Thanks Stan, Georgia has only gone to the Championship twice before, however they won it both times. All kids deserve credit whatever part of the country they come from. For that matter, the kids from other countries also. I played as a kid but was never that good. I really don't even follow professional ball. Love the kids though.

General Abner Doubleday,is better known (erroneously) as the founder of modern day baseball than for his Civil War military service. To his credit, Gen. Doubleday always demurred on claims by others that he was the founder of the national game, but the legend has persisted.

Abner Doubleday was born in Ballston Spa, New York on June 26, 1819. He was a 1842 graduate of West Point, graduating with A.P. Stewart, D.H. Hill, Earl Van Dorn and James Longstreet. Doubleday served in the Mexican and Seminole wars, and in the spring of 1861, was in garrison in Charleston Harbor. It is said that it was Doubleday, an artillery officer, who aimed the first Fort Sumter guns in response to the Confederate bombardment.

Doubleday served in the Shenandoah region, then was a brigadier of volunteers and was assigned to a brigade of Irwin McDowell's corps during the campaign of Second Manassas. He commanded a division of the I Corps at Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg, and at Gettysburg, assumed the command of I Corps after the fall of Gen. John F. Reynolds, helping to repel Pickett's Charge. Although he was praised for his performance at Gettysburg, Doubleday had already earned the nickname "48 Hours" for his alleged slowness to act. In particular, Gen. George Meade doubted his ability to move quickly. After Gettysburg, he returned to his division, had no further active command in the field, and served the rest of the war in Washington.

He was brevetted major general in 1865 and became colonel of the 35th Infantry in 1867. He retired in 1873 and lived in Mendham, New Jersey. Gen. Doubleday died January 26, 1893 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Serious baseball historians also reject the notion that Doubleday designed the first baseball diamond and drew up the modern rules of the game, supposedly as a military cadet in 1839. Nothing in his personal writings corroborates this story,it was put forward by an elderly Civil War veteran, Abner Graves, who served under him. The City of Cooperstown, NY dedicated Doubleday Field in 1920 as the birthplace of the game.