A documentary called 'There's No Joy in Beachville: The True Story of Baseball's Origins' premieres this afternoon
BEACHVILLE - The first recorded baseball game in Beachville is getting some major attention thanks to a new documentary.
'There's No Joy in Beachville: The True Story of Baseball's Origins' will premiere on SportsNet One this afternoon at 4:30p.m. It surrounds the Copperstown myth that gained traction in the states a few generations ago. The story claimed America's favourite pastime originated in Cooperstown, New York in 1839. Although that belief was held for a while, even Copperstown museum doesn't uphold the story. According to Beachville District Museum Curator and Manager Carl MacDonald, Cooperstown's museum pays credit back to Beachville for starting it all by displaying an article from the 1838 Beachville game. "There were a couple of professors from western Ontario that did a lot of research and found that Doctor Ford wrote this article when he was quite a bit older, when he'd seen it he was about seven or eight when he watched the game. He wrote everything to a publication called 'The Sporting Life.'"
MacDonald suggests that if the documentary piques your interest, a book by a local writer might be worth the read:
"I know people out there think that they know the story but one of the books to actually read is called Baseball's Creation Myth. It's by Brian Martin. And he actually goes through the Adam Ford, Abner Graves and the Coppertown story."

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