Sport of Reading - Orange 03
Who invented the game of baseball? What would you say if someone asked you that question? Would you say, "Abner Doubleday in 1839"? Most people would. Most other people would think you were right. Doubleday is commonly credited with the invention of the game of baseball. He is supposed to have set up the first game in a cow pasture in Cooperstown, New York.
However, Doubleday may not truly be the originator of the game. Harold Peterson, a baseball historian, has cast some doubt on the authenticity of the Doubleday legend. It seems that the documentation for Doubleday's alleged role rests solely upon the reminiscences of a Mr. Graver, who at the age of eighty told about an event that had taken place when he was only 15 years old.
Available records indicate that during the crucial period involved, Doubleday was a cadet enrolled at West Point. Records do not indicate that he took a leave or vacation long enough to travel to Cooperstown and invent the game of baseball. Quite possibly it was someone else who created the game now known as our "national pasttime".
No matter what additional facts about baseball's beginnings may be presented to us by historical researchers, many American people are likely to go on believing that Abner Doubleday really did invent the game in that cow pasture in Cooperstown. it's a nice story, and people have been telling it for years. The people involved in professional baseball have done much to promote the Doubleday story. That cow pasture in Cooperstown is called Abner Doubleday Field. The Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown. It is unlikely that mere facts will be enough to change the notions that so many people have about how baseball began. Old legends die hard.
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