Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 21:24:32 -0500

From: Alan Baragona baragonasa[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VAX.VMI.EDU

Subject: Re: 'Mudville"



Gerald Cohen wrote:



I have a sportswriter friend who swears that Mudville is actually Stockton,

California.



This is not all that farfetched since Thayer was working for W.R. Hearst

in San Francisco when he wrote the poem for the S.F. _Examiner_.

However, Martin Gardner's _Annotated Casey at the Bat_ has the

following:



"In 1887, the year of the immortal game, Mudville was a farming village

near the east border of Anderson County, Kansas, about sixty miles

southeast of Topeka. It was on the south bank of Polecat Creek, seven

miles west of where Centerville, in Linn County, is still located.

Neither Mudville nor the creek exist today."



I must admit, though, that the rest of Gardner's note makes me wonder if

this account is serious. He continues "The poignant story of why and

how Mudville faded from the map is told by Grantland Rice in his poem,

'Mudville's Fate.'" And then Gardner recounts the story of the poem as

if it were historically accurate, even though it mentions Casey and his

wife and 8 children.



If anyone can find a map of Kansas circa 1887, perhaps Mudville will be

on it.



Alan B.