Round Town (Round Town Ball)

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Curated by Larry McCray and Jeffrey Kittel
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Game	Round Town (Round Town Ball)
Game Family	Baseball Baseball
Location	PA, VA
Regions	US
Eras	1800s, Predecessor
Invented	No
Tags
Description	Round Town (also found as 'round-town,' or 'Round Town Ball') has been found in a handful of sources listed below.  It appears to have been played at times from the 1850s-1890s in locations outside the northeast US: [A] "In rural Virginia the ball game of choice was known as round-town, a sport that was "well understood and much enjoyed by every country boy, though only a few of their city cousins know the first rudiments of it."  -- [B] As played in Eastern PA in the 1850s, Round Town is recalled as having four or five bases or “safety spots,” tagging instead of plugging, the fly rule, the sharing of bases by multiple runners, and a bat made of a rail or clap-board. A game “similar to baseball” recalled as being played by school boys in 1891 in a grove of trees in Beech Grove, Kentucky. --- [C] Another game called Round Town is described as follows: An Old Virginia Ball Game Mount Crawford, a town in Rockingham County, Va., was the scene of a novel ball game on, January 13 last, the occasion being a contest at the old Virginia game of ball known as "Round Town, " the weather being unusually mild for winter. This game is well understood and is much enjoyed by every country boy, though only a very few of their city cousins know the first rudiments of it.  Forty-four men and boys were engaged in the game mentioned above, and they were the best throwers, surest catchers, and hardest strikers of the two neighborhoods. A large sized crowd watched with unabating interest the movements of the game. The game of round-town is played in this manner: Two sides are formed, the number of players of the division being equal. Four bases are used and are placed in the same manner as if they were being fixed for a game of baseball, although men are only placed in the positions of the pitcher, catcher, and first baseman, the rest of the players being scattered in the field where they think the ball is most apt to be knocked. The first batsman on the opposing side takes his place at the plate, and he has in his hand a paddle an inch or two thick, and in which only one hand is used ins striking. The pitcher delivers a solid gum ball with all the swiftness attainable, the use of the curve never being thought of, and it is therefore very seldom that a "strike out" occurs. The batter hits the ball at the first opportunity and endeavors to drive it over the heads of the opponents, for if it is caught on the fly or the first bound the runner is called out, and also if it is begotten to the first baseman before the runner arrives at the base. Should the runner reach first base safely he can continue to run to the other bases if he wishes, but his opponents have the privilege of hitting him with the ball, and as it is very painful to be struck with a gum ball, the runner is very cautious, and if he is struck he is counted out of the game, although should he reach any of the other bases he is safe.  Another batsman appears and if he makes a safe hit with the ball the runners can continue to move until stopped from fear of being hit with the ball. In case a man is on second base and a ball is knocked and caught on the fly or first bound, the runner must stay at the base until the ball is returned to the pitcher. Each side has only one inning and that continues until every man has made out: therefore if a man makes an out at the first time at the bat he is disqualified to play until all on his side have done likewise, then they take the field. If a player makes the circuit safely it is called a run. The result of the contest was the success of the Mt. Crawford twenty-two by a score of 104 runs to 90, the contest occupying the whole afternoon. --- [D]  In February 2016, Bill Hicklin added: I found two references to Virginia "round-town," both from Dickinson County, Virginia (in the Appalachian coal country).  They come from School and Community History of Dickenson County, Virginia (ed. Dennis Reedy), a compilation of articles published over many years in the local paper, which were themselves based on a series of oral-history interviews conducted at the behest of the school superintendant with senior and retired Dickenson teachers.  [1] William Ayers Dyer: "I was born May 10, 1880 at Stratton, Dickenson County, Virginia and started to school to Johnson Skeen at the Buffalo School in 1885 when I was 5 years old... The games we played at the Buffalo were straight town, round town, base, bull pen and antnee over." (Bull pen was dodgeball, but played with a baseball. Ouch!)  [2]Hampton Osborne (b. 1894): "'Round-town' and 'straight-town' were popular games. Round-town had four bases in a circle, as baseball does today. If the batter was caught or crossed-off both ways, he was out. Straight-town had four bases in a row and you used the same rules as round-town. ---  [E]  Bruce Allardice contributed: "There are several newspaper mentions in the late 1800s of "round town" by people who claimed to have played it as a boy: Easley (SC) Messenger, May 2, 1884. W. P. Price (1846-1940) claimed to have played "round Town" and "cat" as a boy at Holly Springs Academy Piqua (OH) Daily Call, Aug. 22, 1891: J. P. Smith of Urbana, OH says he played "round town" and "bull pen" as a boy. Edina (MO) Sentinel, Aug. 5, 1886: writer played "round town" as a boy. Greenleaf Sentinel, Nov. 11, 1887. when writer was a boy we used to play "round town," "three cornered cat" and "bull pen." Similar, Smithfield (NC) Herald Aug. 17, 1917. Scranton Tribune, May 8, 1899. Writer talks of boys playing "Round Town Ball and Two Holy Cat." Philadelphia Times, Aug. 3, 1890 has a long article with a complete description of Round Town Ball, as it was played in Perry County. Old-time "round, or town ball" played. Warren (PA) Democrat, July 9, 1895. Asheville Gazette-News, Aug. 9, 1913: "afore the war" the "darkies" played "round town ball from which the [game of] baseball originated." New Philadelphia Times, June 13, 1910 claims Cy Young played "round town" ball and three cornered cat as a youth. Bucyrus (OH) Evening Telegraph. Aug. 18, 1915 says there will be a game of round town ball at a picnic. Ditto Jackson (OH) Center News, Oct. 15, 1920; Dresden (TN) Enterprise, Dec. 4, 1914; Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Sept. 5, 1908; Harrisonburg (VA) Evening News, Dec. 5, 1899, March 15, 1909. Doney, "Cheerful Yesterdays" p. 67 says he learned to play RTB and others c. 1877. Prokopowicz, "All for the Regiment" p. 85 quotes a Feb. 7, 1862 diary entry from a soldier in Co. C, 17th Ohio saying the soldiers play RTB in their spare time. Pleasant's "History of Crawford County, Indiana" (1926) says that c. 1840, the boys played three cornered cat, round town ball, long town ball, bat ball and baseball. "Punxsatawney Centennial, 1849-1949" p. 22 says c. 1870 the boys played RTB and long town ball." -- Bruce Allardice    What Protoball Knows, May 2023 Note that our sources now extend to MD, NC, OH, PA, SC, and VA,  as of May 2023.  Known reports of Round Town appear to run to the end of the 19th Century.
Sources	[A] Peter Morris, But Didn't We Have Fun: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870 (Ivan Dee, Chicago, 2008), pp.16-18.  For data on 12 names of predecessor games, see the book's index entry for 'Rival Bat-and-Ball', page 282.  [B] J. Lambert and H. Reinhard, A History of Catasaqua in Lehigh County (Searle and Dressler, Allentown, 1914), page 364.:  William F. Mason, The Journal of William Franklin Mason, completed in 1954; from http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/elliott/mason/ mason29.txt, accessed 2/24/2008. [C] New York Clipper January 1866. 19CBB post 2/2/2002 by John Freyer [D]  Email from Bill Hicklin, February 6, 2016, citing D. Reedy, ed., School and Community History jof Dickenson County, Virginia [1994] [E] Bruce Allardice, contributions to Protoball, (date lost).
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Comment	See also Straight Ball. Note that our sources now extend to MD, NC, OH, PA, SC, and VA,  as if May 2023.  The latest reports appear to extent to the end of the 19th Century. One form of the game [see item [B] above] has a rule variant that , as of 2023, appears to be in unique for US base-running games: that more than one runner can occupy a base at the same time.  Multiple base-running is known in some Scandinavian games and in (two-base) Russian lapta and, maybe, in iona in Romania.  The "old Virginia Ball Game" article is from Walden's Monthly Magazine of April 1894, in an article written by Henry Chadwick. [ba]           Edit with form to add a comment
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