The Daily Alaska empire., 1939-02-14
100 YEARS OF BASEBALL

70 On the 18th of June this year. Cooperstown, TON Y will Tooth anniversary of base
 ball On that the great stars of todays
 teams along with fans from throughout the Nation
 will converge the little town where Abner Double
 day in 1889 skeched.the first known diagram of the
 diamond, indicating positions for players so that
 Cooperstown schoolboys playing under rules, would s9 not continue to bat their heads together in scramos SIX after the ball, they had in random
 Doubleday devised scheme for limiting the con-
 testants side allotting them to field posi- t tons each with certain amount of territory; also @ sssubstitung the existing method of putting out the s' base runner the old of plugging him with '' the ball
 True it appears from the record that Doubleday
 provided for Il side instead of g. stationng
 the extra between first and second. and second
 and third bases: but a minor detail.
 Baseball has the American ideal of clean,
 hard play Baseball Americas American in
 origin American spirit, American in its appeal to payer ard fan Born 100 years ago. it grew to be the l. sIaNatony game its favorte sport and spectacle.
 Baseball has perhaps contributed than any ~ other activity to the development of the American -ls'|e temperament Through its outlet for the energies ~ enthusiasm of player and spectator alike and in ~ teaching hard play but fair it has been the Ma sat on safety valve and it's Insurance against excesses ,l. now prevalent among other nations abroad. -n,,c Someone has said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton It might well be said that the historical military virtues of Americas 2"' sensible discipline and leadership taught the
 athletic fields
 'n'" American baseball develops good It instils
 in boys and young the qualities for success in
 American life. Baseball requires virility, courage,
 sagacy energy. determination. Witness the aga3 brilliant array statesmen preachers. engineers. diHs physicians merchants who have graduated from
 the ball fields town lots schools and colleges. --N Basebals hundred years of history provide dra matic and American story as the struggles of the rFsc Puritans the conquest of the West
 - . The chroncers report that President Lincoln received notice of his nomination while playing base ,,an,1 ball with the neehborhood and boys. .s, es Afterward there the Civil interrupt e.. peacetime baseball but game, hardy infant siJ tinued wartime tented fields behind the ys sockades Army prisons Both Union and Confed-
 troops playing the game Here it became ,, truly American according Army tradition the . soldiers both forces laid aside their while
 a series of games played between picked teams the Union and Confederate Armies-yes sublime z. rg ly typicaly American
 hU With the demoDilaation of the Blue and Gray
 the soldiers headed homeward carrying baseball to
 the farhes corners of America. It caught on every zS sHwhere Baseball teams sprang up every town and
 .siase and each loudly and proudly sup r ss,s ported by its home folks.
 Thoughout the entire world today American base ~ bail personificaon sportsmanshp play play Americansm Behind the of T. ia. ,the Cy War every peaceful Main Street hard s1sia1 by the ethal Flanders Fe and in huge flooded sadia baseball brought evervmg hours sn of thrills and and relaxation countless mill