First Known “Human Baseball”
The city of Pittsfield,
Massachusetts, the home of baseball, now can be known as the
“birthplace of the Human Baseball.” More than 600 fans
gathered on Saturday, July 14, 2007, at historic Waconah
Park, where Lou Gehrig had hit home runs and Casey Stengel
and Jim Thorpe also played America’s pastime, to create the
first known “human baseball.” The festivities took place
before the regular New England Collegiate Baseball League
game between the Pittsfield Dukes and Holyoke Giants. The
human baseball project is part of Art Of The Game, a
two-year celebration of Pittsfield’s place in the evolution
of baseball. It all started in 2005, when a 1791 ordinance
prohibiting the playing of baseball within 80 yards of the
town’s meeting house was discovered in the local library.
The ordinance preceded any other printed record of baseball.
(Photo by Lee Everett, Fine Line).
Click here to visit the page with the
hi-resolution version of the photo.
Monday, August 13, 2007, at
7:00 p.m.
C. Joseph Bride speaks at Underground Pub, Crowne Plaza,
Pittsfield
In 1961, a young reporter with
LIFE Magazine traveled with the New York Yankees for six
weeks in the season, writing the Aug. 18 cover story with
the memorable photo of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris back to
back, with Babe Ruth looking over their shoulders. It was
the first and probably most famous home run derby.
In the current climate of
obsession with records (baseball being a prime example),
Pittsfield’s Art Of The Game project takes a look at the
first to be broken during the lifetime of many of us: Roger
Maris’ 61 in ’61.
That reporter, C. Joseph Bride,
will reflect on that era, that season, and that memorable
experience in an informal talk at the Underground Pub at the
Crowne Plaza in Pittsfield, on Monday evening, Aug. 13, 7pm.
(The pub is normally closed on Monday, and will be open for
this event; light pub fare will be available)
This rare public presentation
will be a fitting cap to Pittsfield’s two-year Art Of The
Game project. Admission is free. Information: 413-442-7718 |
