| Those attempting to learn about the origins of baseball confront a large zoo of different games that are candidates as predecessor games. Even more complicated is the array of names for those games as they evolved over the years; some games appear to have sported different names, depending on the region and the era of play; and some names – including “baseball” -- have been used for rather different games. | | Those attempting to learn about the origins of baseball confront a large zoo of different games that are candidates as predecessor games. Even more complicated is the array of names for those games as they evolved over the years; some games appear to have sported different names, depending on the region and the era of play; and some names – including “baseball” -- have been used for rather different games. |
| This glossary is intended to provide a focus for our learning, as a group of researchers, about the full range of “safe-haven” games and their names. We hope that users will add other games, and tell us of mistakes in the current version. We chose to call this set of games “safe haven” games because what they seem to have in common: a set of bases where players gain immunity from being put out, and for which a round trip results in a run. (Some writers have called these games the “stick and ball” games, which would, if taken literally, embrace croquet and golf and tennis, etc., and would exclude kick-ball and punch-ball and all games played with cats instead of balls. Tom Altherr has used the term “baseball-like games,”<ref>1</ref> and Richard Hershberger uses “the baseball family”[2] to denote the class of games of interest. [Richard thus denotes a subset of Group 1 below, but omitting non-US games, two-base games, games arising after 1870, and the o’cat games]. Doubtless future usage will define agreeable generic terms to better convey say what we all mean.) | | This glossary is intended to provide a focus for our learning, as a group of researchers, about the full range of “safe-haven” games and their names. We hope that users will add other games, and tell us of mistakes in the current version. We chose to call this set of games “safe haven” games because what they seem to have in common: a set of bases where players gain immunity from being put out, and for which a round trip results in a run. (Some writers have called these games the “stick and ball” games, which would, if taken literally, embrace croquet and golf and tennis, etc., and would exclude kick-ball and punch-ball and all games played with cats instead of balls. Tom Altherr has used the term “baseball-like games,”<ref>Thomas L. Altherr, “A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball: Baseball and Baseball-type games in the Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic,” <u>Nine</u>, Volume 8 , number 2 (2000), pages 14-48.</ref> and Richard Hershberger uses “the baseball family”<ref>Richard Hershberger, “A Reconstruction of Philadelphia Town Ball,” <u>Base Ball</u>, Volume 1, Number 2 (Fall 2007), page 28.</ref> to denote the class of games of interest. [Richard thus denotes a subset of Group 1 below, but omitting non-US games, two-base games, games arising after 1870, and the o’cat games]. Doubtless future usage will define agreeable generic terms to better convey say what we all mean.) |