Testy Copy Editors

Our new website is up and running at testycopyeditors.org. This board will be maintained as an archive. Please visit the new site and register. Direct questions to the proprietor, blanp@testycopyeditors.org
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 12:10 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours




Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 10 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: American Mythology
PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2004 4:07 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 2266
Location: New Jersey
(From an AP story about a 1791 document making what is perhaps the earliest known reference to baseball):<p>"The long-accepted story of baseball's origins centers around Cooperstown, N.Y., where Doubleday is said to have come up with the rules for the modern game."<p>***All right, let's get this straight. That story is not "long-accepted." More historians believe in Santa Claus than believe Abner Doubleday invented the rules of baseball. The Doubleday legend was promulgated in 1901 by the major leagues as a promotional gimmick.***


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: American Mythology
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2004 10:27 am 
Offline

Joined: Fri Jun 21, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 145
Location: Toronto
As we all know, the first baseball game on record was played in Beachville, Ontario in 1838 although the Brits would argue it was just a rip-off of Rounders.<p>
http://www.beachvilledistrictmuseum.ca/baseball.shtml


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: American Mythology
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2004 11:10 am 
Offline

Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:01 am
Posts: 3137
Location: Homebush NSW Australia
M Canuck, you have not been paying attention to cricket posts.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject: Re: American Mythology
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2004 11:18 am 
Offline

Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 458
Location: Heart of Global Warming
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by canuck:
As we all know, the first baseball game on record was played in Beachville, Ontario in 1838 although the Brits would argue it was just a rip-off of Rounders. <hr></blockquote> Or perhaps of the "base ball" game mentioned in Austen's Northanger Abbey in the mid 1790s. (Rounders was called "base ball" in southern England.)<p>D.


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
 Post subject: Re: American Mythology
PostPosted: Wed May 12, 2004 12:47 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 1324
Location: N 36° 57' 9", W 121° 24' 2"
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


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: American Mythology
PostPosted: Thu May 13, 2004 12:09 pm 
Offline

Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 1:01 am
Posts: 25
Never mind that! What bugs me about the story is "centers around." Argh!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: American Mythology
PostPosted: Fri May 14, 2004 10:43 am 
Offline

Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 1399
Location: In the newsroom
<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by slummingreporter:
"Centers around"--that too much of a hedge, GI?<hr></blockquote>Not a question of hedging. You center *on* something, not around it.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: American Mythology
PostPosted: Fri May 14, 2004 11:33 am 
Offline

Joined: Sat Feb 01, 2003 1:01 am
Posts: 281
Location: Dallas
"Center on" and "revolve around."


Top
 Profile E-mail  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Forum locked This topic is locked, you cannot edit posts or make further replies.  [ 10 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group

What They're Saying




Useful Links