Property:Digger Activity
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D
<p>Daniel is completing a book with [[Murray Dubin]] on the civil rights movement in the US in the 19<sup>th</sup> century, tentatively titled <em>There Must Come a Change: Murder, Baseball and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America</em><strong>. </strong> The book, slated for 2010 release, will include a chapter covering black baseball and the effort to integrate pro baseball in the late 1860s by the Pythians in Philadelphia and what may be the first game between whites and blacks, played in 1869.</p> +
<p>David has researched and written <em>Wikipedia</em> pieces on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townball Town Ball] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Massachusetts_Game the Massachusetts Game], and has also written a brief overview of the class of safe haven games for the site. Next: he will try to understand, and explain, what those “old-cat” games were all about.</p> +
<p>David, a member of the MLB Committee on Origins, worked with Committee chair John Thorn to establish a record of the spread of baseball to foreign countries. He continues to deepen his research on English base-ball from the 1740s to 1900. He has now amassed about 150 references to the game. He continues to doubt that a bat was uniformly used in early English base ball.</p> +
E
<p>Eric, author of a compendium of 19th Century rule changes, is currently researching information on the history of pitching deliveries for an article for his website, <a href="http://www.19cbaseball.com">www.19cbaseball.com</a>. Eric is hoping to release a new book on base ball in the 1860’s by next summer. This book, written in part with the perspective of someone with extensive VBB experience, will offer suggestions of why certain rules evolved as they did.</p> +
T
<p>Film-maker Ken Burns has enlisted Digger <strong><em>Tom Heitz</em></strong> as a presenter on early base ball for a tour group to Cooperstown in June 2013. The group numbers an unprecedented 160 visitors. Some of us think of Tom as the unofficial Dean of Diggers – he co-wrote the 70- item origins chronology that inspired th Protoball Project-- and we welcome him back.</p> +
D
<p>For a recent feature article on David by ESPN writer Brian Curtis, go to <a href="http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9681627/baseball-archaeologist-david-block">http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9681627/baseball-archaeologist-david-block</a>. It describes "How one man is rewriting the history of the game — one diary at a time."</p> +
G
<p>George <span>recently re-discovered the elusive 1859 </span><em>NY Tribune </em><span>article that challenges the superiority of the New York Game to the Massachusetts Game. George continues to examine all aspects of life in </span>New York City<span> from the 1790s to 1860, including all varieties of sports.</span></p> +
J
<p>Had you assumed that stoolball is now only to be found in very old English love poems? Wrong. John and Kay and their colleagues are actively looking after Stoolball England even as you read this. In 2008, Sport England, the funding body for British sport, officially “recognised” stoolball as a national game, but (unlike rounders) it is not as yet supported with public funds. In August, the Angmering club, from the south coast of England, won the Sussex League Championship, scoring 293 runs to outmatch the 106 runs managed by Horsted Keynes from central Sussex.</p>
<p>Contemporary interest in stoolball has been expressed in Roujan in southern France, where a club from Kent has been hosted during the last two Easter holidays; in Augusta, Maine, where re-enactment games have been played; in India, where ten states have joined the Indian Stoolball Federation; in Pakistan, where another Stoolball Federation has formed; in Japan, where stoolball broadcasts may be relayed on TV in the coming year; and in Thailand, where schools have shown interest. John and Kay are also working with [[Beth Hise]] on including stoolball in the 2010 exhibition on early ballplay at Lord’s.</p> +
B
<p>Having added nearly 1000 finds of the early play of modern base ball around the US, <strong><em>Bruce Allardice</em></strong> has begun to turn up earliest games in other countries. In July he pinned down and entered new “Earliest Known Games” in Argentina, Bermuda, Burma, the Netherlands, Panama (a Cricket and Baseball Club in 1883, yet), Uruguay and several other nations. </p> +
G
<p>In addition to his contributions to the stellar <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Base Ball Pioneers </span>volumes (McFarland), <strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">[[Greg Perkins]]</span></em></strong> wrote articles on base ball, town ball, and cricket for <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Northern Kentucky Encyclopedia</span> (U of Kentucky, 2009). Greg is weighing the idea of writing an account of early pro base ball in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky.</p> +
P
