The "Say It Ain't So! Story

The Young Republicans in 1957.  LDub can be seen in
middle row on far right.

It was an ordinary day.  Reading in the newspaper that the #1 sport for viewing in the United States is professional football.  That just can't be!  Can it?  I just assumed baseball was #1, but that's because I love baseball and grew up playing the sport.  Spent many a day on the grassy plot next to the Lancaster Train Station as well as the blacktop parking lot behind my house on North Queen Street playing baseball with my friends and my younger brother Steve.  

Grandson Caden making a delivery.

When I finally got to play organized ball at the age of 12 I never looked back.  Was fortunate enough to be on a team called the Young Republicans that captured the State Jr. Midget Title in 1957.  I began coaching baseball in the mid-1960s and coached a team that won our local Midget Tournament before I finally decided to sit back and watch other fathers enjoy what I had the chance to do for many years.  Today the sport in Lancaster is still just as popular with kids of all ages enjoying our National Pastime.  My grandson just finished his first year in the 14U (under 14 years old) and even though they weren't champs in their league, they still had a great season.  

Abner Doubleday.  Does this look like a person
who may have played baseball?  I think not!

It seems that everywhere you look in Lancaster there is a baseball field with kids playing on it.  It was said that Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, New York in 1839, but it seems that is only a myth.  Seems that Mr. Doubleday was rather averse to out-door sports.  He really didn't even live in Cooperstown in 1839 when he was supposed to have invented the sport.  Didn't even mention it in any of his 67 diaries.  After some investigating, I was able to find that there wasn't just one person who invented the sport.  It seems to have evolved from a series of European stick ball games with the rules being changed over time to get what we know as baseball today.  

The start of baseball years ago.

If you wanted to give credit to one person for the game of baseball, Albert Cartwright could be known as the "Father of Baseball" since he drafted a set of rules in 1845 that became the basis for the modern game.  The first recorded game was played on June 19, 1846 in Hoboken, New Jersey.  Mr. Cartwright's New York Knickerbockers defeated the New York Nine 23-1.  It wasn't until the 1920's that baseball became a popular spectator sport when Babe Ruth starred for the New York Yankees.  

Waxed stithes on a baseball.

Other stars such as Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson and my all-time favorite Willie Mays followed and a national pastime was born.  Perhaps the reason baseball is no longer #1 in some people's eyes is the fact that baseball is becoming more a science, with sabermetrics, defensive switches and exit velocity on most every play.  Stats and data are killing the game.  I did find a few interesting stats I thought I would share with you:  6'11" is the height of the tallest player in pro baseball history (Jon Rauch who was a pitcher and played for seven teams from 2002 to 2013); 108 being the number of stitches in every baseball; 88 inches of waxed thread used to stitch each ball; 768 is the combined number of career home runs for Tommie and Hank Aaron who hold the record for most homers between brothers;

Grandson Caden and son Derek, player
and coach, follow the ball.

June  6, 1939 was the date of the first recorded Little League game when Lundy Lumber beat Lycoming Dairy 23-8 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and one more interesting fact that baseballs are rubbed with Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud before being put into play in Major League baseball games.  A few people who played Little League Baseball whom you might know are Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Kevin Costner, Steve Carell, Danny DeVito, Rudy Giuliani, John Grisham, Mark Harmon, Kurt Russell, Tom Selleck, Dick Vitale and even Julia Stiles.  Hey, I do like to watch football and even basketball, but to me Baseball will always be #1 to me.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.