ABSTRACT
The true origins of baseball can now be revealed. The Transylvanian shepherds of the author's native Romania played a stickball game called oina. The field was roughly the shape of a baseball diamond. The bases were sheep tied to a stake that allowed them to roam in a small circle. The original Carpathian baseball was a bobcat or mountain lion furball. The staked sheep were then eaten by the whole village. For most of the first half of the nineteenth century a team called the Carpathian Braves dominated the Transylvanian games. In 1838, a Romanian army officer visiting America taught the game to the natives of Cooperstown who, being somewhat puritanical, did not allow the local sheep to be molested. People know that African Americans, for instance, who did not do very well in the boiling pot, did great in baseball. After a long struggle. The imperative to be an American has lessened as the nation's identity crisis has.
