# America's National Game/Chapter 25

CHAPTER XXV.
1860-1910
ATTENTION has been called heretofore to the baptism of Base Ball as "Our National Game" during the Civil War. But even before that unhappy era it held among its devotees one who was soon to become Commander-in-Chief of Army and Navy.
It is recorded that in the year 1860, when the Committee of the Chicago Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency visited his home at Springfield, Illinois, to notify him formally of the event, the messenger sent to apprise him of the coming of the visitors found the great leader out on the commons, engaged in a game of Base Ball. Information of the arrival of the party was imparted to Mr. Lincoln on the ball field.
"Tell the gentlemen," he said, "that I am glad to know of their coming; but they'll have to wait a few minutes till I make another base hit."
The authenticity of this incident I have no reason to question. The facts as here presented were conveyed to me in a letter under date of December 18th, 1908, from Mr. John F. Morrill, of Boston, which letter is in my possession. The truthfulness of the story was further ​established by another communication from Mr. Waldo M. Claflin, of Philadelphia, who had it from a personal and intimate friend of Mr. Lincoln himself, Mr. Alexander P. Brown, of Philadelphia.
The interest of former President Roosevelt in athletics, and his special predilection for Base Ball, are too recently and too generally known to require emphasis here. While President, Mr. Roosevelt, in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of Army and Navy, used his official efforts upon frequent occasions to secure the playing of Base Ball at Army and Navy stations, by garrisons and crews, urging that it was the best available means of preserving the esprit de corps, and an excellent avenue for the administration of discipline. He has ever stood for Base Ball as the out-of-door game par excellence of the American people, and no wonder! For he is himself the very incarnation of all that goes to make a great ball player.
Quite recent dispatches by the Associated Press report President William H. Taft and Vice-President Sherman as frequent, highly-interested spectators at Base Ball games at the Capital. Here is one of them:
"Washington, April 19, 1910.—President Taft went to the Base Ball game to-day, saw Washington beaten, 8 to 4, by the Boston Americans, was initiated into the mysteries of the 'spit ball,' shared a five-cent bag of peanuts with Vice-President Sherman, wished hard for Washington to win and said sadly that he hoped he was not a hoodoo.
"President Taft arrived at the beginning of the second inning. The Vice-President, a dyed-in-the-wood fan, had gone directly to the grounds from the Senate chamber,
"Mr. Sherman kept a detailed score of the game, supplying the President with such statistical information as he asked for, and caused some one in the party to remark that if he ever lost the job of Vice-President, he might get a place on Ban Johnson's scoring staff.
​"The President was disappointed in Washington's failure to win, but he said he enjoyed the game and hoped to get to the park frequently.
"The President was the center of interest up to the sixth inning, when Washington got the bases full, with no one out. Then the ruling passion put the chief executive temporarily in eclipse and the faithful rooters nearly yelled their heads off for Delehanty to 'Hit 'er out!' and for Charley Street to 'Biff it in the eye!' Two runs resulted from the combination of bats and cheers.
"Mr. Taft was as interested as all the rest. He knows Base Ball thoroughly and is up on all the finer points of the game. The day was ideal for the national game."
As long ago as when the late Hon. Paul Morton was Secretary of the Navy, in 1905, for the purpose of obtaining correct information and data as to the status of Base Ball in that branch of the public service, I wrote a personal letter to that official, and received the following interesting reply, which is here published for the first time:
"NAVY DEPARTMENT.
"Washington, March 9, 1905.
"Mr. A. G. Spalding, "Point Loma, Cal.
"Dear Sir:—I am in receipt of your letter of the 2d instant in reference to Base Ball in the Navy. The enlisted men of the Navy have been playing Base Ball as far back as the memory of anybody in the Department goes and it is the chief amusement of the men on whatever station they may be. For years the game was carried on by subscription on the part of the officers and men, but in 1903 my predecessor, Secretary Moody, issued an order, a copy of which is enclosed, which provided the necessary material for the sport at the expense of the Government. With the facilities thus given, the game has been even more general than it had been in former years, and wherever two or three vessels are together, and the weather is favorable, Base Ball games are arranged between the ships, and between representative nines of the ships and land crews, which attract general attention wherever they are played.
"Many games are played between teams representing vessels of the Navy and posts of the Army whenever a vessel of the Navy happens to be stationed in the vicinity of one of the shore posts. The officers who have the responsibility of the administration of the enlisted personnel of the Navy recognize Base Ball as one of the very best influences in connection with the discipline of the ship, not only for the men who actually engage in the game but for the very much larger number of men who are interested spectators. The spirit of the crew of each ship in behalf of their Base Ball team runs very high and there is a healthy rivalry stimulated, not only to develop the best possible teams but to keep the good conduct classes of the vessels large, so that each vessel may have the largest delegation of 'rooters' at the games. The possibility of being debarred from going ashore to witness a ball game is probably a most efficient influence towards preserving discipline and good conduct on ships during the Base Ball season.
