Pize Ball

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Game	Pize Ball
Game Family	Kickball Kickball
Location
Regions
Eras	Predecessor
Invented	No
Tags
Description	a game defined in the OED as “a game similar to Rounders in which a ball is hit with the flat of the hand.” The game is mainly associated with the English North Country, and is said to feature three or four ‘tuts,’ or stopping-places. The first cited use appeared in 1796. Gomme (page 45) adds that if the batter-runner is hit before reaching on of the “tuts” he is “said to be burnt, or out.
Sources	Alice Bertha Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Volume 2 (New York: Dover [reprint -- original publication 1898], 1964), page 45.
Source Image	[[Image:\|left\|thumb]]
Comment	David Block in Pastime Lost posits that "pize-ball" and "tut-ball" were regional names for English baseball. I would toss in that "pize-ball" may well be a rounded-down form of dialectical "pizin-ball" i.e. poison-ball, which calls to mind the French la balle empoisonnee or Poison Ball: a very similar game where, again, the ball was swatted with the hand. --W C Hicklin Edit with form to add a comment
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