Block:English Baseball in Bedfordshire on May 26 1866
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| Data | “Base” balls were among the wares advertised for sale in a newspaper listing by a Luton, Bedfordshire, manufacturer and purveyor of wooden implements for various purposes, including bats, wickets, etc. for cricket, croquet and trap-ball. At the bottom of his display advertisement, after listing his prices for traps and trap bats, and for cricket bats of all sizes, the tradesman, John Spratley, added a final line which read: “All Kinds of Cricket Balls supplied. Also Trap, Tennis, Base and Foot Balls.” |
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| Sources | Luton Times and Advertiser, May 26, 1866, p. 2 |
| Block Notes | It is quite startling that an ad for baseballs would appear in an 1866 English newspaper. It is improbable that these baseballs would have been for the American version of the game, as the earliest known appearance anywhere in Britain of that form was in northern Scotland in 1870. it is more likely these balls were for English-style baseball, but even that is surprising since there is no evidence the English game was ever organized or used standardized or commercially manufactured equipment. |
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