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1874 Lee Club location  +
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<blockquote> <blockquote> <div id="divtagdefaultwrapper" dir="ltr"> <div class="_rp_i5"> <div class="_rp_j5 rpHighlightBodyClass rpHighlightAllClass allowTextSelection"> <div id="Item.MessageNormalizedBody" class="ms-font-color-neutralDark _rp_k5 ms-font-weight-regular"> <div class="rps_66fe"> <div class="x_hmmessage"> <div>[] "I had always supposed that the balk rule was introduced by the crafters of the New York game, but this passage suggests it began to be practiced at some earlier time."  David Block, 19CBB posting, 1/28/2014.</div> <div> </div> <div> <p>[] "I wrote in my book [R. Hershberger. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Strike Four</span>, Rowman and Littlefield, 2019, page 37] that the balk rule seemed to be novel to the 1845 Knickerbocker rules. Evidently not. While this is two years later, it also is from [nearly] a hundred miles away in Kingston, NY, and presented as a homespun saying from the writer's youth." -- Richard Hershberger, 12/9/2020.</p> <p>[]<em> Added Local color</em>:  "Rondout has been, since 1870, an unincorporated hamlet within the city of Kingston (where I lived for decade; it was called "Rondout" because of its adjoining Roundout Creek, which fed into the Hudson River). The <em>Rondout Freeman</em> in its first incarnation may have indeed lasted till 1847 (founded 1845):<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86071034/">https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86071034/</a>.</p> <p>"Hudson is a large city about 25 miles north of Kingston, on the other side of the Hudson River, in Columbia County.  Today a bridge connects my hometown of Catskill (west bank) with Hudson (east bank).  Taghkanic is the proper spelling of the tribe for whom today is named the Taconic Parkway."  - John Thorn, email of 12/10/2020.</p> <p>[]The terms <em>"balk</em>" and <em>"baulk"</em> are both used in period sources.  As of December 2020, a search of "balk" fetches 91 hits in  Richard Hershberger's generous <span style="text-decoration: underline;">19C Clippings</span> file; a "balk OR baulk" search yields 102 hits.  There are no hits for "balk" or "Baulk"  in David <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Block's file</span> on English baseball-like games.</p> <p>[] As of 12/12/2020, Protoball has no other record of the balk prior to 1845.  </p> <p>For a succinct summary of our desultory learning about balks/baulks from 2010 to 2020, see the <strong>Supplementary Text</strong>, below.</p> <p> </p> <p><br/><br/></p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </blockquote> </blockquote>  
<blockquote> <div><span>[] "Here is another early example of baseball terminology being used to illustrate a non-sports topic."</span></div> <div><span> </span></div> <div><span>The text appeared in the June 5, 1847 issue of the <em>Roundout Freeman</em> (Roundout was a Hudson River community that has since been swallowed by the town of Kingston).</span></div> <div><span> </span></div> <div> <div>"I had always supposed that the balk rule was introduced by the crafters of the New York game, but this passage suggests it began to be practiced at some earlier time."</div> <div> </div> <div>-- David Block, 11/12/2010</div> </div> <div><span> </span></div> <div><span><span>[] "I wrote in my book [R. Hershberger. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Strike Four,</span> Rowman and Littlefield, 2019, page 37] that the balk rule seemed to be novel to the 1845 Knickerbocker rules. Evidently not. While this is two years later, it also is from [nearly] a hundred miles away in Kingston, NY, and presented as a homespun saying from the writer's youth." -- Richard Hershberger, 19CBB posting, 12/9/2020</span></span></div> <div><span><span> </span></span></div> <div><span><span>[] John Thorn, email of 1/31/2023:  "This will testify to the antiquity of the balk rule and give a hint that it meant a feint."  -- John Thorn, 1/31/2023 </span></span></div> <div><span><span> </span></span></div> <div>[] As of February 2023, Protoball has no other data on pre-1845 balk rules.  Richard Hershberger hasn't found any yet.</div> <div> </div> <div>[] Added Local color:  "Rondout has been since 1870, an unincorporated hamlet within the city of Kingston (where I lived for decade; it was called "Rondout" because of its adjoining Roundout Creek, which fed into the Hudson River). The <em>Rondout Freeman</em> in its first incarnation may have indeed lasted till 1847 (founded 1845):<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86071034/">https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86071034/</a>.</div> <div> <p>"Hudson is a large city about 25 miles north of Kingston, on the other side of the Hudson River, in Columbia County.  Today a bridge connects my hometown of Catskill (west bank) with Hudson (east bank).  Taghkanic is the proper spelling of the tribe for whom today is named the  Taconic Parkway." </p> <p>-- John Thorn, email of 12/10/2020.</p> <p> </p> <span><span><br/></span></span></div> </blockquote>  
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<div class="date">JULY 28, 1868, THE NEW YORK TIMES, July 23, 1868 On pg. 3 under "Base Ball" are the two box scores of games played in Central Park, each with a very brief, one sentence summary. The first game was played between the Dexter and Henrietta clubs, and the second between the Dexter and Resolute clubs.</div>  +
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<div class="gmail_default"> </div> <div class="gmail_default"> </div> <div class="gmail_default">George Thompson, 1/13/21:  "When New Yorkers said "the Park" in the first half of the 19th century, they meant the Park in front of City Hall.  Not a big area, and today at least it's so cluttered with benches and a fountain that it doesn't seem possible to play a game that involves running about.</div> <div class="gmail_default">I will check my notes to see if there is an indication of whether the Park was more open then."</div> <div class="gmail_default"> </div> <div class="gmail_default">John Thorn, 1/13/21:  "certain lines in the 1845 Atlas note were *also* used by Whitman in his now-famous "sundown perambulations of late" note of July 23, 1846!! . . . . Was Whitman the author of the 1845 <em>Atlas </em>note? Did he later plagiarize himself, or an unnamed other?"  <div id="ydp55524770yahoo_quoted_1400461541" class="ydp55524770yahoo_quoted"> <div id="ydp55524770yiv9689899570"> <p><span><strong>Note:  </strong>Whitman's text is at </span><a class="ydp55524770yiv9689899570moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/opening-day-e5f9021c5dda" rel="nofollow">https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/opening-day-e5f9021c5dda</a>.  Whitman's appreciation of base ball is also shown at [[1846.6]], [[1855.9]], and [[1858.25]].</p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> </div> </div> </div>  +
<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger, <span><em>150 years ago in baseball</em>, FB posting 10/29/2020:</span></div> <div dir="auto"><span> </span></div> <div dir="auto">Chadwick on the improvement of the Chicago Club. They wisely took his advice and switched from a lively to a dead ball. Success inevitably followed.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">Much as I enjoy tweaking Chad for this sort of thing, in fairness it was pretty standard in this era. A newspaper would publish helpful advice to the local club. If the club did something that could plausibly be taken as consistent with the helpful advice, the paper would claim credit for the suggestion. Say what you will about modern sports talk radio, even those guys don't usually claim that the GM turns to them for trade ideas.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">Does the claim about the deal ball make a lick of sense? It is classic Chad, but there is a kernel of truth. Good and poor fielding teams generally favored a dead or lively ball respectively, on the grounds that a dead ball gave the infielders a chance to show their stuff while a lively ball was more likely to get to the outfield. The Red Stockings revolution was mostly about improved fielding, so they favored a dead ball. As clubs' fielding caught up, they followed suit. The eventual consensus was a relatively dead ball, with later discussions being how live or not, within the range of a relatively dead ball. So as the White Stockings got their act together, it is entirely plausible that they moved to a dead ball. In other words, they didn't get getter because they switched to a dead ball; they switched to a dead ball because they got better. And certainly not because Chadwick convinced them. </div> </div>  
<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger, 3/18/2022</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto">"150 years ago today in baseball: Harry Wright is making arrangements with the Harvard ball team. If I am reading it correctly, the secretary of the Harvard club goes by "J. Cheever Goodwin." I hate him already. Wright proposes a date just two and a half weeks out. This is typical of scheduling in this era, done on the fly. It also was a major pain. A lot of Wright's correspondence consists of back and forth to find a date that works for both sides.</div> </div> <div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">I'm not sure what is the story about the offer to let Harvard use the Boston grounds. Harvard had a field, but I don't know if it was enclosed at this period. You can't charge admission if there is no fence. This would explain the discussion here, where we can assume that the "satisfactory arrangements" he mentions is a discreet way to say "financial arrangements," with the Boston club getting a piece of the action.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">Then there is the discussion of the Fast Day game. Fast Day is an obsolete New England holiday: a quasi-pagan fertility ritual where people were supposed to go to church and look solemn in order to ensure a good harvest. In practice they went to ball games. It was the traditional opening of the baseball season. This year it will be on April 4. Wright is arranging the "picked nine" the Bostons will trounce. Sometimes a picked nine was an impromptu affair, picking players from the crowd. This one is a bit more organized, with the players chosen ahead of time and publicized. Wright is offering three slots to Harvard. He doesn't specify which positions. This picked nine is not totally random, but neither is it totally organized."</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto">Joanne Hulbert, FB posting, 3/18/2022:</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto"><span>"Yes, Richard, Fast Day was made obsolete by baseball. But who wants to eliminate a holiday off the annual schedule? No one. This is how Patriots Day, April 19 was added to replace Fast Day - and Patriot's Day is still to this day an important baseball day in Boston. It is the one day in Boston when there is always a Red Sox home game on the schedule."</span></div> <div dir="auto"><span> </span></div> <div dir="auto"><span>Richard replied, 3/18/2022:</span></div> <div dir="auto"><span> </span></div> <div dir="auto"><span><span>"My take is that Fast Day was made obsolete by New England's cultural shift, from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to Walden Pond. But the point about Patriot's Day is entirely fair."</span></span></div> <div dir="auto"><span><span> </span></span></div> <div dir="auto"><span><span>Bruce Allardice added, 3-19-2022:</span></span></div> <div dir="auto"><span><span> </span></span></div> <div dir="auto"> <div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">"It was common for pro league teams to play amateur clubs, especially early in the year. The 1876 Chicago White Stockings played 2 local amateur clubs before their regular season started, as sort of a warm-up. They also played 30+ amateur, semi-pro and non-league pro clubs during the year.</span></div> <div> </div> <div dir="ltr"> The [Boston club] played the Tufts College club 4-24-72, winning 43-5 (<em>Boston Herald</em> 4-25-72). </div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">The April 4th game was played, against a 'picked nine' of local amateurs that included several from the Harvard team. The Red Sox won 32-0. <em>(Boston Journal</em>, 4-5-72). The amateurs made only 3 hits off Spalding's pitching."</div> <span><span><br/></span></span></div> <div dir="auto"><span><span> </span></span></div> <div dir="auto"><span><span><span> </span></span></span></div> </div>  
<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">"The Cincinnati Club holds a meeting. Recall that the Executive Committee recently announced that the club will not be fielding a professional team next season. This meeting is the membership's chance to second guess the committee. There is a moral there, about volunteering to be a club officers. Been there, done that.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">"Here Champion backs up [Current President ]Bonte without reservation. We get a lot of inside information about the business of baseball in 1870."  -- Richard Hershberger (From FB posting. 12/7/2020.)</div> </div>  +
<div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger, <em>150 years ago in baseball</em>, posted October 23, 2020: "Chadwick considers the question of the Red Stockings' decline. How steep a decline this is in fact will be the topic for a post-season roundup. The season has a bit more to go yet, so this would be premature today. But it is certainly true that the Red Stockings are no longer dominant in the way they were in 1869.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">"Chad, frankly, doesn't have a great answer. The "lack of harmony" stuff is boilerplate Chadwick, and he doesn't even pretend he has any factual basis for it. Beyond that he falls back on a parity argument. This isn't wrong, but doesn't explain what is different in 1870 from 1869. The rest of the baseball world was catching up, but he doesn't explain what exactly this means.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">"The Red Stockings revolution was primarily about fielding. Their pitching and hitting were solid, but their fielding in 1869 was qualitatively better than anyone else's. This was about fielder positioning and where they went once the ball was in play, with an emphasis on backing up other players. And, to be blunt, it was about actually practicing. The New York/Philly baseball establishment had grown complacent. The clubs at the top saw no reason to change, since what they were doing obviously was working. That changed with the Red Stockings' June 1869 tour. That was a wake up call. By the end of the season the established teams were already better. It was June of 1870 when one finally beat the Red Stockings. Here in October, teams are beating them, well, not exactly regularly, but often enough. So it goes. Play in the field is in front of anyone who cares to look, so there aren't really any secrets in the long run."</div> </div>  
<div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">"The bit [#4] about high and low balls is an important refinement of an old idea. Called strikes had been around for a while by this time, but there was never total clarity about what was and was not a pitch that should be called a strike. Through the 1860s the batter could request a specific height for the pitch. If the delivery was both over the plate and within some vaguely defined distance to the specified height, there you go. In [early] 1870 they went complete the other direction, taking away the batter's right to request a height and declaring any pitch within some vaguely defined reach of the bat to be a good ball. This proved unsatisfactory and confusing. Here we see a move to a modernish definition of a strike zone, but with a throwback to the old right to request the height. This is codified as two distinct strike zones, the batter requesting which he wants. This may seem bizarre, but it stood until 1887.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q"> <div dir="auto">"The other interesting proposal is that last one [#9], about the fielder momentarily holding the ball. This is a proto-infield fly rule. That will not take its modern form until a quarter century later, but the idea was floating around. This will not be adopted this year, but it will be a few years later. The problem was not any philosophical objection to the infielder dropping the ball to set up a double play, but that this made umpire decide whether the fielder caught the ball (putting the batter out) and then dropped it, or muffed the ball (for no out on the batter), leading to endless bickering. This objection still stands today, and is the best argument for the infield fly rule."</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto">-- Richard Hershberger, "150 Years Ago Today," Facebook posting, 11/26/2020 </div> </div>  +
<div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger,"150 years ago in baseball: the financial condition of the Boston club," FB Posting, 12/5/2022;</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto">"Last year they came in second, missing the pennant on a technicality. They won the pennant this year. They are the best team in baseball, and the best run organization. So their finances should be pretty good, right?</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">Not so much. The important thing to understand about the business of baseball in the 1870s is that they lacked a viable business model. They simply could not consistently bring in more revenue than they had expenses. This is why the churn rate of professional clubs was so high. They will only start to get an handle on this in the 1880s. Not coincidentally, the 1880 season will also see the first incarnation of the reserve clause. But that is in the future.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">Boston has one advantage other clubs lack: the local popularity that comes with winning. We see here where management is essentially passing the hat among the fans. This will come together in a unique solution. The organization running the team is the Boston Base Ball Association. The fans will be the Boston Base Ball Club ("club" reflecting its social nature), which will take over the block of outstanding BBBA stock, paying for the privilege. This will carry the Bostons over until better times. This is why the now-Atlanta Braves are the oldest team in baseball."</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto">Further comments from Richard, 12/5/2022:<span class="xt0psk2"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz x1heor9g xt0b8zv" tabindex="0" href="https://www.facebook.com/richard.hershberger.16?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDo1NTc2OTQzMDE5MDI2Mzc5XzYyOTg1MzQ1MjE1NTgyMw%3D%3D&__cft__[0]=AZXRlzWgwFc3brKMw9zeQKN4MHDNK_JuhtjXZOLKhdBN0O52uMitQElpE5_RKTjQ3xwoG7cYslgAVTalGUv4OvR-H6oaEPehk2e_JgqFPXabUSImssMyzrxInbZCDoR_cNs&__tn__=R]-R"><span class="x3nfvp2"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x x4zkp8e x676frb x1nxh6w3 x1sibtaa x1s688f xzsf02u" dir="auto"><br/></span></span></a></span></div> <div dir="auto"><span class="xt0psk2"><span class="x3nfvp2"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x x4zkp8e x676frb x1nxh6w3 x1sibtaa x1s688f xzsf02u" dir="auto"> </span></span></span></div> <div dir="auto"> <div class="x1lliihq xjkvuk6 x1iorvi4"> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r"> <div dir="auto">"We think of top-level professional sports as being awash in cash. Whatever the truth of this might be today, it certainly was not true in the 19th century, or really into the era of large television rights contracts. This is not to let the owners off the hook. Many were terrible people. But this does not change the underlying reality that free market economics simply don't work for top-level professional athlete salaries."</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>  
<div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger, <em>150 years ago in baseball, </em>FB posting on 1/13/2023</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto">"The condition of the Atlantics. This doesn't quite add up. The team is a co-operative nine. In other words, rather than a fixed salary, the players are paid a share of the gate receipts. This was the business model adopted by clubs that were undercapitalized. The better players generally preferred a bit more certainty about their finances. This suggests the claim about the large number of members is so much eyewash. Compare it with the Athletics, who still maintain a fraternal club structure while also paying fixed salaries.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">The sad truth is that the Atlantic Club is on its last leg. A co-op nine, with no upfront costs, can survive so long as there is a driving force keeping it going. In this case that driving force is Bob Ferguson. He was notably strong-willed. This was not always in a good way, but he will keep the Atlantics together through two not-good years. Then he will be hired away by the Hartford club, and the vestiges of the Atlantics will collapse shortly thereafter.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">What happened? This is an interesting question. As recently as 1870 they were a top club: the first to beat the Red Stockings. My guess is that the underlying club structure was already threadbare at that point. With full professionalism, roster building followed a new model. The Atlantic club wasn't able to keep up with new, more energetic stock companies eager to hire away the best players and the cash to do it."</div> </div>  +
<div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a"> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger, 2/9/2023, ''150 years ago in baseball '': "<em>advances in outfield play</em>. This is another in the series of innovations Harry Wright made in Cincinnati, working their way into the general baseball consciousness.</div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">Think of a Little League team. Not one of the teams you see on TV in Williamsport, but a little kid team coached by one of dads. The kids put in the outfield have figured out their spot and have a sense of the territory they are responsible for. So they go out to their spot, and if the ball comes into their territory, they do their best. If it goes into someone else's territory, they stand and watch the show.</div> </div> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">Part of getting good is moving past this, learning where to go and make themselves useful even when the ball doesn't come to them. This stuff all had to be figured out. This was a large part of why the Red Stockings were so good. They were further along the road of figuring this stuff out, giving them a fielding advantage over those guys standing and watching the play. Here in 1873, the good teams have all got this figured out, in principle if not necessarily in detail, but it is still new enough that it is being explained here to the general baseball public."</div> </div>  +
<div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a"> <div dir="auto"><span style="font-size: 14.4px;">From Richard Hershberger, ''150 years ago today, ''6/10/2023:</span></div> <div dir="auto"> </div> <div dir="auto"><span style="font-size: 14.4px;">"The Bostons are in Brooklyn, where they beat the Mutuals 8-7. Recall that a couple of weeks back I related the earliest known description of a delayed double steal, done by the Atlantics. Here we see the same thing, this time by the Mutuals. Was this play already widely known, but we haven't noticed it earlier? Or did the Mutuals see what the Atlantics had done and decided to try it themselves? Who knows? The problem is that these plays are worked out, then the vocabulary to talk about them comes later. Reporters, even if they recognize what they just saw, will have trouble writing out it until the vocabulary is created. It is entirely possible that teams had been doing this for years, but only recently have reporters realized that there is something going on here.</span></div> <div dir="auto"> </div> </div> <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a"> <div dir="auto">"Speaking of vocabulary, notice that Dave Eggler "stole to" second base, not "stole" second base. Both constructions goes back to before the Civil War. The "steal to" form has been gradually fading for a decade now. This is a late example. This is a pity. To "steal to" second is to catch the pitcher and catcher off guard, while to "steal" second is an act of larceny. I think the first one is more accurate."</div> </div>  +
B
