America's National Game

​

For several years I have been the recipient of frequent letters from admirers of our National Game in all parts of the country, urging me to write a history of Base Ball. For many adequate reasons I have felt impelled to decline these courteous invitations to enter the realms of literary endeavor, where I do not claim to belong.

First of all, the task was gigantic. It involved, under that title, not the writing of a book, but of books; not even the making of a few volumes, but of a library. I had neither time nor inclination for such an undertaking. It meant not only days, and weeks, and months, but years of patient application to a very exacting and not at all exciting line of research among musty records of long-forgotten facts.

I had been looking forward to the time when I might have a change and a rest from some of the active duties of life, and an enterprise involving so much of close personal application, although presenting a very wide divergence from my customary lines of labor, did not promise much in the way of absolute repose.

Recently, however, these requests have come with redoubled frequency and force. It is known that I have acquired possession of the Base Ball archives of Henry Chadwick, Harry Wright and other old-time friends and factors of the game; it is urged that I am duty bound to make public some of the contents of my storehouse of information pertinent to our national pastime, and I have been, importuned to relate some of the reminiscences of ​the days when I was connected with it, either as player, manager or club official.

To all these requests and importunities I might have turned a deaf ear but for one incident which I will here relate. Some months before his demise I received a letter from Mr. Henry Chadwick, advising me that he had in his keeping the accumulations of years, embracing much valuable statistical and historical data bearing upon the national game. This he desired me to possess, but he wanted it to go into the hands of one who would make use of some part of it, at least. He then declared that he had written his will and bequeathed to me his Base Ball library, in the hope that I would write a book on the subject that had held so much of interest for him during his manhood's life.

Therefore, when, after his death I received word from Mrs. Chadwick that shipment had been made to me of her husband's Base Ball literature, I found myself facing the plea of an old and valued friend, now "on the other shore," adding to that of many others his request that I should write a book on Base Ball.

Hence, putting aside all personal inclinations, I find myself engaged in the undertaking of writing, not a history of Base Ball, but the simple story of America's National Game as I have come to know it. I wish again emphatically to disavow any pretense on the part of this work as a "history of Base Ball." I have simply sought in these pages to deal with the beginnings of things, leading the reader to the opening of paths the traversing of which will enable him to view certain historic scenes that in my opinion constitute the chief landmarks of Base Ball history.

​I have undertaken briefly to touch upon the several epochs that impress me as of greatest importance; to consider abuses that crept into the game at the beginning; to note the inability of early Associations to control these evils; to dwell upon the nature of the struggle to eradicate wrongs and establish a form of government that would make for the integrity of Base Ball, and which has wrought the salvation of the game and made it the cleanest, most scientific and popular pastime known to the world of sport.

I have interspersed in this narrative some reminiscences in which the personal equation is conspicuously present. In the very nature of things that had to be the case. But here and now disclaim any desire to exploit my name, my views or my achievements. This book is simply my contribution to the story of the game. In it I have reviewed facts as they have been presented to me. That others have seen them from other view, points and received impressions altogether different I know; and I accord to such the same sincerity that I maintain for myself.

In this work I have aimed to present only the truth. If in so doing I have on occasion seemed to speak harshly of the actions of some men who have sought to embarrass the noble sport, I plead in extenuation of what I have here written that it is the truth itself—not the one who utters it—that offends the doer of wrong.

Point Loma, California, October. 1911.

While the author of this work has dealt with his subject from viewpoints entirely his own, and has given many of the facts herein contained from personal observations and experiences during many years of active service in Base Ball, yet, in the nature of things, he has been obliged to call upon others to confirm data and amplify details.

To the following named gentlemen he desires hero to make special acknowledgment:

To Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley, of Connecticut; N. E. Young, of Washington, D. C.; A. G. Mills, James E. Sullivan and John B. Foster, of New York City; George Wright, John F. Morrill and F. W. Thayer, of Boston; A. J. Reach, of Philadelphia; Bruce Cartright, of Honolulu; Samuel E. Winslow and Ernest Thayer, of Worcester, Massachusetts, for valuable data supplied by each.

For illustrations he wishes to thank Mr. Homer C. Davenport, America's great cartoonist, to whose genius much of the interest of this volume is due. The cartoons were executed while Mr. Davenport was a guest at the author's home at Point Loma, California. After hearing some of the manuscript read, the artist felt inspired to illustrate certain leading features of the story of the game.

To Mr. William D. Page, a boyhood friend at Rockford, Illinois; later a well-known Indianian, resident at Fort Wayne (now a permanent resident of Point Loma, California), the author is particularly indebted. Mr. Page has given valuable assistance in the compilation and editing of this work.

To all these friends the author is glad to express his thanks and appreciation for favors always cheerfully extended.

Point Loma, California, October, 1911.