Version 11
Additions to the Protoball Chronology
These Items Were Added in April 2010
BC2000c.2 – 1913 Text: “
“Recent excavations near
William S. Walsh, A Handy Book of Curious
Information, (J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1913), page 83. .
Available via Google Books search “to light small balls,” 1/27/2010.
Query: Does recent scholarship agree that these were
balls, were used in sport, and date to 2000BC?
Is there further evidence about their role in Egyptian life?
BC700C.1 – Pitching in the Bible?
”He will surely wind you around and around, and throw
you like a ball into a large country.
There you will die . . . “ Isaiah
22:18.
The word “ball” appears only twice in the Bible, and
the other one refers to the ball of the foot of a beast [Leviticus 11:27]. The Isaiah usage was the inspiration for a
January 1905 news article headed, “Played Baseball in Bible Times: The Prophet
Isaiah Made the only reference to the Pastime to be Found in the Holy
Writ.” [The Hamilton [Ont] Spectator – from a clipping in the Origins file at
the
Isaiah’s prophesies were written [in Hebrew] late in
the eighth century BC. A compilation of
15 English translations [accessed at http://bible.cc/isaiah/22-18.htm
on 12/29/10] shows that most of them summon the image of an angry God
hurling the miscreant, like a ball, far far away. [One exception, however, cites a wound
turban, not a ball.] A literal
translation is unrevealing: “And thy coverer covering, wrapping round, Wrappeth
thee round, O babbler, On a land broad of sides – there thou diest.” Caveat:
we have little assurance that Isaiah actually referred to a ball, or even
to the act of throwing. Query: could a Hebrew reader or a Bible scholar
among you clarify this question?
1477.1 – List of Banned Games May Include Distant Ancestors of Baseball
“Whosoever shall occupy a house or place of closh,
kayles, half-bowl, hand-in hand-out or queck-board, shall be three years
imprisoned and forfeit 20 [pounds]; and he that will use any of the said games
shall be two years imprisoned and forfeit 10 [pounds].
John Harland, A Volume of Court Leet Records of the
Manor of
1533.1 – Skelton Poem Traces
Cricket to Flemish Immigrants to
“O lodre of Ipocrites/ Nowe shut vpp your wickets,/
And clappe to your clickettes/ A! Farewell, kings for crekettes!”
“The Image of Ipocrisie” (1533) attributed to John
Skelton. This verse is interpreted as
showing no sympathy to Flemish weavers who settled in southern and eastern
1583.1 -- Pre-teens Risk Dungeon Time For Selves, or Their Dads, by Playing Ball
“Whereas this a great abuse in a game or games used in
the town called “Gede Gadye or the Cat’s Pallet, and Typing or hurling the Ball,” – that no mannor person shall play at
the same games, being above the age of seven years, wither in the churchyard or
in any of the streets of this town, upon pain of every person so playing being
imprisoned in the Doungeon for the
space of two hours; or else every person so offending to pay 6 [pence] for
every time. And if they have not
[wherewithal] to pay, then the parents or masters of such persons so offending
to pay the said 6 [pence] or to suffer the like imprisonment.” [Similar language is found in 1579 entry
[page 148], but it lacked the name “Typing” and did not mention a ball.
John Harland, editor, Court Leet Records of the
Manor of Manchester in the Sixteenth Century (Chetham Society, 1864), page
156. Accessed 1/27/10 via Google Books
search: “court leet” half-bowls. Note:
The game gidigadie is not known to us, but the 1864 editor notes
elsewhere [page 149, footnote 61] that was “not unlikely” to be tip-cat, and he
interprets “typing” as tipping. As later
described [see “Tip-Cat” and “Pallet” at http://retrosheet.org/Protoball/Glossary.htm],
tip-cat could be played with a cat or a ball, and could involve running among
holes as bases. Caveat: we do not yet know what the nature of the proscribed game
was in Elizabethan times.
1610.1 – Very Early Cricket Match
A match is thought to have been played between the men
of
Contributed by Beth Hise January 12, 2010. Beth is in pursuit of the original source of
this claim. North Downs is in
1697.1 – “A Great Match at Cricket” for a Tidy Purse
The Foreign Post, July 7, 1697 reports that in
Contributed by Beth Hise, January 12, 2010.
1730c.1 – Low Wicket and Circular Hole Said Still Found in Cricket
“In the infancy of the game [cricket] the batsman
stood before a circular hole in the turf, and was put out, as in ‘rounders,’ by
being caught, or by the ball being put in this hole. A century and a half ago this hole was still
in use, though it had on each side a stump only one foot high, with a long
cross-bar of two feet in length laid on top of them.”
Robert MacGregor, Pastimes and Players (Chatto
and Windus, London, 1881), page 4, accessed 1/30/10 via Google Books search (“pastimes
and players”). MacGregor gives no source
for this claim. Note that MacGregor does
not say that such practice was uniformly used in this period. Query:
have later writers specified in more detail when the hole and the low long
wicket disappeared from cricket?
1743.3 – When Cricket Still Had Foul Ground?
“We may see how the game was played about this time
from the picture, of date 1743, in the possession of the Surrey County
Club. The wicket was a ‘skeleton hurdle,’
one foot high and two feet wide, consisting of two stumps only, with a third
laid across. The bat was curved at the
end, and made for free hitting rather than defence. The bowling was all along the ground, and the
great art was to bowl under the bat. All
play was forward of the wicket, as it is now in single wicket games of less
that five players a side. With these
exceptions, the game was very much the same as it is today [1881].”
Robert MacGregor, Pastimes and Players (Chatto
and Windus, London, 1881), page 16. Note
that the circular hole, described in #1730.1, is not seen. Caveat:
It is not clear from this account whether forward hitting was common in the
1740s or whether MacGregor is simply drawing inferences about this single
painting.
1755.5 – Authoritative Rules of
Cricket Published Nationally in
The publication is The Game at Cricket; as Settled
by the Several Cricket-Clubs, Particularly that of the Star and Garter in Pall
Mall (
Contributed by Beth Hise, January 12, 2010. Beth adds: “This is the first discrete
publication of the laws of cricket, a version of which was printed in the New
Universal Magazine, and as such enabled the laws to be widely
distributed. This is the version
generally regarded as containing the original laws of cricket.”
1770.2 – Three-on-Three Cricket Match Played on 100-Guinea Bet
“On Friday last a cricket match was played on Barnet
Common between Mess. Cock, and Draper and Athey, against Mess Grey, Langley,
and Tapiter, for 100 guineas, which was won with great difficulty by the
latter; they went against 44 notches, and beat by only one notch.”
