1848.19

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Organization Men at the KBBC in 1848

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags	Baseball Professionalism, Club Constitutions/Bylaws, FamousBaseball Professionalism, Club Constitutions/Bylaws, Famous
Location
City/State/Country:	NYC, NY, United States
Modern Address
Game	Base BallBase Ball
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	AdultAdult
Holiday
Notables
Text	"Early references to the Knickerbockers' 1845 rules credit both William H. Tucker and William R. Wheaton, with (Hall of Famer Alexander) Cartwright seldom if ever getting a mention until (Duncan) Curry made an offhand remark to reporter Will Rankin during an 1877 stroll in the park (and even this remark was initially reported as a reference to "Wadsworth" as the diagram-giver; only in 1908 was Rankin's recall of Curry's attribution morphed into Cartwright). Curry and Cartwright perhaps deserve more credit for the organization of the club (i.e., its by-laws) than the rules. In the 1848 Club Constitution, p. 14: Committee to Revise Constitution and By-Laws: D.L. Adams, Pres. A.J. Cartwright, Jr., Vice Pres Eugene Plunkett, Sec'y J.P. Mumford Duncan F. Curry
Sources	19cbb post by John Thorn, June 9, 2003, referencing the 1848 revision of the Knick's constitution and bylaws (see 1848.1)
Warning	As of 2016, recent scholarship has shown little evidence that Alexander Cartwright played a central role in forging or adapting the Knickerbocker rules.  See Richard Hershberger, The Creation of the Alexander Cartwright Myth (Baseball Research Journal, 2014), and John Thorn, "The Making of a New York Hero" dated November 2015, at http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2015/11/30/abner-cartwright/. John's concluding paragraph is: "Recent scholarship has revealed the history of baseball's "creation" to be a lie agreed upon. Why, then, does the legend continue to outstrip the fact?  "Creation myths, wrote Stephen Jay Gould, in explaining the appeal of Cooperstown, "identify heroes and sacred places, while evolutionary stories provide no palpable, particular thing as a symbol for reverence, worship, or patriotism."
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Source Image	[[Image:|left|thumb]]
External Number
Submitted by	Bob Tholkes, LMc
Submission Note	2/9/2015, 3/9/2016
Has Supplemental Text

1848.19 Organization Men at the KBBC in 1848"

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