Did NJ resident Abner Doubleday invent the game of baseball? New novel digs into myth

Baseball historians long ago debunked the popular myth about Abner Doubleday inventing the game of baseball. Yet the Doubleday legacy lives on in places like Cooperstown, New York, where the Baseball Hall of Fame and Doubleday Field were erected on the site of the game's alleged birthplace.

There's another Doubleday Field in Mendham, where residents celebrate "America's pastime" and still revere the Civil War Union general, who spent much of his later life in the suburban Morris County town before his death in 1893 and burial in Arlington National Cemetery.

So it's no surprise that when historic fiction author J.B. Manheim decided to conclude his baseball trilogy with a speculative deep dive into Doubleday and Mendham, the Mendham Business Association recently stepped up to the plate to host a book-release party for him.

The reception at Dante's restaurant was the first trip to Mendham for the author, who normally researches his settings directly, but was unable to do so during the COVID pandemic while writing "Doubleday Doubletake: One Ball Three Strikes, One Man Out," released in March by South Orange-based Summer Games Books.

Among the guests at the gathering was Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, who was the first girl in the borough to play Little League baseball.

"Although I can’t say I recall knowing about Abner Doubleday as a child, we were a big baseball family," she said. "After Title 9, my mother came to me and said, 'Do you want to play on the softball team this year or would you like to play baseball?' " she said.

Manheim praised Glassner's mother, Pat Serrano, as the unofficial historian of Mendham who helped him out with research. Serrano also hosted the reception, where the author spoke about Doubleday history and signed copies of the book.

"I thought it was exactly the way Mendham treated me as an author all the way along, which was to be helpful, supportive and encouraging.," said Manheim, a professor emeritus at The George Washington University, where he was founding director of the School of Media and Public Affairs.

Without giving away spoilers, "Doubleday Doubletake" focuses on key historic figures, including Albert Spalding, a former Chicago Cubs player who became team president and was instrumental in authorizing the Mills Commission to determine the origin of the game in 1905.

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Much of the fictional speculation in Manheim's book centers around Spalding's prominent membership in the Theosophical Society, a religious movement of the time. Doubleday also followed Theosophy and despite his being dead for 15 years, and having never claimed credit for inventing the game, the Mills Commission concluded that Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839.

"What if the historians are right and wrong at the same time?" Manheim asks. "What if we have only begun to grasp the true dimensions of the mystery surrounding Doubleday and baseball?"

Phoenix House, the historic home in Mendham where Doubleday first lived in town, still stands and functions as a municipally owned meeting hall.

“Mendham Borough has a varied and rich history that we are proud to highlight," Glassner said. " 'Doubleday Doubletake' weaves a tale about this former Mendhamite’s history that will pique people’s interest. We welcome everyone to visit Mendham and enjoy our historic town.”

Serrano also hopes to revive the "Doubleday Day" celebration in Mendham that included parades and early-rules baseball games, which ended in 1999.

Manheim, a member of the Society for American Baseball Research, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and the Authors Guild, began his "Cooperstown Trilogy" with "This Never Happened: The Mystery Behind the Death of Christy Mathewson," and "The Game Keepers: Whitewash, Blackmail and Baseball's Darkest Secrets."

With all three books, Manheim stressed, "though grounded in some interesting and little-known facts, this is a work of fiction."

Manheim's next book, "The Federal Case," also features a Mendham setting.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Did Mendham NJ resident Abner Doubleday invent baseball?