Several years ago a bylaw dating to 1791 was discovered in Pittsfield, banning the play of several games, including one called “base ball.”
This is the earliest recorded mention of the game in the United States, so is Pittsfield the birthplace of Baseball as we know it?
As Pittsfield baseball enthusiast Brian Johnson told Producer Tony Dunne, one thing’s for certain: America’s Favorite Pastime has evolved right alongside the country itself.
This story originally aired on April 27, 2015.
Read the full transcript:
Zydalis Bauer, Connecting Point: Several years ago, a bylaw dating to 1791 was discovered in Pittsfield, banning the play of several games, including one called “base ball.” This is the earliest recorded mention of the game in the United States.
So, is Pittsfield the birthplace of baseball as we know it? As Pittsfield baseball enthusiast Brian Johnson told Executive Producer Tony Dunne, one thing’s for certain: America’s favorite pastime has evolved right alongside the country itself.
Singer: The year was 17 and 91. The game of baseball had just begun. Pittsfield, Massachusetts was the birth of it all. When a slugger cracked a ball against the meeting house wall.
Brian Johnson, Baseball Enthusiast: The city of Pittsfield, has a long connection with baseball, very interlinked. From its earliest mention, to its present day.
It is a natural for Pittsfield,Massachusetts, to claim the Cradle of Baseball. Cooperstown, New York, is the Hall of Fame. It’s often thought about as Abner Doubleday is the founder of baseball. And, he’s one, but baseball is an American icon.
Baseball parallels American history. John Thorne was the historian who found the document of 1791 in our library. It came out as the first mention of “baseball.” It’s not really a positive thing. There were a bunch of kids apparently playing ball and breaking windows in the courthouse, so the court issued a document banning the use of playing “base ball” in that vicinity.
And when they spell out the word “base ball,” they spelt it as two different words. They put “base” and then “ball,” they separated. But in the same sentence is the first mention of the word baseball so far documented and authenticated in North America.
Seventeen ninety one with this mention, George Washington was president of the United States. Isn’t that incredible when you think the first discovering the mention of baseball coincides with the first president? And like the country, it’s resilient. It goes through good times and bad times. But it’s backbone never breaks.
We’re not claiming that we take — that we trump anybody else. It’s just — it’s just an evolution of the game. It’s all symbolic.
And the Statue of Liberty, though, it’s for the immigration coming in on the East Coast, it doesn’t not stand for the same values and virtues and opportunities for people who are now coming through on the West Coast. Once you embody something and embrace it, it’s symbolic forever and and it’s timeless.
September 5th is the date of the document in 1791. We went as far as having a birthday celebration with a huge cake in the middle of town, and we called it and we sang “Happy Birthday, Baseball.”
John Thorne’s documentary created a lot of excitement in the community. Congressman John Olver got wind of it, he brought it to the Congress of the United States and made it official that baseball was the first mentioned in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
So, these are all the things that we have the momentum to take it. We’re not just creating something, hoping to see if it can fly. This has legs to it.
Pittsfield has a great history, not just the finding of a document and, you know, just coincides with that. But looking through different things at the first collegiate baseball game was played between Williams College and Amherst. That was played right off on North Street in Pittsfield, right where Dottie’s Coffee House is. And there’s a plaque there now that’s been put there.
Wahconah Park? Casey Stengel played in Waconah Park. More modern people, like Carlton Fisk, who are obviously retired Hall of Famers. But way back in time, Lou Gehrig hit a homerun and it went actually into the Housatonic River and they never found the ball.
So, that’s the history, back in the 1920s, that Pittsfield has carried a link set up through the collegiate levels and into the professional levels. And that’s why Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is the Cradle of Baseball.
We could do more, if we could ever get it to be recognized like an Abner Doubleday. I mean, out in the middle of nowhere is built the Hall of fame. What would Cooperstown be without a Hall of Fame? Things can happen.
And I hate to be comical with this, but, you know, the old Field of Dreams, feel good story, “build and they will come.” And yell what? We’re not going to take down Doubleday Field in Cooperstown because it’s in that journey, OK?
I like to refer to as Pittsfield as its Garden of Eden right now, baseball’s Garden of Eden. If we call Pittsfield, Massachusetts the cradle and the genesis, the Hall of Fame can be the Bible of baseball.
And there’s a journey in between there. And that journey will always be timeless and always be a treasure to all people. And people can fill in that journey all the time.
