The other day I viewed a fascinating production called "Base Ball Discovered" from MLB.com in which the producers put a few more nails in the coffin of the Abner Doubleday myth and trace the origins of the sport to several games still played in modern-day England, as well as to a journal from the mid-18th century.
The film debuted at the SABR convention in Cleveland last week, but the trouble is it doesn't have a distribution plan quite yet. It seems like a natural for the new MLB-owned channel set to launch in January.
I'll keep you posted.
The writer/director/producer is Sam Marchiano, daughter of Sal and a member of the famous New York Newsday part-time staff in Kew Gardens in the late 1980s, which produced numerous future sports journalism standouts.
Comments (2)
Hey, Neil, something called "base-ball" appears in Jane Austen's novel "Northanger Abbey." (1803)
Here ya go:
"…It was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, base-ball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books…"
Thanks, T. That is indeed one of the historical references discussed in this documentary.