Cooperstown Credentials - Doubleday Baseball

"Baseball is a game where myths and reality often collide, crafting stories that transcend the sport itself."

Photo Credit: Baseball Hall of Fame

A lesser-known fact about the Baseball Hall of Fame is that it contains a "Doubleday Baseball"—a ball once believed to have been used in the first-ever baseball game.

The "Doubleday Baseball" is a fascinating artifact within the Baseball Hall of Fame because it represents a pivotal moment in the mythology of baseball's origins. The story surrounding this baseball begins with the creation of the Mills Commission in 1905. Albert Spalding, a former player and sporting goods magnate, spearheaded the commission to officially determine the origins of baseball. Despite the existence of more credible evidence pointing to the game evolving from older bat-and-ball games like rounders, the commission leaned heavily on a single claim made by Abner Graves, a mining engineer from Colorado.

Graves asserted that Abner Doubleday, a Civil War general, had invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. According to Graves, the first game played under Doubleday's r…