Summary Of The Creation Myths Of Cooperstown By Stephen Jay Gould

Following the discovery of one of the largest origin hoaxes in American history, acclaimed author Stephen Jay Gould discusses the supernatural bond between humans and creation myths, and further investigates how elements of nationalism and American exceptionalism resulted in the creation of even larger hoaxes. Gould uses topics such as the Cardiff Giant, the Piltdown Manwith, baseball, and abortion; with the Cardiff Giant and Baseball having a close connection to the small town of Cooperstown, New York—hence its mention in Gould’s title: “The Creation Myths of Cooperstown”. Additionally, Gould addresses ongoing political issues within the United States, discussing how he believes false creation myths helped fuel the ethical questions of abortion

He began by recounting an invitation he received to visit Cooperstown during ‘peak baseball season’ from the chief of the baseball library at the Hall of Fame—what Gould called “[an invitation] to join the sardines in this most lovely of all cans” (4). As he discussed how he first began researching creation myths, Gould also provided an in-depth timeline of baseball's ‘authentic’ creation—detailing how a blue-ribbon committee was created in 1907 to “investigate and resolve the origins of baseball” (4). However, once it became clear that it would be impossible for the committee to locate the true origin of “America’s ‘national pastime’” (4), Gould reported how a leading committee member, Albert Spalding, provided a “laughably insufficient [as evidence]” (5) 19th-century letter that ‘proved’ the town of Cooperstown was the location of the origin of baseball. While many in the committee were skeptical of the authenticity of the letter, they continued with the creation myth regardless. Gould notifies the audience that the committee continued with the evidence they

Subsequently, Gould briefly provides the reader with his own research on the early history of the sport—what Gould called the “stick-and-ball game of [the] working people” (7)—before using the Doubleday myth as a gateway to display his true purpose of publishing his essay: while Gould’s main topic and reasons for writing the essay are clear, his intentions are not. Gould begins the last few paragraphs of his essay by revealing the true purpose of his essay and providing the audience with his perspective on “ongoing [at the time] political turmoil within the United States” (10), which was primarily abortion. Using elements of pathos to appeal to his audience, Gould begins by declaring that “no creation myth can define an instant for the origin of an individual life” (10) and “attempts by antiabortionists to designate the moment of fertilization as the beginning of personhood makes no sense”