"The officers take an active interest in the game, and the training of the ship's team is directed by an officer who has played ball at Annapolis and who generally acts as captain of the team.
"The influence of the game, as far as I am able to ascertain, is most beneficial and it is heartily encouraged by the Department as a means of giving the men rational enjoyment and to make them contented with the service. It is claimed by officers who have had charge of Base Ball teams that where a team has been kept together for a considerable period of time Base Ball playing is developed that would do credit to professionals.
"While foot ball is also encouraged as one of the sports of the enlisted men, it has never secured the popularity and has never been developed to so high a point as has been the fact with Base Ball.
"I trust that the above will be of interest to you and that it will answer the purpose of which you write.
"Very truly yours, "Paul Morton, "Secretary, U. 8. Navy."
As regards Base Ball in the Army, it is pleasant to note the fact that the national game is by far the most popular form of sport known to our national defenders, the rank and file of the regular army; but it will be readily understood that, under our system, in times of peace not many men are stationed at any one point in our country, and hence but little is heard of the games played at small ​forts and the few presidios. Wherever troops are stationed, however, contests between nines composed of soldiers and civilians resident in the vicinity are of frequent occurrence.
Speaking of Base Ball in the army, a non-commissioned officer of the Twelfth Regiment, U. S. A., said recently:
"Yes, the game is a great one among the boys, even in the far West. While I was a bit too old to play, I saw plenty of Base Ball there before coming East to Chiclsamauga and Tampa at the beginning of the Spanish War. Our regiment, the Twelfth Infantry, is the acknowledged champion of the Army. I don't believe the Twelfth's team has ever been beaten, and it has met some strong opponents, too, among the Southern League Clubs. When they are practicable, trips to other posts are frequently made, and in an out-of-the-way garrison a rattling good Base Ball game is no ordinary event. Everybody turns out to see the play. Our colonel—the one we had before the war—he has since been made a brigadier general—was a thoroughbred sport and entered into the spirit of the game with as much vim as the newest recruit. In fact, Base Ball is the game throughout the entire Army and I don't know what the boys would do without it. In the winter there is regular gymnasium exercise at most posts, but it isn't like a nip and tuck tussle on the diamond."
The United States Army and Navy have been very important factors in the advancement and development of the game of Base Ball. While the game did not originate in the Army or Navy, these important departments of our government were the media through which the sport, during the Civil War, was taken out of its local environments—New York and Brooklyn—and started upon its national career.
The returning veterans, "when the cruel war" was "over," disseminated Base Ball throughout the country and then established it as the national game of America.
At the breaking out of the war, in 1861, the New ​York Volunteers took their Base Ball implements with their war accoutrements and camp equipage to the front, and then first introduced the game into Army and Navy. Of these volunteer troops, New York ball players were among the very first to enlist. That quality of manhood which made them good ball players also inspired them to respond promptly to President Lincoln's call for men. Naturally, their exodus from the Empire State made it difficult to keep the game going, as evidenced by the fact that over two-thirds of the organized clubs disbanded or ceased playing between the beginning and end of the war.
This wholesale disbandment of clubs at that era has sometimes been construed as indicating a waning interest in the game, and at that period there were many who voiced the sentiment that the sport was doomed. But the real cause of the trouble should have been recognized in the fact that the best ball players were born fighters, and hence ideal material for soldiers. There were many causes of discouragement to all forms of pleasurable pastime during those gloomy years, and Base Ball suffered perhaps more than any.
But though Base Ball languished at its New York birthplace, not so in Army and Navy. While the special duty of soldiers and sailors was to shoot and kill, little did the men of either army realize that what was to them simply a camp pastime would come to be in later year the national game of their country.
Although Base Ball was taken up by the volunteer soldiery as a simple camp diversion, all its player soon ​became infatuated with it—and so must everyone who comes under its spell. The game continued to gain in popularity among "the boys" as the war progressed, and almost every regiment, and many crews, had Base Ball teams; and, when occasion offered, games were fought out, in generous rivalry, on Southern fields.
No one seems to know just how Base Ball found its way into Confederate lines; but, as many Southern youths had been in attendance at Northern colleges before the war, it is conjectured that this may have been the avenue of its introduction. Whatever may have been the means by which it got there, no one denies that it was there in full glory before the end of the war.
Thus it will be seen that Base Ball has its patriotic side—thanks to the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War—and this, together with its distinctive American character and spirit and its peculiar adaptability to the American temperament, have caused it to go on from year to year, gaining in power and popularity, until to-day it is the leading field sport of the world.