Abner Doubleday did not invent baseball in 1839. We have discussed that for years but, however, he will always be a name associated to baseball as the protagonist of one of the most persistent myths in history.
If few know that Doubleday didn’t invent baseball, even fewer know that this character passed some time in Mexico. He fought as a young soldier in the Mexican War from 1846 to 1848, and took part in the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista, near Saltillo in the state of Coahuila.
It was precisely at Saltillo where he stood for some years. He lived among the saltillians, observed and detailed in his personal memories the mexican society of that period. He even learned how to speak Spanish before resuming his military career back in the United States.
Dr. Pablo Ramos, an expert investigator of the Battle of Monterrey and researcher of many aspects of this war, sent me a digital version of a daguerreotype image taken around 1846 or 1847, where Abner Doubleday poses, young and slim, with his characteristic mustache and curly hair under his cap.
He poses in the company of a group of native saltillians kids dresses in the characteristic sarape of that Mexican region.
The image is a daguerreotype, a pioneer format of potography, invented just a couple of years before, in 1839, and made that war one of the first military conflicts to be registered in images. The poor visual quality of the photo can be explained by this period of experimentation, contrasting with its huge historical value.
We thank Dr. Ramos for this priceless contribution.
Abner Doubleday left very detailed documentation of his passage through Mexico, in his memories that narrate the development of the battles, as well as his very severe observations of the mexican society.
This is a topic that I will be writing about with more details in this blog in the future.
Latin BaseBall Archaeology 