Michael's Corner

The most widely attended sporting event of the 19th century was a baseball game played between a New York regiment, and one comprised of multiple regiments. The contest took place in Hilton Head. It was estimated that 40 thousand people had gathered to spectate.

Along with items concerning the Civil War, Harper’s Weekly began reporting on results of baseball games played during down times between battles. To combat the sinking morale and privation experienced during the war, soldiers played baseball. Before long, generals wrote to other generals: make sure your troops are playing baseball. Troops of the North taught the game to their Southern counterparts. After the war, a game played primarily in the nation’s northeast corridor exploded. There were thirty amateur teams prewar. That number swelled to two hundred shortly after the war. The Civil War hastened baseball’s popularity and The Great Railroad Boom provided the infrastructure that helped it spread.

Baseball is the only game where the defense possesses the ball. All other team sports – football, soccer, hockey, basketball, rugby – are a simulation of one another; they feature a rectangle with a goal at each end. One could easily imagine the objective. But baseball? What could take place on such an oddly configured plane. One would need to see it to understand the “what” and the “why.” It is truly a grand old invention!