What do you think?
Rate this book
Baseball's Creation Myth: Adam Ford, Abner Graves and the Cooperstown Story
The story about baseball's being invented in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839 by Abner Doubleday served to prove that the U.S. national pastime was an American game, not derived from the English children's game of rounders as had been believed. The tale, embraced by Americans, has long been proven false but to this day, Cooperstown is celebrated as the birthplace of baseball. The story has captured the hearts of millions. But who spun that tale and why?
This book provides a surprising answer about the origins of America's most durable myth. It seems that Abner Graves, who espoused Cooperstown as the birthplace of the game, likely was inspired by another story about an early game of baseball. The stories were remarkably similar, as were the men who told them. For the first time, this book links the stories and lives of Graves, a mining engineer, and Adam Ford, a medical doctor, both residents of Denver, Colorado. While the actual origins of the game of baseball remain subject to debate and study, new light is shed on the source of baseball's durable creation myth.
This book provides a surprising answer about the origins of America's most durable myth. It seems that Abner Graves, who espoused Cooperstown as the birthplace of the game, likely was inspired by another story about an early game of baseball. The stories were remarkably similar, as were the men who told them. For the first time, this book links the stories and lives of Graves, a mining engineer, and Adam Ford, a medical doctor, both residents of Denver, Colorado. While the actual origins of the game of baseball remain subject to debate and study, new light is shed on the source of baseball's durable creation myth.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 15, 2025
This book is an important step in our understanding of the development of baseball, and in our understanding of how the long-accepted "official version" of that history came to be. The book is about that "official version," but unfortunately can provide no definitive answers. It does, however, raise many more questions, and is a starting point for a reconsideration of the truth.
The circumstantial evidence provided is strong, and this book is fabulously researched. The stories of Ford and Graves alone make fabulous biographies in themselves. However, the heart of his thesis - that Abner Graves, the man who supplied the story, adapted a story told by Adam Ford about his hometown in Ontario, to his own hometown of Cooperstown, NY - remains only circumstantial, and he cannot provide Graves's motivation or how on earth such a blatantly fabricated story held on for as long as it did.
Martin seems to be frustrated by this as well, and mentions several times that he can't say for sure whether Graves and Ford even were aware of each other, but that it seems likely. I believe that Martin is on to the right pathway to the truth, but questions remain, and the truth remains a mystery. Further research may provide more answers.
I'd recommend this book for anyone interested in baseball history, or even as a fine example of microhistory. Just be aware that you may come out more befuddled than you were before.
The circumstantial evidence provided is strong, and this book is fabulously researched. The stories of Ford and Graves alone make fabulous biographies in themselves. However, the heart of his thesis - that Abner Graves, the man who supplied the story, adapted a story told by Adam Ford about his hometown in Ontario, to his own hometown of Cooperstown, NY - remains only circumstantial, and he cannot provide Graves's motivation or how on earth such a blatantly fabricated story held on for as long as it did.
Martin seems to be frustrated by this as well, and mentions several times that he can't say for sure whether Graves and Ford even were aware of each other, but that it seems likely. I believe that Martin is on to the right pathway to the truth, but questions remain, and the truth remains a mystery. Further research may provide more answers.
I'd recommend this book for anyone interested in baseball history, or even as a fine example of microhistory. Just be aware that you may come out more befuddled than you were before.
August 19, 2013
Baseball’s Creation Myth: Adam Ford, Abner Graves and the Cooperstown Story by Brain Martin explains how the story of Abner Doubleday being the inventor of baseball came about and the roles that were played by Adam Ford and Abner Graves and how their life stories paralleled each other. The creation story actually begins in the early 1900s when Albert Spalding created a commission whose sole purpose was to prove that baseball was an authentic American game and creation. He was not interested in anything having to do with cricket or “rounders”. In this period of Theodore Roosevelt and the growth of Americanism it had to be shown that baseball was American.