Bingley’s Weekly Journal, Saturday, September 15, 1770. Contributed by Gregory Christiano,
12/2/09. Barnet is a borough of
1770c.3 – Future Professor Sneaks a Smoke When He Can’t Play Bat and Ball
“When Saturday afternoon chanced to be rainy, and no
prospect of bat and ball on the common, some half a dozen of us used now and
then, to meet in an old wood-shed, that we shall never forget, and fume it away
to our own wonderful aggrandizement.”
“Use of Tobacco from Dr. Waterhouse’s Lecture before
1771.4 – Newspaper Quotes Odds
for 2-Day
“On Wednesday and Thursday Last a grand match at
cricket was played in the Artillery ground, between the Duke of Dorset and ___ Mann, Esq; which, being a strong contest,
was won by his Grace, notwithstanding the odds on the second day were 12 to one
in favor of Mr. Mann.
Bingley’s Weekly Journal, Saturday, September 14, 1771. Contributed by Gregory Christiano,
12/2/09.
1773.3 – Ball-playing By Slaves is Eyed in SC
“We present as a growing Evil, the frequent assembling
of Negroes in the Town [
Tom Altherr, Originals, Volume 2, Number 11
(November 2009), page 1. Tom sees this
reference as “possibly the earliest which refers to African Americans, slaves
or also possibly a few free blacks, playing a baseball-type game [although it
is not clear if it involved any running], and playing frequently.
1787.5 – NY Newspaper Prints “Laws of the Noble Game of Cricket”
“At the request of several of our Correspondents, we
insert the following Laws of the noble
Game of Cricket, which govern all the celebrated Players in
Independent
Journal [
1789.3 – Stoolball Played at
Brighthelmstone in
“From the ‘Jernal’ of John Burgess of Ditchling (
The XVth (1938) Annual Report of the Stoolball
Association for
A web search doesn’t lead to this journal entry, but
does locate a similar one:
“[August 19, 1788] Went to Brighthelmstone to see many
Divertions on account of the Rial Family that is the Duke of Yorks Berth day
Cricketing Stool Ball Foot Ball Dancing &c. fire works &c.” A side note was that some estimated that
20,000 persons attended.
1790.8 – British Paper Snitches
on Ringer Playing on a
“The Grand Match between the Noblemen of Mary-le Bonne
Club, and the
Their best batter, C. Foxton, does not live in
Middlesex, but in
“Cricket,” Morning Post and Daily Advertiser,
Monday June 21, 1790. Contributed by
Gregory Christiano, 12/2/09.
1791.2 –
“Both the meeting-house and the Court House suffered
considerable damage, especially to their windows by ball playing in the
streets, consequently in 1791, a by-law was enacted by which ‘foot ball, hand
ball, bat ball and or any other game of ball was prohibited within ten rods of
the Court House easterly or twenty rods of the Meeting House southwesterly,
neither shall they throw any stones at or over the said Meeting House on a
penalty of 5s, one half to go to the complainant and the rest to the town.’”
J. R. Trumbull, History of Northampton, Volume
II (
1791.3 –
“Puerile Sports usual in these parts of
The Diary of William Bentley, D.D., Volume I (Essex Institute, Salem MA, 1905), pp
253-254. Contributed by Brian Turner,
March 6, 2009. Bentley later noted that
Bat & Ball is played at the time of year when “the weather begins to
cool. Bentley [1759-1819] was a
prominent and prolific New England pastor who served in
1793.5 – Lady Cricketers Play
Again in
The married women and maids of Bury, in
The Morning Post, Wednesday, July 17, 1793.
Contributed by Gregory Christiano, December 2, 2009.
1803.5 –
A letter to the editor of the Green Mountain
Patriot takes issue with another writer who evidently thinks that “the
farmer, the mechanic, and the merchant” should do more dancing when they attend
local balls. They attend for another
reason – “the same reason, whether criminal or lawful, that they meet together
to play a game of ball, of quoits, or ride out on horseback.” For “pleasing amusement.”
The
1804.3 – A “Match at Ball” in
In a listing of articles in North Louisiana History,
we spy this citation: Morgan Peoples,
“Caddoes Host ‘Match at Ball,” Volume 11, Number 3 (Summer 1980), pp. 353-36.
Query: Can we retrieve the actual
article and discover the particulars?
Caddo Parish is just northwest of
1804.5 –
A subscription search yields a 20 column-inch printing
of cricket rules on May 8, 1804. The
paper is identified as The Bee, but no location is provided.
1805.8 – Yale Grad Compares
“July 9 [1805, we think] . . . . The mode of playing
ball differs a little from that practiced in New-England. Instead of tossing up the ball out of one’s
own hand, and then striking it, as it descends, they lay is into the heel of a
kind of wood shoe; and upon the instep a spring is fixed, which extends within
the hollow to the hinder part of the shoe; the all is placed where the heel of
the foot would commonly be, and a blow applied on the other end of the spring,
raises the ball into the air, and, as it descends, it receives a blow from the
bat.
“They were playing also at another game resembling our
cricket, but differing from it in this particular, that he perpendicular pieces
which support the horizontal one, are about eighteen inches high, and are three
in number, whereas with us they are only two in number, and about three or four
inches high.”
Benjamin Silliman, Journal of Travels in
Silliman thus implies that an American [or at least
1805.9 –
“High Street, at
“Ball-playing
seems to have been extensively practiced in 1820. At the town meeting that
year, it was voted ‘that the game of ball, and the pitching of quoits within [a
specified area] be prohibited.”
Joseph Williamson, History of the City of Belfast
(Loring Short and Harmon, Portland, 1877), page 764. Accessed 2/2/10 via Google Books search
("
1810.7 – Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison Plays Ball as Barefoot Youth
“[T]he lovely old town of Newburyport, Massachusetts,
in which he spent the fist twenty-five years of his life, was ever dear to
him. As a boy, barefoot he rolled the
hoop through the streets, played a marbles and at bat and ball, swam in the
Wendell Phillips Garrison, “William Lloyd Garrison’s
Origin and Early Life, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine Volume
30 (1885), page 592. Accessed via Google
Books search 2/2/10 ("garrison's origin").
1810c.8 – Future Lord Prefers Studies to Rounders, Cricket
Young Thomas Babbington Macaulay “did not take kindly,
his co-temporaries tell us, to foot-ball, cricket, or a game of rounders, --
preferred history to hockey, and poetry to prisoner’s base.”
H. G. J. Clements, Lord Macaulay, His Life and
Writings (Whittaker and Co., London, 1860), page 16. Accessed 2/2/10 via Google Books search
(macaulay "2 lectures").
