The Booth Obsession

[L Verge]

Some of you may know the book, American Gothic by Gene Smith (now deceased, but a good friend). I ran across this article that he did in 1992 for American Heritage magazine and thought you might be interested in his take on the obsession with JWB. Hopefully, y'all are rooting for the Washington Nationals and the World Series will be swept by them as of tomorrow (Saturday) night. You can read the article while waiting for the game to go on -- or later when you recuperate from celebrating the Nationals' wins!

https://www.americanheritage.com/booth-obsession

P.S. Gene wrote on lots of historic topics. If you Google American Heritage/articles by Gene Smith, you should get a list of things he wrote for that publication.

[Jenny]

Thank you for sharing!

[Steve]

(10-25-2019 02:27 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Some of you may know the book, American Gothic by Gene Smith (now deceased, but a good friend). I ran across this article that he did in 1992 for American Heritage magazine and thought you might be interested in his take on the obsession with JWB. Hopefully, y'all are rooting for the Washington Nationals and the World Series will be swept by them as of tomorrow (Saturday) night. You can read the article while waiting for the game to go on -- or later when you recuperate from celebrating the Nationals' wins!

As a Phillies fan, I'm not one to usually root for the Nationals. But it'd be good to see them win their first World Series.

[Thomas Kearney]

(10-25-2019 02:27 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Some of you may know the book, American Gothic by Gene Smith (now deceased, but a good friend). I ran across this article that he did in 1992 for American Heritage magazine and thought you might be interested in his take on the obsession with JWB. Hopefully, y'all are rooting for the Washington Nationals and the World Series will be swept by them as of tomorrow (Saturday) night. You can read the article while waiting for the game to go on -- or later when you recuperate from celebrating the Nationals' wins!

https://www.americanheritage.com/booth-obsession

P.S. Gene wrote on lots of historic topics. If you Google American Heritage/articles by Gene Smith, you should get a list of things he wrote for that publication.

Thanks for sharing. Even though I'm a huge Baltimore Orioles fan, I'm also rooting for the Nationals to take it all.

[L Verge]

A bit of baseball trivia thrown in: When Mr. Lincoln arrived in D.C. in 1861, the town already had two baseball teams. Guess what the name was of one of those teams -- yep, the Nationals!

Most of you know that Mr. Lincoln had ties to early forms of the sport. Here's one history: "According to many accounts, Lincoln was an avid townball/barn ball player -- games often referred to as precursors to baseball. He apparently skipped cabinet meetings to play on the White House lawn and impressed with his athletic abilities:

"We boys hailed [Lincoln's] coming with delight because he would always join us on the lawn [for townball]," a friend's son once recalled. "I remember vividly how he ran, how long were his strides, how his coattails stuck out behind."

And from law friend J.H. Littlefield:

"As a relaxation from professional cares he would go out and play ball. The game was what was called barn ball, and it consisted of knocking the ball against the side of a building and then hitting it again on the rebound. I have seen Mr. Lincoln go into this sport with a great deal of zest."

Honest Abe also routinely attended semi-pro games in D.C. and saw his fandom shine through in political cartoons.

"Along with doing his personal best to promote the sport, Lincoln's presidency (1861-'65) coincided with baseball's national boom. Civil War exhibitions helped to expand the game all along the East Coast and the National Association of Base Ball Players (the first organization to govern American baseball) increased from just under 20 members to well over 100 by the time of Lincoln's assassination."

Here's a lengthier, but interesting, history on Lincoln and baseball from a 2003 article in the Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-x...story.html

Seeing the "definition" of barn ball, I wonder if that is where the old expression of "Can't hit the side of a barn with a watermelon" came from?

[bob_summers]

(10-25-2019 07:32 PM)L Verge Wrote:  A bit of baseball trivia thrown in: When Mr. Lincoln arrived in D.C. in 1861, the town already had two baseball teams. Guess what the name was of one of those teams -- yep, the Nationals!

Most of you know that Mr. Lincoln had ties to early forms of the sport. Here's one history: "According to many accounts, Lincoln was an avid townball/barn ball player -- games often referred to as precursors to baseball. He apparently skipped cabinet meetings to play on the White House lawn and impressed with his athletic abilities:

"We boys hailed [Lincoln's] coming with delight because he would always join us on the lawn [for townball]," a friend's son once recalled. "I remember vividly how he ran, how long were his strides, how his coattails stuck out behind."

And from law friend J.H. Littlefield:

"As a relaxation from professional cares he would go out and play ball. The game was what was called barn ball, and it consisted of knocking the ball against the side of a building and then hitting it again on the rebound. I have seen Mr. Lincoln go into this sport with a great deal of zest."

Honest Abe also routinely attended semi-pro games in D.C. and saw his fandom shine through in political cartoons.

"Along with doing his personal best to promote the sport, Lincoln's presidency (1861-'65) coincided with baseball's national boom. Civil War exhibitions helped to expand the game all along the East Coast and the National Association of Base Ball Players (the first organization to govern American baseball) increased from just under 20 members to well over 100 by the time of Lincoln's assassination."

