nney were the pitchers for the two sides. I wasn't in the
game, but stood close by Doubleday, and wanted Prof. Green to win. In
his first time at bat Prof. Green missed three consecutive balls. Abner
caught all three, then pounded Mr. Green on the back with the ball,
while they and all others were roaring with laughter, and yelling 'Prof.
is out!'"

It is of interest to recall that Abner Doubleday, the inventor of Base
Ball went from his school in Cooperstown to West Point, where he was
graduated in 1842, and served with distinction in the Civil War,
attaining to the rank of Major General. Base Ball, indeed, owes much of
its vogue to the United States Army, for it was played as a camp
diversion by the soldiers of the Civil War, who, during the years of
peace that followed, spread the fever of this pastime throughout the
length and breadth of the United States, and thus gave to the game its
national character.

[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL HOUSE AT APPLE HILL]

In 1908, at the time of the Base Ball Commission's decision that the
game originated at Cooperstown in 1839, there were several old residents
of the village whose recollections included that early period. On the
strength of their statements rests a probability that the Cooperstown
Classical and Military Academy, which was flourishing in 1839 under
Major William H. Duff, was the school attended by Doubleday. This would
be in accord with the recollection of Abner Graves that, in 1839,
Doubleday was "at school somewhere on the hill." This school was at
"Apple Hill," as it was called, in the grounds of the present
"Fernleigh," where the Clark residence was built and now stands. Owing
to the number of trees and the abrupt slope to the river, it is not
likely that a full-sized Base Ball game was ever played within these
grounds. But it is pleasant to fancy young Doubleday standing here,
surrounded by an eager crowd of boys, amid the golden sunlight and
greenery of long ago, as he traces on the earth with a stick his famous
diamond, and from these shades goes forth with his companions to begin
the national game of America.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 96: Opinion of John M. Ward, a famous player, afterward a
lawyer in New York City.]

[Footnote 97: _Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide_, 1908, p. 48.]

[Footnote 98: The Watkins place on Chestnut Street, opposite the Village
Hall, occupies this training ground, which extended east and south to
the rear of the buildings