When the Commission was investigating
the origins of the game of baseball,
I was nearing the end of my long life
living in a poorhouse, having drunk myself there
I heard later that someone mentioned me to the Commission,
but no one representing them ever contacted me;
they probably assumed I was already dead
I didn’t know anything about the Doubleday nonsense,
but I would have had something to say
about the one who became the anti-Doubleday,
Cartwright.
Alick had long ago left
for his eventual destination of Hawaii,
with none of his supposed innovations in place
at the time of his departure,
when the National Association of Base Ball Players
was formed in a January, 1857 convention
(even then New York considered itself the nation:
only New York-area clubs were represented)
Prior to that date,
we of the Knickerbocker Club held a meeting
to formalize rules to send to the convention
It being generally understood
that the number of innings to be played
was to correspond with the number of players per side,
the group led by Doc Adams and me
proposed that nine innings should constitute a game,
but the old-fogey faction of the Knicks
voted it down in a close vote
However, that faction made a mistake in sending me
as one of the delegates to the convention:
when the Knicks seven-inning plank was proposed,
I moved to amend it to nine innings,
and the convention approved my amendment
I am proud of that achievement
THE POETRY OF THE GAME