Quoth James Kahn, in another thread:
"Anyone who wants the group to revive should just make the effort to
post."
That is a fair point. This is an excerpt from a larger project I am
working on. If is more of an off-season type of post, but what the
heck. Here's something to chew on:
Abraham Lincoln, ballplayer?
Baseball is among the most heavily mythologized elements of American
culture. Abraham Lincoln is among the most heavily mythologized
Americans. Inevitably, their mythologies have been intertwined.
The most reliable place to look for baseball mythology is Spalding’s
Ameica’s National Game, and it doesn’t disappoint, with this story
accompanied by a drawing of Lincoln holding a bat and ball:
'It is recorded that in the year 1860, when the Committee of the
Chicago Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency
visited his home at Springfield, Illinois, to notify him formally of
the event, the messenger sent to apprise him of the coming of the
visitors found the great leader out on the commons, engaged in a game
of Base Ball. Information of the arrival of the party was imparted to
Mr. Lincoln on the ball field.
'“Tell the gentlemen,” he said, “that I am glad to know of their
coming; but they’ll have to wait a few minutes till I make another
base hit.”'[1]
Another example is this quote from a newspaper article, found on a
webpage titled “President Abraham Lincoln Baseball Related Quotes:
"At about six o'clock, the President, who was prevented from appearing
earlier on account of the semi-weekly Cabinet meeting, came on the
ground and remained until the close of the game (Washington Nationals
28 vs Brooklyn Excelsiors 33), an apparently interested spectator of
the exciting contest."[2]
These are the most substantive claims of Lincoln playing, or at least
watching, baseball. Neither stands up to scrutiny.
The newspaper article is genuine, from The Washington National
Republican. Unfortunately, the game reported was played September 18,
1866, and the president attending the distinctly non-mythologized
Andrew Johnson.
The story about Lincoln receiving word of his nomination is more
interesting, as it is an improved version of a contemporary newspaper
account:
"How Lincoln Received the Nomination – When the news of Lincoln's
nomination reached Springfield, his friends were greatly excited, and
hastened to inform "Old Abe" of it. He could not be found at his
office or at home, but after some minutes the messenger discovered him
out in a field with a parcel of boys, having a pleasant game of town-
ball.
"All his comrades immediately threw up their hats and commenced to
hurrah. Abe grinned considerably, scratched his head and said "Go on
boys; don't let such nonsense spoil a good game." The boys did go on
with their bawling, but not with the game of ball."[3]
This varies from Spalding’s version in various minor details, and the
major detail what what game it was that Lincoln was playing: base
ball, meaning the New York game, or town ball, meaning the local
version of the baseball family. As we have seen, the New York game
was spreading to the west as early as 1857. There is no record of
antebellum play in Springfield, Illinois, but it is not impossible.
But the contemporary version makes the much more plausible claim of
Lincoln playing the local version. Spalding’s version is improved to
fit the needs of his mythology. (It doesn’t actually make sense in
the context of his history, as it does not include the game spreading
widely before the Civil War. Spalding was not one to be deterred by a
foolish consistency.)
The contemporary story is, however, almost certainly untrue. Soon
after his assassination, Lincoln’s law partner William Herndon set to
writing a biography. His research included interviews and
correspondence with persons who knew Lincoln. Several included
accounts of what Lincoln was doing the day of his nomination:
anxiously awaiting word from the party convention.[4] The most likely
interpretation of the story is that it was pure political propaganda:
a story showing Lincoln to be a man of the people, unconcerned with
personal ambition. From the perspective of baseball history, this is
interesting as it shows town ball’s status in American culture. “Town
ball” required no further explanation, and claiming that a man in his
fifties was playing it was taken to be plausible and a political
asset.
The other contemporary association is a Currier and Ives cartoon
published soon after Lincoln’s election, with Lincoln and his three
rivals holding baseball bats, and Lincoln holding a ball, with the
four discussing the recent election using baseball metaphors. The
suggestion for this choice of metaphor is shown in the caption “THE
NATIONAL GAME. THREE ‘OUTS’ AND ONE ‘RUN’. ABRAHAM WINNING THE
BALL.” The unusual feature of four candidates lent itself to this,
and baseball was attaining the national prominence to make the cartoon
intelligable. Of course this says nothing about Lincoln having any
personal connection to the game.
Some connection can be salvaged, if the search is broadened to the
baseball family, and not merely the New York game. Several of
Herndon’s informants mentioned town ball. Most seem to be background
material about what games were played generally, but James Gourley, a
Springfield bootmaker, reported that (probably in the late 1830s or
early 1840s) “Lincoln played townball...could catch a ball.” A
biography of Lincoln from 1900 included a report by Frank P. Blair,
whose grandfather owned an estate seven miles north of Washington. He
recalled from when he was seven or eight years old that Lincoln would
come to visit quite frequently:
“We boys, for hours at a time, played ‘town ball’ on the vast lawn,
and Mr. Lincoln would join ardently in the sport. I remember vividly
how he ran with the children; how long were his strides, and how far
his coat-tails stuck out behind, and how we tried to hit him with the
ball, as he ran the bases. He entered into the spirit of the play as
completely as any of us, and we invariably hailed his coming with
delight.”[5]
None of this is extraordinary for a man of his background. There are
ample accounts of men playing ball, particularly in the less settled
regions of the west, and while Lincoln might seem a bit old for such
activity, there are also ample accounts of men older than he playing
the game.
The extraordinary claims are of some unique relationship with the New
York game. There is no evidence of Lincoln having any connection with
the New York game. But once we strip away this layer of mythology, we
find that Lincoln was a man of his time and place, at least so far as
baseball is concerned.
[1] Albert Spalding, America’s National Game p. 361. University of
Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska. 1992
[2]
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/prz_qal.shtml accessed April 13,
2008.
[3] This account was printed in several newspapers, including the San
Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin June 16, 1860.
[4] Herndon’s Informants need full cite
[5] Tarbell, Ida M. TheLife of Abraham Lincoln v. 2 p. 88. New York.
1900
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