<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">See also [[1852.17]] -- A work by Charles Dickens titled "The Child's Story" (1852) in which Dickens writes: "They were active ... at cricket and all games of ball; the prisoners base, hare and hounds, follow up leader, and more sports than I can think of."</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">There's a reference to a game of "prison base" in The Chester (UK) Chronicle, June 23, 1815.</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> </div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">A description of Prisoner's base can be found in the Salisbury, NC <em>The Old North State</em>, Jan. 28, 1870.</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">See also Bancroft, "Games for the Playground" (1922) p. 156:</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> <p>"PRISONER'S BASE</p> <p>Prisoner's Base is one of the most popular games for both boys and girls who are beginning to care for team organization, and is capital for adults. It gives opportunity for vigorous exercise for all of the players, for the use of much judgment, prowess, and daring, and for simple team or cooperative work.</p> <p>The game is found under many different forms. Several, which offer marked or typical differences, each possessing distinct playing values, are given here. These differences are in (i) the arrangement of the ground, and (2) the rules governing the players and game.</p> <p>The differences in the grounds may be classed as follows: —</p> <p>I. The entire playground divided in two divisions, one belonging to each party, each division having a small pen for prisoners at the rear. (Diagram I.)</p> <p>n. The main part of playground neutral territory, with home goals for the opposing parties at opposite ends, with prisons in, near, or attached to them. (Diagrams II, V.)</p> <p>III. The main part of playground neutral territory, with home goab for both parties at the same end, attached or separate, and prisons at the opposite end, either (i) on the same side of the ground as the home goal, or (a) on the enemy's side of the ground. (Diagrams III-IV.)</p> <p>The rules for play for the second and third types of ground are fundamentally the same, though differing in details, and they differ from those for Diagram I. The playing qualities of the games for the last three diagrams, however, are very distinct because of the different methods of the enemies* approach to each other (which make differences in the risk of **dares")» and because of the differing risks in rescuing prisoners and taking the enem3r's goal by entry.</p> <p>It has seemed best to make a selection of the typical forms, and leave the feader of games free to choose his own. The first form is the simplest for beginners and younger players, and makes a good introduction to the game for such players."</p> [ba]</div>  
1
<div dir="ltr">I'm not sure that the combination of homemade whiskey and Billy Ray playing the bagpipes would be such a good idea, particularly not with rifles lying about.  -- Richard Hershberger</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">Especially if the sheep had the rifles -- Protoball Functionary</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"><span>As of December 2020, Protoball has n</span><span>o base ball is</span><span> known</span><span> </span><span>i</span><span>n Madison before 1860.</span><span> </span></div>  +
<div>-- "While mentions of stool ball in literature go back centuries, this is the earliest “serious” contest of the game I’m aware of. It’s especially interesting because the competitors were men. Of course, we have no idea what form of the game they were playing, but presumably it more closely resembled the structured form that women began playing in the 19th century as opposed to the milkmaid version of centuries past."  </div> <div> </div> <div> <div>-- "Sittingbourn lies between London and Canterbury. The Swan is a pub that still operates, near Sittingbourn.  Homestall Lane appears to be the dividing line between the Sittingbourne area and a second area to the east centered on the town of Boughten-under-Blean. Use of the term 'county' is a bit puzzling as it is obvious that this competition did not include participants representing the entire county of Kent."</div> <div> </div> <div>"The White Horse Inn, the venue for the return match, is also still in operation today. Despite the fact that both the Swan and the White Horse are more than 235 years old, neither is listed among the top ten oldest public houses in Kent. Both sit astride the ancient London-Canterbury Road along which traveled the pilgrims documented by Chaucer in Canterbury Tales. Indeed, the White Horse Inn was mentioned in one of the tales (according to the inn's website.)"</div> <div> </div> <div>-- "A guinea from 1785 is worth roughly $100 today." [So the stakes amounted to $15,000 in today's dollars?]</div> <div> </div> <div>--  "I should have more important things than this to occupy me on a rainy [San Francisco] Sunday afternoon, but apparently not. Undoubtedly, we are scrutinizing this item more closely than it would ordinarily merit, but in Covid times I am happy for the distraction."</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> <div>from David Block, emails of 12/14-15/2020</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>===</div> <div> </div> <div>As of December 2020, Protoball's Chronology  has over 65 references to stoolball prior to 1785, and 20 more from 1785 to 1860.   Vey few of them cite male players, and fewer still cite male-only play or large stakes for winning.</div>  
S
<div><span>Shinty (aka Shinney) was played in the US prewar. Cf. the Lancaster (PA) Daily Evening Express, Feb. 2, 1860; Boston Evening Transcript, Oct. 26, 1857; New York Herald, Sept. 10, 1839 (shinty played in the Scottish games, at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken); Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Nov. 15, 1848 (boys playing shinty in the streets); NY Tribune, Nov. 25, 1859 (Caledonian Society in Hoboken); Newport Mercury, Aug. 19, 1865 (in Providence). </span></div> <div><span>In 1<span>589 the playing of golf, carrick, and </span>shinty, was<span> forbidden in the Blackfriars Yards, Glasgow, 'Sunday or week-day.' (Browning's History of Golf)</span></span><br clear="none"/><span>As was hurling. A Hurling Club was established in Buffalo in 1860. See the Buffalo Courier, June 11, 1860. Also Brooklyn. See the ad for the new Brooklyn Hurling Club, in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 31, 1860, and same Aug. 18, 1858 for a hurling match. Also in Philadelphia by 1860. See Scharf, "Philadelphia" p. 801; Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1860. Chronologies 1772.1 points out that Irish soldiers played Hurling in NYC in 1772, and that Hurling clubs were formed in San Francisco in 1853 (SF Daily Placer Times, May 16, 1853) and NYC in 1857 (NY Herald Dec. 26, 1857: Redmond, Irish sports in America).</span></div> <div><span>It appears the two games were similar, Shinty being the Scots version and Hurling the Irish. </span></div> <div><span>For more on Shinty see http://www.uscamanachd.org/documents/MacLennan_Shintysplace.pdf. For more on the Shinty-Ice Hockey connection, see Martel et al., "On the Origin of Hockey."[ba]</span></div> <p><span> </span></p>  +
1
<h3 class="post-title entry-title">"The Summer of Old-Fashioned Base Ball</h3> <div class="post-header"> </div> <div id="post-body-6483199015792047003" class="post-body entry-content">While the truth about 19th century base ball is often hard to pin down, it is pretty much universally acknowledged that the New York game enjoyed major growth immediately after the Civil War.  That was certainly the case throughout New Jersey where in 1860 [modern] base ball was pretty much limited to only a third of the state's 21 counties, but by 1870 every county had at least one base ball club.  A similar pattern played out in the city of Paterson, but with a major difference that came at the height of the post war expansion.  Initially, given the city's population and location, base ball got off to a slow start in Paterson as the first documented match (between a social and a militia organization) wasn't played until late 1857 and the first base ball clubs weren't mentioned in the media until 1860, far behind the experience of comparable [NJ]municipalities."</div> <div class="post-body entry-content"> </div> <div class="post-body entry-content">John Zinn, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A Manly</span> Game blog entry for October 2014, at URL cited above.</div> <div class="post-body entry-content"> </div> <div class="post-body entry-content">More observations for John's 1867 throwback game finds are found in <em>Supplementary Text, </em> below.</div>  +
B
<h3 class="section__subheadline">"Description</h3> <div id="ember153" class="we-truncate we-truncate--multi-line we-truncate--interactive ember-view" data-test-description=""> <div id="ember155" class="we-clamp ember-view" data-clamp=""> <p dir="ltr" data-test-bidi="">This award-winning documentary is an exploration into the generational theories about the beginnings of baseball both stateside and across the ocean. The film will bring fans of all ages closer to 'home' through a detailed look at the game's roots while also providing an unexpected, historical, and ground-breaking discovery along the way."</p> <p dir="ltr" data-test-bidi="">David Block, prizewinning author of <em>Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game </em>(U Nebraska Press, 2005), advised and participated in the filming of this one-hour MLB.com film.  For a Protoball interview with the director, see [[<a title="Sam Marchiano and the 1755 Bray Diary Find" data-serp-pos="3">Sam Marchiano and the 1755 Bray Diary Find</a>]].</p> <p dir="ltr" data-test-bidi=""> </p> <p dir="ltr" data-test-bidi=""> </p> </div> </div>  +
1
<p class="gtxtcolumn"><span class="gstxthlt"><span> </span></span></p> <p class="gtxtcolumn"><span class="gstxthlt"><span>Roswell Park was b</span></span>orn at Lebanon, Conn., in 1807, graduated at West Point, and at Union College in 1831. He died July 16, 1869.  Whether he was an errant wight is not yet known by Protoball.</p>  +
<p class="mwt-paragraph">Spink does not site a source for this item.</p> <p class="mwt-paragraph"> </p> <p class="mwt-paragraph"><span><em>Note</em>: </span> As of 2023, Protoball has 9 entries for  town ball in Illinois prior to 1856, including claims that Abe Lincoln: see </p> <p class="mwt-paragraph"> </p> <p class="mwt-paragraph">The following 1866 comparison of base ball and town ball from an Illinois source throws some light on town ball rules for that era: </p> <p>"Base Ball resembles our old-fashioned favorite game of <span class="sought_text">Town Ball</span> sufficiently to naturalize it very quickly. It is governed by somewhat elaborate rules, but the practice is quite simple. Nine persons on a side, including the Captains, play it. Four bases are placed ninety feet apart, in the figure of a diamond. The Batsman, Ball Pitcher, and one Catcher, take the same position as in <span class="sought_text">Town Ball</span>. Of the outside, besides the Pitcher and Catcher, one is posted at each base, one near the Pitcher, called the “Short Stop,”—whose duty is the same as the others in the field—to stop the ball. The Innings take the bat in rotation, as in <span class="sought_text">Town Ball</span>,—and are called by the Scorer. The ball is pitched, not thrown to them—a distance of fifty feet. The Batsman is permitted to strike at three “fair” balls, without danger of being put out by a catch, but hit or miss, must run at the third “fair” ball. He may “tip” or hit a foul ball as often as the Umpire may call foul, so he be not caught out flying, or on the first bound. When he runs, he must make the base before the ball reaches the point to which he runs, or he is out. And three men out, puts out the entire side. Those who are put out may continue to strike and run bases until the third man is out.</p> <p> </p> <p>"The Bases form a diamond, the angles of which are occupied by the Batsman and Catcher, and one of the outside at each angle. All putting out on the corners is by getting the ball there before the runner for the inside reaches the base, by catching the ball flying when a fair ball is struck, or by catching a foul ball after it is struck, either when flying or at first bound. A distinctive peculiarity of the game consists in the fact that when a ball is struck by the Batsman it must fly either on an exact angle, or inside of the angles formed by the base occupied by the Batsman, and the bases right and left of him. All balls deflecting from these angles are “foul.”</p> <p> </p> <p>"The above is merely a general view of the game. It is very easy to learn, and is capital sport, barring the cannon ball which the players are expected to catch in rather soft hands. Ladies will enjoy the game, and of course are expected as admiring spectators."</p> <p class="mwt-paragraph"><br/><strong>Source</strong><br/><span class="source" title="Source"><em>Daily <span class="sought_text">Illinois</span> State Journal</em>, May 1866:</span></p> <p class="mwt-paragraph"><span class="source" title="Source">see https://protoball.org/Clipping:A_comparison_of_base_ball_and_town_ball, from the Hershberger Clippings Data Base. </span></p>  
D
<p class="p1">"Several entrepreneurs set up businesses that toured the country in the 1930s, with a truckload of trained donkeys, staging games for a fee. Service clubs, churches and civic groups would hire the companies and offer the public a chance to see local notables attempt to play baseball mounted on the quadrupeds. The profits from the show would go to their charitable and civic projects.</p> <p class="p1">"Typically, the game would be a contest between the members of a service club or a church group against a sports team or another civic group. Invariably, the players were well known in the community, and often some of its leaders. The public found great amusement in watching the players’ inept attempts to guide the donkeys. They were often tossed head over heels to the ground, or otherwise outsmarted by their stubborn mounts."</p> <p class="p1">Steven Thorning, <em>Donkey Baseball Was Popular it the mid-20th Century</em>, November 26, 2010; accessed 10/24/2020 via a search for <thorning donkey baseball>.</p> <p> </p> <p>The May 2019 Bossier (Louisiana?) site above adds that, based on a 1934 news article, fielders were allowed to dismount to retrieve hit balls, as long that they held on to the beast's reins. </p>  +
1
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">While "hits per at-bat" has become the modern form of batting average, and was the only average calculated by the official statistician beginning in the inaugural season of the National League in 1876, the definition of a "time at bat" has varied over time. To Dobson, a time at bat included any time a batter made an "out, a run, or is left on his base." However, walks were excluded from the calculation of at-bats beginning in 1877, with a temporary reappearance in 1887 when they were counted the same as hits. Times hit by the pitcher were excluded beginning in 1887, sacrifice bunts in 1894, times reached on catcher's interference in 1907, and sacrifice flies in 1908 (though, they went in and out of the rules multiple times over the next few decades and weren't firmly excluded until 1954).</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;">Consequently, based on Dobson's calculation, walks would have counted as an at-bat but not as a hit, so a negative result for the batter. This was the case in the first year of the National League as well, but was "fixed" by the second year. A fielder's choice would  have been recorded as an at-bat and not a hit under Dobson's system, as it is today.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,”  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">p 1 – 9:</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p>  
D
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Eugene OR (1870 population 861) is about 120 miles S of Portland.</span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">One report said that the matches were played in the town square.<br/></span></p>  +
1
<p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Protoball notes, circa 2010</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p>The writer, Benjamin Silliman, thus implies that an American [or at least Connecticut] analog to trap ball was played, using fungo-style batting [trap ball was not usually a running game, so the American game may have been a simple form of fungo].</p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p>His second comparison is consistent with our understanding or how English cricket and American wicket were played in about 1800. However, it seems odd that he would refer to "our cricket" and not "our wicket"   It is possible that a form of cricket - using, presumably, the smaller ball - was played in the US that retained the older long, low wickets known in 1700 English cricket.</p> <p>Note that if the US wicket was only 3 or 4 inches high, a rolling ball would most likely dislodge the bail.</p> <p> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">From David Block, 2/12/2014:<br/></span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">"This reference raises some questions, which may not be answerable. Was he implying that striking a ball, fungo-style, was the general method of ball-play in New England, or was he only making a more narrow comparison to how a self-serve type of ball game was played at home. If the latter, might this have been 'bat-ball'?"</span></span></p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> </p> <p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">"It appears that the author was previously unaware of English cricket. What he refers to as "our cricket" is obviously wicket. This was an educated man, but it was also apparently his first trip overseas. My first reaction was to be very surprised at his apparent ignorance of English cricket, but it may well be that things that seem like obvious knowledge to us today may not have been so in the America of two hundred years ago."</span></span></p>  
I
<p>"<em>Fast.  </em>This time-hallowed, if not time-honored occasion, was observed in the usual way.  The ministers preached to pews exhibiting a beggarly emptiness, upon the sins of the nation -- a frightful subject enough, heaven knows.  The b-hoys smoked cigars, kicked football, played round ball, long ball, and old cat, and went generally into the <em>outward</em> observances peculiar to the occasion. [Nashua (NH) Telegraph]."</p> <p>from the <em>Boston Courier</em>, April 14, 1847.</p> <p>Stephen Katz observes: "The "fast" referred to was probably Thanksgiving, celebrated on April 13, 1847."</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
L
<p>"A Society of Gentlemen" was the same rubric used by the authors of the first  Encyclopedia Britannica, also published in 1768. This Dictionary was apparently intended to be a companion work by those men, or perhaps a copycat work by imitators (the Britannica was essentially Scottish and first printed in Edinburgh), though evidently an unsuccessful one.- Bill Hicklin</p>  +
I
<p>"A boy named Plaff was killed at West Chester, Pa., by being hit under the ear by a ball-club."</p>  +
E
<p>"And it is a fact known to very few, that away back in the early history of Evansville, ball was the most popular game. But it was then called town ball. On every Saturday at 12 o'clock the great majority of the wholesale and retail houses closed their doors and the merchants would go to a large vacant common which now is filled up by Chandler Avenue, Blackford Avenue and Mulberry street, there to engage in a game of town ball. Among the best players of that time were John Wymond, who for many years was in the paper business here, William E. Hollingsworth, Thomas J. Hollingsworth, Edward E. Law, Dr. I. Haas, the late Wiley Little, Samuel E. Gilbert, Henry Dodge, Billy Caldwell, Billy Baker, John S. Hopkins and a number of others who were the leading men of Evansville in those days. The players used a large rubber ball, solid and almost the same size as the league ball now in use. To catch the ball on the bounce or after it had hit the ground the first time, was considered perfectly fair. This would be a joke at present. There was only one base or home plate where the batter stood. There was only one batter of course and no catcher and the game was simply like batting flies for practice at any league park, with this exception. Whenever the fielder (and they were all fielders except the man who stood at the bat,) caught the ball either before it struck the ground or before it struck the ground the second time, he marched in, took his place at the bat and tossing up his own ball (for there were no pitchers), knocked it as far as he could. The great point of skill was in knocking the ball so that it would not bounce. In other words, in knocking grounders or in knocking it as far as he could, so that the fielders could not catch it on the bounce from where they were stationed. I remember that my father, the late Samuel E. Gilbert, took a great interest in the game and would as soon have missed the Sunday morning choir as he could his Saturday afternoon ball game and he imagined that he was a great catcher, but one day he got directly under a high fly which slipped through his hands and struck him exactly on the bridge of the nose and for two weeks he had about the worst pair of black eyes ever seen in the city of Evansville. This club played for several years and even after base ball had gotten a start some of these old timers imagined that the new game would be equally as simple as the old one. So on a certain afternoon a lot of the old merchants, all of whom had been town ball players, challenged the clerks for a game. This was pie for the clerks, but the old timers did not know it. We all went to the park and I suppose through having a relative in the game, I was selected as pitcher and used nothing but a plain drop ball, but there was not one of those old timers who hit any closer than about one foot from it, and they actually had the nerve to order me from the plate on the grounds that I was not playing fair. When their turn came to pitch, what we did to those straight balls was good and plenty. I do not remember the score, but I do remember that that was the last time the old timers ever challenged any of the younger generation. They seemed to realize that things had changed since their day. It was in the '50s that Charlie Wentz a dashing young college graduate from the east, came here and was appointed agent of the Adams Express Company, which was then in Chandler block where the barber shop now is. He was the first one to introduce the regular game of base ball in this city and was assisted by the late Emerson B. Morgan, also an eastern man, and George Bartlett, the young member of the firm of John H. Bartlett & Co., who were in the dry goods business here.</p> <p>This was in the year 1866. I do not remember just where they first played but it was on the open grounds and a huge back stop of boards was put up just behind the catcher. The game at that time was new, even in the east and the rules far different from what they are at the present. The pitcher had a great deal better show as did the batter and such scores as two to one or even 10 to 5 were unheard of. They generally ran between the 20's and the 50’s."</p> <p>Gilbert, History of Evansville pp 106-108</p>  
1
<p>"Athletic" proved to be the most durable club name in baseball.</p>  +
M
<p>"Barton ad Flamborough" = The clubs of Barton and West Flamborough?</p>  +
S
<p>"Before baseball became popular among Nicaraguans, the British, who occupied the Atlantic Coast, introduced cricket. However, a businessman from the U.S. named Albert Addlesburg who lived in Bluefields in the 1880s became fed up with local sports authorities and convinced two cricket teams to switch to baseball instead. The two baseball teams had their first game in 1887, and the first official games took place in Managua in 1891." http://cultureboxes.unm.edu/countries/Nicaragua/resources/Culture-Box-of-Nicaragua.pdf</p>  +
E
<p>"East New York" is an alternate name for the town of New Lots, on Long Island, which was annexed by Brooklyn in 1886. [ba]</p>  +
G
<p>"Gift is a German word for "poison."  Thus it is conceivable that the German game derived from the French game of Balle Empoisonee.  One can speculate that players were put out when a ball touched them.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
1
<p>"It seems to me that sky-ball was a trapball-type game."  -- Tom Altherr, 2.19.2021</p> <p>A gable is an end-wall of a structure.  Tom suggests that the first game reported may have been barn ball.</p> <p> </p>  +
-
<p>"More recent art from elsewhere in China shows polo-like games being played on horseback with sticks"</p> <p> evidence for ball games in Eurasia from ca. 3000-year-old Yanghai tombs in the Turfan depression of Northwest China Patrick Wertmanna,⁎,</p> <p>"'We cannot determine based on current evidence that these balls can be linked with polo,' says Jeffrey Blomster, an archeologist at George Washington University . . . 'the fact that all three are nearly the same size suggests a similar use for all three.'"</p> <p>For comments on the game played with these balls see <em>Supplemental Text, </em>below.</p> <p> </p> <p>[] For information on balls found from even earlier times, in Egyptian tombs from 2600 BCE, see [[-2600c.1]]</p> <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" lang="en"> </h1> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
I
<p>"Old Jacksonborough" is about 19 miles west of Charleston in Colleton County.</p>  +
R
<p>"Rock City" was a nickname for Nashville in the 19th century. See the book "Nashville, Tennessee: The Rock City of the Great and Growing South," published around 1900. http://books.google.com/books?id=nCptNQEACAAJ</p> <p><br/>There was also a separate Rock City club located in Culleoka, TN at a later period.</p>  +
E
<p>"The Eckfords disbanded as a base ball club in November of 1872 but remained a club until 1965."  -- Eric Miklich (email of 11/13/2020).</p>  +
