What is it about?
The superintendent of the Middletown, New York, mental hospital in the 1890s prescribed homeopathic remedies - rest, relaxation, and exercise - for his patients. The use of baseball as a remedy led to the formation of a top-flight team that dominated the area's baseball for the entertainment of the patients and local fans. The Middletown "Asylums," as the team was known, included three future major league players, including Hall of Fame pitcher Jack Chesbro.
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Why is it important?
While local semi-professional teams before and after the turn of the twentieth century were often sponsored by businesses or social and religious organizations, the Asylums' backing by a homeopathic mental hospital was unusual. Writing about it also provided a chance to describe the development of a non-punitive approach taken to mental illness at a time when patients were often just locked up.
Perspectives
I ran across a New York Times article summarizing the hospital's annual report, which included a last paragraph on the baseball program. A waggish Times headline writer had titled the piece "Baseball for the Insane." There was no turning away from that headline, and further research and this article ensued.
James Overmyer
Society for American Baseball Research
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: "Baseball for the Insane": The Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital and its "Asylums", NINE A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, January 2011, Project Muse,
DOI: 10.1353/nin.2011.0004.
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