1813.2 – War of 1812 General in
OH Said to Play Ball with “Lowest” Soldiers
General Robert Crooks was in
“Extract of a Letter dated
1815c.7 – New Englander Writes of
Ballyards in
“I saw a young man betted upon, for five hundred
dollars, at a foot race. Indeed every
thing is decided by a wager . . . . What
would a northern man think, to see a father, and a sensible and respected one,
too, go out with a company, and play marbles?
At some cross-roads, or smooth shaven greens, you may a wooden wall,
high and broad as the side of a church, erected for men to play ball against.”
“Arthur Singleton” (Henry Cogswell Knight), “Letters
from the South and West,”
1816.9 –
“[A]ny person who shall be convicted of sliding down
any hill on sleighs, sleds, or boards . . . between Thomas Hinkley’s dwelling
house & Mr. Vaugh’s mill . . . or any who shall play at ball or quoits in
any of the streets . . . shall, on conviction, pay a fine of fifty cents for
each offence . . . .”
Hallowell [ME] Gazette, December 25, 1816. Hallowell is about 2 miles south of
1816.10 –
Richard Hershberger [emails of 1/28/09 and 2/4/10]
reports seeing advertisements in the American Beacon for a Norfolk
Cricket Club from 1816 to 1820:
“CRICKET CLUB.
A meeting of the Subscribers to this Club, will be held at the Exchange Coffee House, this evening at 6
o’clock, for the purpose of draughting Rules and Regluations for the
government.”
American Beacon
(
Note: In The
Tented Field, Tom Melville writes that a 1989 book has the Norfolk Club
being founded in 1803 in imitation of English customs (page 164, note 10). Patricia Click, in Spirit of the Times
(UVa Press, 1989), page 119, cites the October 1, 1803 issue of the “
1819.4 – In
In a report on the new session of the Connecticut
legislature: “In Hartford and the region about the same, those who usually play
ball during the day and dance at night on such occasions, did not at this time
wholly abandon the ancient uses of Connecticut.”
Indiana Central,
June 8, 1819, reprinting an article datelined
1819.5 – Washington Irving
Surveys Pastimes at
“As to sports and pastimes, the boys are faithfully
exercised in all that are on record: quoits, races, prison-bars, tip-cat,
trap-ball, bandy-ball, wrestling, leaping, and what-not.”
Washington Irving [writing as Geoffrey Crayon],
Bracebridge Hall: Or, The Humourists (Putnam’s, New York, 1888: written in
1819), page 332. The setting is
1819.6 – Ball Games Recalled in
At the close of the Civil War, a dispute on the actual
age Joseph Crele, who claimed to be 139 years old, reached
1820s.5 – Town Ball Recalled in
“In the early times, fifty or sixty years ago, when
the modern games of croquet and base-ball were unknown, the people used to
amuse themselves with marbles, “town-ball” – which was base-ball in a rude
state – and other simple pastimes of a like character.
The History of
1820s.23 – Town Ball Came to
“This game [bullpen, the local favorite] was, in time,
abandoned for a game called “town ball;” the present base ball being town ball
reduced to a science.”
The History of Menard and
1820c.24 –
“after the ‘raising’ of this building, at which, as
was customary on such occasions, there was a large gathering of people who came
to render voluntary assistance, the assembled company adjourned to the adjacent
meadow (now owned by Charles Frost) for a game of baseball, and that certain
excellent old ladies were much scandalized that prominent Baptists, among them
Deacon Porter, should show on such an occasion so much levity as to take part
in the game.”
Joseph Anderson, ed., The Town and City of
Waterbury, Connecticut, from the Aboriginal Period to the Year 1895, Volume
III (Price and Lee, New Haven CT, 1896), page 673n. Accessed 2/3/10 via Google Books search (
1820s.25 – In
“’Election Day’ was, however, the universal holiday,
and the prevailed amongst the farmers that corn planting must be finished by
that day for its enjoyment. It was a day of general hilarity, with no
prescribed forms of observation, though ball playing was ordinarily included in
the exercises, and frequently the inhabitants of adjacent towns were pitted
against one another in the game of wicket.
Wrestling, too, was a common amusement on that day, each town having its
champions.”
Charles J. Taylor, History of Great
1820c.26 – Octogenarian Recalls How Balls Were Made in NY
“If a base-ball were required, the boy of 1816 founded
it with a bit of cork, or, if he were singularly fortunate, with some shreds of
india-rubber; then it was wound with yarn from a ravelled stocking, and some
feminine member of his family covered it with patches of a soiled glove.”
Charles H. Haswell, Reminiscences of An
Octogenarian of the City of
Haswell also reflected on Easter observances of the
era. They were subdued, save for the
coloring of eggs by some schoolboys.
“For a few weeks during the periods of Easter and Paas, the cracking of
eggs by boys supplanted marbles, kite-flying, and base-ball.”
1820c.27 --
“Of those [students] of
Haswell recalls the Battery grounds as “very nearly
the entire area bounded by Whitehall and State Streets, the sea wall line, and
a line about two hundred feet to the west; it was of an uniform grade, fully
five feet below that of the street, it was nearly uniform in depth, and as
regular in its boundary as a dish.”
Charles Haswell, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian
of the City of
1820c.28 –
A “rambling” railway passenger reflects as he passes through
the English countryside: “The rambler
sees a pretty white spire peeping out of the woodland before him . . . . The road leads to Stoke Green. Alas! We may lament for what is no more, and
the name is a mockery. There was a village green some twenty years
ago . . . . and the cheerful spot where
the noise of cricket and bass-ball once gladdened the ear on a summer eve is
now silent.”
Ah, the good old days.
“Railway Rambles,” Penny Magazine, Oct 23, 1841, page 412.
Accessed 2/11/10 via Google Books search ("railway rambles" penny
1841). The location is evidently about 20 mi W of London.
1821.6 – Fifty-cent Fine in
“Any person, who shall, after the first day of July
next, play at ball, or fly a kite, or run down a hill upon a sled, or play any
other sport which may incommode peaceable citizens and passengers in any
[illeg.] of that part of town commonly called the
“By-Laws for the Town of
1825.13 – 1906 Baseball History Sees Rounders in US, 1825-1840
“’Rounders,’ from which modern baseball is generally
believed to have derived its origin, was a very simple game – so simple, in
fact, that girls could play it. It was
played with a ball and bats and was practiced in this country as early as 1825
[p. 437] . . . Rounders was popular between 1825 and 1840, but meantime there
had been many other forms of ball playing. [.p 438]”
George V. Tuohey, “The Story of Baseball,” The
Scrap Book (Munsey, New York, 1906), pp. 437ff. Caution: Tuohey gives no evidentiary support for this
observation, and the Protoball sub-chronology [http://retrosheet.org/Protoball/Sub.Rounders.htm]
for rounders shows no firm evidence that a game ten called rounders was popular
in the US.