<p>In the winter of 2007, a small band of baseball fans gathered at the fireplace of the home of Richard and <strong><em>Priscilla Astifan</em></strong>. The main thing that was kindled that eve was the Rochester Baseball Historical Society. And this spring, the RBHS sponsored a major 45-day exhibit, <em>Rochester Baseball: From Mumford’s Meadow to Frontier Field</em>, at Rochester’s Central Library. The exhibit featured 22 panels of photographs and traced the path of local baseball from 1825 to the current day.</p> +
J
<p>Jerry's<span> work continues on the 19<sup>th</sup>-century. He wrote an expanded piece on the Philadelphia Pythians and its captain, Octavius Catto. It will be published in <em>Pennsylvania Legacies</em>, a periodical for the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The issue, published in May, examines Negro baseball in Pennsylvania. At the Cooperstown Symposium in June, Jerry presented “Which Irish Played Baseball in the Emerald Age?” He is now finishing up a study of the life and career of Lipman Pike.</span></p> +
<p>John's take on the pre-Knickerbocker era appeared in “The Magnolia, the Knickerbocker, and the Age of Flash” in the fall 2008 issue of <em>Base Ball.</em> Just when we’ve all gotten comfortable with the idea that some nice young professional men played the key role in establishing base ball as the US game in 1845, here comes John to show us that an earlier club, one with close connections to taverns, to decidedly ungenteel personages, and to political strongmen. His note: “It must have rankled the ballplaying Knickerbockers that they had to share . . . their game with a bunch of ruffians.”</p> +
K
<p>Kyle has begun collecting early references to trap ball. His website, at <a href="http://scvbb.wordpress.com/category/19th-century-baseball/">http://scvbb.wordpress.com/category/19th-century-baseball/</a>, includes many items on ballplaying before the pro era.</p> +
<p>Kyle<strong> </strong><span>is researching early base ball on the southern coast of </span>Massachusetts<span>, from </span>Fall River<span> to </span>New Bedford<span>.</span><span> </span><span>He reports finding a 33-inning Massachusetts-rules game from 1858, and has discovered that</span>New Bedford<span> clubs in those days were willing to play by either NY or MA rules.</span></p> +
S
<p>MLB Advanced Media is preparing a full-length documentary on the origins of baseball. Directed by Sam,<em> Origins of the Game </em>traces baseball back to its early roots, and shows why predecessor games from outside the US are just now being considered integral parts of the sport's evolution. The crew consulted with SABR’s [[John Thorn]], [[David Block]], and [[Martin Hoerchner]], among others, in piecing the story together. And its work in England in June led to an original find of a 1755 diary entry referring to young adults playing "base ball." (David describes this lucky disclosure in the Fall 2007 issue of <em>Base Ball.) </em>The MLB.com crew spent a damp week filming games of stoolball, rounders, cricket, and trapball. There were times when a combination of equipment malfunction, rain, noisy low-flying aircraft, and early-morning auto mishaps might have discouraged a weaker soul, but Sam kept on smiling.</p>
<p>MLB Advanced Media runs the website MLB.com. Sam, who has covered ports for nearly 20 years, has worked there since 2003, receiving two Emmy nominations, including one for the 2006 documentary <em>Vintage Base Ball.</em></p>
<p>The documentary is scheduled to be released online at about the All-Star break of 2008. Online viewing will be free, with downloads available at a fee.</p>
<p><em>"The Next Destin’d Post</em> will provide additional details on the release of <em>The Origins of the Game"</em> when they become available.</p> +
J
<p>MLB Official Historian <strong>John Thorn</strong> has been in contact with cricket/wicket scholar Jay Patel in connection with Patel’s forthcoming book. He notes that a good fraction of his time these days goes to “facilitation” – putting the right people together for special projects. He also works with auction houses and experts on early base ball images to help identify their finds. And – all of this seems not to have lessened the number or quality of his frequent contributions to SABR’s 19CCB list-serve.</p> +
M
<p>Murray is completing a book with [[Daniel Biddle]] on the civil rights movement in the US in the 19<sup>th</sup> century, tentatively titled <em>There Must Come a Change: Murder, Baseball and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America</em><strong>. </strong> The book, slated for 2010 release, will include a chapter covering black baseball and the effort to integrate pro baseball in the late 1860s by the Pythians in Philadelphia and what may be the first game between whites and blacks, played in 1869.</p> +
J
<p>Newly listed as a digger in June 2013, <strong><em>Jim Kimnach</em></strong> heads the Advisory Board of the Ohio Village Muffins Vintage Base Ball Team, which plays by 1860 rules. His main base ball interests include mid-Century ballplaying, Christy Mathewson, and Honus Wagner.</p> +
D
<p>On July 19, <strong><em>Deb Shattuck</em></strong> presented “Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers” at the Triple Play Baseball Festival at Yachats on the Oregon Coast. The presentation is based on her forthcoming dissertation at the U of Iowa. The festival was the work of former MLB pitcher -- and geneticist -- Dave Baldwin.</p> +