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Old 12-03-2011, 01:56 PM   #6
jlking
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Join Date: Nov 2011
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"I find this Pre NA era fascinating as the game evolved from professional people - doctors, lawyers and such - getting outside the city for some "vigorous excercise" to the birth of full grown continental professional leagues a quarter century later."
Just an observation. A few years back I read a book about baseball in Cuba. Wealthier parents would send their sons to America for college where they picked up the game. The first baseball games were more of a picnic then anything else. The young gentlemen would play their game, with few set rules. They typicality would have four outfielders and as many as five strikes. After showing off the prowess to the young ladies, they would have a sort of gala party with music and dance.

Soon the sugar plantations picked up on the game as a cheap way to entertain their workers and keep them from wondering off during the down season. But it became such a thing of pride with the plantation owners that they started importing expensive American ringers.

Anyway, professional baseball in Cuba grow out of the sugar plantations and the huge egos of their owners.
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