America's National Game. Albert G. Spalding
"Yours very truly.
"We, the undersigned members of the. Special Baseball Commission, unanimously agree with the decision as expressed and outlined in Mr. A. G. Mills' letter of December 30, 1907.
Senator Bulkeley, after affixing his signature, appended the following statement:
" I personally remember as a boy in East Haddam, Conn., before 1846, playing the game of One and Two Old Cat, and remember with great distinctness the early struggles in Brooklyn, N. Y., between the two rival clubs, the Atlantics and Excelsiors, and later the Stars, with Creighton as pitcher. This was some ten to fifteen years before the National organization. I was present, representing the Hartford club, at the formation of what is now the National League at the Grand Central Hotel, Broadway, New York City, about 1875 or 1876, and was its first President, with Nick Young, Secretary.
"M. G. Bulkeley."
Accepting the decision of the Commission appointed to consider the subject of the origin of Baseball as final, I have nothing to add to their report. However, it is quite in keeping with the purpose of the story of our national game to present here a brief biography of the man who first perfected the system out of which the greatest of all out-of-doors pastimes has had its evolution. The following sketch is from Appleton's " Encyclopaedia of American Biography ":
"Major General Abner Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa, New York, June 26, 1819. He was a civil engineer in 1836-1838, when he was appointed to the U. S. Military Academy, and on his graduation in 1842, was assigned to the Third Artillery. He served in the First Cavalry during the Mexican War, being engaged at Monterey and at Rinconada Pass during the Battle of Buena Vista. He was promoted to First Lieutenant March 3, 1847, to Captain March 3, 1855, and served against the Seminoles (Indians) in 1856-1858. He was in Fort Moultrie from 1860 till the garrison withdrew to Fort Sumter on December 26th of that year, and aimed the first gun fired in defense of the latter fort on April 12th, 1861. He was promoted to Major in the Seventeenth Infantry on May 14th, 1861; from June till August was with General Patterson in the Shenandoah Valley, and then served in the defense of Washington, commanding forts and batteries on the Potomac. He was made Brigadier General of Volunteers on February 3, 1862, and was assigned to the command of all the defenses of Washington on the same date, and commanded a Brigade on the Rappahannock and in the Northern Virginia campaign from May to September, 1862, including the second Battle of Bull Run, where he succeeded, on August 30, to the command of Hatch's Division. In the Battle of Antietam, his Division held the extreme right and opened the battle, losing heavily, but taking six battle-flags. On November 29, 1862, he was promoted to Major-General of Volunteers. He was at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and succeeded General John F. Reynolds as Chief of the First Corps when that officer was appointed to that command of a wing of the army. On July 1, 1863, he was sent to Gettysburg to support Buford's Cavalry, and on the fall of General Reynolds, took command of the field till the arrival of General Howard, some hours later. His division fought gallantly in the battle that followed, and on the third day aided in the repulse of Pickett's charge.
" General Doubleday served on courts-martial and commissions in 1863, and on July 12, 1864, temporarily commanded the southeastern defenses of Washington, when the city was threatened by Early's raiders. He was brevetted Colonel in the Regular Army on March 11, 1865, and Brigadier and Major-General on March 13, for his services during the war. In December, 1866, he was in command at Galveston, Texas; served as Assistant Commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau there until August 1, 1867, and, after being mustered out of the volunteer service, was made Colonel of the Thirty-fifth Infantry, September 15, 1867. He was a member of the Retiring Board in New York City in 1868, and in 1869-1871 superintended the general recruiting service in San Francisco, where, in 1870, he suggested and obtained a charter for the first cable street railway in the United States. After commanding in Texas, he was retired from active service on December 11, 1873. He has published ' Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-1861,' New York, 1876; ' Chancellorsville and Gettysburg,' 1883; and articles in periodicals on army matters, the water supply of cities, and other subjects."
CHAPTER III.
STEPS IN THE EVOLUTION OF BASEBALL FROM ITS PRIMITIVE STAGES – HOW IT DEVELOPED, NATURALLY, FROM A BOY WITH A BALL, TO ITS PRESENT FORM, WITH EIGHTEEN PLAYERS, BALL, BATS AND BASES.
HOWEVER views of individuals may differ as to the origin of the American national game, all must agree that the sport had as its foundation — a Ball. Without that as its basis, the superstructure of the grandest pastime ever devised by man could never have been erected.
Josh Billings, in writing upon the general subject of dogs, once said that, in order to realize on the different kinds of dogs, one must have environments calculated to develop the inherent traits of the varied breeds. Thus, in order to " realize " on a coach dog, one must be the owner of a carriage and team, that the canine might run along beneath the vehicle; in order to " realize " on a Newfoundland dog, he said its owner must have a pond of water and children, playing around, carelessly, that they might fall in and be rescued by "Faithful Nero," and so on.
Just so in this case, in order to " realize " on the Ball it is necessary to have someone to put it in motion. Happily, that one is not difficult to find. Placing the Ball in the hands of the first lad who happens along, we may be assured that he will do the rest. And he does. In less time than it takes in the telling, he is bounding the sphere upon the ground. Down it goes; up it flies. Leaving the boy's hand, it strikes the ground, and, returning, is caught. In this completed act we have the first crude and elementary . step in our National Game — with just a Boy and a Ball.
But the Boy, like other members of the human family, is a social creature. It is quite conceivable that the average boy, upon being presented with a Ball, would find immediate and pleasurable entertainment throwing it to the ground and catching it upon the rebound; but such pastime would be of temporary duration. The lad would soon tire of the monotony of the sport. Unselfish, he would want someone to share his fun — moreover, everybody recognizes that thing in human nature, in youth as well as maturity, which delights in the exploitation of ownership, possession. Given the boy's mother or sister in possession of a new gown, and it is immediately doomed for exhibition before her less favored neighbor.: The arrival of his new " Red Devil " sets the boy's dad rushing around town before he knows the first principles of the machine's construction, to the imminent danger of all resident mankind and incidentally that of any animal that may happen to come in his way. He simply must show Jones the new flyer, even though it decimates the population.
"Like father, like son." Tom wants his schoolmate, Dick, to see the new ball. In a very few minutes they are together, playing throw and catch, in an interesting elementary game of ball. Tom throws; Dick catches. Dick throws; Tom catches. Back and forth flies the ball till the school bell rings, and in this simple little form of exercise we have " Throw and Catch " as the second stage in the evolution of our game — with Two Boys and a Ball.
Now, human nature is not only social in its demands; it is also enterprising — and fickle. Bounding a ball on the ground is well enough if a lad is alone and can't get company. Throw and Catch beats no game at all; but it becomes tiresome after a while. And so, when school is over, or on Saturdays, when there is no school, we find Tom and Dick out behind the barn, inventing a new and different phase of the game of ball.
" I'll tell you what we'll do," says Tom. " I'll throw the ball against the barn. You get that old axe-handle over there and strike at it as it comes back. If you miss the ball and I catch it, you're out; or, if you hit the ball and can run and touch the barn and return before