First Known Example of a Table-top Base Ball Game

From Protoball
Revision as of 07:01, 3 June 2014 by Larry (talk | contribs) (Created page with "{{Other First |Coordinates=40.7056308, -73.9780035 |Name=First Known Example of a Table-top Base Ball Game |Type of Date=Day |Date=1866/12/08 |Country=United States |State=NY...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Pre-pro Baseball
Magnolia-ball-club.png

Add a Ballgame
Add a Predecessor Game
Add a Field
Add a Club
Add a Player
Add a Game Official

Base Ball Firsts
Add a Base Ball First

About Pre-pro
Waff's Game Tabulation
Bob Tholkes RIM Tabulation

Awaiting Review
Date Saturday, December 8, 1866
Location Ny, NY, United States
Description

John Thorn writes:

"Who is the Father of Fantasy Baseball? Most today will answer Dan Okrent or Glen Waggoner, but let me propose Francis C. Sebring, the inventor of the table game of Parlor Base-Ball. In the mid-1860s Sebring was the pitcher (clubs only needed one back then) for the Empire Base Ball Club of New York (and bowler for the Manhattan Cricket Club). At some time around the conclusion of the Civil War, this enterprising resident of Hoboken was riding the ferry to visit an ailing teammate in New York. The idea of making an indoor toy version of baseball came to him during this trip, and over the next year he designed his mechanical table game; sporting papers of 1867 carried ads for his “Parlor Base-Ball” and the December 8, 1866, issue of Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly carried a woodcut of young and old alike playing the game. A few weeks earlier, on November 24, Wilkes' Spirit of the Times had carried the first notice. (In a previous post I discussed other fantasy-baseball forerunners, from Chief Zimmer's game to Ethan Allen's:  http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2011/10/17/fathers-of-fantasy-baseball/)

Sources

Our Game blog post, June 3, 2014.



Comments

<comments voting="Plus" />