1825c.14 – Future Ohio Governor is “Best Ball Player at the College”
John Brough was the Governor of Ohio from 1864 to
1865. At the age of 11 his father died
and he took on work as a type-setter. In
1825 he “entered the
1826.1 – Christian Visitor to
“Monday [June] 26th. I breakfasted at this place. In Harmony there are about 900 souls. They
make no pretensions to religion . . . . I shall only add, that Sunday is a
holiday, they have two public balls a week, one every Tuesday and every
Saturday night, that the men played ball all yesterday afternoon, that their
cornfields and vineyards are overrun with weeds, their school children are half
of the time out of school.”
“Extract from the Correspondence of a Young Gentleman
Traveling in he Western States,” American Advocate, September 9,
1826. The location was New Harmony IN, a
settlement organized by the utopian thinker Robert Owen in 1824. New Harmony is near the southern tip of IN,
and is on the Wabash River, about 130 miles east of St. Louis and about 120
miles east of Louisville KY. Accessed by
subscription search May 20, 2009.
1826.2 – Ballplaying Said
Documented in
“
The Sporting News, November 14, 1940. Posted by
Tim Wiles on the 19CBB listserve on November 18, 2009. Tim enlisted Peter Morris in an effort to
find confirmatory details. The result:
Under the heading “A fourth of July in 1826 [the
Nation’s 50th birthday, and the day that John Adams and Thomas
Jefferson both died] is an account of the festivities, including a fusillade,
patriotic readings, a dinner of pork and beans and bread and pumpkin pies, and
“[f]ollowing this was the burning of more powder [cannon volleys?], and a game
of base-ball, in which [19 names listed] and other participated.” Peter determined that two of the players had
sons who played for the Franklin Club in later years.
1827.8 – Lithograph Shows
Ballplaying in
John Thorn [email of 9/1/2009] has unearthed an
engraving of
The lithograph, titled “The Park, 1827,” is published
as the frontispiece Valentine’s Manual for the Corporation of the City of
1828.11 -- Ballplaying Boys in NYC Perturb the Congregations in Church
A “mob of boys, constantly engaged in playing ball [so
that] . . . on the Sabbath, while Congregations are in Church, there is more
noise and clamour in the vicinity than on any other day [from this] squad of
loungers, commencing their daily potations and smoking.”
Commercial Advertiser (NY), January 28, 1828, page 2, column 4. Contributed by George Thompson, email of
January 9, 2009.
1828.12 – Police Nine 1, Men and Boy Sabbath Breakers 0
It is reported that Alderman Peters of NY’s Ninth
Ward, “together with High Constable Hays, at the head of eight or ten of the
peace Officers . . . arrest a number of men and boys for breaking the Sabbath
by playing ball in a vacant lot.:
New York Evening Post, December 22, 1828, page 2, column 2: and Commercial
Advertiser, December 23, 1828, page 2, columns 2-3. Contributed by George Thompson, email of
January 9, 2009.
1829.4 – In Upstate NY, A Teen’s Death on the Ballfield
“As a number of the students at
New-York Spectator, October 30, 1829, page 2, column 5; taken from the Herkimer Herald. Posted by George Thompson to the 19CBB
listserve on January 3, 2010.
1829.5 – Town Ball Takes Off in
“Town ball was pioneered in
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 114. Ryczek
cites a 2006 email from Richard Hershberger as the source of the location of
the game. In 1831 two organized groups,
which later merged, played town ball: for a succinct history of the origins of
Philadelphia town ball, see Richard Hershberger, “A Reconstruction of
Philadelphia Town Ball,” Base Ball, volume 1 number 2 (Fall 2007), pp
28-29.
1829.6 – Bat and Ball Can‘t Compete with Organ-Grinding
Rhapsodizing about old organ-ground music, a father
writes: “Oh! It makes me feel young again to hear it – for I cannot forget how
I used to throw down my books and slate – yes, my very bat and ball, and
scamper off to hear it.”
“The Grinding Organ,” in Ladies Magazine
(Putnam and Hunt, Boston, 1829), page 379.
Posted to the 19CBB listserve February 17, 2010, by Hugh
MacDougall. Accessed 2/18/2010 via
Google Books search ("swiss or savoyard" "bonny
doon"). Query: It would be useful to know when and where the author’s youth
was spent; Hugh points out that the reference to “muster day” implies that
writer is likely depicting
1829.7 – “Wisdom Stole His Bat and Ball”
The poem “Childhood and His Visitors,” evidently first
printed [anonymously] in 1829 and appearing in many other places in the ensuing
decades, turns on the line “Then Wisdom stole his bat and ball” to signify the
moment when childhood ends and manhood begins.
Wisdom then, the verse continues, “taught him . . . why no toy may last
forever.” One interpretation may be that
Childhood was using his bat and ball while “hard at play/Upon a bank of
blushing flowers:/ Happy – he knew not whence or why” when Wisdom finally paid
its visit. This, an image of bat and
ball symbolizes immaturity.
Per posting by Hugh MacDougall to the 19CBB listserve
on 2/18/2010.
A possible initial source is The Casket, a
Miscellany, Consisting of Unpublished Poems (John Murray, London, 1829),
pages 21-23. Accessed 2/19/2010 via
Google Books search ("the casket a miscellany"). In 1865 the piece, dated 1829, appears in The
Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, Volume I (Widdleton, New York, 1865),
pages 370-372. Accessed 2/19/2010 via Google Books search ("bat and
ball" 1865 widdleton). Assuming
that Praed was the actual author, as his wife thought, the poem had appeared
during the year that, at age 27, the man turned away from any thoughts of
flowery banks and toward a life as a British lawyer and Tory politician.
1830s.23 – In
“The bull pen, town ball, and drop the handkerchief were
among the sports indulged in on the school grounds, and the teacher usually
joined in with the sports.”
A. T. Strange, ed., Historical Encyclopedia of
Illinois, Volume 2 (Munsell, Chicago, 1918), page 792. Contributed by Jeff Kittel, January 31, 2010. Accessed 2/5/10 via Google Books search
(“town ball and drop). Jeff’s
comments: “The author is talking about
the history of education in
1830s.24 – Union Cricket Club
Gains Strength in
“No city took to the sport [cricket] with more avidity
than
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning, McFarland, 2009), page 105. No source is cited. Ryczek goes on to say that Englishmen who moved to work in the city’s wool industry were one root cause of cricket’s success there.
1830.25 – Proud Father Lauds Son’s Ballplaying Prowess
“My son Roger is a rare lad . . . He can run like a
deer, jump like a catamount, wrastle like a bear . . . . He can pitch quates like all creations, he
can play ball like a cat o’ nine tails, and throw a stone where you could never
see it again.”
