Lapta

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Game	Lapta
Game Family	Baseball Baseball
Location	Russia
Regions	Europe
Eras	Contemporary, Pre-1700
Invented
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Description	Varying accounts of this game are found. It is claimed that evidence places a form of the game to the time of Peter the Great, and that bats and leather balls date back to the 1300s. One 1989 news article reports that it is now strictly a children’s game. Still, some Russians say that “baseball is the younger brother of baseball.” In contemporary play, the fielding team’s “server” stands next to a batter and gently tosses a ball up to be hit. After the hit, runners try to run to a distant line [one 1952 account calls this the “city”] and back without being plugged. Caught fly balls are worth a point, but a successful run is two points. A time clock governs a game’s length.
Sources	Ira Berkow, "Russian Eye on Baseball," New York Times, August 14 1989. Bill Keller, "In Baseball, the Russians Steal All the Bases," New York Times, July 20 1987. Carl Schreck, "No Wrong Way to Swing Bat," The St. Petersburg Times, October 31 2003.
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