Into this situation stepped Abner Graves who recalled seeing a ballgame that Doubleday, the Civil War general, had laid out in Cooperstown NY in 1839. This being the earliest date that the Spalding’s commission heard and with no further proof it became the accepted birth of baseball. Over the years Graves embellished his story to the point that he even played in the “first” baseball game. But was his memory correct or did he pick up the story from Adam Ford, who also lived in Denver and told a similar story of a baseball game in 1938 150 west of Cooperstown in Beachville, Ontario? Ford would tell his story over the years but never pressed it as being the first baseball game. What does this do to the Doubleday story and Cooperstown?
For years Americans have accepted the Graves story, even though most people have never heard about him or his extremely interesting life. Doubleday and Cooperstown have been accepted as the creator and the place that baseball, the great American Game, was founded. Martin explores the lives of the people involved in the story and produces research in the field of Baseball History. Is it enough to crack the foundation of the story that has been accepted for so long?
This is a book that every lover of baseball should read. It gives very interesting individual life stories of Ford and Graves and it is fascinating how their lives paralleled. It is an excellent review of the early history of the game that is loved by so many. It is an American game but may need be called a North American game.
Into this situation stepped Abner Graves who recalled seeing a ballgame that Doubleday, the Civil War general, had laid out in Cooperstown NY in 1839. This being the earliest date that the Spalding’s commission heard and with no further proof it became the accepted birth of baseball. Over the years Graves embellished his story to the point that he even played in the “first” baseball game. But was his memory correct or did he pick up the story from Adam Ford, who also lived in Denver and told a similar story of a baseball game in 1938 150 west of Cooperstown in Beachville, Ontario? Ford would tell his story over the years but never pressed it as being the first baseball game. What does this do to the Doubleday story and Cooperstown?
For years Americans have accepted the Graves story, even though most people have never heard about him or his extremely interesting life. Doubleday and Cooperstown have been accepted as the creator and the place that baseball, the great American Game, was founded. Martin explores the lives of the people involved in the story and produces research in the field of Baseball History. Is it enough to crack the foundation of the story that has been accepted for so long?
This is a book that every lover of baseball should read. It gives very interesting individual life stories of Ford and Graves and it is fascinating how their lives paralleled. It is an excellent review of the early history of the game that is loved by so many. It is an American game but may need be called a North American game.
August 2, 2013
The mythologized and debunked tale of General Abner Doubleday’s invention of baseball in Cooperstown, New York is the focus of Baseball’s Creation Myth by Brian Martin. The story behind the Doubleday-Cooperstown tale brings into the spotlight three men who inspired it, who spun it, and who promoted it. Martin tells about the lives of these three men along with the social and political times they lived in when the Cooperstown story was birthed.
Martin centers his book on the lives of Adam Ford, Abner Graves, and Albert Goodwell Spalding. Although several other individuals for a few pages do become the focus, it is these three that propel the narrative on how the Cooperstown story came to be and of how of all places Denver, Colorado is where it germinated. Martin explains that the backdrop of the patriotic and optimistic times of the first decade of the 1900s under Theodore Roosevelt, in which the story is first introduced, is why it became such a fixed fact of Americana. And Martin explains the different paths Cooperstown and its Canadian counterpart St. Mary’s became homes to their nation’s respective Halls of Fame.
The understanding of both Ford and Graves is center to Martin’s text and their lives and experiences are examined throughout the book especially their relationship to baseball. A few times Martin does take side streets in his text, most notably when discussing Mark Twain’s experiences in Virginia City. However for the most part Martin sticks to building what he believes to be a very reasonable, though admittedly circumstantial, case on the Cooperstown story was conceived and took root.
Having no real clue about what to expect from this book, I found it enjoyable read on how a mythical event of Americana came to be as well on the lives of two ordinary men who played a part in how it came about.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review from LibraryThing.