“Parental Partiality.
My Son Roger,”
1830c.26 –
Writing about 70 years later, William Davis considers
the range of pastimes in his boyhood:
“After the hoop came, as now, the ball games, skip, one old cat, two old
cat, hit or miss, and round ball. We
made our own balls, winding yarn over a core of India rubber, until the right
size was reached, and then working a loop stitch all around it with good,
tightly spun twine. Attempts were
occasionally made to lay ball in the streets, but the by-laws of the town
forbidding it were rigidly enforced.”
William T. Davis, Plymouth Memories of an
Octogenarian (Memorial Press,
Plymouth MA, 1906), page 104. Accessed
2/5/10 via Google Books search (
1830c.27 –
Recalling a genial local sheriff, the author writes:
“We well remember the urbanity of his manner as he passed the students of Lenox
Academy, always bowing to them and greeting them with a pleasant salutation,
which tended to increase their self-respect . . . .As he drove by us when we
were playing ‘wicket’ – the game of ball them fashionable – he did not drive
his stylish horse and gig over our wickets, as many took a malicious pleasure
in doing, but turned aside, with a pleasant smile . . . .”
J. E. A. Smith, The History of
1833c.12 –
In
John Shiffert, Base Ball in Philadelphia
(McFarland, 2006), page 17. The game was
a form of town ball.
1835c.15 – Grown Man Mourns as
A Trenton NJ commentator pauses to rue the destruction
of a favorite old tavern, adding that in the last twenty years “[w]e have seen
whole streets spring up as if by magic, The fields where we played ball are now
filled with machinery.”
“Local Items,”
1835c.16 – Graduate Grimly
Recalls Rounders at
The memories aren’t pleasant. “We endured hunger, cold, and cruelty.” Exercise was taken mainly in gymnastics: “As
there was no cricket-field, our amusements were much curtailed, a poor game of
rounders being the only source of amusement in that line.”
“Greenwich School Forty Years Ago,” Fraser’s
Magazine Volume 10 (1874), page 246.
Accessed 2/5/10 via Google Books search (“poor game of rounders”).
1836.8 –
In June the town wrote new by-laws:
“Section Eighth: No person shall play at ball, fly a
kite, or slide down hill upon a sled, or play at other game so as to
incommodate peaceable citizens or passengers, in any street, lane, or public
place in this town, under a penalty not exceeding one dollar for each offence.”
“By-Laws of the Town of
1836.9 --
“In April 1892 the
Posting to the 19CBB listserve by Dennis Pajot,
January 3, 2010. In 1946 a journalist
speculated that the N-old-cat games were what was likely played in 1836 Dennis cites the April 19, 1892 issues of
the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel.
1837.7 –
Section 36 of the
“any person who shall on the Sabbath day play at
bandy, cricket, cat, town-ball, corner-ball, over-ball, fives, or any
other game of ball, in any public place,
shall . . . “ [be fined one dollar].
http://www.illinoisancestors.org/fulton/1871_canton/pages95_126.html#firstincorporation,
as accessed 1/1/2008. Information
provided by David Nevard 6/11/2007. See
also #1837.8, below.
On January 31, 2010, Jeff Kittel contributed that he
has found the text in another source: History of Fulton County, Illinois
(Chapman & Co., Peoria, 1879), pp 527-528.
Accessed 2/6/10 via Google Books search ("history of
“It seems that they had a lively community of
ballplayers in
1837.10 – In Recession, Doughty
Ex-Workers Play Ball,
“One of the most interesting places in New England for
the beauty of its scenery the extent of its manufactories, and the industry of
its inhabitants, is the town of
“New England Girls and Young Men,”
1837.11 – “Wide Strike Zone” Fails
to Level Lords-vs-Commoners Cricket Match in
“[O]n one memorable occasion . . . in July, 1837, Mr.
Ward proposed, as a method of equalizing the Gentlemen and Players, that the
former should defend [three] wickets of twenty-seven by eight inches; the
latter [defend] four stumps thirty–six by twelve [inches]. This was called the “Barn-door Match,” or
“Ward’s Folly,” and notwithstanding the great odds against them, the Players
won in a single innings by ten runs.”
Robert MacGregor, Pastimes and Players (Chatto
and Windus, 1881), page 17. Accessed
2/7/2010 via Google Books search (macgregor pastimes).
1837c.12 –
On July 3, 2009, David Dyte posted the following
account on the 19CBB listserve:
“In 1894, the Brooklyn Eagle published an
article recounting the various games played by Colonel John Oakey, a former
A.D.A., when he was a child growing up in
‘Erasmus Hall academy had a fine play ground
surrounding it. Here John Oakey and his school fellows played many a game of
three base ball. The boys who played
were called binders, pitchers, catchers, and outers, and in order to put a boy
out it was necessary to strike him with the ball. On one occasion John Oakey
threw the ball from second base and put another boy out. The boy said he did not feel the ball and
therefore he had not been put out. John
made up his mind that the next time he caught that chap between the bases he
would not say afterward that he did not feel the ball. It was only a few days after that an
opportunity occurred. John let the ball
go for all he was worth and caught the boy in the back. He went down in a heap, but instantly sprang
to his feet and cries out, “It didn’t hit me; it didn’t hit me.” But John Oakey and all the boys knew
better. For a week after that boy had a
lame back, but he would never acknowledge that the ball did it.’”
1838.10 --
“It was in the fall of 1838 that we remember the first
cricket match played in
“Sporting Reminiscences,”
1838.11 – On a Day Trip to
“Messrs Editors – Feeling desirous the other day of
breathing air somewhat purer [than
Public Ledger
(
1840c.27 – NH Farm Boy Plays Baseball, Two Old Cat, Drive
The [farm] work did not press, usually, and there was
plenty of time to learn shooting . . . and for playing the simple games that
country boys then understood. Baseball,
for instance, -- not the angry and gambling game it has since become, -- and
the easier games of ‘one old cat,’ ‘two old cat,’ and ‘drive,’ played with
balls . . . . In such games girls did
not join; and the game of cricket, which has long prevailed in
F. B. Sanborn, New Hampshire Biography and
Autobiography (private printing, 1905), page 13. Accessed 2/9/10 via Google Books search
(sanborn "hampshire biography").
Sanborn was born in 1831 and spent his boyhood in
1840c.37 – The Youth of Fallen
Major-General James McPherson was the highest-ranking
Ohioan to die in the Civil War. His
family has mover from
“He was fond of all out-door sports and manly games .
. . . ‘Touch the base’ was the favorite
game, and of all who engaged in the romp, none were more eager or happy than
‘Jimmy.’”
1840.38 – Boston-Style “Bat and
Ball” Seen in
“Sports in
Polynesian,
December 26, 1840. Accessed via
subscription search May 4, 2009.
