Baseball's Creation Myth: Adam Ford, Abner Graves And The Cooperstown Story
by Brian Martin /
2013 / English / EPUB
8.6 MB Download
The story about baseball's being invented in Cooperstown, New York,
in 1839 by Abner Doubleday served to prove that the U.S. national
pastime was an American game, not derived from the English
children's game of rounders as had been believed. The tale,
embraced by Americans, has long been proven false but to this day,
Cooperstown is celebrated as the birthplace of baseball. The story
has captured the hearts of millions. But who spun that tale and
why? This book provides a surprising answer about the origins of
America's most durable myth. It seems that Abner Graves, who
espoused Cooperstown as the birthplace of the game, likely was
inspired by another story about an early game of baseball. The
stories were remarkably similar, as were the men who told them. For
the first time, this book links the stories and lives of Graves, a
mining engineer, and Adam Ford, a medical doctor, both residents of
Denver, Colorado. While the actual origins of the game of baseball
remain subject to debate and study, new light is shed on the source
of baseball's durable creation myth.
The story about baseball's being invented in Cooperstown, New York,
in 1839 by Abner Doubleday served to prove that the U.S. national
pastime was an American game, not derived from the English
children's game of rounders as had been believed. The tale,
embraced by Americans, has long been proven false but to this day,
Cooperstown is celebrated as the birthplace of baseball. The story
has captured the hearts of millions. But who spun that tale and
why? This book provides a surprising answer about the origins of
America's most durable myth. It seems that Abner Graves, who
espoused Cooperstown as the birthplace of the game, likely was
inspired by another story about an early game of baseball. The
stories were remarkably similar, as were the men who told them. For
the first time, this book links the stories and lives of Graves, a
mining engineer, and Adam Ford, a medical doctor, both residents of
Denver, Colorado. While the actual origins of the game of baseball
remain subject to debate and study, new light is shed on the source
of baseball's durable creation myth.