<p>"The Field" side was allowed 11 players and were given six outs each inning.  Future impact player, Al Reach played second for "The Field" and his brother, Bob, played centerfield.  "The Field" side hit four home runs (one each by the Reach brothers) to the "First Nine's" one.</p> <p>Note that Henry Chadwick is listed as a member or the Atlantic of Brooklyn Club.</p>  +
J
<p>"The Julien Base Ball Club disbanded and a new club formed called the "Excelsior."" - Dubuque Daily Herald, Apr. 21, 1867</p>  +
T
<p>"The Tuscaroras allege that unfair means were used by the Senecas in putting on fresh men at the end of every game, which with the Tuscarorasis not an ancient custom."</p>  +
1
<p>"The quoits part seems to have dropped out of usage pretty quickly, and they changed their name to the Winona BBC the following year.  The Winonas disbanded in 1864, bequeathing their trophies to the Keystones."</p>  +
E
<p>"To combat against gambling and regulate the fair play of the game, Black Hills baseball clubs began to formally organize, providing bylaws for the club and written rules to govern the conduct of the players and the game. This was solidified on August 11, 1885, when the “Black Hills Base Ball League” was officially organized. League members included the Metropolitans of Deadwood, Eighty-Stamps of Rapid City, Athletes of Fort Meade, Belt Club of Central City and Terraville, Red Stockings of Spearfish, and the Sturgis Nine of Sturgis. The Black Hills Base Ball League was the first attempt at creating a regulated consortium of Black Hills teams, a precedent that would continue into the twentieth century." From "Baseball in the Mining Camps," city of Deadwood website.</p>  +
W
<p>"W. D." may be Dr. William H. Doughty (1836-1905), whose brother Joshua played in the 1860 game, and whose son William (1856-1923) played on the Lightfoot with Woodrow Wilson postwar. [ba]</p>  +
1
<p>"though no larger than a good-sized baseball" indicates that baseball sizes were not standardized.</p>  +
R
<p> </p> <div> <p>"CRICKET MATCH – There will be a cricket match between the “Aristonican Ball Club,” of Roxbury, and the “Rough and Ready Ball club,” Brookline, Saturday, Oct. 29, commencing at 2-1/2 o’clock, on a triangular park, situated on Park street, Brookline. This will be the first match played by the “Aristonicans” since their organization."</p> <p>Source: <em>Boston Post</em>, October 18, 1859:4.</p> <p>Joanne Hulbert's 2/23 comment: </p> <p>"[T]here still exists a triangular shaped park on Park Street, in front of St. Mark’s Church. It conforms to the description stated above.)  . . .  I did notice that the “triangular park” mentioned still exists today. You can see it when you use Google Maps and put in Park Street, Brookline. Hmmm, wonder if there could be a vintage game played there today to commemorate the event?"</p> </div>  +
1
<p> </p> <p> "Rolling circle" had been drafted as "hoop," and thus does not connote ballplaying . Cricket writers have seen "flying ball" as a cricket reference, but one Gray scholar cites "Bentley's Print" as a basis for concluding that Gray was referring to trap ball in this line. Steel and Lyttelton note that this poem was first published in 1747.</p> <p>The phrase "urge the flying ball" is re-used in later writings, presumably to evoke cricket playing.</p>  +
<p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
S
<p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
1
<p> </p> <p> </p> <p><em><span> </span></em><span><span> Jeff Kittel" -- "A spare box score shows the Ottawa Club winning a three-inning contest, 230 to 207.  It appears to have been a game of wicket."</span></span></p>  +
<p> </p> <p> </p> <p>From leading NJ base ball researcher John Zinn, 1/10/2023</p> <div class="default-style">"For the moment, I'd recommend holding off on designating this or any other 1855 game as the first game New Jersey clubs played by New York rules.  I believe the only things we know about the July game is there were nine on a side and the score was 31-10.  If they were playing by New York rules the game should have ended when the Newark club reached 21, although it's possible they reached 31 in the top of an inning and so the game didn't end until the Oriental (later the Olympic Club) had their last at bat.</div> <div class="default-style"> </div> <div class="default-style">It seems pretty certain that in 1855 both the Newark and Jersey City clubs started out playing either a different "baseball" game or a hybrid of something they knew and the New York game.  In the case of Jersey City, the early involvement of the New York clubs playing at Elysian Fields most likely got them on to the New York rules.  How that happened in Newark is less certain, but by the end of the 1855 season, the teams from both cities were playing by the New York rules.</div> <div class="default-style"> </div> <div class="default-style">If these first New Jersey clubs started out playing by something other than New York rules, it suggests as far as New Jersey was concerned, Tom Gilbert's suggestion of New York/Brooklyn players moving someplace and taking the game with them doesn't apply.  Otherwise, they would have started out playing by the New York rules.</div> <div class="default-style"> </div> <div class="default-style">In the relatively near future, I'll put sometime into applying some criteria to the limited information we have about the 1855 games and see if I can come up with a systematic approach to identifying the first game by New York rules.  First, however, I want to spend a week or so intensely looking at whether I can find a feasible explanation or explanations as to how the New York game got from Manhattan to Newark."</div> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  
U
<p> </p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>June 1858 -- "The Cause Was Rum"</em></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria;">The game of ball played at Braggville last Saturday afternoon, between the Holliston and Medway boys, was the occasion for a great gathering of all the loafers from the neighboring towns, with a fair sprinkling of very respectable looking men. The fact of the matter was, as we understand, a row and fight. The cause was rum. A large quantity, it is said, was brought on to the ground and disposed of, and even sold at the hotel. We commend that establishment to the attention of the authorities in Holliston."  <em>Boston Herald, </em>June 26, 1858,.  Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.</span></p>  +
1
<p> </p> <p><span>"Our Village" was published over time in four volumes beginning in 1824. The second volume, published in 1826, includes the short story “The Tenants of Beechgrove” which contains this baseball quote on page 28. A year later, 1827, the story appeared in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Ladies’ Pocket Magazine</span>, Vol. I, page 157.   -- David Block, 9/25/2020</span></p>  +
<p> </p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span><span><span>"</span>Wheaton's 1837 Gotham rules may have resembled the Knickerbocker rules forged 8 years later.  He said, in 1887,  that "the code I then formulated is substantially that in use today" -- after a span of 5 decades.  (In the meantime, however, the Knicks went back to using the bound rule.)"</span></span></p> <p><strong>Note:</strong> Brown knows that the unsigned article was written by Wheaton from internal evidence, such as the opening of the article, in the voice of an unnamed reporter: “An old pioneer, formerly a well-known lawyer and politician, now living in Oakland, related the following interesting history of how it originated to an EXAMINER reporter: ‘In the thirties I lived at the corner of Rutgers street and East Broadway in New York. I was admitted to the bar in ’36, and was very fond of physical exercise….’”</p> <p>Wheaton wrote that the Gotham Club abandoned the bound rule . . . but if so, the Knickerbockers later re-instituted it, and it remained in effect until the 1860s.</p> <p>Wheaton also recalled that the Knickerbockers at some point changed the base-running rule, which had dictated that whenever a batter "struck out" [made an out, we assume, as strikeouts came later], base-runners left the field.  Under a new interpretation, runners only came in after the third out was recorded. </p>  +
L
<p> </p> <p><span>[] Of all known baserunning games, langball may be the only one that uses strikers suspended above the ground.</span></p> <div dir="ltr">[] "Volleyball was another YMCA innovation, making three sports (that I know of) with two of them still played today.  Not too shabby, and a fine illustration of the influence of Muscular Christianity on sport."</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">--Richard Hershberger, 3/5/2021</div> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p> </p>  +
W
<p> </p> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Some Club Highlights</span> </strong></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>June 1858 -- Scheduling Hurdles Thwart "Friendly Game" with Westboro Club<br/></em></span></p> <p><strong>Clip 1:</strong>  "We have received several communications respecting base ball playing, from which it appears that the Eagle club of Westboro, voted June 18<sup>th</sup> to invite the Winthrop Club of Holliston, to go to Westboro and play a friendly game of Base Ball on the 26<sup>th</sup> of June."</p> <p>"In reply the Winthrops, June 21<sup>st</sup>, stated that it would not be convenient for them to go to Westboro, but invited the Eagles to Holliston to play a game on the same day. This is considered by the Eagles a declinaton of their challenge."<em>  Boston Herald</em>, pg. 4,  June 23, 1858.  Provided by Joanne Hulbert 7/28/2015.</p> <p><strong>Clip 2:</strong> "The President of the Eagle Base Ball Club of Westboro, says in reference to a former statement, that the Eagles did not <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>challenge</em></span>  the Winthrop Club of Holliston, but extended to them an invitation to meet them at Westboro as the guests of the Eagle’s and pass a few hours in the pleasant recreation of a game of base ball on Saturday the 26<sup>th</sup>. If the Winthrops had been <em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">challenged</span>,</em>  they would have had the choice of their ground."   <em>Boston Herald</em>, pg. 4, June 25, 1858.  Provided by Joanne Hulbert 7/28/2015.</p> <p>--</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>June 1858 -- "The Cause Was Rum"</em><br/></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"The game of ball played at Braggville (a former postal village about 4 miles SW of Holliston) last Saturday afternoon, between the Holliston and Medway boys, was the occasion for a great gathering of all the loafers from the neighboring towns, with a fair sprinkling of very respectable looking men. The fact of the matter was, as we understand, a row and fight. The cause was rum. A large quantity, it is said, was brought on to the ground and disposed of, and even sold at the hotel. We commend that establishment to the attention of the authorities in Holliston."  <em>Boston Herald, </em>June 26, 1858,.  Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">--<br/></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>July 1858 -- Winthrop Club Hosts Players On Local Clubs, Including the Olympic Club of Boston</em></span></span></p> <p><strong>Clip 1:</strong> "The Winthrop Ball Club of Holliston, it is rumored, will have a visit on Monday the 5<sup>th</sup> from the Olympic Ball Club of Boston. There will be some playing, but no match game. The Olympians were the competitors of the Winthrops on the Boston Common some three weeks since, and how magnanimously the Olympians received their defeat, and how generously they treated the Winthrops as their guests; will not be forgotten by the members of the Holliston Club. We anticipate that both clubs will have a good time on Monday.</p> <p><strong>Clip 2:</strong> "Since the above was in type, we learn that the Olympic does not visit Holliston as a club, but that members come in their individual capacity, and will mingle with the members of the Winthrop as personal friends. There will, probably, be some playing however."  <span style="font-family: Cambria;"><em>Boston Herald, </em>July 3, 1858,. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria;">--<br/></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria;"> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>July 1858 -- Celebrated Game With the Massapoag Club of Sharon MA</em></span></span></p> <p><strong>Clip</strong> 1, Boston: "Base Ball.  A Match Game.  The Winthrop Ball Club of Holliston, have received and accepted a challenge from the Sharon Club to play a match game. It will come off this day commencing at 9 o’clock, A.M., at the ball ground of the Winthrop Club, and probably continue into the afternoon. “Mine Host” Francis of the Winthrop House will get up a good dinner for the occasion."<em>  Boston Herald, </em>July 24, 1858. <span style="font-family: Cambria;">Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><strong>Clip 2, </strong>Lowell: "</span>MIDDLESEX AHEAD OF NORFOLK. The Holliston and Sharon base ball clubs, both of which have beaten the Boston club, played a game on Saturday to test the question of superiority. Holliston beat, making 100 runs to 69."<span style="font-family: Cambria;">  <em> Lowell Daily Citizen and News</em>, page 2, Monday, July 26, 1858. <span style="font-family: Cambria;">Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.</span><br/></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><strong>Clip 3,</strong> Dedham: "MATCH AT BASE BALL --  A great match of base ball was played on Saturday, at Holliston, in the presence of a large company of spectators between the Winthrop Club of Holliston, and the Massapoag Club of Sharon. The latter club won the first innings.  The Winthrop Club, however, came off victorious, having scored 101 tallies against 61 by the Massapoag boys.  The playing was very spirited, and the utmost good feeling prevailed throughout.  There were 14 men on a side, and nearly all played remarkably well.  J. W. Cutter, of the Winthrop Club, was hit in the eye, which delayed the playing somewhat.  The referees were Messrs. A. H. Johnson, A. C. Daniels, and B. H. Hoyt.  After the game, both Clubs had an excellent supper at the Winthrop House, Holliston, and lively speeches were made. " [[[section here won't load]]]  <span style="font-family: Cambria;"><em>Dedham Gazette, </em>July 31, 1858. </span><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><strong>Clip 4</strong>, Milford: "</span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">BASE BALL. – A match game was played on last Saturday between the Winthrop club of Holliston and the Massapoag Club of Sharon. The challenge came from the Sharon Club, which the Holliston boys accepted, at the risk of losing some of their laurels won in former contests. The Sharon boys had a fine reputation, and that deservedly as their playing evinced. But the Winthrops carried the day handsomely. The game commenced about 10 o’clock, fourteen on a side. At the close of the first two hours, when the playing was suspended, both clubs partook of a fine lunch, and enjoyed an intermission of some twenty minutes. In resuming the game both clubs entered with the firmest determination to beat, and they had the highest incitement to it, for it was estimated that not less than fifteen hundred spectators were present, as deeply interested as themselves. The game close between 3 and 4 o’clock, P.M. In reckoning the tallies the Massapoag numbered 61 – the Winthrops 101. The playing was very spirited, and gave general satisfaction to all parties. It was particularly pleasant to see that no hard feeling was engendered by the spirit of rivalry. The Winthrop boys wore their honors with a quiet magnanimity, and the Massapoags bore their defeat with a dignified grace worthy of all praise. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">In the following table the names of members from both clubs are given, and the result of the game exhibited in detail: – [[[box score goes here]]]</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The referees were Messrs. A.H. Johnson of the Massapoag, A.C. Daniels of the Winthrop, B.H. Hoyt of the Olympic, Boston. The tallymen were Messrs. Johnson of the Massapoag, J.M. Hawks and William R. Thayer of the Winthrop.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> </span></p> <p>At the close of the game, the members of both clubs, with invited guests, repaired to the Winthrop House, where they sat down to a bounteous repast prepared by Mr. Francis, its enterprising landlord. After supper, the President of the Winthrop club addressed the company in an elegant and appropriate speech, which he closed by introducing a fine sentiment, contributed by E.J. Cutler, A.M., as follows:</p> <p>             <em>The Massapoag Club of Sharon: –</em></p> <p>               The rose of Sharon blooms today,</p> <p>               No flower blossoms sweeter;</p> <p>               But you will smell her sweetest scent,</p> <p>               When you have gently beat her.</p> <p>             The President of the Massapoag Club responded in a very pleasing and effective style. The remarks were greeted with much applause, and the utmost good feeling prevailed throughout.  Several other speeches and sentiments were introduced and responded to during the exercises, and the whole affair wound up in good shape. Both clubs afterwards repaired to the ball ground and participated in a friendly game.</p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">            The constable of the town deserve much credit for their efficiency in preserving general good order during the day, and the promptness with which they arrested several “outsiders,” who were foolish enough to become intoxicated.    </span><span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><em>M</em></span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><em>ilford Journal</em>, July 31, 1858.  <span style="font-family: Cambria;">Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.</span> </span><span style="font-family: Cambria;"> </span></p>  
1
<p> </p> <p><strong>Note:  </strong>Whitman's text also presented at John Thorn's <em>Our Game</em> at <a class="ydp55524770yiv9689899570moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/opening-day-e5f9021c5dda" rel="nofollow">https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/opening-day-e5f9021c5dda</a>.</p> <p><strong>Note:  </strong>Other connections between Whitman and base ball at at [[1845.31]], [[1855.9]], and [[1858.25]].</p> <p> </p>  +
<p> </p> <p><strong>Note: </strong>George Thompson has conducted research on the backgrounds of the listed players: personal communications, 11/3/2003. He found a range of players' ages from 19 to the mid-30's. It is held in PBall file #1825.2.</p>  +
<p> </p> <p>Camp Doubleday is described in an 1896 source as "just outside Brooklyn city limits."  See:</p> <p>https://museum.dmna.ny.gov/unit-history/artillery/5th-heavy-artillery-regiment/prison-pens-south; Other sources locate it on Long Island, NY.</p> <p>A third source locates Camp Doubleday in Northwest Washington DC:  https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/dc.html#NW</p> <p>So <em>which location</em> is depicted on this letterhead?</p> <p>[1] From John Thorn email, 2/5/2022;  "<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Camp Doubleday appears to be in DC. It was also known as Fort Massachusetts. [SOURCE: </span></span><span>HISTORY OF THE SEVENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS; WHAT IT ENDURED AND ACCOMPLISHED ; CONTAINING DESCRIPTIONS OF ITS TWENTY -FIVE BATTLES ; ITS MARCHES ; ITS CAMP AND BIVOUAC SCENES ; WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF FIFTY - THREE OFFICERS, AND A COMPLETE RECORD OF THE ENLISTED MEN . BY A. P. SMITH, LATE FIRST LIEUTENANT AND Q. M. , SEVENTY- SIXTH N. Y. VOLS. ILLUSTRATED WITH FORTY -NINE ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, BY J. P. DAVIS & SPEER, OF NEW YORK ; AND A LITHOGRAPH , BY L. N. ROSENTHAL, OF PHILADELPHIA . CORTLAND, N. Y. PRINTED FOR THE PUBLISHER. 1867]"</span></p> <p><span>[2] From Bruce Allardice email, 2/5/2022: </span></p> <div dir="ltr">"The Camp Doubleday mentioned is the one near Washington DC. The 76th regiment was not stationed near Brooklyn in 1862, but was stationed in/near DC. It was in a brigade commanded by Abner Doubleday, hence the 'Camp Doubleday' designation."</div> <p>--- </p> <p>David Block suggests the drawing (see below: game is shown near the image's center) shows Drive Ball, a fungo game.  See  <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Baseball Before We Knew It</span> ,(2005),  page 198.  See also the sketchy Protoball Glossary entry on [[Drive Ball]].</p> <p>-- </p> <p>One auction house in 2015 claimed <span> "This is perhaps the very first piece of American stationery depicting Union soldiers playing baseball. Amazingly, this lithograph has it all by showing Union soldiers at play in Camp Doubleday which, of course, was named after the game's creator Abner Doubleday!"</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">-- </span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">From John Thorn, 2/22/22: "Lithographer is Louis N. Rosenthal of Philadelphia. Born 1824."  See </span></span><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;" href="https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A79709">https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A79709</a></p> <p> </p>  
<p> </p> <p>In the 1880s we find a claim that catchers' gloves had been known in the 1860s:</p> <p>"An exchange says that 'Jim White, the third baseman of the Detroit club, was the first man who ever used gloves while catching behind the bat.'  This is a mistake. Delavarge, the catcher of the old Knickerbockers, an amateur club of Albany, used gloves when playing behind the bat in the sixties."  <em>The Sporting News</em> July 5, 1885.</p> <p>But in a 9/21/16 19CBB posting, Bob Tholkes wrote:</p> <p>"I've read several Knick of Albany game accounts in which Delavarge played without running into any mention of gloves. If he wore them, it would have been to protect an injured hand (he was a blacksmith, if memory serves), and not routinely."</p> <p>And then David Arcidiacono offered the 1870 Allison item listed above. </p> <p> </p>  +
<p> </p> <p>Prisoner's base is not a ball game, and bull-pen is not a safe-haven game.</p>  +
<p> </p> <p>Richard Hershberger notes, 9/12/2017:</p> <p>"My opinion has been that this is unsubstantiated, but plausible.  I want to focus here on the bit about the writer's nephew working for Harwood.  I just made the connection with this description of baseball manufacture, from four years earlier:</p> <p><br/>'On the upper floor of the establishment sat several men with baskets of dampened chamois and buckskin clippings at their sides.  Before each workman stood a stout piece of joist, in the end of which was inserted a mold, hemispherical in shape, in which the balls are formed.  Taking a handful of cuttings from the basket, the workman pressed them together in his hands and then worked about the mass a few yards of strong woollen yarn.  Placing the embryo ball in the mold, he pounded it into shape with a heavy flat mallet, and then wound on more yarn and gave the ball another pounding.  After testing its weight on a pair of scales and its diameter with a tape measure he threw the ball into a basket and began another.  When the newly-made balls are thoroughly dried they are carried to the sewing-room on the floor below, where they are to receive their covers.  Forty young women sat at tables sewing on the covers of horse-hide.  Grasping a ball firmly in her left hand, with her right hand one of the young women thrust a three-cornered needle through the thick pieces of the cover and drew them firmly together.  A smart girl can cover two or three dozen of the best and eight dozen of the cheaper grades of balls in a day.  The wages earned weekly range from $7 to $9.  The balls are afterward taken to the packing-room, where the seams are smoothed down and the proper stamps are put on.  The best balls are made entirely of yarn and India-rubber. “My brother was one of the pioneers in this business,” said the manufacturer.  “He was the inventor of the two-piece cover now in general use throughout the country.  If my brother had only patented his invention the members of our family would not be wearing diamonds instead of bits of white glass in our shirt fronts.  Ball-covers are made, almost without exception, of horse-hide, which costs $3 a side.  We used to obtain our supply from John Cart, a leather dealer in the Swamp for nearly thirty-five years.  We are obliged to go to Philadelphia now, there being no merchant here who keeps horse-hide leather.  The capacity of our factory when we get our new molding machines in working order will be about 15,000 daily, each machine being expected to turn out 1,200 balls daily.'  (<em>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</em> June 14, 1884, quoting the <em>New York Tribune</em>)</p> <p><br/>"It is the second paragraph that jumped out at me.  Was C. H. Jackson's nephew working for Harwood because that was his father's business?  It seems plausible.  The Post-Dispatch piece doesn't identify the manufacturer, or even the city.  I have been unable to find the Tribune original.  If anyone else can, this might shed some light on the question.  Or confuse it further."</p>  