1840c.39 – Cricket [or Maybe Wicket] Played by Harvard Class of 1841
“Games of ball were played almost always separately by
the classes, and in my case cricket prevailed.
There were not even matches between classes, so far as I remember, and
certainly not between colleges. . . .
The game was the same then played by boys on Boston Common, and was very
unlike what is now [1879] called cricket.
Balls, bats, and wickets were all larger than in the proper English
game; the bats especially being much longer, twice as heavy, and three-cornered
instead of flat. . . . What game was it?
Whence it came? It seemed to bear
the same relation to true cricket that the old Massachusetts game of base-ball
bore to the present ‘New York’ game, being less artistic, but more laborious.”
Member of the Class of 1841, “Harvard Athletic
Exercises Thirty Years Ago,” Harvard Advocate [
1840s.40 -- American Cricketers
Play in
“American cricketers had gone to
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(MacFarland, 2009), page 104. Ryczek’s
source may have been the Chadwick Scrapbooks.
1840s.41 – Town Ball Recalled in
“Men had the hunt, the chase, the horse-race,
foot-race, the jolly meetings at rude elections . . . pitching horseshoes –
instead of quoits, town-ball and bull-pen.”
James Haines, “Social Life and Scenes in the Early
Settlement of Central Illinois,” Transactions of the
1840s.42 – Town Ball Club Finds Spot in NYC for Playing
“In the early ‘40s a town ball club arranged to hold
its games on a vacant plot across from the Harlem Railroad depot on 27th
and Fourth.”
Randall Brown, “How Baseball Began,” The National
Pastime, 2004, page 53. Brown does
not give a source. Query: do we know of other references to town ball in
1840c.43 – Lad in
“We played marbles and we played a game of ball in
which there were four corners, four batters, and four catchers, ‘for old cat’
as it was then called.”
Fred Lockley, “Reminiscences of William H. Packwood,” The
Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society Volume 16 (1915-1916), page
37. Accessed 2/9/10 via Google Books
search ("william h. packwood").
Packwood was born in 1832 and as a boy lived in
1842c.10 – Athletic Welsh Lad Plays Rounders
“I became fleet on my legs, and a good climber, I was
an expert at ball catching in rounders (cricket being unknown in
Josiah
1843.8 – Man Flashes Large Wad at New York-Philly Cricket Match, Is Then Nabbed for Robbery
“Important Arrest: A few days since, at the last match
game of cricket played near New York, between the New York and Philadelphia
competitors for a large sum of money, a person, whose name is William Rushton,
from Philadelphia, was present, making large offers to bet upon the result of
the game, and exhibiting large sums of money to the spectators for that
purpose.” This excess evidently led to
his later arrest for the robbery of a bank porter on the
“Important Arrest,” The Sun [
1844.12 – English Tale Pictures “Working People” Playing Bass-ball, Cricket
“I was lately walking, on a fine spring evening, in
the suburbs of a country town . . . . My ramble brought me to a pubic-house by
the roadside . . . . There is nothing to me more delightful than to see the
young working people amusing themselves after the labours of the day. A
village-green, with its girls and boys playing at bass-ball, and its grown-up
lads at cricket, is one of those English sights which I hope no false
refinement will ever banish from amongst us.”
“A Game at Skittles: A Tale,” Volume of Varieties
(Charles Knight, London, 1844), page 122.
Accessed 2/11/10 via Google Books search ("skittles a
tale"). Source: Tom Altherr, “Some
Findings on Bass Ball,” Originals, February 2010, page 2.
1844.13 – Wicket Play in
“The members of the New Orleans Wicket Club, are
requested to meet at the Field, This Day, Thursday at 5 o’clock, PM,
precisely.”
Times Picayune,
November 7, 1844. Accessed via
subscription search, March 27, 2009.
1845.21 –
On August 1, 1845,
Extensive coverage of the first innings of the second
match appears at “The Grand Cricket Match –
1845.22 – This Year, Barre MA Skips the “Old Annual Game of Ball” on Election Day
“’Old Election’ passed over the town on Wednesday,
with as little notice as any crusty curmudgeon might wish. A few people were abroad with ‘clean fixens’ on
and there was an imposing parade of ‘boy’s training.’ Even the old annual game of ball was
forgotten, and the holiday was guiltless of any other display of unusual
mirth.”
“Old Election,” Barre Gazette, May 30,
1845. Accessed via subscription search,
2/14/2009. Query: How common a custom was it to
celebrate Election Day with a ballgame?
When did the custom start, and when did it die out? Can we start it up again?
1845.23 -- In Cricket, Pha Foursome Defeats NY Quad, 27-19, Pockets $500
A cricket match was reported in early September that
lined up four players from the St. George Club on
“Sporting Intelligence,”
1846.19 – One-Horse Wagon’s Driver 1, Wicket Players 0
A man drives his wagon along a road in Great
Barrington MA, passing though was a dozen wicket players think of as their
regular playing grounds. A throw hits
the man in the pit of his stomach [now remember, wicket balls were darned
heavy]. Naturally, he sues the players
for trespass.
The defendants’ case:
“at the time of the accident, Fayar Hollenbeck, on of the defendants,
whose part in the game was to catch the ball after it had been struck, and to
throw it back to the person whose business it was to roll it, was stationed in
a northeasterly direction from the latter, who was atone of the wickets. The plaintiff had passed the wicket a little,
and was west of a direct line from Hollenbeck to the person at the wicket. At
this moment, Hollenbeck threw the ball with an intention to throw it to the
person at the wicket; but the ball being wet, it slipped in his hand, when he
was in the act of throwing it, and was thus turned from the intended direction,
and struck the plaintiff.”
In the fall of 1848, the MA Supreme Court found for
the traveler, saying, but much less succinctly, that the roads were built for
travelers and that wicket was obviously too dangerous to play there.
Luther S. Cushing, Cases Argued and Determined in
the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Volume 1 (Little, Brown and
Co., Boston, 1865), pp. 453-457. Accessed 2/10/10 via Google Books search
(cushing "vosburgh vs. john").
1847.12 – Mainers’ Bat and Ball Leads to Delayed Catharsis
“A very pleasant incident occurred in one of our
public schools a day or two since. It
seems that the boys attending the school, of the average age of seven years,
had in their play of bat and ball, broken one of the neighbors windows, but no
clue of the offender could be obtained.”
The neighbor came to the school to complain, and later a boy confessed, and then the rest of the players said they would chip in to pay for damages. “A thrill of pleasure seemed to run through the school at the display of correct feeling.”
