 First Week in April
On April 2, 1908, the Mills Commission issued its finding that Abner Doubleday originated the game of baseball. The seven-man commission, appointed three years earlier in an effort to determine the origin of baseball, released the following report: "The first scheme for playing baseball, according to the best evidence obtainable to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, NY, in 1839." Twenty-seven years later, the discovery of an old baseball (pictured here) would lend support to the Mills Commission's findings. The misshapen ball, found in a farmhouse in the small neighboring village of Fly Creek, is believed to have been used by Doubleday in 1839. The artifact, the first to be displayed at the Hall of Fame, was eventually known as the "Doubleday baseball."
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History