<p> </p> <p>Richard Hershberger, <em>150 years ago in baseball </em>(FB posting, 4/4/2022)</p> <p>"Chadwick on amateur clubs. He is optimistic that amateur baseball will be more popular than ever, since the existence of separate amateur and professional associations ensures that no one will mistake an amateur player as being a professional.</p> <p><br/><span>There is a lot of classic Chad here. He hopes for an amateur "revival," and so reports that it will happen. He quietly passes over the detail that there were separate associations last year, too. He defines professionals as members of any club that "either pays its players regular salaries or pays them by a share of gate receipts." Then in the next paragraph he adds a class of "quasi amateur organizations" without explaining what these are. This is Chad in his ideologically-motivated hand-waving mode.</span><br/><br/><span>In reality there is no need for a revival. Amateur baseball was doing just fine. Chad is right that there were far more amateur teams than professional. The same is true today. It could hardly be otherwise. But notice the three specific clubs he identifies: the Knickerbockers, Gothams, and Excelsiors. These are the kind of amateur clubs he likes, on the old fraternal club model. This model is, in 1872, irrelevant. Those three clubs are dinosaurs. The amateur club of this era is nine guys, with perhaps one or two substitutes, organized for the purpose of playing--and beating!--other, similarly organized clubs. These clubs are amateur or semi-professional or professional precisely to the extent that they can persuade people to pay to watch them play. Chadwick's idea of how baseball should be organized is a thing of the past. He will figure this out eventually, but we need to give him time to process." </span></p>  +
<p> </p> <p>See [[1831.7]] for an earlier  assembly involving the same two hosts. </p>  +
<p> </p> <p>Tom Altherr comments that while Mrs. Bascom disdained such activities on Sundays, she had "left valuable evidence of the seemingly commonplace status ball play had in her day in the South.  Moreover, despite the ambiguity of her [May 9] diary entry, African Americans may have been playing ball, perhaps even with whites."  </p>  +
T
<p> </p> <p>Was this schoolyard game a significant step in the evolution toward modern base ball? </p> <p>We welcome input on the nature and place of the Union Hall game in the evolution of modern base ball.</p> <p>Protoball has seen many references to what amounts to foul territory in single wicket cricket, but all of them seem to simply disallow base-running when a hit ball goes past the batter.  Was the use of foul ground for forward hits common in American ballplaying?</p>  +
1
<p> </p> <p>[] Richard Hershberger adds that one can not be sure that these were the same sides that played on October 21/25, noting that the <em>Morning Post</em> refers here just to New York "players", and not to the New York Club.</p> <p>[] See also [[1845.4]] for the October 21/25 games.</p> <p>[] John Thorn, 11/16/2022, points out that "<span>Eight to the side was the norm in 1845, as Adams had not yet created the position of shortstop."</span></p> <p><span>[] In January 2023, a further question arose: Was this game played by modern rules?  Could base ball's first known match game have been played in Brooklyn . . . . and on a cricket pitch?  It was evidently played to 21 runs, and its eight players preceded the invention of a 9th, a shortstop. </span></p> <p><span>Bob Tholkes, to Protoball, 1/30/2023: "<span>It’s a judgement. Wheaton, the writer of the Knick rules umpired the later two [1845 matches] so I’ve assumed they were played by them…don’t know that about the first game." </span><br/></span></p> <p> </p>  +
R
<p> </p> <table class="stats"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p>"Baseball didn't take root in Richmond until 1866, and the pioneer appears to have been Alexander Babcock, a New Yorker who played for Atlantic of Brooklyn in the 1850s, but went south and fought for the Confederacy, settling in Richmond after the war. He founded the Richmond Club, probably the first there, and then the Pastimes, which was a sort of City All-Stars and touring team."  -- Bill Hicklin, 10/5/2020</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>  +
1
<p> <strong>Note:</strong> Seymour did not name the seven listed clubs; drat.</p> <p>As of mid-2013, Protoball lists a total of 30 clubs operating in the NYC area New York State:  <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>nine</em></span> were in Brooklyn (Atlantic, Bedford, Columbia, Continental, Eckford, Excelsior, Harmony, Putnam, and Washington), <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>five</em></span> in Manhattan (Baltic, Eagle, Empire, Gotham, and Knickerbocker -- all but the Baltic playing one or more games at Hoboken), <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>two</em></span> (Atlantic of Jamaica, Astoria) in Queens, and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">two</span> (Union, Young America) in Morrisania [Bronx].  See [[<a>http://protoball.org/Clubs_in_NY</a>]]  In addition, <em>twelve</em> clubs are listed in New Jersey (Empire, Excelsior, Fear Not, Newark Senior, Newark Junior, Oriental-cum-Olympic, Pavonia, Palisades, Pioneer, St. John, and Washington). See[[<a>http://protoball.org/Clubs_in_NJ</a>]]. </p> <p>These clubs played in about 35 reported match games; over fifteen reports of intramural play are also known.  There are reports of only one junior club (in NJ) and match play by one "second nine" (a Knickerbocker match game).</p> <p>Corrections and additions are welcome. </p>  +
<p> <strong>Note</strong> that this find comes five years before town ball is seen in Philadelphia.</p> <p> From Bruce Allardice, email of 6/9/2021:</p> <div dir="ltr"><span>"In the year 1823, Dr. John G. Coffin, established a journal in Boston entitled, <em>"The Boston Medical Intelligencer</em>, devoted to the cause of physical education, and to the means of preventing and curing diseases." The motto in the title page was as follows :- "The best part of the medical art, is the avoiding of pain." This journal some five or six years afterward, became the "<em>Boston Medical and Surgical Journal</em>," "</span></div> <div dir="ltr"><span> </span></div> <div dir="ltr"><span>Dr. John G. Coffin (1769-1828), married. Eliza Rice.</span></div> <div dir="ltr"><span> </span></div> <div dir="ltr"><span>This is undoubtedly one of the petitioners for the gymnasium.</span></div> <div dir="ltr"><span>The mentioned William Sullivan is probably Judge William Sullivan (1774-1839), a prominent local politician and lawyer.</span></div> <p> </p>  +
A
<p> It had 2039 residents in 1870.</p>  +
S
<p> It had 3045 residents in 1870.</p>  +
1
<p> It is interesting that the game of wicket is not mentioned, given Ashland's location in western MA.</p> <p>As of Jan 2013, this is one of three uses of "gool" instead of "goal" in ballplaying entries, all in the 1850s and found in western MA and ME.  [To confirm/update, do an enhanced search for "gool".]  This is the only entry that uses "gool" as the actual name of the game.</p>  +
<p> Pownal ME is about 20 miles north of Portland.</p>  +
<p> Priscilla Astifan has looked hard for such an article, and it resists finding.  She suspects the article appeared in a newspaper whose contents were not preserved.</p>  +
<p> Ravenna OH is about 35 miles SE of Cleveland in eastern Ohio.</p>  +
<p> Sanford ME is about 30 miles N of Portsmouth NH, near the NH border.</p>  +
<p> See also 1837c.12</p> <p>Craig reported that Oakey, 65 years old in 1894, had attended Erasmus Hall from 1838 to 1845.</p> <p>David Dyte added details in a July 3, 2009 19CBB posting. </p> <p> </p>  +
<p>(Jacobs) says that unfortunately "balslaen" has been translated as cricket but it simply means hitting the ball.</p>  +
E
<p>17 total home runs hit in the match, 11 by the Eckford and 6 by the Eagle.  Josh Snyder, SS for the Eckford, hit four.</p> <p>Eckford CF, John Snyder, hurt his knee in the ninth inning and was replaced by Wm. Brown.</p>  +
C
<p>1882 African American ball club</p>  +
1
<p>19cbb post by Peter Morris, Nov. 8, 2002</p>  +
O
<p>2nd nines for both teams.  Game started at 2:15 PM and ended at 5:30 PM.  Old Dominion played without a shortstop for most of the game as he was delayed for some reason.  See clipping for more detail, including boxscore.</p>  +
1
<p><br/>"For President Buchanan in 1857, a new reverse to the (latest "Indian Peace") Medal was commissioned from engraver Joseph Wilson . . . .  [The medal showed] in the distance, a simple home with a woman standing in the doorway -- <em>and a baseball game being playing in the foreground. . . . </em></p> <p>"No matter what some gentlemen were saying in New York at the "national" conventions of area clubs, the frontier game of baseball, in all its variety, was already perceived as the national game."</p> <p>-- John Thorn, "Our Baseball Presidents," Our Game posting, February 2018.</p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><strong> </strong></p>  +
<p><em>2008 update</em>: John Thorn [email of 2/3/2008] discovers that others have been unable to determine exactly who the poet was, as there were three people with the name Garrett Barry in that area at that time. One of the three, who died at thirty in 1810, attended St. Mary's College in Baltimore.</p>  +
<p><em><strong>Note: </strong> </em>John Thorn traces the Eagle Club further on pages 35 and 51-53.  In 1852, It was to join  the Knickerbockers and to arrive at a revisin of the Knickerbocker Rules.</p> <p> </p> <p>On January 7, 2021, Richard Hershberger advised the following:  </p> <div dir="ltr">"The entry currently states that William Wood says the Eagle Club originally played in the old fashioned way.  Wood says no such thing.  He says that there were two clubs in New York City that date as far back as 1832 and which played in the old fashioned way.  He does not identify the Eagle Club with either.  This is a strictly modern supposition.  I'm not saying it is wrong, but there is no evidence for it, and the entry as it stands is misleading."  This error was corrected 1/16/2021.  Thanks RRH!</div>  +
<p><em><strong>Note</strong>: </em>In the following paragraph, the man is called "Joseph Haywood". This is a reminisce of a fellow student in boyhood, Jos. Haywood, at a school where one Ephraim Johnson was the teacher. It is probably fictional. Haywood loved to spout Greek and Latin and inspired his fellow students to apply Greek and Latin phrases to their schoolboy games. I've searched both names and can't find anything suitable in NY.</p> <p>David Block, 6/1/2021: An "article extolling fellow student at an unnamed school."</p>  +
V
<p><em>Defiance</em> Democrat, July 27, 1867; Wauseon <em>New Republican</em>, June 24, 1869</p>  +
P
<p><em>Evening Star</em>, May 7, 1860 has the Potomac scoring 35 runs, not 37.</p>  +
1
<p><em>Note: </em>for a 1916 account of the history of the "hit," see the supplemental text below.</p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,”  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">p 1 – 9:</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> </span></p>  +
F
<p><em>Note: </em>The location of this game is not specified.</p> <p><em>Note:</em>  Tom Shieber of the Baseball Hall of Fame writes:  </p> <p>"[T]his gilded [trophy] ball unquestionably features a figure-eight seam pattern. Of course, there’s no guarantee that a trophy ball is the actual ball used in the game it commemorates. Conceivably, a trophy ball might be damaged/lost/disposed/etc. and later replaced with a replacement trophy ball. Thus, this ball might commemorate the 9/5/1866 game, but actually have been made and gilded many years later. If I am not mistaken, I recall having run into this scenario once before (though details escape me), but I would say this is a rare occurrence at best.  Anyway, I thought I had better mention it".</p>  +
1
<p><em>Porter's Spirit of the Times </em>reported on July 17, 1858 that the Louisville BBC had been organized on June 10, 1858.</p>  +
A
<p><span class="less">The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team at Wesleyan University. It was formed in the autumn of 1864 and played its first matches against other teams the following spring. Baseball had been played informally at Wesleyan back to at least 1860. Baseball letters were given (often at a considerably later date) to Wesleyan athletes in baseball beginning with the 1861-62 season. The name Agallian was given by professor</span><span class="more"> of Greek James Van Benschoten as a derivation of the name Agalles, who was said to have invented the first game of ball-playing in ancient Greece (cf. College Argus, June 11, 1868).<br/><br/>The club played its first match against the Charter Oak Base Ball Club of Hartford in the spring of 1865, losing 22-12. Its first intercollegiate game, which was also Wesleyan’s first intercollegiate athletic contest, was against Yale on September 30, 1865, with Yale winning 39-13. One of club’s founders, Charles L. Bonnell, class of 1868, served as captain for his entire playing career. The first practices and home games took place on the Washington Street green in Middletown and on a nearby vacant plot of land on Washington Street. Later photos exist of games being played on the Wesleyan campus on what is now Andrus Field, which at the time was essentially an undrained swamp or wetlands. The Agallian club was not a formally sponsored university team but a club composed of members of several Wesleyan classes. A later organization, the University Base Ball Club, founded in 1869, seems to have had a more formal endorsement from the administration.<br/><br/>The Agallian B.B.C. ceased to function after 1871, when baseball began to be eclipsed by the popularity of rowing as a collegiate sport. Aside from informal contests between class teams, Wesleyan was not to have an organized baseball program again until 1888.</span></p> <p><span class="more">https://archives.wesleyan.edu/repositories/sca/resources/wesleyan_university_agallian_base_ball_club_record</span></p>  
1
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Hoboken leans on the early use of Elysian Fields to call the town the "Birthplace of Baseball."  It wasn't, but in June 2015 John Zinn wrote a thoughtful appreciation of Hoboken's role in the establishment of the game.  See   <a href="http://amanlypastime.blogspot.com/,">http://amanlypastime.blogspot.com/,</a> essay of June 15, 2015, "Proving What Is So."  <br/></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br/></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,”  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">p 1 – 9: </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> </span></p>  +
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,”  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">p 1 – 9:</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> </span></p>  +
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,”  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">p 1 – 9:</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> </span></p>  +
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,”  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">p 1 – 9:</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> </span></p>  +
<p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,”  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">p 1 – 9:</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> </span></p>  +
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of special interest here is co-author George S. Hilliard, whose background may explain why he regarded base-ball and bat and ball as the same game.  Hilliard (1808 – 1879) was born in Machias on the coast of Maine, where the term “the bat and ball” was used to describe a specific baseball-like game (see B. Turner, “The Bat and Ball,” </span><em><span style="font-size: medium;">Base Ball</span></em><span style="font-size: medium;"> (Spring 2011).  Starting in 1828, Hilliard was an instructor at the Round Hill School in Northampton, MA, where baseball-like games were part of the physical education curriculum (see, entry [[1823.6]]; also see</span></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> B. Turner, “Cogswell’s Bat,” </span><em><span style="font-size: medium;">Base Ball</span></em><span style="font-size: medium;"> (Spring 2010)).  </span></span></p>  +
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Using stones for bases fits Carver’s 1834 description of “base or goal ball.” Elwyn also specifies that an inning was “one out, side out,” a feature of the Massachusetts game later codified in 1858.   And, of course, that old New England favorite, “soaking.”</span></p>  +
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Brian Turner notes that this find "predates by 33 years the 1762 ban on bat-and-ball (along with foot-ball, cricket, and throwing snow-balls and stones in the streets of Salem -- see entry [[1762.2]]).  It also predates by two decades a reference in a 1750s French & Indian war diary kept by Benjamin Glazier of </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Ipswich."  (See entry [[1758.1]])</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br/></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Gilman was from a leading family of New Hampshire, mainly centered in Exeter, a bit inland from Portsmouth, where Elwyn gave a description of 1810's "bat & ball," in which he certainly seems to name a specific game.  (See entry [[1810s.9]]).  Seccomb, also spelled Seccombe, was born and lived in Medford, Mass., and later in life wound up in Nova Scotia -- not because he was a Loyalist, but for other reasons.</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">Brian notes that "</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;">By “Batchelors,” Gilman probably means students pursuing a bachelor’s degree, hence the categorization of this entry under "Youth."  For over two centuries, 14 was the age at which boys entered Harvard." (Email of 9/1/2014.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></p>  +
C
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Note:</span> Protoball is not familiar enough with 1860s humor to determine exactly how authentic this report is. Bare ball-shooting guns sound pretty iffy.  But 1867 was the start of Base Ball Fever, and we guess someone might have tried mounted forms of the game.</p> <p> </p> <p><span>To see what may be a som</span><span>ewhat </span><span>similar game, try the droll </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcNWfcdEJ6E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcNWfcdEJ6E</a></p>  +
P
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Tri-Mountains, 21 runs</span>:  C. C,. Dimond, 1b, 5 hands lost (outs), 0 runs; G. Arnold, Jr., 3b, 4 outs, 2 runs; I. H. Ware, 2b, 4 outs, 1 run; B. F. Guild, P, 4 outs, 1 run; F. N Scott, cf, 3 outs, 3 runs; J. W. Fletcher, lf, 2 outs, 4 runs; M. E. Chandler, rf, 1 out, 5 runs; H. F. Gill, ss, 3 outs, 3 runs; E. G. Saltzman, c, 1 out, 2 runs.</p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Portland, 14 runs: G</span>. H. Abbott, c, 2 outs, 2 runs; G. W. Woodbury, 1b, 5 outs, 1 run; S. Chadwick, Jr, cf, 1 out, 3 runs; J. W. Blanchard [??], lf, 3 outs, 1 run; J. C. M Furbisk, p, 3 outs, 2 runs; J. H. Knight, 3b, 3 outs, 2 runs; H. D. Evans, 2b, 5 outs, 1 run; E. P . Ten Broeck, rf, 2 outs, 1 run; H. Waters, ss, 3 outs, 1 run.</p> <p>Note; according to the reported line score, Portland batted last, and led 12-9 after six innings, but was outscored 12-2 in the final 3 innings.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
1
<p><span>"Baseball didn't take root in Richmond until 1866, and the pioneer appears to have been Alexander Babcock, a New Yorker who played for Atlantic of Brooklyn in the 1850s, but went south and fought for the Confederacy, settling in Richmond after the war. He founded the Richmond Club, probably the first there, and then the Pastimes, which was a sort of City All-Stars and touring team."  -- Bill Hicklin, 10/5/2020</span></p>  +
P
<p><span>"Baseball didn't take root in Richmond until 1866, and the pioneer appears to have been Alexander Babcock, a New Yorker who played for Atlantic of Brooklyn in the 1850s, but went south and fought for the Confederacy, settling in Richmond after the war. He founded the Richmond Club, probably the first there, and then the Pastimes, which was a sort of City All-Stars and touring team."  -- Bill Hicklin, 10/5/2020</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>"Baste-ball" is one of several alternate spellings of baseball that are found in 18th and 19th century writings. </span></p> <p><span>"<em>The Trifle</em>r" was a weekly satirical literary journal that ran for less than one year. Its authors, writing under the nom de plume Timothy Touchstone, were reputed to be two Cambridge students and two Oxford students, all under the age of 20.</span></p> <p><span>An earlier (1616) translator used the term "stool-ball," a game well known in England, for the ballplaying scene.  Block explains: "Stool-ball by then [1780s] was fading in popularity.  Instead, girls and young women of he towns and villages of southern England were embracing the game of baseball."   (<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pastime Lost,</span> page 56.<span style="text-decoration: underline;">)</span></span></p> <p><span> </span></p>  +
<p><span>"David Block's book <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pastimes Lost</span> cites Dickens mentioning games of ball in his letters"  reported Bruce Allardice, 3/24/2021.<br/></span></p> <p>Dickens did mention <em>rounders</em> in an 1849 letter to an acquaintance during a holiday at the Isle of Wight: "I . . . have had a great game of rounders every afternoon."  (Block, pp. 212 and 271.)</p> <p>Block also notes another Dickens reference to people "playing at ball," but the site was apparently known as a racket ground, may not have have involved a baserunning game. </p>  +
<p><span>"Is the Atlantic Club about to be gutted? Spoiler: Yes. With no reserve system or multi-year contracts, every offseason was a potential cage match. The Atlantics historically have been successful at doing unto others, but this year they will be done unto. Indeed, it will be so thorough that they will sit 1871 out, as a professional club. They will return to the professional ranks in 1872, but will never really recover. The predicted destinations aren't quite right. Ferguson and Start will go to the Mutuals. The vague bit about Hall going "southwest" is right. </span></p> <p><span>"The Olympics of Washington will make a run for it. Mostly this will involve the old Red Stocking players Harry Wright doesn't take with him to Boston. Taking George Hall from the Atlantics will be part of this. It won't work. The Olympics will go 15-15: the very definition of mediocre. Chapman will stick with the Atlantics initially, them jump to the Eckfords. So it goes."</span></p> <p><span>from Richard Hershberger, 150 Years Ago Today, 11/13/2020 Facebook Posting.</span></p> <p><span>In June 1870, the Atlantics had broken the famous winning streak of the visiting Cincinnati Red Stockings, 8-7.  In 1872 the club was to become professional again, and join the National Association.  The Atlantic website cited above shows a later Atlantic lineage to the Brooklyn Dodgers, formed in 1911.</span></p> <p><span><span>"Strictly speaking the social club spun off from the baseball club December 16, 1865, the two operating in tandem until the baseball side disbanded.  The Hall of Fame library has the program from the club's centennial celebration in 1965.  The club later was a bit confused about the connection with the baseball side.  It knew it had one, but it always dated itself from 1865."  -- Richard Hershberger, email of 11/13/2020.</span></span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p>  +
I
<p><span>"Local legend suggests baseball in Paducah is as old as the War of the Rebellion, having been brought there by Union soldiers from the northeast as they marched through Paducah on their way down to Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the summer of 1863." BRJ, Dec. 2021, p. 77, with source as a 2015 radio interview with a local historian. The game allegedly was played at Fort Anderson. [ba]</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>"Note also how the betting line is featured prominently in the account. The baseball press routinely decried the influence of gambling on baseball, while carefully reporting the odds. Consistency was not a priority here.</span><br/><br/><span>"The crowd of three thousand seems a bit low. It is respectable for this era, but a really big game would draw a lot more. The Philadelphians claimed that that the A's held the championship, with this loss passing it to the Mutuals. No one outside Philadelphia really believed the A's held the championship, or more would have turned out today."</span></p> <p><span>-- Richard Hershberger, 9/15/2020</span></p>  +
<p><span>"This is actually quite interesting, as any notice from the press is very rare at that time."  --Richard Hershberger, 4/12/2021.<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br/></span></span></p>  +
