JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
"Four score and keeping score"1
A few years ago I had a fantasy conversation occur between Babe Ruth and Ho Chi Minh--they were several times in the same city at the same time (or so it seems), though I am not sure they shared a common language. I'm also not sure that Ruth and Ho would have much in common to talk about, but if they were cheek-and-jowl at a diner perhaps there would be an exchange--=in any event my creative powers failed me, mainly because outside of the idea of the two meeting and speaking, I'm pretty sure that there is no "there" there.
I would like to think that Abraham Lincoln could enjoy watching a good game of baseball while he was president, having a little opportunity to get away from the war and politics--but that seems pretty doubtful; It seems that as a kid he played some form of baseball ("townball") which feels far more likely to be a real story--beyond that his connection to the game looks pretty weak.
There is however this small campaign broadsheet which in 1860, received by the Library of Congress a month before the election, that a political cartoon was published by Currier and Ives with a strong baseball analogy. I don't know if Lincoln was ever recorded using the term "home run" but the artist happily put it in a word cloud for him in the detail above, taken from the image below:
[Source: the Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003674584/]
The longish and good summary of the image is from the LC:
- Summary: A pro-Lincoln satire, deposited for copyright weeks before the 1860 presidential election. The contest is portrayed as a baseball game in which Lincoln has defeated (left to right) John Bell, Stephen A. Douglas, and John C. Breckinridge. Lincoln (right) stands with his foot on "Home Base," advising the others, "Gentlemen, if any of you should ever take a hand in another match at this game, remember that you must have a good bat' and strike a fair ball' to make a clean score' & a home run.'" His "good bat" is actually a wooden rail labeled "Equal Rights and Free Territory." Lincoln wears a belt inscribed "Wide Awake Club." (See no. 1860-14 on the Wide-Awakes.) A skunk stands near the other candidates, signifying that they have been "skunk'd." Breckinridge (center), a Southern Democrat, holds his nose, saying, "I guess I'd better leave for Kentucky, for I smell something strong around here, and begin to think, that we are completely skunk'd.'" His bat is labeled "Slavery Extension" and his belt "Disunion Club." At far left John Bell of the Constitutional Union party observes, "It appears to me very singular that we three should strike foul' and be put out' while old Abe made such a good lick.' Bell's belt says "Union Club," and his bat "Fusion." Regular Democratic nominee Douglas replies, "That's because he had that confounded rail, to strike with, I thought our fusion would be a short stop' to his career." He grasps a bat labeled "Non Intervention."
Notes:
1. "Lincoln was game for baseball", February 11, 2003, by Richard Rothschild, the Chicago Tribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2003-02-11/sports/0302110160_1_16th-president-historian-jules-tygiel-abner-doubleday
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