Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-07-03
The ORIGIN OF BASEBALL.
a. c. sPALDlNG, THE FAMOUS
PITCHER TALKS OF THE GAME.
First Played in New York City in
1912 on the Site of the Madison
Square Garden-Civil War was
Great Promoter OF the Sport-Vas-
ue of the Game as Exercise.

In his address presenting the Spald-
ing trophy to Public School No. 46,
winners of the public schools cham
pionship of 1905, A. G. Spalding, the
great Chicago baseball pitcher of
many years ago, said of the origin
of the game:
Baseball is of American origin,
was born in New York City, and the
first baseball ground was located
about where Madison Square now
stands. Back in 1912 a few of the
young business men of New York
began to assemble every Saturday az
ternoon on these grounds to play
what they called baseball. In 1915
these same young men organized the
original Knickerbocker Baseball Club
of New York, the first baseball club
ever organized The club printed
the first playing rules in 1S45, and
it may interest you to know that the
present game of baseball could be
played to-day under these same rules
with a few minor changes, showing
that the underlying principles of the
game have not changed from that day
to this Five years later, in 1850,
the Gotham and Empire Clubs of
New York were organized, and then
began rival match games between
clubs. In 1857 convention of base
ball players was held in New York,
which resulted in the formation or
the first National Association of
Amateur Baseball Players in 1858,
with a total membership of about
twenty-five clubs, all from New York
City or the immediate vicinity. This
national organization gave great
impetus to the game and clubs began
forming in other cities.
THE game had become well
launched when the civil war began
in 1861. The New York baseball
players of that period were among
the first to respond to President Lin
coins call for troops, and they took
their baseball accoutrements with
them. and thus the game was intro
duced into the army, where it soon
became a favorite camp paStime.
Every regiment had its baseball
team, and the monotony of camp
life was very much relieved by
match games of baseball. In some
unaccountable manner the new game
found its way over into the Confed-
crate lines, and while those two mag
nificent armies could not agree upon
national policies, they could agree
upon baseball At the close of the
Civil War, in 1865, the soldiers or
both armies in returning to their
homes disseminated baseball through
out the nation, so you can see that
baseball has it's patriotic side, and
became the national game OF Amerl-
ca through the efforts of those battle
SCARED veterans of the Civil war.
These returning veterans became the
baseball instructors to the youths OF
that period. and l happened to be
one of those youths that caught the
baseball fever at that time. BaseDall
thus introduced throughout the coun-
try. became a furore, and nearly
every city, town, and hamlet had its
baseball club. The rivalry between
cities became intense, and any young
man with baseball skill was eagerly
sought for by wealthy clubs.
Every possible effort was made at
this period to keep the game on
strictly amateur basis, but the de-
mand of the public for high degree
of playing skill, together with the
growing tendency to gamble on the
result of the games, produced a sort
of yelled professionalism which con-
tinued in vogue until 1871, when the
first professional association OF base
ball players was organized, since
which time the game has been gov
erned nv the professional element.
81 look upon baseball and kindred
sports as one of the greatest educa-
tional factors of the times. we i've
in q strenuous age, and our American
bovs and youths should be educated
and developed along lines that VIII
enable them to meet and cope WIN
these conditions. What can better
fit a boy for the rough-and-tumD Die
business life of to-day than thor
oueb schooling in athletics properly
directed. AS the mental faculties
grow and develop, let the physieai
body grow along with it, in order
m make a combination that will be
useful and in our crowded cities how
l. II nossibIe to thus develop our
citv bovs except through a systematic
and properly directed training III
athletic sports. An American boy
takes to athletic sport and games
like a duck to water, but this natural
Unborn love needs proper direction
and that is what l understand the
Puhlic Schools Athletic League mas
undertaken to do for the boys Vi
Greater New York
~Rasebau not only develops the
muscles and the whole physical Oouy'
but if is of still greater value IN ae-
voloning the mental faculties, for the
hou nlaver must be alert, must think
nuick and act with the thought for
there is no place on the team Tor
tbe laggard. 1t is also a great tram
;ug for the temper, for a boy soon
learns that losing his temper is equl-
roIant TO losing the game. AS
moral force nothing excels baseoali'
and athletic sports generally, for L
i healthy medium through Whlch
boy's youthful vitality can WORK
on naturally, and after hard-fougnt
oana he has become so physically
tired ct that he has no Inclination
For .5ing except a good meal and
- he'd New York Post.