Here's a lengthier, but interesting, history on Lincoln and baseball from a 2003 article in the Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-x...story.html

Seeing the "definition" of barn ball, I wonder if that is where the old expression of "Can't hit the side of a barn with a watermelon" came from?

Union soldiers played baseball on the large parade ground at Fort Jefferson while Arnold, O'Laughlen, Spangler, and Dr. Mudd were there. I wonder if prisoners were allowed to play. The game was called base ball there. See https://www.muddresearch.com/too-hot-for-baseball.html

[AussieMick]

What a pity that it wasnt cricket.
I can just see Lincoln crouching at silly mid off, waiting to snap up a foolishly ambitious batsman's injudicious attempt to slash at a googly.

Or Lincoln as a fast bowler, running 30 yards and hair flowing, sending down a 120 mph bouncer which crashes into the batsman's chest. The next ball of course Lincoln bowls slightly slower, the batsman cringes and waggles the bat too quickly, and the ball hits middle stump.

Or Lincoln standing at deep extra cover for hours on end, seemingly bored to tears as the play continues with the ball not coming within 50 yards of him. And then suddenly a batsman skies the ball way up into the heavens and Lincoln launches himself to run way way way to his unfavoured left side staring up into the sky as the red orb screams towards him ... it smacks into his hands ... and he drops it. And shrugs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysian_Fi...New_Jersey
"In 1859, an international cricket match was held with an All-England Eleven[4] as part of an English tour of North America."

[DannyW]

(10-25-2019 02:27 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Some of you may know the book, American Gothic by Gene Smith (now deceased, but a good friend). I ran across this article that he did in 1992 for American Heritage magazine and thought you might be interested in his take on the obsession with JWB. Hopefully, y'all are rooting for the Washington Nationals and the World Series will be swept by them as of tomorrow (Saturday) night. You can read the article while waiting for the game to go on -- or later when you recuperate from celebrating the Nationals' wins!

https://www.americanheritage.com/booth-obsession

P.S. Gene wrote on lots of historic topics. If you Google American Heritage/articles by Gene Smith, you should get a list of things he wrote for that publication.

I looked up the articles. There are tons of them . I always loved American Heritage Magazine. I wonder what happened if they were having financial problems to not posting anything new? Thanks Laurie for this information!

[Rob Wick]

https://ahsociety.org/content/plan-save-...n-heritage

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

(10-26-2019 06:09 AM)bob_summers Wrote:  

(10-25-2019 07:32 PM)L Verge Wrote:  A bit of baseball trivia thrown in: When Mr. Lincoln arrived in D.C. in 1861, the town already had two baseball teams. Guess what the name was of one of those teams -- yep, the Nationals!

Most of you know that Mr. Lincoln had ties to early forms of the sport. Here's one history: "According to many accounts, Lincoln was an avid townball/barn ball player -- games often referred to as precursors to baseball. He apparently skipped cabinet meetings to play on the White House lawn and impressed with his athletic abilities:

"We boys hailed [Lincoln's] coming with delight because he would always join us on the lawn [for townball]," a friend's son once recalled. "I remember vividly how he ran, how long were his strides, how his coattails stuck out behind."

And from law friend J.H. Littlefield:

"As a relaxation from professional cares he would go out and play ball. The game was what was called barn ball, and it consisted of knocking the ball against the side of a building and then hitting it again on the rebound. I have seen Mr. Lincoln go into this sport with a great deal of zest."

Honest Abe also routinely attended semi-pro games in D.C. and saw his fandom shine through in political cartoons.

"Along with doing his personal best to promote the sport, Lincoln's presidency (1861-'65) coincided with baseball's national boom. Civil War exhibitions helped to expand the game all along the East Coast and the National Association of Base Ball Players (the first organization to govern American baseball) increased from just under 20 members to well over 100 by the time of Lincoln's assassination."

Here's a lengthier, but interesting, history on Lincoln and baseball from a 2003 article in the Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-x...story.html

Seeing the "definition" of barn ball, I wonder if that is where the old expression of "Can't hit the side of a barn with a watermelon" came from?

Union soldiers played baseball on the large parade ground at Fort Jefferson while Arnold, O'Laughlen, Spangler, and Dr. Mudd were there. I wonder if prisoners were allowed to play. The game was called base ball there. See https://www.muddresearch.com/too-hot-for-baseball.html

"I wonder if the prisoners were allowed to play."

Intriguing thought. Brings to mind the old Burt Reynolds movie "The Longest Yard." Knowing as we know how the prisoners were treated back then it is doubtful that they would have been permitted such a thing.

[Jim Garrett]

To get back to Gene Smith, He was a very good writer. His books move well and he has great bits of minutia. I am currently reading his biography of Gen. John J. "Blackjack" Pershing. Very good read. Tidbit: Pershing never learned to drive.