The New England Roots Project of SABR

SABR's five New England chapters (covering Boston, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, and western Massachusetts) have undertaken a joint project to review and extend our knowledge of the early roots of base ball and similar baserunning games in the six New England states. The page serves as something of a homepage for that project.

In the past decade and a half, the Protoball Project has collected considerable data points on the origins of base ball. Protoball, launched with substantial support from the SABR central office and from Project Retrosheet, is a website by and for baseball researchers and writers. The site has assembled a registry of thousands early ballgames and ballclubs prior to 1870, has assembled Ballplaying Chronology of about 1800 key events in the early evolution of base ball, and also displays original analyses from the game's amateur era. in 2018 the site was cited by SABR in conjunction with annual Bob Davids Award for service to baseball research.

The objective of the current "Roots" project is to refine and extend our understanding of early New England ballplaying, in great part via new research in the region's localities, including sources not found online. Our initial plan is to address research questions:

(1) When did the modern ("New York") style of base ball arrive in the area you are examining? Do you see patterns in how it spread locally? (2)

to fill in data in the Pre-pro Baseball data base of about 6,000 Clubs and Games in widespread local areas. We invite you to join in by researching a local town, county, or state that is of interest to you. This effort is encompassing both the modern ("New York rules") form of base ball and the predecessor base-running games (base, wicket, round-ball, cricket, etc.) that were known to have been played in each geographical area.

How to Join

Contact Larry McCray via . He will welcome you to the project and help you get started.

Some Local-Origins Resources

[1] A Search Guide for new researchers

New information on an area's earliest clubs and ballgames is likely to be found in 19th Century newspaper accounts. We have compiled list of searchable national and local data bases (most of them free) to help new researchers to get started. This document includes practical search tips from several of the most-experienced Origins-Era diggers. Version 1.1 of this guide is found at Protoball Search Aid. We welcome additional listings and suggestions for improving later versions of the Search Tips guide. Before searching for new data, it may be useful to familiarize yourself on currently-held data in your geographical area of interest. We are particularly interested in finding earlier data that what is now on the Protoball site.

[3] Some Online Sources that May Help You Interpret Local Data

A. Population Data -- In may cases, decadal local census data can be found by doing a search for the town at https://www.wikipedia.org. The 10-year population record is usually found on the lower right of the town's Wikipedia page.

[4] Main Topics to be Treated in the L.O. project (version 1.4, Sept 2014)

Issues

Issue 1 – Uniforms -- Early uniforms and their significance [1st round completed August: for version 1.0 of a compilation, see Uniforms.

Issue 2 – The Grounds -- What made for a suitable local playing site . . . . location, surface topography, or what? [1st round completed in September 2014: for Version 1.0 of the compiled research inputs, see The_Grounds.

Issue 3 – BBF -- What was the nation’s “Base Ball Fever” (1865-1870) experience like in your area? [discussion introduced September 23]

Issue 4 (our ‘cleanup hitter?’) – Patterns of Spread -- How do we explain the observed patterns of local propagation of base ball . . . population shifts, transportation technologies, news media effects, etc.

Issue 5 – Predecessor Pastimes -- What prior ballgames, if any, were played in the area . . . by adults, youths, juveniles, females before the NY game reached the area? Were local on-field/off-field variations maintained in some areas?

Issue 6 – Accounts -- How did game accounts evolve locally? What were local box-score summaries like?? Was quantification and/or statistics important in the local popularity of the game?

Issue 7 – Media Effects --The galvanizing role of local and of distant news coverage, if any

Issue 8 – Gambling's Role -- Was local gambling an essential factor in the diffusion of the game?

Issue 9 – The Big Tours -- Were the broad regional tours by famous clubs an important part of base ball’s local appeal?

Issue 10 – The Beneficiaries -- Is it clear who profited from the growth of the game in your area? Did that affect the game on the field? How?

Issue 11 – Competing Pastimes -- What other pastimes, if any, rivaled early base ball . . . and is it clear why base ball seemed to win out over them?

Issue 12 – Playing to Win -- Playing to win vs. playing just for fellowship or exercise || was there an emergence of claims of local on-field supremacy in your area –championship claims, rivalries, tourneys, etc.?

Issue 13 – Club Makeup-- Did club rosters reflect ethnic or social divisions, gradations in athletic talent, players’ ages, or what? Did minority groups form their own clubs?