The Spirit's Self-Help Book by Power of Visualization CEO Glenn Poveromo Slated For Release

Historical Novel about New York Firemen Says Early Volunteers Invented Baseball

As the opening of baseball season draws near, countless stories will be written about Abner Doubleday creating the game America loves on a farm at Cooperstown, N.Y. But a new historical novel tracing the heydays of the New York City Volunteer Fire Department has a different tale to tell about baseball's beginning.

In "The Volunteers," Doubleday, a noted Civil War general, has been replaced by a New York City volunteer fireman as baseball's creator. The fireman, who spread baseball's popularity westward when he joined the 1849 California gold rush, went on to become a noted Honolulu fire chief.

"The Volunteers" by Donald L. Collins, is a novel about the rise and demise of the New York City volunteer system during the turbulent period from 1830 until 1865, when a paid fire department was established in the city. The 500-page novel is based on exploits of noted firemen of the period.

It centers around the development of the steam fire engine, which most east coast volunteers rejected as "unmanly." They preferred to continue using hand-pulled and hand-pumped apparatus. The battle pits politically-powerful volunteer firemen from all walks of life against corrupt politicians and an insurance industry pushing for a paid fire department using steamers.

One of those firemen was Alexander Cartwright, a member of Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 12, one of the city's most prominent volunteer organizations. The son of seaman, Cartwright developed an interest in the English game of rounders. His father found many variations of the game being played in lands he visited and taught Alex the game.

Cartwright decided to take the best features of many versions of rounders and gradually combined them into a new game. In 1845 he founded the New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club. The club charter set down the detailed rules of the game which provide the foundation of the current game. He also pioneered development of a cork centered, stitched ball to replace the crude ball used in rounders.

New York firemen liked what they saw and began forming their own baseball clubs. The Mutual Hook and Ladder Company No. 1 and Engine Company No. 9 were early ball clubs. On June 19, 1846, the first baseball game, under Cartwright's rules, was played at Elysian Field in Hoboken, N. J., between the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine clubs. Cartwright's team was beaten badly in the match. The Mutuals went on to became one of the city's favorite teams.

Abner Doubleday's promotion as founder of baseball has been an ongoing controversy. Now, however, Cartwright is recognized at the National Baseball Hall of Fame as "the father of modern baseball."

A former weekly newspaper editor and Marcus Hook, Pa., volunteer fireman, Collins tells the story through the eyes of a fictional reporter for the New York Herald. He uses contemporary accounts of major New York fires of the period to highlight daring rescues and the tragic losses of firemen.

Among those blazes is and the heroic struggle to save the city in the Great Fire of 1835. The blaze, during a minus 17-degree blizzard, leveled much of the same area as the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center. U. S. Centennial historians in 1876 cited the fire as one of the most significant events in the first century of United States history.

In the 35-year period covered in "The Volunteers," Collins covers the firemen's roles in relation to the industrial revolution, immigration, the telegraph and newspapers. An interesting story line traces the metamorphosis of a firemen's song written in Philadelphia in 1853 to what became one of the most recognized songs in the nation. The original song, "Hey Bummers will you meet with us today?" was commissioned by visiting Charleston, S. C. firemen as a gift to their Philadelphia brothers, and ironically evolved into a Union army marching song.

Finally, the Civil War drained most big cities of their volunteer firemen, making the steam fire engine a necessity to replace large numbers of firemen drafted into the army. New York State legislators settled the volunteer vs. paid firemen dispute for the city when it created the paid Metropolitan Fire District in 1865.

Categories

Links

Recently Reading

The Spirit's Self-Help Book by Power of Visualization CEO Glenn Poveromo Slated For Release