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In 1939 The National Baseball
Centennial Commission published "Play
Ball America!"
a 40 page book on "How To Celebrate
Baseball's 100th Birthday In Your
City." The cover features the 1839-1939
Baseball Centennial insignia created by
New York artist Majori
Bennet, whose design was chosen in
a contest held by the committee in 1938.
Page 2 pictures Major General Abner Doubleday (1819 to 1893), native of
Bellston Spa, N.Y. He devised the
scheme for playing baseball at
Cooperstown. N.Y., in 1839. A graduate
of the United States Military Academy
at West Point and a distinguished
soldier in the United States Army.
Page 3 a message From the President of the United States: "We should all
be grateful to Abner Doubleday. Little
did he or the group that was with him
at Cooperstown, N. Y., in 1839, realize
the boon they were giving the nation in
devising baseball. The rules of the
game may have changed since Doubleday
and his associates formulated them a
century ago, but baseball through all
changes and chances has grown steadily
in popular favor and remains today the
great American sport, with its fans
counted by the millions. General
Doubleday was a distinguished soldier
both in the, Mexican and Civil Wars.
But his part in giving us baseball—he
was a youth of twenty at the time
—shows again that peace has her
victories no less renowned than war."
—Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Page 4 pictures The National Baseball Centennial Commission, Executive
Committee. The book is broken down in nine innings:
Page 5 - First Inning, Play Ball -
America!; Second Inning, Cheers From
The Grandstand; Third Inning, Here's
How You Can Hit A Home Run; Fourth
Inning, Talk It Up Boys!; Fifth Inning,
Five Winning Plays; Sixth Inning,
A Condensed History Of Baseball, From
1839-1939; Seventh Inning, The National
Baseball Museum And Hall Of Fame,
Cooperstown, New York; Eighth Inning,
The Centennial Emblem; Ninth Inning.
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