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© Copyright 1998, Jim Loy
It is now fairly well-known that Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball. All my life, I have heard repeatedly that he had invented baseball. But, we are now told, he did not. There's a good chance that he never ever saw a baseball game.
Baseball was apparently an improved version of the game of rounders (and other games), which came, in a round about way, from cricket. It's early years are fairly hazy. In 1908, a commission investigating the early years of baseball declared that it was invented, in Cooperstown, NY,by Abner Doubleday, before the Civil War. They may have decided this because he was a Civil War hero. Maybe they thought that it would lend the game some needed respectability.
But, he may actually have invented it, after all. As far as I can tell, nobody really knows how baseball got its start.
Addendum:
I received email, about this article, asking if I were insane. Of course there are strong feelings about this subject. But, many many people now believe that Abner Doubleday (and Cooperstown) had nothing to do with baseball. I, personally, will try to keep my mind open about it.