Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/49

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AMERICA'S NATIONAL GAME
23

"We, the undersigned members of the Special Base Ball Commission, unanimously agree with the decision as expressed and outlined in Mr. A. G. Mills' letter of December 30, 1907.

Senator Bulkeley, after affixing his signature, appended the following statement:

"I personally remember as a boy in East Haddam, Conn., before 1846, playing the game of One and Two Old Cat, and remember with great distinctness the early struggles in Brooklyn, N. Y., between the two rival clubs, the Atlantics and Excelsiors, and later the Stars, with Creighton as pitcher. This was some ten to fifteen years before the National organization. I was present, representing the Hartford club, at the formation of what is now the National League at the Grand Central Hotel, Broadway, New York City, about 1875 or 1876, and was its first President, with Nick Young, Secretary.
"M. G. Bulkeley."

Accepting the decision of the Commission appointed to consider the subject of the origin of Base Ball as final, I have nothing to add to their report. However, it is quite in keeping with the purpose of the story of our national game to present here a brief biography of the man who first perfected the system out of which the