birthplace of baseball...

Hoboken is still my sentimental choice. I've still never seen the Elysian Fields plaque there.

THORN TO LEAD BASEBALL ORIGINS COMMITTEE

Decorated Twelve-Person Panel to Examine the Story of Baseball’s Beginnings

John Thorn, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, will serve as chairman of the “Baseball Origins Committee” as his first official task in his new capacity, Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced today.Major League Baseball has established an accomplished panel of 12 experts and historians that will seek to determine the facts of baseball’s beginnings and its evolution. The Committee will compile and evaluate information that pertains to the game’s founding and its growth. Following the study period, the panel will seek to tell the story of baseball’s beginnings and explore not only the game’s broadest origins, but also its development in local communities.

Thorn also will incorporate opportunities for public participation in the project, allowing the panel to hear the first baseball stories from individual fans and families. A special section of MLB.com will be dedicated to the project, serving as a hub of interactivity throughout the effort.Thorn will lead the panel and also will serve as the representative to the public, and Commissioner Selig will be a formal member of the panel.

The 10 members joining them will be:

• DAVID BLOCK, an early baseball historian, author of Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

• JAMES EDWARD BRUNSON III, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at Northern Illinois University and author of The Early Image of Black Baseball: Race and Representation in the Popular Press, 1871-1890.

• ADRIAN BURGOS, JR., Associate Professor of History at the University of Illinois; author of Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line and Cuban Star: How One Negro League Owner Changed the Face of Baseball; a consultant to Ken Burns’s Baseball: The Tenth Inning; and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

• KEN BURNS, award-winning filmmaker of Ken Burns’s Baseball, Ken Burns’s Baseball: The Tenth Inning, The Civil War, Jazz, The War, and many other highly acclaimed documentaries.

• LEN COLEMAN, the former President of the National League.

• DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, Presidential Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, and Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir.

• STEVE HIRDT, Executive Vice President of the Elias Sports Bureau, the official statistician of Major League Baseball, and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

• JANE LEAVY, Former staff writer of the Washington Post; author of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy and The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and The End of America’s Childhood; and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

• LARRY McCRAY, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who, since 2005, has coordinated “Project Protoball,” a record of print references to baseball and parallel bat and ball games prior to 1860, and a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

• GEORGE F. WILL, Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator, Washington Post and Newsweek columnist, ABC News analyst and author of Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball.

Commissioner Selig said: “I am thrilled that John Thorn and our decorated panel will take on this ambitious endeavor. In so many ways, our game is a reflection of American history, and I am glad that Major League Baseball can now contribute to the findings and celebrate our unparalleled tradition.”

Thorn added: “In no sport is the past as important to the present moment as it is in baseball. That’s why so much interest attaches to how our great game began – in America, in communities, and in our family histories.”Thorn’s new book, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, published by Simon & Schuster, is available beginning today. Commissioner Selig appointed Thorn as Official Historian on March 1st.

interview with Doc Adams, vet of 1840s base ball:

DR. D.L. ADAMS.

MEMOIRS OF THE FATHER OF BASE BALL.

He Resides in New Haven, and Retains an Interest in the Game.

“Our players were not very enthusiastic at first, and did not always turn out well on practice days. There was then no rivalry, as no other club was formed until 1850, and during these five years base ball had a desperate struggle for existence. I frequently went to Hoboken to find only two or three members present, and we were often obliged to take our exercise in the form of ‘old cat,’ ‘one’ or ‘two’ as the case might be. As captain, I had to employ all my rhetoric to induce attendance, and often thought it useless to continue the effort, but my love for the game, and the happy hours spent at the ‘Elysian Fields’ led me to persevere. During the summer months many of our members were out of town, thus leaving a very short playing season.

“I used to play shortstop, and I believe I was the first to occupy that place, as it had formerly been left uncovered. At different times I have, however, played in every position except that of pitcher. We had a splendid catcher in the person of Charles S. Debost, who would be a credit to the position even to-day, I am sure. He was a good batter also, and a famous player in his day.

“We had a great deal of trouble in getting balls made, and for six or seven years I made all the balls myself, not only for our club but also for other clubs when they were organized. I went all over New York to find someone who would undertake this work, but no one could be induced to try it for love or money. Finally I found a Scotch saddler who was able to show me a good way to cover the balls with horsehide, such as was used for whip lashes. I used to make the stuffing out of three or four ounces of rubber cuttings, wound with yarn and then covered with the leather. Those balls were, of course, a great deal softer than the balls now in use. It was not until some time after 1850 that a shoemaker was found who was willing to make them for us. This was the beginning of base ball manufacturing. There is now, I believe, a factory in Philadelphia where 1,000 people are employed in this one industry.

“It was equally difficult to get good bats made, for no one knew any more about making bats than balls. The bats had to be turned under my personal supervision, the workman stopping occasionally for me to ascertain when the right diameter and taper was secured. I was often obliged to try three or four turners to find one with suitable wood, or one willing to do the work. In fact, base ball playing for the first six or seven years of its existence was the pursuit of pleasures under difficulties.

“The first professional English cricket team that came to this country used to practice near us, and they used to come over and watch our game occasionally. They rather turned up their noses at it, and thought it tame sport, until we invited them to try it. Then they found it was not so easy as it looked to hit the ball. Upon this discovery, they began to find fault with the ball, and so our crack pitcher took their own hard cricket ball, and gave them every opportunity but they had no better success."

http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2012/11/14/doc-adams-remembers/

1749 bass-ball in Surrey

http://sabr.org/latest/new-discovery-sabr-member-david-block-confirms-baseball-was-played-royalty-england-1700s