From a World Wonder to World Champs | Hall of Fame Connections Episode 6
In this episode of the Hall of Fame Connections series, we draw the line from ancient Egypt to baseball’s top contest. How?
Following his retirement from baseball to create Spalding Sporting Goods (quite possibly a more lucrative avenue), Albert Spalding wanted to share the “gospel” of baseball with the world (while incidentally make money from those who bought his equipment). He organized and led the 1888-1889 World Tour where he brought ballplayers and their families around the world to play ball. One of their stops was in Egypt, where they posed in front of the Great Sphinx and then played a game next to the pyramids.
In 1905, Spalding urged the formation of the Mills Commission in order to determine the origin of baseball. This was in response to Henry Chadwick’s claim that baseball came from England and was a descendent of the bat-and-ball game of rounders. In reviewing evidence of early recollections of the game, the committee went with a letter sent by Abner Graves who claimed he had watched Abner Doubleday (who was a Civil War hero) invent baseball in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. Although this story has since been disproven, the “Doubleday Myth” persists.
Even though Graves’ story was quickly debunked (and has been numerous times in the many decades since), the story of Cooperstown being the birthplace of baseball led to the establishment of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which formally opened in 1936. The first object collected by the museum is a baseball purportedly owned by Abner Graves.
Three years after the official opening of the Hall of Fame and Museum, the baseball world celebrated the centennial anniversary of baseball’s supposed invention in Cooperstown. National League, American League, and many other leagues’ jerseys featured commemorative patches, multiple special games were held at Cooperstown’s Doubleday Field throughout the summer, and the Hall of Fame’s first Induction Ceremony was held on June 12, 1939, with 11 living Hall of Famers attending the event.
Of the first class of Inductees in 1936 (Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson) only Mathewson did not appear at the 1939 ceremonies, as he had passed away in 1925. Matty participated in a 1913-1914 World Tour that celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Spalding tour. Players representing the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox went on the tour.
One of the many stops of the 1913-1914 Tour was the famed Sydney Cricket Ground, where a doubleheader was played on January 3 and another pair of games took place on January 5. A century later, baseball returned to the SCG when the Dodgers and Diamondbacks opened the season with a pair of games, March 22-23, 2014. Managing the Diamondbacks was Kirk Gibson, who famously hit a walk-off homer to win Game One of the 1988 World Series for the Dodgers, the eventual World Champions that season.
The winning pitcher for the Dodgers on Opening Day at the SCG, March 22, 2014, was Clayton Kershaw, who six years later helped the Dodgers win their first World Series since that 1988 title by winning Games One and Five.
Artifacts from this and all Hall of Fame Connections episodes are waiting to be discovered at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, where all your favorite baseball memories live. The Museum preserves history, honors excellence and connects generations. Beyond the iconic Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery are exhibits that tell the story of baseball’s impact on our lives, and our country’s history. The Museum exhibits draw from a collection of 40,000 lovingly preserved artifacts and more than 3 million library items to bring your stories and lesser-known tales to life.
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