Martin centers his book on the lives of Adam Ford, Abner Graves, and Albert Goodwell Spalding. Although several other individuals for a few pages do become the focus, it is these three that propel the narrative on how the Cooperstown story came to be and of how of all places Denver, Colorado is where it germinated. Martin explains that the backdrop of the patriotic and optimistic times of the first decade of the 1900s under Theodore Roosevelt, in which the story is first introduced, is why it became such a fixed fact of Americana. And Martin explains the different paths Cooperstown and its Canadian counterpart St. Mary’s became homes to their nation’s respective Halls of Fame.
The understanding of both Ford and Graves is center to Martin’s text and their lives and experiences are examined throughout the book especially their relationship to baseball. A few times Martin does take side streets in his text, most notably when discussing Mark Twain’s experiences in Virginia City. However for the most part Martin sticks to building what he believes to be a very reasonable, though admittedly circumstantial, case on the Cooperstown story was conceived and took root.
Having no real clue about what to expect from this book, I found it enjoyable read on how a mythical event of Americana came to be as well on the lives of two ordinary men who played a part in how it came about.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review from LibraryThing.
December 24, 2013
In Baseball's Creation Myth: Adam Ford, Abner Graves, and the Cooperstown Story Brian Martin takes a look at the men behind the story of baseball's supposed invention in Cooperstown, New York by Abner Doubleday in 1839. It is generally accepted that the story of Doubleday's invention of the game is a hoax that began with a letter from Abner Graves to a commission that was created by AG Spalding to prove that baseball had American origins. Martin accepts this. His purpose is to explore why Graves might have written the letter that enabled the hoax.
The greatest strength of Martin's work is how much history outside or organized baseball he includes. In telling about Graves and Adam Ford, who wrote a similar story about an early game of baseball played in Canada that Graves might have plagiarized for this Cooperstown story, Martin interweaves the history of the two men, the two countries involved, and all of the different locales that the two men called home during their lives. It turns out that these two men would both be interesting to read about if they had never written letters about baseball. There stories are stories of the old west, speculation, poison, murder, civic duty, success, and failure. Putting it all together makes for a very interesting book.
The greatest strength of Martin's work is how much history outside or organized baseball he includes. In telling about Graves and Adam Ford, who wrote a similar story about an early game of baseball played in Canada that Graves might have plagiarized for this Cooperstown story, Martin interweaves the history of the two men, the two countries involved, and all of the different locales that the two men called home during their lives. It turns out that these two men would both be interesting to read about if they had never written letters about baseball. There stories are stories of the old west, speculation, poison, murder, civic duty, success, and failure. Putting it all together makes for a very interesting book.
November 25, 2013
A well-researched and very interesting presentation on the origins of baseball in this country, and how our country in the early 20th century was ready and willing to believe a strongly patriotic, and patently false, version of this creation of our National Pasttime. Abner Graves, an avid businessman from Cooperstown, sent his "version" of the creation of baseball, which lavishly told of Abner Doubleday and his "invention", to A.G. Spalding via an article in the Akron Beacon. The tale then took a life of its own, and many even now still believe in the Cooperstown origin of the game. Since other versions are presented as well, this book ultimately comes to the conclusion that the origins of baseball may truly never be known. My only criticism of the book is the painstaking detail the author presents on Abner Graves, Adam Ford, and other subjects that don't seem very relevant to the overall argument. This bogs the book down, but reader perseverance will be rewarded with the last 40-50 pages.
April 5, 2016
Bruce Martin has written a most fascinating book. It shows that early expressions of Baseball were also found in Canada as in United States of America. His work examines documentation of playing of an early form of this game in Canada, e.g., Beachville. The work of Adam Ford is largely unknown by most baseball fans including Americans and Canadians. This work is well-written and consequently easy to read. Baseball fans would find this work quite revealing about the times, people and the main characters (e.g. Abner Graves, Adam Ford and A.G Spalding) involved in the story of baseball. Highly recommended.
Seelochan Beharry
Seelochan Beharry
March 19, 2014
Interesting stuff.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews