Fresh look at baseball's origins

* Brian (Chip) Martin has a good read in Baseball’s Creation Myth: Adam Ford, Abner Graves and the Cooperstown Story (McFarland, $35). He'll be attending the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame breakfest in London Friday at London Convention Center at 7:30 am, along with George Bell, Tim Raines and Rob Ducey. ....

 

 

By Bob Elliott

Award-winning journalist, Chip Martin has hit another home run with his latest book: Baseball’s Creation Myth: Adam Ford, Abner Graves and the Cooperstown Story (McFarland, $35).

The ground-breaking work suggests the origin of the story about the game invented in Cooperstown actually lies in Canada. Bob Barney, former president of the North American Society for Sport History, says the book presents new evidence for the continuing debates on the game’s origins,” and is a “must read.”

A London Free Press staffer, Martin has done exhaustive research on the game’s origins, originally credited to Abner Doubleday in 1839 in Cooperstown and promoted by Graves. Turns out stories told by Dr. Ford and mining engineer Graves, who both lived in Denver, are similar.

Martin sheds some light on this mystery.