Does Library Find Change Baseball?

Paper "found" in Berkshire Athenaeum dates game to 1791

by Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 06/15/2004

John Thorn, author of Total Baseball, is claiming to have found a 1791 document in the Berkshire Athenaeum Library, the public library of Pittsfield, MA, referring to the game 48 years before Abner Doubleday supposedly invented it. However, the Athenaeum's Kathleen Reilly, Ann Maria Harris, and other librarians and local historians always knew the document was there and what it contained, making Thorn's claim somewhat dubious.

The document is a bylaw to prevent damage to new meeting house windows by not permitting "baseball" and other games to be played within 80 yards of the building. Reilly told LJ that Thorn apparently came across a reference to the document on the Internet and contacted former major league star and local resident Jim Bouton, who allegedly contacted Pittsfield authorities inquiring about the document. The mayor's office in turn called the library, and Harris and Reilly were able to produce the paper immediately.

Reilly said the notion that the library was unknowingly harboring it is a foul ball. Whether the document truly proves Thorn's claims that baseball as we know it predates Doubleday, well, the library isn't fielding that one.