新奇事件簿 棒球并非起源美國

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Historians in England have uncovered evidence that baseball may not be as American as apple pie. The BBC reports that baseball was played in England in 1755, more than twenty years before America’s independence in 1776. This may come as a shock for lovers of America’s national game, who believe baseball is an American creation. A recently discovered diary is “proof” that Englishmen were hitting home runs long before their cousins across the Atlantic. The diarist was a man called William Bray, who wrote about the game being played in the county of Surrey, south of London. The Surrey History Centre confirmed the diary was authentic and that it contains an entry describing the game of baseball. The BBC says Major League Baseball officials are aware of this news.

英格蘭史學(xué)家證實棒球并非源自美國。根據(jù)BBC報道，棒球于1755年在英格蘭興起，比1776年美國獨立還早了20年。這對于將棒球看作國球的美國人民而言，的確是一個不小的打擊，他們深信棒球起源美國。根據(jù)近期發(fā)現(xiàn)的日志證明，英格蘭人打全壘打的時間要長于大西洋彼岸的兄弟。日志作者名叫威廉·布雷，他寫到人們在倫敦南部的薩里縣打棒球。據(jù)薩里歷史研究中心證實，這部日志是真品，其中有一篇寫到了棒球。BBC稱美國職棒大聯(lián)盟官員得知了這一消息。

It will come as no surprise to many sports fans that baseball originated in England. The English invented the world’s most popular sports, including football, tennis, rugby and cricket. What might come as a surprise is that the original form of baseball was played by both sexes. William Bray’s diary describes a game of baseball played on a spring afternoon in which “young ladies” took part. A Washington Post journalist, Kevin Sullivan, told the BBC that he was not surprised baseball came from Britain. He said: “It's a great American tradition to take things from other places and improve them. We've always known that baseball evolved; it wasn't invented like basketball.” Despite the recent discovery, it seems unlikely that England will overtake the USA as the number one baseball power.

對于許多體育迷而言，棒球源自英格蘭不足為奇。英格蘭是許多熱門運動發(fā)源地，包括足球、網(wǎng)球、橄欖球以及板球。但或許讓人驚訝的是，最初的棒球運動也有女性參與。在威廉·布雷的日志中，描寫了一場春天午后棒球賽，里面有對年輕女子參與比賽的描寫?！度A盛頓郵報》記者凱文·蘇里文對BBC表示，他對棒球起源英國并不感到驚訝。他認為：“美國一直是從其它地區(qū)吸取“營養(yǎng)”，并加以改善，這是美國的傳統(tǒng)。我們知道棒球經(jīng)歷了許多變革；它的起源不同于籃球。”除了這次發(fā)現(xiàn)，英格蘭似乎還無法撼動美國棒球大國的地位。