Abner Doubleday in Mexico

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.

Locating points where the Union B.B.C., first documented club in Mexico and Latin America played in 1869.

I visited Brownsville, Texas, last week. My purpose was to follow the historical path of the Union Base Ball Club of Matamoros, Mexico, whose appearance in newspapers from 1869 make it the earliest baseball club that has been documented in Latin America. I wanted to find the exact points where the games were celebrated according to the information contained in the newspaper reports from that year.

The Union Club crossed the border, marked by the Rio Grande river, from Matamoros to Brownsville to play in the grounds of Fort Brown, an important military garrison. Actually, the Fort was just some feet away from the international crossing point, and a portion of the huge grounds used then to play are at the present, a part of the american immigration facilities.

The rest of the playing grounds are now occupied by the facilites of the University of Texas in Brownsville and the Texas Southmost College. UTB is the institution that holds the collections used in this investigation.