Everyone knows that the game of baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday. Or was it Alexander Cartwright? Or could it have been a lesser-known New Yorker by the name of William R. Wheaton? Whoever invented it, one thing we do know for certain is that sport was adapted from the similar game of Rounders... or Town Ball... or the children's game One Old Cat. If you ever want to make your head spin, spend a day looking into the origins of America's favorite bat-and-ball game. What you'll find is that baseball history has a history.
In the late 1800s, the big question wasn't WHO invented the sport, but WHERE it was invented. British-born journalist Henry Chadwick was drawing ire with his frequent comparisons between the American sport and the English game of Rounders. The mere suggestion that baseball could be derived from a foreign source was perceived by many as an unpatriotic attack on American ingenuity. Chadwick's main opponent was his good friend Albert Spalding, a former player turned sporting goods manufacturer. Spalding argued the sport had to be made in the U.S.A., citing children's games such as One Old Cat and Town Ball as its predecessor. The debate was heated, but remained fairly civil, until 1903 when Chadwick did the unthinkable. Entrusted as the Editor-in-Chief of Spalding's Baseball Guide, the British writer published his own article tracing the history of the sport back to England. He had used Albert Spalding's own publication against him. Now it was personal.
Chadwick's contributions to baseball are numerous. He is credited with devising the box-score, the abbreviation "K" for strike out, and several popular statistics, such as batting average and ERA. As one of the earliest baseball journalists, he is also known for his efforts to promote and popularize the sport. His success earned him the nick-name Father of the Game ("father" in the sense of a guardian, as opposed to a creator). When Chadwick's rounders statement came under fire, several big baseball names came to his aid. National League president Harry Pulliam published his own article linking the pastime to British bat-and-ball games, and the legendary Connie Mack followed with an essay that stated "there is no doubt whatsoever as to baseball having originated from the game of rounders" (he goes on to say that its British origin doesn't make the game any less American).But the nationalistic opposition was equally as strong. Spalding fired back that "the tea episode in Boston harbor, and our later fracas with England in 1812, had not been sufficiently forgotten [by the mid-19th Century] for anyone to be deluded into the idea that our national prejudices would permit us to look with favor, much less adopt a sport or game with, English flavor." Baseball great John Montgomery Ward added some color to the debate when he proposed that baseball "just growed" in the United States (no origin necessary). Ward unabashedly lashed out at Chadwick for being biased towards the country of his birth.Tensions grew until 1905, when Spalding decided to settle the matter once and for all. He established a commission to determine the sport's true origins. After making the public wait three years, the commission finally released its findings. Its conclusion did nothing less than forever alter the legacy of a civil war general and change life as residents knew it for a small village in upstate New York.
(To Be Continued)
Sources
Baseball's First Inning: A History of the National Pastime Through the Civil War, William Ryczek, McFarland Press, 2009
"Growth of Baseball: President Pulliam Traces Game Back Four Centuries", The Washington Post, April 17, 1904
"History of Baseball: Origin of the National Game Traced to 1833", The Washington Post, May 8, 1904
"Baseball Evolved From One Old Cat", The New York Times, January 8, 1905
"The Origin and Early History of Baseball", A.G. Spalding, The Washington Post, January 15, 1905
"The Origin of Baseball", The Washington Post, May 3, 1905
"A Brief History of Baseball Pre-History", Martin Hoerchner, SABR U.K. Examiner, May 1997
"The 19th Century Debate: Spalding vs Chadwick", Martin Hoerchner, SABR U.K. Examiner, October 1997
