According to this theory, a sort of Adam and Eve theory, baseball sprang almost full-grown from the fertile brain of Doubleday the young man on a day in 1839 in a cow pasture in or near the present site of Cooperstown, New York. For many years the legend persisted, until further research indicated that, among other things, at the time Doubleday was supposed to have been in the cow pasture laying out the diamond he was in fact attending classes at West Point, which he entered as a cadet in 1938. __________<p>But the real Spalding-breaker was A Pretty Little Pocket-Book, published in England in 1744, which left no doubt that even in that early day, and in a foreign land at that, B stood for Baseball. Illustrated with crude woodcuts, according to historian William E. Brandt, 'It pictures and describes in doggerel quatrains 26 children's sports -- one for each letter of the alphabet. And 'B' is represented by 'Baseball.'"<p>The text notes that the batter hits the ball and runs the bases. The illustration shows pitcher, catcher, batter, and basemen. The bases are marked by posts. ~ from "Baseball, An Informal History," by Douglass Wallop
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