New-Hampshire Gazette, May 11, 1847; the story is there credited to the
1848.16 – Fast-Day Notice to NH Subscribers
“Next Thursday being “Fast Day,” we shall issue our
paper as usual on the following Tuesday, although our compositors will
doubtless take a game with bat and ball.”
New-Hampshire Gazette, April 11, 1848.
Accessed May 4, 2009 via subscription search.
1848.17 – Cricket Along the
On 12/11/09, Richard Hershberger posted a clip,
datelined
Richard added:
“I found this while looking a cricket in the area, which was
surprisingly vibrant. There was active
inter-city play between the Erie Canal cities [such cities include
1849.12 – Ladies Cricket Match
Reported in
“Bat and Ball Among the Ladies. – A
1849.13 – Did Cartwright Play
Ball on His Way to
“April 23, 1849 [evidently the day before Cartwright
left
Source: Cartwright family typed copy of lost handwritten
diary by Alexander Cartwright, as cited in Monica Nucciarone, Alexander
Cartwright: The Life Behind the Baseball Legend (UNebraska Press, 2009),
page 31. Nucciarone adds that this
version differs from the transcription in a
Caution: The
legend is that Cartwright played his way west.
Nucciarone, page 30: “[W]hile it’s easy to imagine Cartwright playing
baseball when he could and spreading the new game across the country as he
went, it’s much more difficult to prove he did this. The evidence is scant and inconsistent.”
1850s.27 – Cricket Outshines Base Ball in Press Coverage
“During the 1850s and early 1860s, coverage of cricket
in the sporting press generally exceeded that of baseball.”
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 108. Bill would
certainly know!
Writing more specifically about the Spirit of the
Times, Bill says: “There was little baseball reported in The Spirit
until 1855, and what did appear was limited to terse accounts of games (with
box scores) submitted by members of the competing clubs. The primary emphasis was on four-legged sport
and cricket, which often received multiple columns of coverage . . . . As
interest in baseball grew, The Spirit’s coverage of the sport
expanded. On May 12, 1855, the journal
printed the rules of baseball for the first time and soon began to report more
frequently on games that took place in
1850s.28 – Manufacturing of Base Balls Begins in NYC
“Prior to the mass manufacturing of baseballs, each
one was hand-made and consisted of strips of rubber twisted around a round shape
(or, earlier, any solid substance, such as a rock or bullet), covered [wound?]
with yarn and then with leather or cloth.
Needless to say, the quality and consistency of the early balls varied
considerable. In the mid-1850s, two men,
Harvey Ross, as sail maker who was a member of the Atlantics, and John Van
Horn, a shoemaker who was a member of the Union Club or Morrisania, began to
manufacture baseballs on a regular basis.
Van Horn took rubber strips from the old shoes in his shop and cut them
up to provide the centers for his baseballs.”
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 35. For more
details, Bill recommends Chapter 9 of Peter Morris’ A Game of Inches
(Ivan Dee, 2006).
1850.29 – US Has Twenty Cricket Clubs
“Despite its shortcomings, cricket enjoyed significant
popularity in the
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 105. See George
Kirsch, “American Cricket: Players and Clubs Before the Civil War,” Journal
of Sport History, Volume 11 (Spring 1984).
1850s.30 – Town Ball Well Known
in
“Football and baseball, as played today [1918], were
unknown games. What was known as townball,
however, was a popular sport. This was
played with a yarn ball covered with leather, or a hollow, inflated rubber
ball, both of which were soft and yielding and not likely to inflict injury as
is so common today in baseball. Townball
was much played in the schoolhouse yard during recess and at the noon hour.”
Charles B. Johnson, Illinois in he Fifties
(Flanigan–Pearson co, Champaign IL, 1918), page 79. Contributed by Jeff Kittel, January 31,
2010. Accessed 2/10/10 via Google Books
search ("
1850s.31 – Town Ball Played in
“The men found amusement . . . in such humble sports
as marbles and pitching horseshoes.
There were also certain athletic contests, and it was no uncommon thing
for the men of the neighborhood to engage in wrestling and in the jumping
match. This was before the day of baseball, but the men had a game, out of
which baseball probably developed, which was called ‘town ball.’”
Robert S. Douglass, History of Southeast Missouri
(Lewis Publishing, 1912), page 441.
Contributed by Jeff Kittel, January 31, 2010. Accessed 2/10/10 via Google Books search
(douglass southeast). Jeff notes that
Douglass is not explicit about the period referenced here, but that it is
before the Civil War.
1850.32 – NH Ballplaying Washed Out on Fast Day
“Fast Day.
Disappointment fastened upon a thousand boys and girls, who calculated
on a first rate, tall time on Fast Day.
It seemed as if al the water valves in the clouds were opened, and we
dare assert that rain never fell faster.
The sun didn’t shine, the birds didn’t sing, the boys didn’t play ball .
. . “
“Fast Day,” New-Hampshire Gazette, April 9,
1850. Accessed via 4/9/09 subscription
search.
1850s.33 – Round Ball, Old Cat
Played in
“There was, of course, coasting, skating, swimming,
gool, fox and hounds . . . round ball; two and four old cat, with soft yarn
balls thrown at the runner.”
G. Stanley Hall, “Boy Life in a Massachusetts Town
Forty Years Ago,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society Volume
7 (1892), page 113. Accessed 2/10/10 via
Google Books search ("g.stanley hall" "boy life"). Hall grew up on a large farm in Ashfield MA,
which is in the NW corner of the commonwealth, and about 55 miles east of
1850c.34 – Tut-ball Played at
“’Tut-ball,’ as played at a young ladies’ school at
Shiffnal fifty years ago. The players
stood together in their ‘den,’ behind a line marked on the ground, al except
one, who was ‘out’ and who stood at a distance and threw the ball to them. One of the players in the den then hit back
the ball with the palm of the hand, and immediately ran to one of the three
brickbats, called ‘tuts,’ which were set up at equal distances on the ground,
in such positions that a player running past them all would describe a complete
circle by the time she returned to the den.
The player who was ‘out’ tried to catch the ball, and to hit the runner
with it while passing from one ‘tut’ to another. If she succeeded in doing so, she took her lace
on the den, and the other went ‘out’ in her stead. This game is nearly identical to ‘rounders.’”
Alice B. Gomme, The Traditional Games of
1850c.35 –
A member of the class of 1849 recalls college life:
“Athletics were not regularly organized, nor had we any gymnasium. We played base-ball, wicket ball, two-old-cat,
etc., but there was not foot-ball.”
The college history later explains: “The game of wicket, which was a modification
of cricket, was played with a soft ball five to seven inches in diameter, and
with two wickets (mere laths or light boards) laid upon posts about four inches
high and some forty feet apart. The
‘outs’ tried to bowl thee down, and the ‘ins’ to defend them with curved
broad-ended bats. It was necessary to
run between the wickets at each strike.”
