15. The game of baseball is a large part of American folklore
The game of baseball is both part of American folklore and a source of folklore of its own. A long established myth has the game being invented by Abner Doubleday, who served in the Union army during the American Civil War. In truth a form of baseball, called by that name, was played in New England in the days immediately following the American Revolution, attested to by the records of the town of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Barnstorming teams became professional and leagues began to form in the 1860s, and baseball became the national pastime during the Gilded Age, a position it solidified during the boom days of the Roaring Twenties. A fictional player by the name of Casey became well known as the subject of a poem, and the song Take Me Out To The Ballgame was a Tin Pan Alley hit.
During the Second World War, American GIs suspicious of the legitimacy of encountered men unknown to them would routinely ask questions regarding baseball, as it was assumed that no American male could possibly not know the rudiments of the game or the names of its stars. Baseball and its derivatives; kickball, softball, stickball, wiffleball, and many more, including the simple game of catch, dominated American parks and fields, alleys and sandlots, backyards and cul de sacs, throughout the years of the baby boomers and the growth of America’s suburbs. It became such a large part of American folklore that though many Americans don’t know the name of their own congressman, very few do not recognize the name of Babe Ruth.