1853.3

B is [Still] For Bat and Ball

Salience	Peripheral
Tags
Location
City/State/Country:	[[{{{Country}}}]]
Modern Address
Game	Trap BallTrap Ball
Immediacy of Report
Age of Players	JuvenileJuvenile
Holiday
Notables
Text	Under an illustration of trap-ball play, we find in an 1853 children's book: "My name is B, at your beck and call,/ B stands for battledore, bat, and ball;/ From the trap with your bat, the Tennis ball knock,/ With your battledore spin up the light shuttlecock."
Sources	The Illuminated A, B, C (New York, T. W. Strong, 1853), per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 215.
Warning
Comment	The use of a tennis ball in a description of a batting game is unusual. In 1853, the modern game of lawn tennis had not been invented, and most tennis was played for centuries [as players of "Real Tennis" now do] on indoor, walled courts with hard balls that strongly resemble modern baseballs. It is not clear that the old form of tennis was played in the US in the 1850s. Edit with form to add a comment
Query	Could this be an American printing of an English volume? Edit with form to add a query
Source Image	[[Image:\|left\|thumb]]
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Has Supplemental Text

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