright. In 1842 he founded The New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club, strangely enough, named after the Knickerbocker Fire Engine, which Cartwright was a volunteer fire-fighter. He actually drew up the diagram of the diamond shaped-field and the rules of the modern game are based on bylaws his team created. He was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1938.

On a side note: In 1989, George Herbert Walker Bush was the first Vice President elected to the office of the Presidency since Martin Van Buren in 1836. And now, Joseph R. Biden is the second.