Evansville Townball
| Game | Evansville Townball |
|---|---|
| Game Family | Fungo |
| Location | |
| Regions | US |
| Eras | 1800s, Predecessor |
| Invented | No |
| Tags | |
| Description | per Gilbert (1910). Remembered as Town Ball, this game was a simple fungo game played in the 1850s in which a fielder who caught a hit ball on the fly or on one bounce became the fungo batter. |
| Sources | F. M. Gilbert, History of the City of Evansville (Pioneer Publishing, 1910), page 106-108. |
| Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
| Comment | "And it is a fact known to very few, that away back in the early history of Evansville, ball was the most popular game. But it was then called town ball. On every Saturday at 12 o'clock the great majority of the wholesale and retail houses closed their doors and the merchants would go to a large vacant common which now is filled up by Chandler Avenue, Blackford Avenue and Mulberry street, there to engage in a game of town ball. Among the best players of that time were John Wymond, who for many years was in the paper business here, William E. Hollingsworth, Thomas J. Hollingsworth, Edward E. Law, Dr. I. Haas, the late Wiley Little, Samuel E. Gilbert, Henry Dodge, Billy Caldwell, Billy Baker, John S. Hopkins and a number of others who were the leading men of Evansville in those days. The players used a large rubber ball, solid and almost the same size as the league ball now in use. To catch the ball on the bounce or after it had hit the ground the first time, was considered perfectly fair. This would be a joke at present. There was only one base or home plate where the batter stood. There was only one batter of course and no catcher and the game was simply like batting flies for practice at any league park, with this exception. Whenever the fielder (and they were all fielders except the man who stood at the bat,) caught the ball either before it struck the ground or before it struck the ground the second time, he marched in, took his place at the bat and tossing up his own ball (for there were no pitchers), knocked it as far as he could. The great point of skill was in knocking the ball so that it would not bounce. In other words, in knocking grounders or in knocking it as far as he could, so that the fielders could not catch it on the bounce from where they were stationed. I remember that my father, the late Samuel E. Gilbert, took a great interest in the game and would as soon have missed the Sunday morning choir as he could his Saturday afternoon ball game and he imagined that he was a great catcher, but one day he got directly under a high fly which slipped through his hands and struck him exactly on the bridge of the nose and for two weeks he had about the worst pair of black eyes ever seen in the city of Evansville. This club played for several years and even after base ball had gotten a start some of these old timers imagined that the new game would be equally as simple as the old one. So on a certain afternoon a lot of the old merchants, all of whom had been town ball players, challenged the clerks for a game. This was pie for the clerks, but the old timers did not know it. We all went to the park and I suppose through having a relative in the game, I was selected as pitcher and used nothing but a plain drop ball, but there was not one of those old timers who hit any closer than about one foot from it, and they actually had the nerve to order me from the plate on the grounds that I was not playing fair. When their turn came to pitch, what we did to those straight balls was good and plenty. I do not remember the score, but I do remember that that was the last time the old timers ever challenged any of the younger generation. They seemed to realize that things had changed since their day. It was in the '50s that Charlie Wentz a dashing young college graduate from the east, came here and was appointed agent of the Adams Express Company, which was then in Chandler block where the barber shop now is. He was the first one to introduce the regular game of base ball in this city and was assisted by the late Emerson B. Morgan, also an eastern man, and George Bartlett, the young member of the firm of John H. Bartlett & Co., who were in the dry goods business here. This was in the year 1866. I do not remember just where they first played but it was on the open grounds and a huge back stop of boards was put up just behind the catcher. The game at that time was new, even in the east and the rules far different from what they are at the present. The pitcher had a great deal better show as did the batter and such scores as two to one or even 10 to 5 were unheard of. They generally ran between the 20's and the 50’s." Gilbert, History of Evansville pp 106-108 Edit with form to add a comment |
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