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.