The
Doubleday myth refers to the belief that the sport of
baseball was
invented in 1839 by future
American Civil War general
Abner Doubleday in
Cooperstown, New York. Abner Graves presented a claim that Doubleday invented baseball to the
Mills Commission, a group formed in 1905 that sought to prove whether the sport originated in the United States or was a variation of
rounders, a game played in Great Britain. Graves' evidence was accepted by the Commission, and in 1908 it named Doubleday as the creator of baseball. The claim received criticism soon afterwards, and most modern baseball historians consider it to be false. The myth nevertheless led to the
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's being located in Cooperstown.