Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Chip Martin throws curveball at Cooperstown

Book backs Beachville's claim to founding baseball

Since .300 is considered a good batting average, my 300th blog post will be about baseball.

Baseball's Creation Myth full of research and facts
By Mark Schadenberg
The year was 1838 – 175 years ago.
The game of baseball was invented.
The early version of the sport had four bases.
The early version of the game was invented in Beachville – not in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Well-regarded London Free Press columnist Chip Mart has now penned a book which features even more proof and connections to the birth of baseball in Beachville, and the original writings of the sport in its infancy by a Dr Adam Ford.
Baseball’s Creation Myth (published by: McFarland) is the title and it will be a must-read for anyone who has followed the annals of baseball locally and knows the importance of names like Tip O’Neill and Lefty Judd.
Cooperstown in upper New York State features a terrific ball diamond and nostalgia galore in its practically adjoining museum.
The Beachville museum (www.beachvilledistrictmuseum.ca) also has a display to recognize that community’s importance to the sport. If you have never seen the depictions, you must.
The new book may shatter the thoughts of those in the grand olde USA.
“I believe it might be quite controversial especially south of the border because it illustrates that the roots of Americana are actually on this side of the border,” says Martin in a story printed in the Toronto Sun (see link).
Locally, the Beachville bit of history has been well recognized for years, but the Martin novel as you turn the pages sews some links between Abner Doubleday and the first double plays turned in Oxford County.
Martin was inspired to conduct his research after watching the Ken Burns documentary min-series about baseball, which has aired previously by PBS.
Time has tried to tell us that Cooperstown is baseball’s home.
Time will now also tell us in the future if Beachville will get the credit it deserves.


THE LINK:
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/16/book-throws-a-curveball-at-baseballs-origin  

Oxford County has a great history and is a great place to live. 
Mark Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Royal LePage Triland Realty
757 Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519) 537-1553, cell or text
Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter: markroyallepage

Discussion . . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination

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