I had no idea that the Theosophists were involved (http://blavatskynews.blogspot.com/2011/03/baseball-in-garden-of-eden.html).
One of my law partners was as much a baseball fan as I was. He played third base in college (Wayne State, I believe) He used to love to tell me the joke about the two baseball fanatics who promised each other that the first one who died would come back to tell the other whether there was baseball in heaven. One died, and shortly thereafter he appeared to his living friend and said "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is that you are the starting pitcher tomorrow."
My partner died in 1992. I have been waiting to hear from him.
Quote from: CBStew on March 29, 2011, 05:15:05 PM
One of my law partners was as much a baseball fan as I was. He played third base in college (Wayne State, I believe) He used to love to tell me the joke about the two baseball fanatics who promised each other that the first one who died would come back to tell the other whether there was baseball in heaven. One died, and shortly thereafter he appeared to his living friend and said "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is that you are the starting pitcher tomorrow."
My partner died in 1992. I have been waiting to hear from him.
I feel like there should be a Cubs joke here somewhere.
Or maybe that's Hell.
I am in the third chapter of this book. I hope that it gets better. The author has little material and beats it to death. He traces the origins of the game. Did it come from England? Were they playing it in ancient Mesopotamia? What is its relation to Rounders? One Cat, Two Cat, Three Cat, Town Ball?" At this early point I have reached my own conclusion. What the hell difference does it make? We have the game that we have. Enjoy it.
I had a tough time slogging through this book, but I finally finished it. At first I thought that the stuff about the Theosophs were a cute diversion, but it was the theme of the entire book, and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about that movement. They were the Scientologists of the 19th century, and when some prominent advocates for baseball (Albert Spalding and others involved in the baseball business) got involved in Theosophy they invented the fiction that Abner Doubleday, by then deceased but who was also involved in Theosophy, had "invented" baseball. In part this was to discredit those who tried to attribute baseball's origin to English antecedents. They wanted a truly American game. Mark Twin and Walt Whitman were jingoistic cheerleaders for this "No Rounders" movement. But also they were looking to boost the credibility of Theosophy by linking baseball to someone in the movement. So Spalding came up with a crackpot who claimed to have seen Doubleday in 1839 sketch out the rules at a field one day, when the observer was only five years old. (When I was five years old I think that I was barely able to distinguish between my father and my mother, but that was just me.) Later he changed the story to put himself in his late teens, but left the year at 1839, thus adding 15 years to his age. (This guy ultimately shot his wife and ended up in a mental institution) Nonetheless the commission established by the Theosophs published their conclusions and the rest is history. There is some good stuff in this book, but there must be a better way to learn about the development of "Our National Pastime" than this.
Wait, there's no Koot Hoomi?