Epstein: Women’s baseball across four continents
From Daniel R. Epstein at The Hardball Times on March 10, 2020:
Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball in 1839; we know this now. He did not clear a cow pasture in Cooperstown, New York, gather a few friends, and yell, “Play ball!” That is a work of fiction concocted some years later, yet it was believed to be true for decades thereafter.
All the same, the Baseball Hall of Fame resides in Cooperstown, as does historic Doubleday Field. The ballpark was built in 1920 on the site of the same cow pasture where, 81 years earlier, nothing actually happened.
This is emblematic of the false beliefs on which the American version of baseball was built. Our greatest shrine rests on a myth! We’ve spent most of our history being wrong about the sport — using the wrong stats and evaluation tools, the wrong strategies for winning games, and most of all, wrong about who can and cannot play the game.
Read the full article here: https://tht.fangraphs.com/womens-baseball-across-four-continents/
Originally published: March 10, 2020. Last Updated: March 10, 2020.