Block:English Baseball in London on March 28 1856

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English Baseball


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A game called “bat-ball base” was referenced in an angry letter written by a factory owner to the editor of a London newspaper complaining that the police were not cracking down on youngsters playing games on the street in front of his business. “...a considerable army of young gentlemen are, during the whole day, disporting themselves after the manner of our English youth, in flying kites, to the terror of all horses on the road, in playing at bat-ball base, the chief enjoyment of which appears to consist in sending a hard wooden ball into the face of every stray passenger they can hit...”

Sources

Morning Advertiser (London), Mar. 28, 1856, p. 5

Block Notes

It is possible that “bat-ball base” may refer to trap-ball, rather than baseball, because of the mention of a bat and because the ball is described as being hard and made of wood.

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