<p><span> </span></p> <p><span>From Richard Hershberger, 2/12/2022:  "150 years ago in baseball: a discussion of the record for longest throw. This would pop up from time to time for years to come."  [Face Book '150 Years Ago" posting.] . . . "<span> The modern record is held by Glen Gorbous, at the significantly longer 445 feet, 10 inches. That was in 1957. I'm sure it could be beaten today, but I want it to be your (favorite) team's outfielder trying this, not mine."</span></span></p> <p><span>https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4756338367753519&set=a.1364749713579085&type=3  As accessed 2/12/2022. </span></p> <p><span>Source is cited as a letter from Harry Wright from 1868.  The ball is described as a regulation base ball.  The location of the feat given as "our ground."</span></p>  +
<p><span> </span></p> <p><span>From Richard Hershberger, Facebook posting of 11/25/2021:</span></p> <p><span>"150 years ago in baseball: Wrapping up the affairs of the Chicago Club. It was gutted by the Great Chicago Fire and stumbled through the close of the season. Continuing as the city was rebuilding clearly was not in the cards. Say what you will about Chicago businessmen, they do appreciate the formalities. Rather than simply walking away they shut it down properly. Here we have the formal dissolution.</span><br/><br/><span>This relates to the trivia question, what is the oldest baseball club still in existence? If we don't count colleges, and if we insist that the club still play baseball, then the candidates are the Braves (by way of Milwaukee) or the Cubs. The Braves were founded in 1871 as the Boston Base Ball Association. The Chicago Club we see shutting down here was a year older. If we can tie the modern Cubs to it, then that is our answer.</span><br/><br/><span>The problem is that we see here the original organization formally dissolving. We will next spring see the formation of the organization that will, in 1874, field the professional team that came to be known as the Cubs. The only facts available to argue for continuity between the two is that some individuals were stockholders of both. This is very weak tea. It certainly isn't the standard we apply to other clubs. If we did, it would remove the Cubs' claim, as this standard would also connect the Phillies to the original Athletics, who were founded in 1859. But this would be absurd special pleading. So sorry, Cubs. You aren't the oldest club. You are, however, the oldest still in your original city. That isn't as sexy a first, but it is not nothing."</span><span><br/></span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span>The Great Chicago Fire occurred October 8-10, 1871.  17,000 structures were destroyed, and 300 people were killed.</span></p>  +
<p><span> </span></p> <p><span>Richard Hershberger' FB commentary, 3/12/2022:</span></p> <p><span><em>"150 years ago in baseball</em>: A discussion of professional ball players. It is not complimentary. It would take decades for this attitude to disappear entirely. Note in particular the assumption that of course a professional will throw a game if you pay him enough." </span></p> <div> <div class="bvz0fpym c1et5uql q9uorilb sf5mxxl7"> <div class="k4urcfbm sf5mxxl7 l9j0dhe7 pq6dq46d"> <div class="k4urcfbm hpfvmrgz g5gj957u buofh1pr mg4g778l"> <div class="b3i9ofy5 e72ty7fz qlfml3jp inkptoze qmr60zad rq0escxv oo9gr5id q9uorilb kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x d2edcug0 jm1wdb64 l9j0dhe7 l3itjdph qv66sw1b"> <div class="tw6a2znq sj5x9vvc d1544ag0 cxgpxx05"> <div class="ecm0bbzt e5nlhep0 a8c37x1j"> <div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql"> <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger, subsequent email to Protoball,  3/12/2022: "<span>Titusville adapted this from the NY Times of March 8. Some other papers also picked it up. T </span>t is hard to say just how widespread this] the attitude was, but it certainly [was] in the air. In Zane Grey's [1906]novel <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Shortstop,</span> when the protagonist tells his mother he has decided upon a career as a professional baseball player, she bursts into tears at that ruination of her son."</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="q9uorilb sf5mxxl7 pgctjfs5"> <div class="no6464jc b5wmifdl nv5ty6hh"> <div class="oajrlxb2 gs1a9yip mtkw9kbi tlpljxtp qensuy8j ppp5ayq2 rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 mg4g778l pfnyh3mw p7hjln8o tgvbjcpo hpfvmrgz i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of du4w35lb n00je7tq arfg74bv qs9ysxi8 k77z8yql btwxx1t3 abiwlrkh p8dawk7l lzcic4wl dwo3fsh8 g5ia77u1 goun2846 ccm00jje s44p3ltw mk2mc5f4 rt8b4zig n8ej3o3l agehan2d sk4xxmp2 pq6dq46d kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso l9j0dhe7 pzggbiyp pkj7ub1o bqnlxs5p kkg9azqs c24pa1uk ln9iyx3p fe6kdd0r ar1oviwq l10q8mi9 sq40qgkc s8quxz6p pdjglbur"> <div class="i09qtzwb n7fi1qx3 b5wmifdl hzruof5a pmk7jnqg j9ispegn kr520xx4 c5ndavph art1omkt ot9fgl3s rnr61an3 s45kfl79 emlxlaya bkmhp75w spb7xbtv" data-visualcompletion="ignore"> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <p><span> </span></p>  
<p><span> </span></p> <p><span>Richard Hershberger, FB Posting, April 9. 2021:</span></p> <p><span><em>"150 years ago in baseball:</em> a bit of historical revisionism via homerism by the Philadelphia sporting press. Thank goodness that no longer plagues us! For the record, the 1870 Mutuals went 68-17-3 while the Athletics went 65-11-1. Presumably the claim to a better record was based on winning percentage, rather than absolute number of games won. This criterion was not at all established at the time. The problem with claiming the moral, if not nominal, championship this way is that the Cincinnati Club went 67-6-1. Those records include both professional and amateur games. Perhaps the writer was thinking of just professional games? The Athletics went 26-11-1, while the Cincinnatis went 27-6-1. So while there is an argument to be made that the A's had a better record than the Mutuals, this is not at all the same as the A's having the best record. So it goes." </span></p>  +
<p><span> </span></p> <p><span>Ron Gabriel also has supplied a quality color photocopy of this plate, which was the subject of his presentation at the 1974 SABR convention</span></p> <p>From Pam Bakker, email of 1/4/2022:</p> <p><span>"Cantigas de Santa Maria" (written in Galician-Portuguese) or "Canticles (songs) of Holy Mary" by Alfonso X of Castile El Sabio (1221-1284) is a collection of 420 poems with musical notation in chant-style, used by troubadours. It has fanciful extra biblical stories of miracles performed by Mary and hymns of veneration. She is often presented doing ordinary things, intended to elevate her while showing her engaged in life. It was very popular in the early Christian world. The book has illustrations, one of which appears to portray a woman swinging at a ball with a bat."                     </span></p>  +
<p><span> written for </span><span>and recited at a Christmas Ball thrown by the Mercantile BBC of </span><br/><span>Philadelphia. In "Cant-Oh! III" the various players are mentioned. Earliest known rference to a player using a glove. </span></p>  +
H
<p><span>(</span><em>Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times:</em><span> “A grand match of town ball came off in this town ….  Each Club consisted of twenty players.  In spite of the cold north-west wind which swept through the fields, there were about fifteen hundred persons present.  The National Cornet Band was engaged, which enlivened the spectators with their soul-stirring and national music.  The game commenced at two o’clock and ended at five. …  This is the closest game on record.  …  The greatest excitement prevailed after the result was heard.  Stephen Coulter, the old warrior and President of the Honey Run, was lifted from the ground and borne by the excited crowd to the platform, where he delivered a few words in behalf of those present.  The Honey Run now stand champions of Philadelphia County in playing town ball.”)</span></p>  +
8
<p><span>(wikipedia) Nausicaä is young and very pretty; Odysseus says that she resembles a goddess, particularly </span><a title="Artemis" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis">Artemis</a><span>. According to </span><a title="Aristotle" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle">Aristotle</a><span> and </span><a class="mw-redirect" title="Dictys of Crete" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictys_of_Crete">Dictys of Crete</a><span>, Nausicaä later married </span><a title="Telemachus" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemachus">Telemachus</a><span>, the son of Odysseus, and had a son named Ptoliporthus.</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>1867 would be a watershed year for baseball finances.  At the beginning of the season ten cents was still the standard admission.  Midway through the season some clubs would experiment with twenty-five cent admissions.  It turned out that the public was willing to pay this, and this changed everything.  At ten cents the receipts paid for expenses, but only the top draws like the Atlantics and the Athletics could turn a significant profit.  At twenty-five cents this opened up a revenue stream to many more clubs, and the fraternity found itself awash with cash (at least compared to previously).  A similar thing would happen a century or so later with television money.  The effect in the 1860s was to lock in professionalism.  By 1868 there were openly professional picked nine games being played, and the following year they dropped the pretense entirely.</span></p>  +
<p><span><span> </span></span></p> <p><span><span>Richard Hershberger posted the following, 3/10/2022:</span></span></p> <p><span><span><em>150 years ago in baseball</em>: the Rules and Regulations adopted by the Forest City Club of Cleveland for its players. It rather jumps out that they felt it necessary to specify that players weren't allowed to throw games for money, with the penalty of being "expelled in disgrace."</span><br/><br/><span>But the topic for today's sermon is the <strong>role of the captain</strong>. This touches on a persistent modern misunderstanding of the early professional era. Look at the list of the captain's responsibilities and this looks similar to the modern field manager. Look up the 1872 Forest City club and you will find two "managers" listed: Scott Hastings, going 6-14 and Deacon White going 0-2. (The team was, it turns out, not good, and won't last the season.) They actually were the captains. The "manager" in this era was a different role. The details varied, but the manager typically was in charge of the business side of things: supervised the gate on game day, made travel arrangements on the road, and so on. Sometimes the manager was in charge of hiring and firing players, making him more like the modern general manager.</span><br/><br/><span>The captain always was a player. The manager usually was not, but there were a few exceptions such as Harry Wright. Here in 1872 not all teams had a full time manager, the officers running things directly. Later this summer when the Forest City team goes on a trip, a report identifies the "manager" for that trip, meaning the guy who will corral the players get them from city to city. Within a few years the job will have grown to a full time position, nearly always held by someone hired specifically for that job.</span><br/><br/><span>The problem is that the modern listings of managers are a mess for the 19th century. We have this modern concept of what is a "manager"--Earl Weaver or Billy Martin and so on--and we try to impose this model on the past. So some researcher reads a report with the captain doing stuff we expect of a modern manager, and lists that guy as the manager. Or a researcher sees some other guy called the "manager" and lists him. This eventually got distilled down to a standard list, with the two roles jumbled together in an incoherent mess. The moral is that if we want to understand what was going on, we have to set aside modern understandings of how these things work.</span></span></p>  
M
<p><span><strong>Baseball</strong></span><span>--The interest in this exciting game continues unabated in our city. We have now two regularly organized clubs, the "Mansfield," and the "Exercise." In our last issue, we gave the officers of the former. Here are the officers of the "Exercise:" President--F.P. Gass; Vice-President--J.H. Roberts; Secretary--George Snyder; Treasurer--James Cobean; Directors--William Dougherty, Charles Fay and A. Emminger. Both clubs are practicing regularly and are showing a laudable spirit of rivalry in preparing for the match game, to be played on the first Wednesday of September. Mansfield Herald, Aug. 15, 1866.</span></p> <p><span><span>We have already noticed the formation of two clubs in our city, and there being a natural spirit of rivalry between them. The clubs met last Wednesday with the Mansfields defeating the Excercise 45 to 31. Same Sept. 12, 1866</span></span></p> <p><span><span>Another match game of Base Ball took place between the first nines of the "Mansfield" and "Exercise" Clubs, on Friday, resulting in a draw game, the score being 17 to 17. As the result was a tie in the case, it is likely one more game will be had between the Clubs, to decide their superiority, before the cold weather puts a stop to the ball playing season. "Exercise" line-up: Cobean, Roberts, Winterstein, Summers, Rowland, Emminger, Dougherty, Race, Snyder. "Mansfield" line-up: Parsons, McMann, Hade, Rowland, Strong, Clugston, Littler, Thomas, Leiter. Same, Oct. 3, 1866<br/></span></span></p> <p><span><span>On last Friday afternoon, the anxiously looked for contest between the Lenape Base Ball Club of Delaware and the Mansfield Club took place on the Mansfield grounds in a large field adjoining Hedges' Grove on East Market Street. A large crowd estimated at not less than 2,000. The Mansfield Club beat the favored Lenape team by a count of 76 to 28. The batting of Messrs. R.H. Rowland and W. Dougherty was excellent, and the science displayed by L.A. Strong and James D. Bell, in catching showed they were not novices to it. Mansfield Herald, June 12, 1867</span></span></p>  
1
<p><span>Bob Tholkes notes: "I have been preaching for some time now that "base ball" and "round ball" and "town ball" were regional dialectal synonyms for the same game. For the most part there is a clear division between "base ball" territory and "town ball" territory, with 'town ball' being used in Pennsylvania, the Ohio River watershed, and the South.</span><br/><br/><span> "I have come across what seems to be an unblemished early use of "base ball" in Virginia...<span>It is perfectly obvious that 'base ball' is an older term than 'town ball'. Presumably "base ball" was the term used throughout anglophone North America in colonial times, and "town ball" arose in some place (my guess is Pennsylvania, but I can't begin to prove it) and spread west and south. <span>So this Virginia example could be a survival of the older term, or it could be a random later borrowing from the north."</span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span>"Reverend Duval was born in 1822 outside of Richmond, and the family moved into town when he was a small child. In 1842 he entered the Virginia Theological Seminary, a major Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. There he kept a diary. The entry above is for October 3, 1842. (per 19cbb post by Richard Hershberger, July 27, 2011)."</span></span></span></p> <p><span><span><span>Alexandria VA is immediately outside the District of Columbia on the Potomac River.</span></span></span></p>  +
O
<p><span>Charles Phelps Taft (class of 1860) sat for one term in Congress and helped his brother, William Howard Taft, win the U. S. Presidency. That said, he was best known in baseball circles as majority owner of the Chicago Cubs from 1914 until he sold the team to William Wrigley in 1916. Baseball was a passion Taft discovered as a student at Andover, as he wrote to his father in 1860: "We have gotten up a first rate Base Ball Club and play every evening after prayers. There is considerably more fun in it than there is in cricket…Yesterday afternoon we had quite a nice game of Base Ball between the two clubs or rather the first eleven (sic) of each club. Somehow or other I was chosen from our club. It must have been by mistake. When we quit playing the other side was 44 to our 55. The game is 100. It is going to be continued next Saturday." https://athletics.andover.edu/teams/bbbv/alumni</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>Daniel.Lucius (Doc) Adams (see entry for 1840), was a member and officer of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York and the National Association of Base Ball Players from 1845- 1862. Under his chairmanship, the NABBP Rules Committee standardized the now-familiar 90-foot basepaths and 9-inning games.</span></p>  +
<p><span>Farnham was born in 1849. This account seems to imply that some minimum number of crossings from base to base was required to avoid an out.</span></p>  +
<p><span>From John Thorn, email of  2/16/2023:  "<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">According to David Ball, '</span></span><span>The item is a letter from a correspondent in that city [Philadelphia], and the context is some sort of political reform movement intended to clean up popular amusements.'"</span><br/></span></p> <p>This isn't the first attestation of the term "town ball" but it's very early.</p> <p><span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Protoball Note:</span> As of February 2023, Protoball entries show about 100 references to town ball, including about 70 chronology items and 30 other refs in game accounts, club accounts, and news clippings. Some report local finds, but many  and others reflect clarifying commentary by PBall data contributors.  Very few mentions are found before 1835.</span></p> <p><span>About 50 of these 100 refs are shown on PBall search maps.  They show wide distribution across the US, but none are reported in the Greater New York area. (The two New Jersey mentions are not in northernmost NJ).</span></p> <p><span>As far as we know, these collected town ball references have not been studied rigorously as of early 2023.</span></p> <p><span>   </span></p> <p><span> <br/></span></p>  +
<p><span>From Richard Hershberger, <em>150 years ago today in baseball</em>: "Baltimore at Philadelphia where they beat the A's 12-8. . . </span></p> <p><span><span>I am excerpting the box score because it is an interesting format. Notice how strike outs are only indirectly indicated. The reporter, Al Wright, is also the A's official scorer, so this is not merely some journalistic idiosyncrasy. Scoring is not yet regulated on the league level. Individual clubs and scorers are still experimenting."</span></span></p> <p><span><span>Steve Colbert comments: "<span>I have seen this format a couple of times while digging through box scores in the 1870 and 1871 seasons. When reviewing some of the play-by-play's, apparently missed 3rd strikes were recorded only as errors and not logged as strike outs anywhere that I can tell."</span></span></span></p> <p><span><span> </span></span></p> <p><span> </span></p> <p><span> </span></p>  +
<p><span>From Richard Hershberger, <em>150 years ago in baseball, </em>May 19, 2022.</span></p> <p><span>"The umpire question. Umpire selection in the early days was very informal. Sometimes arrangements would be made ahead of time, but even for important matches it was not unknown for the two captains to pick a guy out from the crowd. It would usually be someone they both knew, so it wasn't totally random, but if he had not shown up, they would have picked someone else.</span><br/><br/><span>Here in 1872 this system is wearing thin. This is the professional era and the stakes are higher. In today's excerpt, we see a radical suggestion: pay the guy. This will start happening soon. It will help, but won't solve the problem entirely. There still is the matter of finding someone both captains agree upon. The next decade or so will see endless overly elaborate schemes to come up with an equitable system. The underlying problem is that even once everyone agrees the umpire needs to be paid, no one wants to pay enough for this to be a full-time job. Employing part-timers means they are using local guys, with all this entails. The bickering will be endless. Or at least it will be until they finally bite the bullet and go with a full-time umpire corps employed by the league. That won't be until the 1880s. Here in 1872, the NA doesn't even have a league structure to run an umpire corps, much less the operating funds.</span><br/><br/><span>The article here suggests $10 per game. This won't be enough to persuade capable men to put up with grief for two hours. The going rate will settle in at $15. That is roughly equivalent to $300 to $400 in today's money."</span></p>  +
B
<p><span>From https://erenow.net/common/fourbritishfolkwaysinamerica1989/27.php</span></p> <p><span>"Another rule-bound version of an English folk sport was called town ball, the Massachusetts game or the New England game. It was played with a bat, a ball and four bases on a field sixty feet square, by eight to twenty players, each of whom kept his own individual tally. The New England game was also descended from a family of English traditional games, of which perhaps the nearest equivalent was called bittle-battle. Its rules were remarkably similar to modern baseball. Bittle-battle was played with four bases (each about a foot square) 48 feet apart. The pitcher stood 24 feet from home base, and each batter was out if the ball was caught, or if it touched a base before the batter reached it. The game of bittle-battle was played in southeastern England, particularly in Kent. It was brought to Massachusetts in the early seventeenth century, and became so common that by the eighteenth century it bore the name of the region."</span></p> <p><span>Bell-Irving, "Mayfield: The Story of an Old Wealden Village" (1903), p. 16, says the following: "Stoolball, an old Sussex game, . . . is played by girls, and is similar to cricket, the chief difference being that a round bat is held up against a wicket board one foot square, on a post between four and five feet in height. Tradition says it was originally played by milkmaids, holding up their stools for wickets, hence its name. Another name for the game was 'bittle-battle' (<em>bittle</em>, a wooden milk bowl, <em>bat</em>, a piece of wood)." </span>[ba]</p>  +
M
<p><span>In other words, the New York Club’s grounds lay outside today’s Madison Square but within the pre-1844 park; the Parade, as Madison Square was called prior to its formal dedication as a public park in 1847, was originally a twenty-acre tract bounded by Third and Seventh avenues and Twenty-third and Thirty-fourth streets. The “roadside resort” was named the Madison Cottage but was also known as Thompson’s for its proprietor. (Our game blog, Dec. 20, 2021)</span></p>  +
G
<p><span>Note:</span><span> </span><span>For searches, "gool," "gould," and  "gool ball" have sometimes given relevant results.</span></p>  +
L
<p><span>On last Friday afternoon, the anxiously looked for contest between the Lenape Base Ball Club of Delaware and the Mansfield Club took place on the Mansfield grounds in a large field adjoining Hedges' Grove on East Market Street. A large crowd estimated at not less than 2,000. The Mansfield Club beat the favored Lenape team by a count of 76 to 28. The batting of Messrs. R.H. Rowland and W. Dougherty was excellent, and the science displayed by L.A. Strong and James D. Bell, in catching showed they were not novices to it. Mansfield Herald, June 12, 1867</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>Richard Hershberger, 2/3/2021</span></p> <p><span>"I don't believe I have seen this before:  An advertisement in the NY Atlas October 5, 1845, for the upcoming baseball game between New York and Brooklyn players.  It is of particular interest as it lists both the first and last names of the Brooklyn players."</span></p> <p><span><span>"I take the two games as being, on the one side, a function of the New York BBC, and on the other side an unofficial function of some members of the Union Star CC.  One of the accounts carefully distinguishes between the New York Club and Brooklyn players."</span></span></p> <p>Tom Gilbert, 2/3/2021:</p> <p><span>"<span>Some known cricketers in there."</span></span></p> <p><span><span> </span></span></p> <p><span><span>John Thorn, 2/3/20211:</span></span></p> <p><span><span><a>https://protoball.org/1845.32</a><br/><br/><strong><a>Protoball Chronology #1845.32</a></strong><br/><br/><strong>NY Atlas Advises: THE OLD GAME OF BASE REVIVED</strong><br/><br/><strong>Salience</strong><br/><span>Prominent</span><br/><br/><strong>City/State/Country:</strong><br/><a title="Brooklyn, NY">Brooklyn</a><span>, </span><a title="NY">NY</a><span>, </span><a title="United States">United States</a><br/><br/><strong>Game</strong><br/><a title="Chronology:Base">Base</a><br/><br/><strong>Age of Players</strong><br/><a title="Chronology:Adult">Adult</a><br/><br/><strong>Text</strong><br/></span></span></p> <div>"THE OLD GAME OF BASE REVIVED–There will be a game of Base come off on MONDAY, October</div> <div>5th, between eight New York players and eight of Brooklyn, on the U.S.C [Union Star] Club ground.  The game will commence at 11 o’clock, weather permitting; if not, the first fair day.  The following are the Brooklyn players:</div> <div> </div> <div>John Hunt,</div> <div>Theodore Foman</div> <div>Edward Hardy</div> <div>John Waley</div> <div>John Hyne</div> <div>Stephen Swift</div> <div>William Sharp       </div> <div> Samuel Myers. " </div> <p><span><span><br/><br/><strong>Sources</strong></span></span></p> <p><em>NY Atlas, </em> October 5, 1845</p> <p><span><span><strong>Comment</strong></span></span></p> <p>Richard Hershberger, 2/3/2021</p> <p>"I don't believe I have seen this before:  An advertisement in the NY Atlas October 5, 1845, for the upcoming baseball game between New York and Brooklyn players.  It is of particular interest as it lists both the first and last names of the Brooklyn players."</p> <p>"I take the two games as being, on the one side, a function of the New York BBC, and on the other side an unofficial function of some members of the Union Star CC.  One of the accounts carefully distinguishes between the New York Club and Brooklyn players."</p> <p>Tom Gilbert, 2/3/2021:</p> <p>"Some known cricketers in there."</p> <p>John Thorn, 2/3/2021:</p> <p>"Location of the match:</p> <p><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/ancient.html">http://www.covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/ancient.html</a>"</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span><span><strong>Submitted by</strong><br/><a title="Richard Hershberger">Richard Hershberger</a><br/><br/><strong>Submission Note</strong><br/><span>19CBB Posting, 2/3/2021</span><br/></span></span></p> <p><span><span> </span></span></p> <p><span><span> </span></span></p> <p><span><span> </span></span></p> <p><span> </span></p>  
