1836c.12
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Game With Plugging of Runners Later Recalled in Jersey City
Salience | Noteworthy |
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Tags | Pre-modern RulesPre-modern Rules |
Location | |
City/State/Country: | Jersey City, NJ, US |
Modern Address | |
Game | Base Ball PredecessorBase Ball Predecessor |
Immediacy of Report | Retrospective |
Age of Players | AdultAdult |
Holiday | |
Notables | |
Text | While here let me say to the Champion Base Ball Club, for their information, that in eighteen hundred and thirty-six and seven we had a base ball club that could not be beaten. It was composed of such men as Jerry O'Meara, Peter Bentley, J. C. Morgan, Jos. G. Edge, &c. I acted as a spare pitcher for the first nine. In those days the game was played by throwing the ball at the man running the bases, and whoever got hit was out, if he could not jump to the bases from where he was hit. I would rather get hit by any other member of the club than by Bentley, for he was a south-paw or left-hander, and he used to strike and throw an unmerciful ball. The ball ground was a portion of the time Nevins and Townsend's block, in front of St. Matthew's Church . . . . |
Sources | Jersey Journal, December 13, 1871, page 1, column 3 -- "Recollections of a Jersey City Boy, No. 3." |
Warning | |
Comment | This seems to be a remarkably early use of "south-paw" to denote a left-hander. One source (Dickson. Baseball Dictionary, 3rd ed., page 791) indicates that the first use of south-paw in a base ball context was in 1858, although a web search reveals that the term itself dates back to 1813. John Zinn reports 7/28/2015 that Bentley was 31 years old in 1836, and that Edge was 22. Edit with form to add a comment |
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Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
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Submitted by | Ben Zimmer |
Submission Note | via relay from John Thorn, 7/24/2015. |
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