Block:Ball Bias in London in 1875

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English Baseball


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The term “ball-bias” was linked to cricket, base-ball and rounders in a London magazine article examining the English use of sticks, i.e., walking sticks, sporting sticks, etc. After stating that “in Kent and Sussex...the stick is called a 'bat',” the author proceeded to write that: “cricket, born in the south of England,has naturally adopted the same nomenclature. The cricket-bat is simply the 'crooked stick;' it is merely a development of that game of ball, other forms of which exist in ball-bias, base-ball, rounders, hockey, cum multis aliis. Originally the person of the player is aimed at whilst he is running from station to station, and if struck he and his side are 'out;' and hence you have the 'run' in cricket as the standard of success.”

Sources

“Upon Sticks,” appearing in “Belgravia: A London Magazine,” Sept. 1875, pp. 434-435

Block Notes

The inferences we must take from this are that ball-bias was played with a bat, and that the author was referring to American baseball. The inclusion of hockey makes little sense since it is not a safe haven game like the others.

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