By Brian E. Strayer
First Baseball Game
I don’t remember how old I was when I played softball for the first time, but it was sometime before I reached the age of ten. A bunch of us neighborhood boys and girls enjoyed pickup games on a vacant lot on Homer Street in Union Springs, New York. Although the grassy lot was uneven and our bases were never mathematically placed, we had lots of fun and broke no windows or bones in the process.
But it is widely accepted that America’s favorite game debuted in New York. On June 19, 1846, the Knickerbocker Club of New York City played the New York Nine at a baseball diamond at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey. The Knickerbockers won the game by a landslide: 23-1.
Henry Chadwick, a journalist who up to that time had been covering cricket for The New York Times, became intrigued with this new game and began reporting on Elysian Fields matches for his newspaper. With unusual prophetic insight, Chadwick predicted that someday baseball would become America’s National Pastime. And by crackerjacks, he was right! Google a good website about 19th-century baseball games this week!
Are You Quixotic?
Two of the most famous writers during Spain’s Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries) were Lope de Vega and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Lope de Vega, who died in 1635 at the age of 72, wrote in Castilian, the dialect spoken in Madrid. Like his contemporaries he embraced humor, bringing comedy and wit to the fore in his works. Sadly, most of his prose, poetry, and 500 plays (yes, he beat Shakespeare on that score) are virtually unknown in America today.
His contemporary, Cervantes, however, failed at writing plays and was ready to die in obscurity at 56 when he penned his picaresque masterpiece, Don Quixote de la Mancha. The most widely read book in Spain and Spanish America, it tells the story of a man, Don quixote, who goes mad from reading too many chivalric tales. His down-to-earth peasant squire, Sancho Panza, tries to bring him back to reality—especially when Quixote starts tilting at windmills as if jousting with mounted knights!
This delightful tale has given us two oft-used expressions: “quixotic,” meaning that someone is foolishly impractical, and “tilting at windmills,” describing any fruitless endeavor. In 1965 the musical Man of La Mancha (which won five Tony Awards, ran for an incredible 2328 performances, and popularized the song “The Impossible Dream”) was based on Cervantes’ novel.
And by the way, if you’ve ever said “You’re in a pickle,” “Birds of a feather flock together,” “I’m going to turn over a new leaf,” “Let’s give the devil his due,” “Mum’s the word,” or “Honesty is the best policy,” you were quoting Cervantes! Google a good website about Miguel de Cervantes or his novel this week!
Next week: Mugwumps
