Lubin had previously created films resembling Edison Studios' releases Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Great Train Robbery.[4] Author Jack Spears wrote in his book Hollywood: The Golden Era that How Brown Saw the Baseball Game and How the Office Boy Saw the Ball Game "used practically the same plot";[15] Rob Elderman's article "The Baseball Film: to 1920" in the journal Base Ball likewise notes the similarities of their plotlines.[6]