January 26, 1893: And Doubleday Created Baseball

Abner Doubleday fired the first shot in the American Civil War, devised the San Francisco cable car railway, and posthumously invented the game of baseball. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

A brouhaha in the late 19th century on the origin of the game of baseball pitted the American faction supporting Doubleday as the true father of baseball against a British faction claiming the concept was stolen from the Brit game of rounders. Baseball fans on both sides got quite worked up. Doubleday was mum on the subject (he had been dead since January 26, 1893).

For the Americans, it was spelled out in a 1905 headline in the Beacon Journal, “Abner Doubleday Invented Base Ball.” Can’t be much more definitive than that. “Fake News,” cried the Brits. In 1908, an American commission declared Abner Doubleday to be the one true inventor of baseball (If the U.S. Post office believes this man to be Santa . . .). Doubleday could not be reached for comment.

Part of the proof offered up as evidence was a letter written by a fellow officer stating that he had seen Doubleday sketch a diagram of a baseball field way back in 1839. The diagram featured four bases and batters who attempted to bat tosses tossed by a tosser standing in a six-foot ring. Base players stood on each base. Who was on first, What was on second, I Don’t Know was on third.

And God Created Woman

Born on January 26, 1928, Roger Vadim was a French director of lavish erotic films — most notably And God Created Woman, featuring his young bride, Brigitte Bardot, in the nude; Les Liaisons Dangereuses, featuring his young bride, Annette Stroyberg, in the nude; and Barbarella, featuring his young bride, Jane Fonda, in the nude.  All of which explains why we didn’t include a picture of Vadim.