<p><span>Richard Hershberger, 8/19/2022:</span></p> <p><span><em>150 years ago today in baseball</em>: "Boston at Cleveland, winning 12-7. This is the last gasp of the Cleveland team, but what interests me is this tidbit about Harry Wright's batting strategy, not swinging until the umpire calls a strike. This will later become a common approach. This is the earliest mention of it I know, making Harry a forward thinker in yet another area of baseball."</span></p> <p><span>For Richard's 2014 summary of the called rules, see </span></p> <p><span>https://protoball.org/Called_Pitches </span></p>  +
<p><span>Richard Hershberger, <em>150 years ago today in baseball: </em></span></p> <p>The Manhattan Cricket Club beats the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club 26-17. To be absolutely clear, they were playing baseball. Cricket and baseball clubs playing one another in one or both games was an established practice in this era. Generally the baseball team won at baseball and the cricket team won at cricket. When a team won at the other's game it usually was a case of ridiculously great disparity of athleticism. Imagine a modern MLB team, given a reasonable time to learn the rudiments, playing a rec league amateur cricket team. Or, taking it the other direction, an India Premier League team playing an American rec league baseball team.</p> <p><span>This provides the explanation for the Knickerbockers' loss: They were really, really Not Good. Indeed, they never had been, except for a few years in the mid-1850s when their greater experience sufficed to make them respectable. In their defense, they weren't trying to be good. They were trying to combine exercise and socializing. They were generally successful at this. But on the rare occasions they played an outside game, the results could be ugly. </span></p>  +
M
<p><span>See the article on the Massachusetts game in the Origins Committee Newsletter, September, 2021.</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>Still, it's fairly significant in that it becomes, by far, the earliest known appearance of baseball in a dictionary. The next earliest one we know of was almost 80 years later, in James Orchard Halliwell's 1847 "Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words."</span><br/><span>It is quite interesting that "baseball" appears as one whole word, not the two-word "base ball," or hyphenated "base-ball" that were customary in the era.</span><br/><span>Also of note is the dictionary's indication that the word "base" was an alternate name for baseball. </span></p> <p><span><span>"A Society of Gentlemen" was the pseudonym under which the Encyclopaedia </span><br/><span>Britannica was first published, also in 1768.</span></span></p>  +
A
<p><span>The Akron Base Ball Club will play a match game of base ball, with Mansfield Club, at 3 o'clock, P.M., on the farm of Peter Bell, on West Fourth Street. Mansfield Herald, July 10, 1867</span></p> <p><span>The game of base ball between the Akron and Mansfield Clubs, took place on the farm of Peter Bell, near this place, on last Wednesday and was witnessed by a large crowd. The game resulted in the success of the Akron Club by a score of 63 to 34. Much dissatisfaction was expressed at the conduct of the Umpire who first superintended the game. Same July 17, 1867<br/></span></p>  +
I
<p><span>The GAA version of rounders is very similar to </span><a title="Softball" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softball">softball</a><span>, the main difference being that the game is played with baseball-sized bats, balls and field. </span><span>However, baseball-style gloves are not allowed. The main differences between </span><a title="Baseball" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball">baseball</a><span> and the English version of the game are that the rounders bat is much shorter and is usually swung one-handed; misses or strikes are not called, so there are no walks or strike-outs; each batter receives only one good ball and must run whether they hit it or not. Other differences include the posts for marking the bases, which should be wooden, and are preferably encased in plastic sheaths, the layout of the pitch, especially the location of the last base; and the bowler's arm motion, which is an underarm pendulum action, as in softball. (from Wikipedia arrticle on Irish rounders)</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>The first “match” game in New Orleans between two different clubs was played August 12, 1859 between the Empire and Louisiana Base Ball Clubs, won by Empire [Times-Picayune, August 13, 1859]. [ba]</span><br/>Another pair of clubs followed closely. The Southern and Magnolia clubs played in early October. [John Husman, "Ohio's First Baseball Game," July 16, 2004, page 4 (no source given).]</p>  +
<p><span>The game played was wicket. See the Ilion Citizen, March 13, 1903:</span></p> <p><span>One Saturday afternoon, in the fall of 1829 while a party of academics were playing a game of wicket ball on the "green," Philo Petrie, a student, was hit by a bat and almost instantly fell dead. Ozias Nellis was at the wicket, defending it, and in his playing raised his bat to strike the fall; as it came he struck but missed the ball, and momentum of the blow swung Nellis and the bat around, raising the bat as it went, and hit Petrie, who was standing near, on the side of his head. Petrie suddenly clapped both hands to his head, and in a moment fell headlong to the ground. No blame was laid on Nellis; the blow was accidental, but fatal.</span></p>  +
R
<p><span>The </span><em>Montana Post</em><span> (Virginia City) June 2, 1866, reports the game between the two nines of the "Rocky Mountain Base Ball Club", won by the first nine by "thirty-three points" (121 to 88). F. G. Heidt is captain of the first nine. A roster is given. This game was played "near the new burying-ground"--presumably Boot Hill, just north of town (at Jefferson and Main Sts.) or the "New" Cemetery just northeast of town.. [ba]</span></p>  +
V
<p><span>The </span><em>New York Clipper</em><span>, Nov. 27, 1869 mentions the following clubs attending the PA state baseball convention: James Page, Village, Olive, Ours, City Item, Experts, all of Philadelphia.</span></p>  +
1
<p><span>The </span><strong>United States Sanitary Commission</strong><span> was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the </span><a title="American Civil War" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War">American Civil War</a><span>. It operated across the North, raised an estimated $25 million in Civil War era revenue and in-kind contributions</span></p>  +
A
C
<p><span>Today Tiraspol is the capital of Transnistria, a breakaway state in Moldova, where it is the third largest city. Transnistria is not recognized as a county by the U.N.</span></p>  +
O
<p><span>[from a biographical sketch of George Arnold:] In the Spring of 1851 he came to this city and began work with the firm of James Munroe & Col, booksellers. The years following, he, with the late Mr. Albert S. Flye and a few young men, used to meet on the Common as early as five o’clock, a.m., to play ball; here we may trace the origin of what was afterwards known as the “Olympic Ball Club of Boston,” and no doubt the first Club organized in New England. It was formed in the Summer of 1854. Mr. Arnold took an active part in organizing the same. [New England Base Ballist, Aug. 27, 1868--see Hershberger clippings]</span></p>  +
E
<p><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6955" style="font: 700 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><em id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6954" style="font-style: italic;">"Baseball Pioneers, 1850-1870, The Clubs And Players Who Spread the Sport Nationwide"<br/>edited by Peter Morris,, William J. Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Leonard Levin<br/>Publisher: McFarland and Company<br/>Jefferson, North Carolina 2012</em></strong><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6966" style="font: 700 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><em id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6965" style="font-style: italic;">Chapter 6, Page 203</em></strong><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><span style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </span><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6967" style="font: 700 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">"...Even more importantly, for every player and club that proved itself on the national stage,<br/>there were dozens who became local legends. In Pana, Illinois for example, "the first<br/>baseball club was named the Excelsiors. J.C. McQuigg, still a leading attorney of Pana,<br/>was the star catcher and batter of the club. He was known as the Babe Ruth of Central<br/>Illinois, and won the state championship by knocking the ball out of the state fairgrounds<br/>at Decatur, Illinois, for a home run and brought in three men with him, winning the game<br/>and the silver cup."</strong><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><em id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_5584" style="font: italic 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_5583" style="font-weight: bold;">Jay McAfee note:<br/>J.C. McQuigg is James C. McQuigg, son of John McQuigg Sr. & Sarah McAfee of Wayne County, Ohio. James was a Civil War Veteran and was severely wounded at the battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, Dec. 29, 1862.</strong></em></p>  
<p><strong> </strong></p>  +
1
<p><strong> </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">"Northanger Abbey</span> was published posthumously in 1818, and while most scholars agree the first draft was written in the 1798-99 time period, there is no evidence that Austen's early draft included the baseball reference. It was submitted for publication in 1803 under the name “Susan,” but never went to press. The text was revised between 1816 and 1817, but did not get published until after Austen’s death that summer."  (from David Block, 9/16/2020).</p> <p><strong> </strong></p>  +
S
<p><strong>A.  Notes from Bill Hicklin</strong></p> <p>"Schlagball is the German name for its variant of longball, which is still played in schools, and on a club basis in the northern coastal region. It is substantially the same as Gutsmuth's "German Ballgame;" it was touted by German nationalists in the 19th century as just that, the German National Pastime on a par with baseball in America and cricket in Britain. Rules are to be found in almost every German sports manual of the 19th and early 20th century, its popularity peaking in the 1920s before it yielded to the explosive growth of soccer. The last national Schlagball championship was played in 1954. Also played in Austria under the name Kaiserball or 'Imperial Ball.'"</p> <p>Bill Hicklin, submission to Protoball, 2015.</p> <p>------</p> <p><strong>B</strong> --<strong> Dakota play. from Terry Bohn</strong></p> <p>" . . . the Dakota Territory was primarily settled by German immigrants (who played baseball). The capital city of Bismarck, North Dakota changed its name from Edwinton to Bismarck in 1873 in hopes the Chancellor would be flattered and help fund the Northern Pacific Railroad. It didn't work."</p> <p>Terry Bohn, 19CBB posting, 11/19/2017.</p> <p> </p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em>Query:</em></strong></span>  is there evidence that schlagball was played by German immigrants to the US?</p> <p><strong>----</strong></p> <p><strong>C. -- </strong>FYI, Protoball's Brother-in-law's grandfather once taught schlagball at a German school.  Maybe he can turn up details on schlagball's rules of play? </p> <p> </p>  +
D
<p><strong>August 8, 1859</strong></p> <p><strong>First Game Between Opposing Clubs</strong></p> <p>A form of class warfare was played out on the grounds of the Lewis Cass farm, roughly in the vicinity of Grand River and Cass. The Detroits, organized in 1858, were a group of well-heeled citizens who, bored with cricket, decided to give baseball a try. A second team of clerks and office workers was organized in 1859. Because of their long work hours, they practiced at sunrise and called themselves the Early Risers. In first of several games involving the two teams, the Detroits routed the Early Risers, 59-21. (per vintagedetroit.com)</p>  +
1
<p><strong>Caution:</strong> dating this reference requires some assumptions. Waterhouse was born in 1754, and thus, if this recollection is authentic, he speaks of a penchant for ballplaying [and smoking] he held in his teens. He was born at Newport, RI and remained there until 1780.</p>  +
<p><strong>Caveat:</strong> It is unknown whether this was a ball game, rather than prisoner's base, a form of tag played by two teams, and resembling the game "Capture the Flag."</p> <p>Note:  "Long Bullets" evidently involved a competition to throw a ball down a road, seeing who could send the ball furthest along with a given number of throws.  Another reference to long bullets is found at <a>http://protoball.org/1830s.20</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
<p><strong>Note -- </strong>Actually, an earlier account of California ballplaying was recorded a month before this, in San Diego.  See [[1847.15]]. </p>  +
<p><strong>Note"</strong> add info on the significance of this club?</p>  +
R
<p><strong>Note: </strong>The <em>Clipper </em>printed this correction two weeks later:</p> <p>"The Aurora Club of Chelsea, Mass, is composed of White and not colored men as was inadvertently stated in the late issue."</p> <p><strong>Note: </strong>The article does not specify where these clubs played this match.</p> <p>Can we confirm that the Resolute Club comprised African American players?</p>  +
1
<p><strong>Note: </strong>This drawing is listed as "contemporary" on the premise that it was meant to depict ballplaying in the 1400s.</p>  +
P
<p><strong>Note: </strong>This match between two African American clubs was later described as the US colored championship match, and, is reported as being played the same day as the account was printed.  This may be a typo.</p>  +
1
<p><strong>Note: This match is also reported in item #1751.3</strong></p>  +
<p><strong>Note: This match is also reported in item#1751.1</strong></p>  +
<p><strong>Note: </strong>This entry was formerly listed for 1844 from prior sources.</p> <p>The location of the village play in not given.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> A dollar fine for "pitching dollars?"</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Is the author hinting that boys commonly bet on their ball-games? Isn't this a rare mention of barn-ball?</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> So, folks . . . was this a baserunning ball game, some version of prisoner's base (a team tag game resembling our childhood game Capture the Flag) with scoring, or what?</p> <p>John Thorn [email of 2/27/2008] has supplied a facsimile of the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Post</span> report, and also found meeting announcements for the Diagoras in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Daily Advertiser</span> for 4/11 and 4/12/1805.</p> <p>David Block (see full text in <strong>Supplemental Text, </strong>below) offers his 2017 thoughts on this entry:</p> <p> <em>Email from David Block, </em>2/19/2017<em>:</em></p> <p>"Gents,</p> <p>Just a quick note to follow up on John's blog post from last week about the 1805 "bace" game. My opinion on whether that game was baseball or prisoner's base has gone back and forth over the years. As of now I tend to lean 60-40 to baseball. Other than the example from Chapman that John cited, I've never come across a use of the term bace to signify either game. Even if I had it wouldn't mean much as the word "base" has been used freely over the years for both of them. The mention of a score in the 1805 article is significant. Rarely are scores indicated in any of the reports of prisoner's base (prison base, prison bars, etc.) that I've come across. Usually they just indicate one side or the other as winner. There are a couple of exceptions. I know of one English example from 1737 where a newspaper reported on a match of prison-bars between eleven men from the city of Chester against a like number from the town of Flint in Wales. "The Cheshire gentlemen got 11, and the Flintshire gentlemen 2," it noted. I've also seen another English report from 1801, also of prison-bars, where one side was said to have "produced a majority of five prisoners." Still, George's example is American, where I suspect that, even at that early date, baseball was probably the more popular game of the two.</p> <p>Regarding "baste," I have seen at least two dozen examples of the term "baste-ball" used in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's clear from context that this was an alternate spelling of base-ball, along with bass-ball. I don't doubt the same was true for the few instances of baste-ball's use in America.</p> <p>"My opinion on whether that game was baseball or prisoner's base has gone back and forth over the years. As of now I tend to lean 60-40 to baseball. Other than the example from Chapman that John cited, I've never come across a use of the term bace to signify either game. Even if I had it wouldn't mean much as the word "base" has been used freely over the years for both of them. The mention of a score in the 1805 article is significant. Rarely are scores indicated in any of the reports of prisoner's base (prison base, prison bars, etc.) that I've come across. Usually they just indicate one side or the other as winner."</p> <p>Best to all,<br/>David"</p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">John Thorn email of Feb., 25, 2024: </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">"Hi, George. I found this thesis invaluable for my understanding of early ball play in New York, and thus for EDEN. Do you have it? Here's a Dropbox link [omitted] in case you don't.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;"><br/></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Once upon a time we had wondered about the location of the Gymnastic Ground, near Tyler's. I found this pretty compelling (before this pleasure ground was Tyler's, it was Brannon's):</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Some idea of the garden during Brannon's tenure can<br/>be gotten from scattered sources. In 1842, for a suit in<br/>the Court of Chancery involving the ownership of the Church<br/>Farm, a group of elderly men and women gave depositions<br/>describing this part of the city as they recalled it in the<br/>eighteenth century. <strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Several testified that the garden was<br/>enclosed by a fence; one testified that Brannon maintained<br/>a ball alley; and another owned that between 1789 and 1793,<br/>during his days as a student at Columbia College (then located<br/>on Church Street between Barclay and Murray), he and<br/>"the collegians were in the habit of frequenting . . .<br/>Brannon's Garden."</span></em></strong> [“Chancery Reports (Sandford), 4:716, 724, & 730.]</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">I also have bound volumes of these chancery reports, which to my knowledge have not been digitized; I suppose I could check!</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Also, I append an item possibly missed by all of us, from the </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">New-York Herald</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span></span>(New York, New York) May 4, 1805</p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Note that the Columbia College clubs' game of bace is here rendered as <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>basse.</em></span></strong> The mention of "hands in" fully persuades me that </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">this is a game of bat and ball."</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;"><span>the game report first appeared in the New-York Evening Post of May 1, and next in The Herald of May 4.</span></span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">David Block agrees</span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  
<p><strong>Note:</strong> The original source of the 1818 reference may have been lost. Bob reports that Dean Sullivan thesis cited Harold Peterson's <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Man Who Invented Baseball</span> (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), page 24. However, Peterson gives no source. A dead end?</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This book is in the form of a chronology. Barber gives no source for the wicket report.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This describes a scrub form of tutball/rounders.  It suggests that all hitting was forward, thus in effect using a foul line, as would make sense with a single fielder.</p> <p>The claim that tutball and stoolball used the same rules is surprising; stoolball is fairly uniformly described as having but two bases or stools, and using a bat.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Understanding the author's intent here is complicated by the fact that he was Canadian, Sam Slick was an American character, and the novel is set in Britain.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> We need better sources for the Columbus story.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> see item #[[1829c.1]] below for Holmes' Harvard ballplaying.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> "Nines seems an unusual name for a ball game; do we find it elsewhere? Could he have been denoting nine-pins or nine-holes? John Thorn, in 2/3/2008, says he inclines to nine-pins as the game alluded to.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong>  </p> <p>A few days earlier, Richard had noticed the use of "battery" in a July 26 game report:  see Supplementary Text, below.</p> <p>The <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dickson Baseball Dictionary</span>, page 86, citing the Chadwick <em>Scrapbooks</em>, had the first use of "battery" as 1868 (third edition).</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> A bat had been described in Willughby's c.1672 account of hornebillets.  See [[1672c.2]].</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Melville is willing to identify the sport as the one that was played mostly in the CT-central and MA area . . . but it is conceivable that the writer intended to denote cricket instead? </p> <p>From Bruce Allardise, December 2021: The original article is in the<em> New Orleans Times Picayune</em>, May 31, 1841, which references a reminisce in a {April 1841} Cleveland OH newspaper article.  [bsa]</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> it would be interesting to see the original reference, and to know how 1550 was chosen as the reported year of play.</p> <p> </p> <p>Note: Derrick would have been about 10 years old in 1550.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> those streets intersect a half block from the Hall of Fame, right?</p>  +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> we may want reassurance that the "Base-ball" poem appeared in the 1744 version. According to Thomas L. Altherr, "A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball," reprinted in David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, the 1767 London edition also has poems titled "Stoolball" [p. 88] and Trap-Ball.[p. 91]. According Zoernik in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Encyclopedia of World Sports</span> [p.329], rounders is also referred to [we need to confirm this, as Rounders does not appear in the 1760 edition or the one from 1790.]. There was an American pirated edition in 1760, as per Henderson [ref #107]; David Block dates the American edition in 1762. He also notes that a 1767 revision features engravings for the four games.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note</strong>: the dates and circumstances and locations of these cases are unclear in Millen. One refers to plugging.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note</strong>: the inconsistencies among the preceding cricket entries in Protoball (see [[1478.1]]) need to be resolved . . . . or at least addressed</p>  +
