In a nation whose history barely spans two centuries, we find that few of our cultural traditions are really our own, if they exist at all. Perhaps the only exception to this unfortunate rule is the game of baseball.

Baseball can be traced to the very beginning of our nation and has immersed our entire society from coast to coast, leaving an indelible mark.

We in Iowa may feel somewhat removed from that tradition, and perhaps the perception is with good reason. In the modern era, no Iowa town or city has ever hosted its own major league baseball team.

Our nation’s baseball heroes have come from New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh or Chicago, but never as close as Des Moines or Iowa City. When some of the nation’s greatest baseball moments took place, from the breaking of baseball’s color barrier to Roger Maris’ homerun campaign, Iowa was a spectator at best.

That is, as far anyone really knows.

What many don’t realize is that Iowa is as rich with baseball tradition and history as any state in America. While we don’t sport World Series champions or our hometown underdogs, we can claim that our state throughout history has helped develop and provide the talent and tradition synonymous with baseball’s greatest moments and greatest men. Examples of such contributions are far too numerous to do justice in a single sports column, but we can still outline some of the most shining ones.

Some examples of Iowa’s rich baseball history can be found in Keokuk. Keokuk is the site of one of a long standing, semi-pro team and one of baseball’s proudest and most overshadowed moments.

While Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey of the Los Angeles Dodgers are attributed to breaking baseball’s color barrier, the first known African American to play professional baseball was actually Bud Fowler, who played for the Keokuk Keokuks in 1885.

Soon afterward, baseball’s color line was redrawn, and Fowler went on to play and manage for several Negro League teams. While Robinson is given credit for being the first to cross the line at the major league level, Fowler was the first at any professional level.

Fowler isn’t Keokuk’s only piece of history. A young talent by the name of Roger Maris (then Roger Maras) broke into baseball when he took the field for the Keokuk semi-pro team in 1954.

He went on to play for the New York Yankees and hit 61 homers in 1961. No one has ever matched the feat, and Maris’ “61 in ’61” still remains a major part of baseball’s legend.

Baseball fans are no more familiar with Maris than they are with Bob Feller, a farmboy from Van Meter. When Feller was 17, he played in a professional exhibition game and struck out eight St. Louis Cardinals in three innings.

He was soon playing in the majors, and had his career not been interrupted by military service, he stood a fine chance of winning 350 games and striking out over 3,500. “Bullet Bob” now resides in the Hall of Fame.

Iowa, in fact, has sported a handful of Hall of Famers over the years, but none of the inductees have a more familiar name with baseball historians than Cap Anson. Anson was born in Marshalltown and is largely regarded as the greatest player of the 19th century.

With Anson, Dave Bancroft of Sioux City was one of the greatest defensive shortstops in the game’s history and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1971.

The Hall of Fame, in fact, is littered with Iowa roots. Fred Clarke and Red Faber are atop the list of Iowa inductees, just to name a few.

Feller is currently on a campaign to clear the name of Shoeless Joe Jackson and allow the once-banned outfielder to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. The film “Field of Dreams” includes the story of Shoeless Joe and was filmed in Dyersville, 20 miles west of Dubuque.

The “Field of Dreams” still is a national and international tourist attraction. If ever a person were to search for the ideal icon representing baseball and its history they would find it there, in Dyersville, where a baseball field was cut from corn and used to resurrect the legendary eight men of Chicago’s 1919 Black Sox.

Going through the annals of baseball history and searching for Iowa significance is not a difficult task. The prior examples of Iowa’s baseball greatness is only a glimpse of our long standing and rich baseball history.

Now, as spring training hops to life this year, Iowans must remember that while we have no teams or favorites to root for that are entirely our own, we are not just baseball spectators, but great contributors to America’s greatest national pastime.

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Aaron Senneff is a senior in computer engineering from Bettendorf.