He Was Apparently Off Base
2003 Boaz Rauchwerger
In order to achieve most any level of success in life, teamwork is usually important. Surrounding ourselves with positive, supportive people, who work as a team, is a shortcut to high achievement. Teamwork is applicable both at home and in business as we play the game of life.
Speaking of games, and teamwork, perhaps its time to clear up some misconceptions about America's national game – baseball. I'm not trying to throw you a curve ball, but the game was not invented in the United States. Please don't cry "fowl" and tell me that Abner Doubleday was responsible for inventing the game in Cooperstown, New York in 1839.
In reality, we have to go back to at least Tudor Times in England, when children played a game called "rounders" and offshoots of it such as "town ball" and "Old cat." In later years, it was thought that the game was a version of cricket. In these games, the number of players could vary. A batter would hit a ball with a stick and then run from one base to another. The number of bases also varied.
These games were played in the 1700s and 1800s. In April 1778, writing in a journal, a soldier in George Washington's army at Valley Forge noted that his platoon played a game called "base." In the early 1800s, illustrations can be found of men and boys playing a form of baseball in books and pamphlets.
The modern form of baseball began to appear in the 1840s in the northeastern part of the United States. That's where the English sporting tradition was strongest. At the same time, the country was growing, with major growth coming to cities and towns of over eight thousand in population. It was in this atmosphere that baseball became a fun activity for many people.
Although the new nation had no organized sport, cricket remained popular in the United States up to the 1860s. It was played mainly by the wealthy, though America continued the English tradition of working-class cricket clubs. Baseball's growth paralleled the expansion of cricket, but in the 1860s the new game finally pulled away from its English cousin.
It was written in 1868 that baseball had experienced more changes in ten years than cricket had in several hundred years. Thus, baseball had adapted and become an American game. One of the major changes was when players started tagging runners out instead of throwing the ball at them.
So, somewhere along the line, perhaps during a seventh inning stretch, a myth was developed that baseball was strictly an American sport. It was highly promoted as the brainchild of General Abner Doubleday, a Civil War hero. His early claim to fame was that he fired the first shot for the Union in the Civil War. He later commanded troops at Gettysburg.
In checking to see where this story began, the trail leads to A.G. Spalding. He was a millionaire as a result of selling sporting goods that carried his name. In 1908 Spalding was one of the most recognizable men in American sports. Baseball is how he began his career. He was a star pitcher for Boston and Chicago, won forty-seven games in one season, and eventually owned the Chicago team. After that he went into the sporting goods business.
Thus, in an effort to increase sales of his sporting goods equipment, Spalding decided to determine that baseball was an American creation. He picked a committee of prominent people to investigate the origin of the game. Then he gave the committee some "evidence" that Abner Doubleday designed and named the game in 1839. In the final report, the committee declared that Doubleday was indeed the father of baseball.
Here are some facts that challenge this myth: Doubleday had been dead for fourteen years before it was first suggested that he created baseball. In addition, he had never watched a baseball game. The evidence the committee received from Spalding was a single letter written by a man who claimed to be a childhood friend of Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York.
The friend, Abner Graves, claimed to have been present during the summer of 1839 when Doubleday made changes to the then-popular game of "town ball." However, there is no evidence that Doubleday was even in Cooperstown that summer. He was actually at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was a cadet.
Then there's the fact that the British game, dating back to the mid-1700s, was played on a diamond-shaped field with a "feeder" who pitched the ball to a "striker." If the striker missed three pitches, he was out.
Disregarding the obvious, Spalding's committee decided to "play ball" and named Doubleday the father of baseball. According to a statement by Spalding, "It certainly appeals to an American's pride to have the great national game of baseball created and named by a Major General in the United States Army."
It also didn't hurt Spalding's business. By 1913, he declared the Spalding baseball to be the official league ball used exclusively by the National League, a majority of Minor Leagues, and by all Intercollegiate and other Associations. Sounds like a home run for Spalding.
No matter where the game was invented, baseball is a good example of teamwork. Check your personal team and see if it's comprised of positive, supportive people who want to see you win. If that's not the case, perhaps you should recruit some new players and start a new season of teamwork?
A Daily Teamwork Affirmation
I surround myself with positive, supportive people who want to see me win.
Article reproduced with permission from Boaz Rauchwerger. You may reprint any of these articles in any publication or Web site so long as you credit Boaz Rauchwerger as the author and include this Web site address, www.Boazpower.com.