<p><strong>Note</strong><strong>: </strong>Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey until 1896.</p>  +
<p><strong>Note</strong><strong>: </strong>Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey until 1896.</p>  +
O
<p><strong>Ogden Park</strong>, also known as <strong>Ogden Skating Park</strong>, was a recreational facility on the near north side of <a title="Chicago" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago">Chicago</a> around the 1860s and 1870s. It was home to the Ogden Skating Club. It was on a piece of land east of where Ontario Street (at that time) T-ed into Michigan Avenue. Today's Ontario Street continues several blocks eastward, through the site of that old park.</p> <p>The first newspaper references to the park and the skating club appear in local newspapers in 1861, where its location was termed "the foot of Ontario Street". City directories for 1867 and 1869-70 give the location of "Ogden Skating Park" as "Ontario, corner Seneca." Seneca Street was one block east of St. Clair Street and two blocks east of Pine Street, which later became part of the extended Michigan Avenue. Seneca ran between Ontario Street and Illinois Street. It was erased as the land was developed. References to the park appear to cease after 1870. It was, of course, inside the burn zone of the <a title="Great Chicago Fire" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire">Great Chicago Fire</a> in the fall of 1871.</p> <p>With no skating possible in the summer, baseball games were played at the park. Most of them were between local amateur ball clubs, but there were occasional professional games. On July 31, 1869, the park was the neutral site for a match between the <a title="Cincinnati Red Stockings" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Red_Stockings">Cincinnati Red Stockings</a> and the <a title="Rockford Forest Citys" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockford_Forest_Citys">Rockford Forest Citys</a>. The Reds won 53-32. The game was close until Cincinnati score 19 in the sixth inning and 10 in the seventh.[Chicago <em>Tribune</em>, August 1, 1869, p.4] Several players on the teams, including Rockford pitcher <a title="Albert Spalding" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spalding">Albert Spalding</a>, would later become stars for Chicago.</p> <p>During 1870 the park was rented to the professional, then-independent baseball club, the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Chicago White Stockings (1870–89)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_White_Stockings_(1870%E2%80%9389)">Chicago White Stockings</a>, as a practice field and for a number of regulation games, usually against local or lesser-known opponents, or sometimes even college teams.</p> <p>Most of the ball club's "legitimate" games (as the <em>Chicago Tribune</em> termed them), against national professional teams (many of which would turn up in the <a title="National Association of Professional Base Ball Players" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Professional_Base_Ball_Players">National Association</a> the following year) were held at the <a title="Dexter Park (Chicago)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Park_(Chicago)">Dexter Park</a> race track near the stockyards.</p> <p>Overall, the White Stockings played about half their games at each venue, during a home season that ranged from late May to mid-November. [wikipedia]</p>  
F
<p>A "Sandford" was listed as third baseman in a July 1866, game. See http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038519/1866-08-01/ed-1/seq-3/.</p> <p>Listed as secretary at club's founding, but may have been replaced by Henry F. Roll later in the year. See <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038521/1866-12-01/ed-1/seq-5.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038521/1866-12-01/ed-1/seq-5.pdf</a></p>  +
L
<p>A "colored" club.</p>  +
I
<p>A "game of ball" was played on 2nd street above the Columbia Hotel." <em>Sacramento Transcript</em>, April 1, 1851. The ball game is not specified.</p>  +
D
<p>A 1937 newspaper article claimed that a baseball game was played in Jackson on July 4, 1845. No source for this is given. See Morris, "Baseball Fever," citing the Jackson Citizen Patriot, Sept. 19. 1937</p>  +
W
<p>A 2017 web search for <whacks london street game> returns only the Gomme source.</p>  +
O
<p>A BBC is mentioned in the Oswego Palladium, July 29, 1859, along with 2 cricket clubs and a wicket club.</p>  +
W
<p>A Blackhawks Club existed in 1872. See Sycamore True Republican, Jan. 20, 1906</p>  +
C
<p>A Chelsea Jr. club mentioned in the New York <em>Clipper</em>, July 27, 1867</p>  +
1
<p>A December 19 challenge notice describes the "FBBClub of Co. H 6th U. S. Cavalry.</p>  +
I
<p>A Dick Hefferline appears on the 1820 census for Providence. The reference is undoubtedly prior to 1828.</p>  +
G
<p>A Grant club is said to have existed in 1865. See Philadelphia City Item, Oct. 7, 1865, Tholkes RIM. See Protoball 19C clippings. Aka U.S. Grant</p>  +
H
<p>A Hancock club of Boston played the MA game and was established in 1857. See Lovett, James D’Wolf; Old Boston Boys and the Games They Played; Little, Brown & Company; 1908, cited in Kittel Protoball article on the MA game.</p>  +
C
<p>A Palestine national baseball/softball federation was formed in 2017, according to the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WSBC) website, headquartered in Ramallah. The city and area were once part of Jordan. The area is now governed by the Palestinian National Authority.</p>  +
F
<p>A Puzzlers BBC was formed in 1876 in McHenry. McHenry <em>Plaindealer</em>, Aug. 30, 1876</p>  +
M
<p>A South Lemon Reapers club was defeated 49-11 by the Lockport Sleepers in 1874. See Will County Courier, Aug. 19, 1874</p>  +
<p>A bb game was played in "Prospect Park" on July 4, 1875. See Chicago Tribune, June 27, 1875. Is this the Prospect Park that is now located in Morgan Park? Or a separate community? There was a PP in what is now Clarendon Hills, and another near Bloomingdale.</p>  +
L
<p>A brief account of this game, and a photo of the ball used in the game, is in the Boston Globe, Dec. 25, 1910.</p>  +
O
<p>A club of Washington University students? See St. Louis Post Dispatch, Nov. 17, 1968</p>  +
P
<p>A diagram of the game can be found at https://sites.psu.edu/ballgamesoftheworld/ball-and-bat-games/</p> <p>Pesapallo was a demonstration sport at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. [ba]</p>  +
U
<p>A drawing of the Union grounds is in the Our Game blog, April 8, 2019</p>  +
P
<p>A full explanation of Playground Ball can be found in the <em>Pensacola News Journal</em>, May 5, 1908. The game was designed to be playable in limited spaces.  10 players a side. The batter can run to either first or third. 5 inning games. A tally for each time a batter gets on base safely. Each side of the diamond 35 feet long. Pitcher 30 feet away from the batter. Bats are mere sticks no more than 2 inches in diameter. [ba]</p>  +
W
<p>A junior club? See list of 1858 Brooklyn junior clubs at Chronologies 1858.47.</p>  +
M
<p>A lengthy article on this game is in the Boston Globe, March 27, 1888</p>  +
1
<p>A more detailed newspaper account says that Fisher Ames' 12-year-old son, who was playing "ball" with some other boys, threw a ball at Moor, who then attacked the boy. The father rushed over and split Moor's skull with a "club."</p> <p>Fisher Ames (1800-85) beat the murder rap. The son was probably Charles Ira Ames. [ba]</p> <p>Bill Humber furnished the following account, from a local doctor: "Hazleton Moore.... was drunk and joined in the game of ball in front of the store. Something Ames said or did provoked him and instead of throwing the ball to him he threw it at him, when Ames rushed towards him and struck him with the club in the head. He ... died the next day. The inquest... resulted in the acquittal of Ames on my evidence, that the blow need not have been fatal had M's skull not been extraordinarily thin."</p> <p>Another account, from 1890: "It was in 1837 that Hazleton Moore was killed. I was there at the time. Ames was a very passionate man, and his first blow might be excused on that ground, but he struck him twice, the second blow when he was lying insensible on the ground. The Americans.... bribed Moore's wife to say away, and her absence at the trial helped to get Ames off. She acted badly."</p>  +
<p>A note identifies this section as having been written in 1862, along with one that prohibits shaking carpets on public lands, including streets, lanes, alleys, etc.</p>  +
<p>A political cartoon of the day showed Lincoln playing ball with other candidates. It can be viewed at  <a href="http://www.scvbb.org/images/image7/">http://www.scvbb.org/images/image7/</a>. </p> <p>Thanks to Kyle DeCicco-Carey for the link.</p>  +
<p>A previous Protoball entry, listed as #1840s.16: "He [Abraham Lincoln in the 1840s] joined with gusto in outdoor sports foot-races, jumping and hopping contests, town ball, wrestling . . . "  <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Source: </span> a limited online version of the 1997 book edited by Douglas L Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, <span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Herndon's Informant</span>s</span> (U of Illinois Press, 1997 or 1998). Posted to 19CBB on 12/11/2007 by Richard Hershberger. Richard notes that the index to the book promises several other references to Lincoln's ballplaying but [Jan. 2008] reports that the ones he has found are unspecific.. <strong>Note:</strong> can we chase this book down and collect those references?</p> <p>Earlier versions of this find were submitted by Richard Hershberger (2007) and John Thorn (2004).  </p>  +
R
<p>A relatively complete description of "roundstakes", or "rounders,"  as played in Eastern Massachusetts in about 1870, is found at [[roundstakes]].  The account is shown in that item's  "Supplemental Text."</p> <p>--</p> <p><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">An aside: Plugging in Rounders?</span> </p> <p>About baserunning, Gomme (page 145) writes in 1898:  "As soon as (the batter)has struck the ball, he runs from the base to the first boundary stick, then to the second, and so on. His opponents  in the meantime secure the ball and endeavor to hit him with it as he is running."    </p> <p>Protoball has found scant evidence that rounders included retiring baserunners by hitting them with the thrown ball.  On May 7 2022, however, John Thorn posted this excerpt from <span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Wickets in the West</span> by R. A. Fitzgerald, published in 1873 and covering the 1872 cricket tour of the US:</p> <p>"To sum it up, (base ball) is an improvement on our old schoolboys' game of rounders, without, however, the most attractive part to the English schoolboy -- the 'corking'.  We can see still, and we are not sure that we cannot still feel, the quiver of the fat boy's nether parts, as the ball, well-directed, buried  itself in his flesh." </p> <p>Putting baserunners out via a thrown ball, recalled as "corking" in this English account, has been called "plugging," "soaking," "burning," etc., in America.  In about 1810, Block notes, the French game [[Poisoned  Ball]] used the tactic, and the German [[Giftball]] (Poison ball) seems to have, as well.   </p> <p>--</p>  +
1
<p>A research note by Jim Overmyer on why the game occurred in Pittsfield appears as <strong>Supplemental Tex</strong>t  below. </p> <p>For a stern critique of the student time spent away from studying, see <em>The Congregationalist</em> [Boston], September 2, 1859, cited at https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/amherst-and-williams-play-the-first-intercollegiate-game-of-baseball-1859-b1c0255f6338, posted January 15, 2018. </p>  +
E
<p>A search of online newspapers shows no record of any 1859 game.</p>  +
A
<p>A separate Jr club from the one organized on June 3, 1866 located in the Twentieth Ward.</p>  +
1
<p>A team size of 12 and three-game match are consistent with some Mass game contests.</p>  +
2
<p>A video of the game is at: </p> <p><a href="http://ds.uhs.csufresno.edu/video/websiteMedia/townball16.mp4">http://ds.uhs.csufresno.edu/video/websiteMedia/townball16.mp4</a>  [loads slowly 9/8/2107]</p> <p>--</p> <p>Some particularly interesting variants from baseball include [note that key cricket characteristics are retained]:</p> <p> </p> <p>[] No foul balls [and no foul territory]</p> <p>[] Plugging of runners is allowed</p> <p>[] Basepath distance progresses  from from 42' to 110'feet sequentially</p> <p>[] Batters defend a "zone" as cricket batters defend a wicket</p> <p>[] Optional running except for third strike.</p> <p>[] No set batting order -- can vary inning to inning</p> <p> </p>  +
W
<p>A web search for "waggles england" in 2017 returns only the 1898 Gomme citation of the game.</p>  +
D
<p>AKA D. Eagan</p>  +
H
<p>AKA Roll-the-Bat, Cherry, Rollabat. Cf. Sullivan, "Roll-the-Bat," <em>Southwest Folklore</em> 4 (1980) pp. 84-86; Cohen, <em>The Games We Played</em> (2001), p. 77</p>  +
S
<p>AKA Symms</p>  +
1
<p>About 20% of the games covered in available 1860 newspaper accounts of base ball in Syracuse depict "old-fashioned base ball" as played by a set of five area clubs. The common format for these games was a best-two-of-three match of games played to 25 "tallies" [not runs]. A purse of $25 was not uncommon. Teams exceeded nine players. However, no account laid out the details of the playing rules, or how they differed from those of the National Association. An 1859 article suggested that the game was the same as "Massachusetts "Base Ball," giving the only firm clue as to its rules. </p>  +
B
<p>Abraham Lincoln is said to have played barn ball with enthusiasm in Springfield c. 1858. Nicholas Young remembered playing barn ball in the Mohawk Valley in the 1850s.</p>  +
I
<p>According to "Baseball Pioneers" the Morning Star BBC played town ball for several years prior to 1860. </p>  +
M
<p>According to Jeff Kittel in "Baseball Pioneers" the Morning Star BBC played town ball for several years prior to 1860. </p>  +
S
<p>According to Newark Daily Advertiser of 8/21/1866, the players were members of the Young Men's Catholic Association.  This is a different club from the 1861 Star Club of Newark</p>  +
1
<p>According to Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, "lazzarone" referred to "the homeless idlers of Naples who live by chance work or begging." </p>  +
J
<p>According to http://nashvillehistory.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html, Judge's Spring (or McNairy's Spring), was located at approximately 7th Ave. and Jackson St. in Nashville.</p>  +
B
<p>According to the New Brunswick Daily Fredonian of 9/17/1869 - this was a "colored" club</p>  +
1
<p>According to the WSOT article, the Excelsior lineup included Creighton as pitching and third batter, Brainerd at 2B, and Leggett as catcher. Mr. Welling of the Knickerbockers served as umpire.</p>  +
B
<p>According to this article, "banana ball" debuted in 2021:</p> <p>https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/introducing-banana-ball-the-savannah-bananas-attempt-to-change-baseball/</p>  +
1
<p>Actually, Mr. Calthrop may have come along about 95 years too late to make that claim: see #[[1760s.1]] above.</p>  +
<p>Adams' use of a frame-within-a-frame device is interesting to baseball history buffs, but the authenticity of the recollected game is hard to judge in a work of fiction. Mumford's lot was in fact an early Rochester ballplaying venue, and Thurlow Weed (see entry #[[1825c.1]]) wrote of club play in that period. Priscilla Astifan has been looking into Adams' expertise on early Rochester baseball. See #[[1828c.3]] for another reference to Adams' interest in baseball about a decade before the modern game evolved in New York City.</p>  +
C
<p>Additional sources for same report, with some detail. The Maine club involved reported as the Gorham Base Ball Club.</p>  +
1
<p>Adelman bases his analysis on the premise that base ball's predecessor games were played mainly be juveniles.  This premise can be questioned.  Even discounting play by university youths up to 1845, adult play in the military and elsewhere was hardly rare before the Gothams and Knickerbockers formed in New York around 1840, as many entries in this chronology indicate.  </p>  +
<p>Adelman does not mention that until 1854 there were few other known clubs for the KBBC to challenge to match games.</p> <p> </p>  +
<p>Admission had occasionally also been charged for "benefit" games for charities or to honor prominent players.</p>  +
P
C
<p>African American ball club.</p>  +
<p>African American ball clubs.</p>  +
U
Y
C
<p>African American club.</p>  +
<p>African American club.</p>  +
P
I
<p>African American clubs.</p>  +
U
<p>African-American team. Frederick Douglass' son Charles played for them.</p>  +
B
<p>African-American team</p>  +
S
<p>African-American. First inter-racial game in Los Angeles?</p>  +
1
<p>After the Eckford Club contradicted the <em></em>claim that several  players were resigning and moving to other clubs, the <em>Clipper </em>issued a retraction on December 3: "...we are pleased to learn that it is not correct, for we do not approve of these changes at all." </p>  +
H
<p>Aka Hamilton Club of Bedford?</p>  +
S
<p>Aka King Philip BBC?</p>  +
M
R
<p>Aka S. J. Randall Club. Named for a politician.</p>  +
I
<p>Aka William B. Irwin club. Men of a fire company.</p>  +
<p>Almost forgotten for 30 years!</p>  +
S
<p>Also played on the Isle of Man, the West Indies and the U.S.</p>  +
M
<p>Also see The Peterborough Transcript, April 14, 1858 [ba]</p>  +
C
<p>Also spelled "Cassady" and "Cassiday."</p>  +
<p>Also spelled "Castrine"</p>  +
1
<p>Altherr explains that Kingston Academy is British.</p> <p>This book appears to be a reprint of the 1805 London publication above at [[1805.3]].</p>  +
S
<p>Amateur Club was formerly the Empire Club</p>  +
C
<p>American soldiers may have played baseball in Saltillo in 1847. O<span>n January 30, 1847, Adolph Engelmann, an Illinois volunteer, reported: “During the past week we had much horse racing and the drill ground was fairly often in use for ball games.” [cited in Our Game blog]</span></p>  +
E
<p>An 1866 club called itself the Excelsior of West Baltimore. Baltimore <em>American</em>, Aug. 10, 1866.</p> <p>An Excelsior BBC played the Peabody for the city junior championship in 1867. Baltimore <em>American</em>, July 30, 1867.</p> <p>The Baltimore Daily Exchange, July 13, 1859, reports that in the past week the Excelsior BBC was formed, with W. D. Shurtz as president.</p> <p>This club may have been preceded in Baltimore by the "Urche" club. See McKenna, "Baltimore Baseball: The Beginning, 1858- 1872"</p>  +
W
<p>An 1868 image fsrom the CHS is in protopix.</p> <p>It was called Timothy Wright's Grove in the 1850s, after the co-owner of the Chicago Tribune.</p>  +
A
<p>An 1869 game was played at the Arsenal Grounds. See San Antonio Express, Oct. 17, 1965</p>  +
W
<p>An 1888 photo of Williams Hall and College Hall is in the MSU archives. See https://onthebanks.msu.edu/Object/162-565-2041/78-williams-hall-and-college-hall-circa-1888/</p>  +
I
<p>An Etna Wicket Club of New Haven mentioned in NY Clipper, Nov. 21, 1857</p>  +
P
<p>An Excelsior BBC played the Peabody for the city junior championship in 1867. Baltimore <em>American</em>, July 30, 1867.</p>  +
I
<p>An Irving Jr. Club is mentioned in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 16, 1867</p>  +
<p>An Ivanhoe (jr) Club of Bedford (Brooklyn) is mentioned in the New York <em>Dispatch</em>, July 8, 1866</p>  +
<p>An ad for organizing a cricket club in the Indianapolis Star, July 26, 1864</p>  +
C
<p>An article in PSOT April 27, 1861 says this club was formed on the 4th.</p>  +
U
<p>An article on early St. Louis baseball in "The Sporting News" Nov. 2, 1895 says the Union Club defeated the Empire BBC 15-14 in Dec., 1859, hen lost to the Empire 15-14 on New Years Day, 1860. The two clubs played four times 1860-61, the Union winning two 53-15 and 30-17, and losing two 9-21 and 20-24. [ba]</p>  +
C
<p>An article on early St. Louis baseball in "The Sporting News" Nov. 2, 1895 says the Cyclones lost an early game to the Morning Star BBC 21-36.</p>  +
S
<p>An extensive article on the Stars can be found in Samuel Pierson, "Thumbing the Pages of Baseball History in Bloomfield" (1939). They played at "The Green, on a diamond situated just north of Monroe Place." [ba]</p>  +
1
<p>An interesting aspect of this drawing is that there appear to be four defensive players and only two offensive players . . . unless the two seated gentlemen in topcoats have left them on while waiting to bat. One might speculate that the wicketkeepers are permanently on defense and the other pairs alternate between offense and defense when outs are made. Another possibility is that all players rotate after each out, as was later seen in scrub forms of base ball.</p> <p>Also note the relative lack of open area beyond the wickets.  Perhaps, as in single-wicket cricket, running was permitted only for balls hit forward from the wicket. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
H
<p>An obscure poem reportedly recited during this game seems to suggest it was played in Scotland.  See Alice Bertha Gomme, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland</span> (London, D. Nutt, 1894), page unspecified. </p>  +
1
<p>An oddity: in a July intramural contest, batter Bickham claimed 58 runs of his team's 190 total, while the second most productive batsman mate scored 30, and 5 of his 10 teammates scored fewer than 6 runs each. One wonders what rule, or what typo, would lead to that result.</p>  +
A
<p>Andrews' 1865 "Dictionary pf the Hawaiian Language" p. 279 contains the following:</p> <p>"Ki-ni-ho-lo. s. kini and holo, to run. the name of a particular game of ball, similar to base ball."</p> <p>Other sources say the more common name for a ball game is kinipopo. [ba]</p>  +
1
<p>Angus Macfarlane's research shows that many New Yorkers were in San Francisco in early 1851, and in fact several formed a "Knickerbocker Association."  Furthermore he discovered that several key members of the eastern Knickerbocker Base Ball Club -- including de Witt, Turk, Cartwright,  Wheaton, Ebbetts, and Tucker -- were in town.  "[I]n various manners and at various times they crossed each other's paths."  Angus suggests that they may have been involved in the 1851 games, so it is possible that they were played by Knickerbocker rules . . .  at a time when in New York most games were still intramural affairs within the one or two base ball clubs playing here.</p>  +
<p>Another game in Sacramento was covered in April of 1854. John Thorn suggests that "the above 'game of ball' may be inferred to be baseball (I think)."</p>  +
S
<p>Anson also mentions: "I longed .... to be playing soak ball, bull pen or two old cat..." during this time (schoolboy days--he was born in 1852 and raised in Marshalltown, IA).</p>  +
A
<p>Any indication as to why the second game report for this African American club cites a score for 8 innings?</p>  +
T
<p>Any new evidence on the nature and extent of targette play?</p>  +
1
<p>Articles published later in the <em>New York Clipper,</em> the <em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Spirit of the Times</span>,</em> the <em>New-York Daily Times,</em> and the <em>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</em> announced the first appearance in print of 18 new clubs in the Greater NYC region during 1855.</p>  +
<p>As a way of teaching nature [each chapter introduces several birds, insects, and "wild plants"] this book follows a group of boys and girls of unspecified age [post-pubescent, we guess] through a calendar year. The bass-ball/rounders reference above is one of the few times we run across both terms in a contemporary writing. So, now: Is the author denoting are there two distinct <em>games</em> with different rules, or just two distinct <em>names</em> for the same game?  The syntax here leaves that distinction muddy, as it could be the former answer if the children played bass-ball and rounders separately that [June] day. </p> <p>Richard's take on the bass-ball/rounders ambiguity: "It is possible that there were two games the party played . . . but the likelier interpretation is that this was one game, with both names given to ensure clarity." David Block [email of 2/27/2008] agrees with Richard. Richard also says "It is possible that as the English dialect moved from "base ball" to "rounders," English society concurrently moved from the game being played primarily played by boys and only sometimes being played by girls. I am not qualified to say."</p>  +
R
<p>As listed in the Box score of the Chicago game (Trib, 8-24-70), the Rockford nine consisted of:</p> <p>Armstrong, Graham, Williams, Winn, Wright, Abraham, Pender, Kingman and Thomas.</p> <p>Rockford had 83 "colored" residents in 1870, per the census.</p>  +
1
<p>As of 2018, we do not know the location, game type, or rules for this game.</p> <p>It is interesting that the man identified his position as short stop, perhaps indicating that predecessor baserunning games in New England had already developed skill positions' decades before the Knickerbocker club formed. </p> <p> </p>  +
