ile the author of this work entertains the greatest respect for that
gentleman, both as a journalist and man, and believes that base-ball
owes to him a monument of gratitude for the brave fight he has always
made against the enemies and abuses of the game, he yet considers this
point as to the game's origin worthy of further investigation, and he
still regards it as an open question.

When was base-ball first played in America?

The first contribution which in any way refers to the antiquity of the
game is the first official report of the "National Association" in 1858.
This declares "The game of base-ball has long been a favorite and
popular recreation in this country, but it is only within the last
fifteen years that any attempt has been made to systematize and regulate
the game." The italics are inserted to call attention to the fact that
in the memory of the men of that day base-ball had been played a long
time prior to 1845, so long that the fifteen years of systematized play
was referred to by an "only."

Colonel Jas. Lee, elected an honorary member of the Knickerbocker Club
in 1846, said that he had often played the same game when a boy, and at
that time he was a man of sixty or more years. Mr. Wm. F. Ladd, my
informant, one of the original members of the Knickerbockers, says that
he never in any way doubted Colonel Lee's declaration, because he was a
gentleman eminently worthy of belief.

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, several years since, said to the reporter of
a Boston paper that base-ball was one of the sports of his college days
at Harvard, and Dr. Holmes graduated in 1829.

Mr. Charles De Bost, the catcher and captain of the old Knickerbockers,
played base-ball on Long Island fifty years ago, and it was the same
game which the Knickerbockers afterward played.

In the absence of any recorded proof as to the antiquity of the game,
testimony such as the foregoing becomes important, and it might be
multiplied to an unlimited extent.

Another noticeable point is the belief in the minds of the game's first
organizers that they were dealing with a purely American production, and
the firmness of this conviction is evidenced by everything they said and
did. An examination of the speeches and proceedings of the conventions,
of articles in the daily and other periodical publications, of the
poetry which the game at that early day inspired, taken in connection
with the declarations of members of the first clubs sti