Block:English Baseball in London/Suffolk on August 29 1874
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| Data | "Base ball" was lampooned in Punch Magazine in the form of a mock letter, purportedly written by a Suffolk villager, that derides Londoners for gullibly accepting American baseball as a novelty, and not recognizing it as a traditional Suffolk game. The letter is written in a highly exaggerated country dialect: "I'm night furty year oad, and I ha' plaed base ball, man and boy, for more un thirty-five year, as any o' yar folks up there could hev sen if tha'd ha come to our village--or fur the matter o' that, to furty other villages hereabouts--any evenin' a summer time." It goes on to explain how the game was played in Suffolk, an account that is, in some aspects, plausible. |
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| Sources | Punch (London), Aug. 29, 1874, p. 86 |
| Block Notes | Given the energetic effort to make fun of both the touring American baseball players and the way Londoners received them, it is hard to know how much credence to give Punch's description of Suffolk baseball. It may be that the writer, who was undoubtedly a London-based contributor to Punch, if not a staff person, had some knowledge of Suffolk baseball, although it is also possible that he simply invented a rustic version of the American game. The description makes no mention of soaking, which would have been part of Suffolk baseball, but does suggest that the striker could use a bare hand. This, coupled with the unusual awareness that English baseball was still played in Suffolk, gives the piece a touch of credibility. |
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