I
<p>As of 2021, we know of two earlier game reports of games in NZ.</p> <p>See [[https://protoball.org/Marton_Base_Ball_Club]]  (1881 game).</p> <p>See [[https://protoball.org/Hicks-Sawyer_Minstrel_Co._side_1_v_Hicks-Sawyer_Minstrel_Co._side_2_in_November_1888]]  (unsourced 1888 game).</p> <p>Lyttleton is a nearby port city. </p> <p>The Hicks-Sawyer "negro" minstrel troupe toured New Zealand and Australia 1888-89. This troupe had its own baseball club, which played numerous games against the local clubs. Cf. Sydney <em>Referee</em>, Aug. 30, 1888; Melbourne <em>Age</em>, <br/>Feb. 23, 1889; Adelaide <em>South Australian Register</em>, April 8, 1889; Broken Hill <em>Barrier Miner</em>, April 20, 22, 1889. [ba]</p>  +
L
<p>As of April 2021 this game is also listed under "predecessor games."</p> <p>The Delaware is a club of Delaware Township, 10 km west of London,</p>  +
1
<p>As of February 2017, data on early ballplaying in the Chattanooga area are sparse.  They include five accounts of soldierly play during the Civil War and brief mentions of area base ball clubs after the war</p> <p>Protoball believes "shinny" to be a game resembling field hockey and ice hockey, and not a baserunning game.</p> <p>Protoball has only two other reports of the game of "baste" in a Princeton student's diary in 1786 and in a biography of Benjamin Harrison on his teenage activities in the Cincinnati area.  A good guess is that baste was a variant spelling of "base," a base ball precursor.</p> <p>The <em>Cleveland Banner</em> is a newspaper in Cleveland TN.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
<p>As of Jan 2013, this is one of three uses of "gool" instead of "goal" in ballplaying entries, all in the 1850s and found in western MA and ME.  [To confirm/update, do an Enhanced Search for "gool".]  One of these, at [[1850s.33]] uses "gool" as the name of the game.  See also <strong>Supplemental Text</strong>, below.</p>  +
<p>As of January 2023, this appears to be one of Protoball's ten earliest reports of ballplaying in the  United States, and the third to appear in what is now New York City.  It may be the first know legal action taken against ballplaying.</p>  +
B
<p>As of January 2023, this is all we know about Bete-ombro.   The second rule, above, would seem to distinguish it from cricket.</p>  +
1
<p>As of July 2022, Protoball lists over 260 base ball clubs from that era.</p> <p>Bruce Allardice adds, 7/30/2022:  "the [<em>Boston Post's</em>] 25 number seems to come from the number of clubs that attended the 1858 convention."</p>  +
B
<p>As of June 2019, Protoball has only 3 references to “base,” one in the 1300s and two in 1805.</p>  +
1
<p>As of June 2022, Protoball is not aware of accounts of ballplaying in Hawthorne's works.  For a reference to his note on 1862 ballplaying near Alexandria VA, see [[1862.47]]. </p>  +
<p>As of March 2021, this appears to be the earliest reference to a right -- in the form of special tickets -- to exclusive seating being bestowed to reporters. </p> <p>Peter Morris discusses press coverage arrangements in Morris, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A Game of Inches</span> (Ivan Dee, 2006), section 14.5.3, pp 403 ff.  He cites  two Henry Chadwick sources of press areas in June and August 1867 at the Brooklyn Union Grounds and then the Capitoline and Irvington grounds. </p>  +
M
<p>As of September 2014, we have no evidence as to the playing rules this club employed.  Thus, we don't yet know whether the game played resembled the Knickerbocker game, codified in 1845, or not. The depiction of stakes for bases, if accurate, might suggest to some that the game was related to what in 1858 was described as the Massachusetts game -- however, the Mass game then used overhand deliveries to batsmen.   </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
S
<p>As of September 2017, we find no other mention of a game by this name in English-language web searches.</p>  +
<p>As of Spring 2022, we are seeking additional information on local "strike-zone-on-wall" games.</p> <p>One sees strike zones displayed on school-yard and other walls in many geographical areas.</p> <p>What names were used for such games in different areas?  Did any involve actual base-running?</p> <p>Are such games known outside the US?  Did most use standard tennis balls?</p>  +
1
<p>As of mid 2023, the Protoball Chronology includes about 40 entries alluding to Rochester NY from 1825 to 1868.  Nearly half have been generously contributed by crack Rochester digger Priscilla Astifan.  Most of the games reported appear to be base ball-like games, but 8 refer to cricket, wicket and trap ball. <span>Ten entries refer to soldierly play during the Civil War.</span></p> <p>Priscilla reported on 5/18/2023:  <span> "I haven't yet found any notice in the available newspapers of the game being played or not.  But at least the intention was interesting."</span> </p>  +
E
<p>As per the newspaper report, each side featured 10 players and five first nine players, per side.  Sprague pitched for "Wood's Side." </p>  +
1
<p>Ashtabula (1850 population: 821 souls) is about 55 miles NE of Cleveland OH and a few miles from Lake Erie.  The town of Jefferson OH is about 8 miles inland [S] of Ashtabula.</p> <p>"The <em>Sentinel" </em>is presumably the <em>Ashtabula Sentinel</em>. </p>  +
B
<p>Astifan, "Baseball in the 19th Century" says Brown Square was the site of Rochester's first match game.</p> <p>Other early games were played at Jones Square, Franklin Square, and the Babbitt Tract.</p> <p>The 1860 Rochester map shows Jones Square bounded by Jones Avenue on the south, bounded by Schuyler on the east, about where the modern Jones Square is.</p> <p>Franklin Square in 1860 was on the east side of the river, bounded by Andrews on the south, Bowery on the north, and bisected by Chatham (north/south running street).</p> <p>"Mumford's meadow" was the site of a (predecessor?) baseball game c. 1825. See chronologies. The site of this meadow is shown in the linked-to pdf.</p>  +
G
<p>At a guess, this club played their home games on the campus, what would be known as "Oak Grove" or "University Grove" near the modern-day college library.</p>  +
I
<p>At a guess, this is the original of the note in Spalding's The National Game about American oil workers playing baseball in Burma. The Spalding phot collection, NYPL, has a photo of what may be this team, said to be employees of the Rangoon Oil Co., in "Yenamgyat, Upper Burmah." This location is probably Yenangyaung. </p>  +
<p>At or near Rochester</p>  +
1
<p>At the time the 40th was stationed at Camp Sedgwick, near Fairfax, VA.</p>  +
W
<p>Attached image is that of Colonel Norman Gassette (1839-91), first club president, a prominent Chicago lawyer and politician. Club vice president was Willard F. Wentworth (1838-1910),  a former city treasurer.</p>  +
U
<p>Augustus W. Graham, son of former senator Graham, wrote his father on Sept. 10, 1867 from Chapel Hill that his university club defeated the Crescent of Raleigh "last Saturday" 54-36, for the championship of the state. See the Papers of William A. Graham, vol. 7</p>  +
C
<p>Austin had 4,051 residents in 1890.</p>  +
E
<p>Balls Pitched</p> <p>Pidgeon (Eckford):    44-28-28-24-51-15-10-30-65 - 295</p> <p>Thompson (Harlem): 19-31-25-17-23-36-41-44-14 - 250</p> <p>(E. Miklich)</p>  +
R
O
<p>Baltimore <em>American</em>, Aug. 4, 1869</p>  +
1
<p>Barre MA (1855 pop. about 3000) is about 60 miles W of Boston.  Hardwick, Hubbardstown, Oakham, New Braintree and Petersham are 8-10 miles from Barre. Poor Dana MA was disincorporated in 1938.</p>  +
<p>Barre MA (1860 pop. about 3000) is about 60 miles W of Boston and about 8 miles NE of Hardwick MA.</p>  +
C
<p>Barton is the name of the township Hamilton is in. See Club of Barton entry. [ba]</p>  +
I
<p>Baseball was played at Hamilton in 1860.</p>  +
N
<p>Based on current research, this appears to be the first game played between two New Jersey clubs by New York rules.  The two teams played previously on June 13th, but based on the available information, they didn't use New York rules.  For this game, the short article and rough box score show nine players on a side and a 31-10 score.  The total of 31 runs is in excess of the Knickerbocker's 21, but it may be that the Newark Club batted first and went beyond 21 before the side was retired.  In addition a New York Clipper article, date unknown, said that the Newark Club won with "ten runs to spare" and there could also be a number of explanations why the game went on after the Newark Club scored 21 runs.  The next potential game by New York rules between New Jersey clubs was the Newark Club's 27 - 19 win over the Newark Juniors on 9/5/1855.  Here again there were nine players on a team and the score is closer to what we might expect by Knickerbocker rules.</p>  +
F
<p>Beaubien Farm was a cricket club grounds.</p> <p>A game reported in the Detroit Free Press Aug. 23, 1857 is of two 10 on 10 intersquad games, with the scores 21-11 and 21-19. </p>  +
E
<p>Bedford was and is a neighborhood of Brooklyn</p>  +
1
<p>Beecher is here lauding exercise that is both vigorous and inexpensive.</p>  +
P
<p>Benefit game for the Masonic Educational Committee Fund. $115 surplus over expenses donated on 19 August.</p>  +
E
<p>Bergen County Democrat and New Jersey State Register, 7/6/1866</p>  +
Q
<p>Bergen merged into Jersey City in 1870.</p>  +
1
<p>Berkshire MA is about 5 miles NE of Pittsfield and about 10 miles E of New York state border. </p> <p>This may have been a wicket match. One wonders why a Friday match would have been held.</p>  +
<p>Beth Hise [email of 3/3/2008] reports that the wearing of colored ribbons was a much older tradition.</p> <p><strong>Note:</strong> One may ask if something got lost in the relay of this story to Wisconsin. We know of no wicket in England, and neither wicket or cricket used nine-player teams.</p>  +
<p>Bill Hicklin, 10/5/20 points out that "Militia regiments in that period, especially in major East Coast cities and in the South, were as much social clubs as anything, organized mostly to hold balls and banquets. Compare the New York volunteer fire companies of the 1840s. A 'Road Trip to New York' would have been right up their alley."</p> <p>Protoball had asked: Was it common for southern soldiers to travel to the north in 1859? Bruce Allardice: "This was not common. The cost was too great. The Richmond Grays were individually wealthy and could afford it. Drill competition between companies in various cities was common in 1859."</p> <p>From Bruce Allardice, 10/5/20: "The unit was a famous unit of the Virginia volunteer militia, its members being among Richmond's 'elite.'. Captain Elliott became a Confederate army Lt. Colonel. The unit served in the war as part [Company A] of the 1st Virginia Infantry CSA." Bill Hicklin, 10/5/20, adds that it fought "right through to Appomattox."</p> <p>Why the soldiers headed to a cemetery? Tom Gilbert pointed out, 10/5-6/20, that Green-wood Cemetery was even then a popular visitor attraction. "Green-wood cemetery in Brooklyn not only welcomed tourists but solicited them. The cemetery was designed with the goal of attracting the public. It imported the grave of Dewitt Clinton for that purpose. All of this predated the famous baseball grave monuments of course."</p> <p>From Richard Hershberger, 10/4/2020: "Richmond is rich with abortive early connections with baseball. In actual practice, baseball took off in Richmond in the summer of 1866, right on schedule for its location, regardless of prior contact with the game."</p> <p>Note: When base ball got to Richmond it really swept in: as of October 2020, Protoball shows no clubs prior to 1866, but 24 clubs prior to 1867. Some other Chronology entries touching on early base ball in Richmond include [[1857.36]], [[1861.1]], [[1863.99]], and [[1866.17]].</p> <p> </p>  +
<p>Bill Hicklin, 3/9/2016:</p> <p>"It's one of the commonplaces of the old origins debate that led to the Mills Commission that Henry Chadwick was foremost among those arguing that baseball evolved directly from rounders, and indeed he said so many times.  In opposition stood those patriotic Americans such as Ward who claimed an indigenous heritage from the Old Cat games."</p>  +
C
<p>Black Club</p>  +
K
<p>Black Club</p>  +
L
<p>Black Club</p>  +
<p>Black Club</p>  +
O
<p>Black Club</p>  +
<p>Black Club</p>  +
B
<p>Black club</p>  +
1
<p>Blair, whose grandfather was Lincoln's Postmaster General, lived in Silver Spring, MD, just outside Washington. Blair was born in 1858 or 1859.</p>  +
<p>Block adds: "Other games besides baseball, of course, could have borne the label <em>Ball</em> on that occasion, but none seem obvious.  Cricket, football, trap-ball, stool-ball, golf, and various games in the hockey family ,including bandy, hurling, and shinty, all had a presence in the British Isles in that era, but there is no reason the passing multitude in London that day would have considered any of them a "novelty."   </p>  +
<p>Block notes that the graphic is lifted by the same publisher's 1850 book, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Frank and the Cottage</span>).</p>  +
<p>Block points out that this diary entry is (as of 2008) among the first four appearances of the term "base ball," [see #1744.2 and #1748.1 above, and #1755.4 below].  It shows adult and mixed-gender play, and indicates that "at this time, baseball was more of a social phenomenon than a sporting one. . . . played for social entertainment rather than serious entertainment." [Ibid, page 9.]</p> <p>William Bray is well known as a diarist and local historian in Surrey.  His diary, in manuscript, came to light in England during the 2008 filming of Ms Sam Marchiano's award-winning documentary, "Base Ball Discovered." (As of late 2020, ITunes lists this documentary at https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/base-ball-discovered/id385353782.  Its charge is $10.  Another route is <a href="https://www.mlb.com/video/base-ball-discovered-c7145607">https://www.mlb.com/video/base-ball-discovered-c7145607</a>)</p> <p>As of 2019 the diary was missing again -- Block tells the sad story in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pastime Lost</span> (U Nebraska Press, 2019), p. 37.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
<p>Block points out that this very early reference to base-ball indicates that the game was played by adults -- the Prince was 38 years old in 1749, further weakening the view that English base-ball was played mainly by juveniles in its early history.</p> <p>The location of the game was Walton-on-Thames in Surrey.</p> <p> Comparing the 1749 game with modern baseball, Block estimates that the bass-ball was likely played on a smaller scale, with a much softer ball, with batted ball propelled the players' hands, not with a bat, and that runners could be put out by being "plugged" (hit with a thrown  ball) between bases.</p> <p> </p>  +
H
<p>Bob Tholkes found an item in the Washington (DC) Evening Star, Sept.10, 1867: "The Havana base ball club challenged and played its first match with the Matanzas club on Sunday last, but with no result. Another game is to come off there to-day."</p>  +
M
<p>Bob Tholkes found an item in the Washington (DC) Evening Star, Sept.10, 1867: "The Havana base ball club challenged and played its first match with the Matanzas club on Sunday last, but with no result. Another game is to come off there to-day."</p>  +
I
<p>Bob Tholkes wonders: Is "town ball" the southern name for "base ball?"</p>  +
1
<p>Bob Tholkes' thorough 2016 paper [cited above] throws welcome light on the nature of elite base ball in period immediately following the Civil War, a period also associated with the rise of "Base Ball Fever" during which local clubs, representing individual companies, affinity groups, etc., formed clubs, some of which playing at sunrise [as early as five o'clock AM], prior to the work day. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
<p>Bob Tholkes, 5/6/2021:  "<span>Didn't know there was a funeral announcement."</span></p> <p><span>Richard Hershberger, 5/6/2021: "<span>I don't know of any report of the association meeting or otherwise showing any sign of life after the war."</span></span></p> <p><span><span>In a 5/9/2021 search, Protoball doesn't find one after 1866 either.</span></span></p> <p><span><span>Note: Protoball has an 1868 clipping of a throwback game (28 innings, score 24-23) played by Mass rules.  See https://protoball.org/Clipping:The_Mohawk_Club_reverts_to_amateur.</span></span></p> <p><span> </span></p>  +
<p>Box score provided; it is consistent with the National Association rules. Assuming that "Alleghany" is an alternative spelling for "Allegheny," this game occurred in a town absorbed into Pittsburgh PA in 1907.</p>  +
C
<p>Box scores confirm this is a white club.</p>  +
A
<p>Box scores of the Active Jr. against the Washington Market BBC (undated) can be found in <em>National Chronicle</em>, April 17, 1869 </p>  +
1
<p>Bradford explained that the issue was not that ball-playing was sinful, but that playing openly while others worked was not good for morale.</p> <p><strong>Note:</strong> From scrutinizing early reports of stoolball, Protoball does not find convincing evidence that it was a base-running game by the 1600s.</p>  +
<p>Brian Turner, 8/31/2014, notes that the wording of this order could be taken to mean that the game itself was seen as a form of cricket, and was not a distinct game. </p>  +
<p>British sailors played rounders on the ice in Melville Bay, Greenland, Aug. 20, 1857. See Lloyd, "The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas"</p>  +
S
<p>Bruce Allardice adds this note on the social makeup of the Savannah BBC [19CBB posting of 2/5/2016]:</p> <p> </p> <p>"George G. Kimball was born in 1843 in ME, died 1923, attended Bowdoin (ME) College. Journalist.</p> <p>William Forrestal May (1845-1920) was born in CT.</p> <p>“Flanders”–only Flanders in 1870 Savannah a mulatto.</p> <p>Edwin L. Beard was born in NY c. 1840.</p> <p>Peter S. Neidlinger (1853-97) a clerk who was born in Savannah of German immigrants.</p> <p>Peter Schaefer (1841-1902) was born in Germany.</p> <p>Charles Rossignol (born c 1850) was born in GA, as was William Nungezer Nichols (1852-1930)</p> <p>Frank Wagner Dasher (1852-88) was born in GA, of NY parents.</p> <p>From the above, it’s pretty clear that the team was not highly gentrified but was at least half transplants."</p>  +
T
<p>Bruce Allardice notes that "town corporation" was a British term for what we would call a city council. </p>  +
A
<p>Brunson, "Black Baseball" says this Albion Club organized in 1868, but presents no cite prior to 1872. [ba]</p>  +
1
<p>Buckland is about 45 miles north of Portland.</p> <p>The ages of players is not clear.</p> <p>As of Jan 2013, this is one of three uses of "gool" instead of "goal" in ballplaying entries, all in the 1850s and found in western MA and ME.  [To confirm/update, do an enhanced search for "gool".]  One of these [[1850s.33]] uses "gool" as the name of the game.</p>  +
I
<p>Buffalo Evening Post, April 4, 1851 ran an ad about a meeting to form a cricket club. </p> <p>Same July 15, 1856 mentions a proposed Albion Cricket Club. Same club as the Amateur?</p>  +
1
<p>By "plebeian," the writer presumably meant "not upper-class."</p>  +
<p>By 1860, most Massachusetts Rules games were being played to 75 runs, instead of the 100 specified in the rules adopted in 1858. A match for the state championship was abandoned, unfinished, after four days' play.</p>  +
H
<p>By 1920 there was a Korea baseball championship. See www.projectcobb.org.uk</p>  +
L
<p>Cambridge had 26,060 residents in 1860.</p>  +
1
<p>Camp Sedgwick was in northern VA. FORT Sedgwick was near Petersburg, and not built after the Battle of the Wilderness. [ba]</p>  +
<p>Camp Seminary was located near Fairfax Seminary in Alexandria VA, near Washington DC. </p> <p>One may infer that the 2<sup>nd</sup> NJ remained at winter quarters in Alexandria VA at this time, providing protection to Washington. </p>  +
S
<p>Can we determine Spalding's sources for this account?  Is the game account clear that New York rules were used?</p>  +
M
<p>Can we determine if this game was played by Mass game rules?</p>  +
R
<p>Can we discover more about this club's foundation, history, and fate? </p>  +
1
<p>Cannot confirm this source. The rules described appeared in the <em>New York Clipper, </em>October 10, 1857.</p>  +
<p>Canton, NY is about 15 miles SE of Ogdensburg NY.  Its population in 2000 was a bit over 10,000.</p> <p>Ogdensburg [1853 population "about 6500"] is about 60 miles [NE] down the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario.  It is about 60 miles south of Ottawa, about 120 miles north of Syracuse, and about 125 miles SW (upriver) of Montreal.</p>  +
W
<p>Catcher</p>  +
F
<p>Caution: Protoball has them playing in Buffalo that day, with a different score.</p>  +
B
<p>Center Field. Also spelled "Bonaffon" and "Bonnaffon" in other sources. The Nashville City Directory lists "FV Bonnaffin" as a clerk for the quartermaster at a railroad depot. In 1867, "F.V. Bonnaffon" was stationed under the Nashville quartermaster in Kentucky.</p>  +
M
<p>Cf Marion Base Ball Club of South Brooklyn. [ba]</p>  +
1
<p>Chadwick emigrated from western England, and is reported to have been familiar with rounders there.</p> <p>His claim that American base ball had evolved from English rounders was long refuted by fans of the American game.</p> <p>In 1871 Chadwick identified Two-Old-Cat as the parent of American base ball.  See [[1871.20]] </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>  +
W
<p>Chapter 1 deals with baseball in Maine from statehood well into the 20th century and he does tie some of the early stories to newspaper documentation.</p>  +
<p>Chapters 1 and 2 deal with early Maine baseball.</p>  +
C
<p>Chatham was known as "Chatham Four Corners" until 1869.</p>  +
<p>Chicopee of Groton (Senior club)</p> <p>Riverside of Nashua (Junior club)</p>  +
1
<p>Chris Hauser, in an email on 9/26/2007, estimates that this notice appeared in the <em>New York Anglo-African</em>, and was referenced in Leslie Heaphy's <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Negro League Baseball.</span></p>  +
<p>Chron serial#1840.16 was formerly assigned to stories of Abe Lincoln's ballplaying as a young man; see #[[1830s.16]] for that item.</p>  +
<p>Cilley himself does not attribute the 1859 injuries to plugging.</p>  +
<p>Clark then cites "a well-traveled myth in the American baseball community . . . that the first baseball played in Australia was by Americans on the gold fields of Ballarat in 1857 . . . . No documentation has ever been produced for a Ballarat gold fields game [also page 5]."</p>  +
I
<p>Clarksburg had 895 residents in 1860.</p>  +
1
<p>Clay's book, which seems to make no other reference to ball-playing, was accessed 11/15/2008 via a Google Books search for <life of cassius>.</p>  +
C
<p>Club is of Fox Lake, WI not IL</p>  +
E
<p>Club was formed about 7/1/1865</p>  +
R
<p>Club was organized October 1867, and reorganized March 11, 1868.</p>  +
I
<p>Collins, "Sea-tracks of the Speejacks" (1923) p. 48 has a photo of Americans and Samoans playing baseball in Pago Pago. Pago Pago is in American Samoa.</p>  +
K
<p>Colored - African-American Club, played in 1866, 1867 and 1868</p>  +
A
<p>Colored Club</p>  +
H
<p>Colored or African-American Club, played matches in 1865 and 1866</p>  +
R
<p>Composed of the members of the Robert Morris Hose Company.  This department was founded on March 14, 1831 and was located on Lombard Street above 8th Street.</p>  +
1
<p>Contents of the 1860 Beadles publication include:</p> <p>[] a description of the game of rounders</p> <p>[] the 1845 Knickerbocker Rules (14 sections on field rules)</p> <p>[] A listing of 22 clubs formed 1845-1857</p> <p>[] The 1858 establishment of the NABBP</p> <p>[] The NABBP Rules of 1860 (38 sections)</p> <p>[] The 1858 Rules of the Massachusetts Game (21 Sections)</p> <p>[]Rules for the Formation of a Club</p> <p>The 1861 edition is reported to include player averages (runs per game)</p>  +
A
<p>Copied from another posting</p>  +
1
<p>Corlear's Hook was a noted ship landing place along the East River. Today there's a Corlears Hook Park on the site.</p>  +
Q
<p>Correcting score from Daily Register of 6/25</p>  +
O
<p>Corrections and addition to this account are encouraged.  If readers know of Romanian speakers willing to help, some central questions include:</p> <p>[] What are the major playing rules?</p> <p>[] Does the game remain widely popular?</p> <p>[] What is know of the origins and history of the sport?</p>  +
1
<p>Craig Waff reported that, as far as he could tell, this was the first game in which the size of the assembled crowd was reported.</p>  +
<p>Creation of  phantom jobs for ballplayers was a commonplace in baseball's amateur era.</p>  +
P
<p>Cricket Club in Pottsville 1858-66, and perhaps earlier.</p> <p>A "Ball Club" is mentioned in the same newspaper in 1843, but this might refer to "foot ball" (soccer).</p>  +
I
<p>Cricket said to have been played at Dartmouth in the 1830s. See https://www.dreamcricket.com/articles/history-of-american-cricket/history-of-american-cricket-part-ii--1800-to-1850/</p>  +
<p>Cricket said to have been played at Holy Cross College in Worcester prior to the Civil War. See Dream Cricket website.</p>  +
1
<p>Critics of the game had long insisted that low-scoring games were indicated play of higher quality.</p>  +