Wilfred Shaw, The
1850c.36 – Wicket Ball at
“For exercise the students played wicket ball and
shinny.”
The author here appears to be referring to the two
sons of Edward Hitchcock, President of Amherst College from 1844 to 1854.
Alice M. Walker, Historic Homes of Amherst
(Amherst Historical Society, Amherst MA, 1905), page 99. Accessed 2/10/10 via Google Books search
(walker "historic homes").
1850s.37 – Near
“There was a big field near his old home where he and
the other boys, black and white, had played “round cat” and “chermany” in the
summers before the war and had set their rabbit-traps in seasons of frost and
snow.”
Armistead C. Gordon, “His Father’s Flag,” Scribner’s
Magazine Volume 62 (1917), page 443.
This fictional story of the son of a Confederate soldier killed during the
Civil War is set near
1851.6 – Word-man Noah Webster Acknowledges Only Wicket
“Wicket, n. A small gate; a gate by which the chamber
of canal locks is emptied; a bar or rod, used in playing wicket.”
Noah Webster, A Dictionary of he English Language,
Abridged from the American Dictionary (Huntington and Savage, New York,
1851), page 399. Accessed 2/10/10 via
Google Books search (“used in playing wicket”).
No other ballgames are carried in this dictionary. Webster was from
1851.7 – NYC Christmas Bash Includes “Good Old Fashioned Game of Baseball”
“On Christmas day, the drivers, agents, and other
employees of the various Express Companies in the City, had a turnout entirely
in character. . . . There were between seventy-five and eighty men in the
company . . . . They then went to the residence of A. M. C. Smith, in
1851.8 – Game of Ball Seen in
“Morning Sports – A fight took place on Saturday
morning on the levee, and a game of ball on
Sacramento Transcript, March 18, 1851 (as reprinted in the Spirit of the
Times on May 17, 1851). Posted to
the 19CBB listserve on December 15, 2009.
Another game in
1853.11 – Catcher Felled in ME
“Melancholy Accident. – In Pownal, on the 5th
inst Oren Cutter, 16 years of age, son of Reuben Cutter, Postmaster of
Yarmouth, while ‘catching behind’ at a game of ball, was struck on the back of his
head by a bat. Though suffering much
pain, the lad was able to walk home, and after some external application,
retired for the night, his friends not thinking or anything serious. In a short time, however, a noise was heard
from the room, and on going to him he was found to be dying. The blow was received about sunset, and he
died about 10.”
1853.12 – English Cleric Promotes Co-ed Rounders, With Slim Results
“In the playground they [boys and girls] have full
permission to play together, if they like . . . but they very seldom do play
together, because boys’ amusements and girls’ amusements are of a different character,
and if, as happens at rare intervals, I do see a dozen boys and girls going
down a slide together in the winter, or engaged in a game of rounders in the
summer, I believe both parties are improved by their temporary coalition.”
Rev. Henry Newland, Confirmation and First
Communion (Joseph Masters, London, 1853), page 240. Accessed 2/11/10 via Google Books search
("henry newland" mdcccliii).
Newland was Vicar of Westbourne, near
1853c.13 – At Harvard, Most Students Played Baseball and Football, Some Cricket or 4 Old Cat
Reflecting back nearly sixty years, the secretary of
the class of 1855 wrote: “In those days,
substantially all the students played football and baseball [MA round ball,
probably], while some played cricket and four-old-cat.”
“News from the Classes,” Harvard Graduates Magazine
Volume 18 (1909-1910). Accessed 2/11/10
via Google Books search ("e.h.abbot, sec.").
1853.14 – Our Game Hits the Sports Pages?
“On July 9, 1853, The Spirit of the Times
mentioned baseball for the first time, printing a letter reporting a game
between the
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 163. Query: do we know comparable dates for
other like papers – the Clipper, the Sunday Mercury, etc? Has someone already analyzed the role of
assorted papers in the baseball boom?
1854.7 -- Empire Club Constitution Appears, Club Lifts Off
Constitution, by-laws and rules of the Empire Ball Club;
organized
We have no record of 1854 games, but the following
April, they took the field: “The Empire
Bass Ball Club played their first regular season game at McCarthy’s ground,
“Empire Bass Ball Club,” New York Daily Times
Volume 4, number 1125 (Thursday, April 26, 1855), page 8, column 1. Contributed by Craig Waff, May 16, 2009.
1854.15 –
“A Game of Ball – People will have recreation
occasionally, whether it be considered exactly dignified or not. Yesterday afternoon there was a game of ball
played on
Daily Democratic State Journal (
1854. 16 – The Eagle Club’s Field Diagram – A Real Diamond
John Thorn [email of September 2, 2009) has supplied
an image of the printed “Plan of the Eagle Ball Club Bases” from an 1854 club
book.
It seems possible that he who designed this graphic did
not intend it to be taken literally, but it sure is different. Folks around here
would call it a squashed rhombus. Using
the diagram’s own scale for 42 paces, and accepting the guess that most people
informally considered a pace to measure 3 feet, the four basepaths each measure
132 feet. But the distance from home to 2B is just 79 feet, and from 1B to 3B
it’s 226 feet [for football fans: that’s
about 75 yards]. Foul ground [“Outside
Range” on the diagram] leaves a fair territory that is not in a 90 degree
angle, but at . . . wait a sec, I’ll find a professor and borrow a protractor,
ah, here . . . a 143 degree angle. Query: do we have evidence that the
Eagle preferred, at least initially, a variant playing field? Or did they just
assign this diagram to some Harvard person?
1855.7 – Cricket Becoming “The National Game” in US: “Considerable Progress” Seen
“Cricket is becoming the fashionable game – the
national game, it might be said.”
“New York Correspondence,” Washington Evening Star,
Things looked rosy for cricket in
“Cricket,”
1855.25 – Text Perceives Rounders and Cricket, in Everyday French Conversations
An 1855 French conversation text consistently
translates “balle au camp” as “rounders.”
It also translates ”
W. Chapman, Every-Day French Talk (J. B.
Bateman, London, 1855), pages 16, 20, 21.
Accessed 2/11/10 via Google Books search ("chapman teacher"
"french talk" 1855). Query: Would a French person agree that
“balle au camp” is rounders by another name?
Should we thus chase after that game too? Perhaps a French speaker among us could seek la verite from le Google on this?
“The ball players of Sandisfield and Otis, thinking
themselves equal for almost all things, send a challenge to the Tolland players
for a match game in the former town, on Friday the 14th. Tolland accepted, and
with twenty-five players on each side the game commenced, resulting in the
complete triumph of he challenged or Tolland party, whose tally footed up 265
crosses, to 189 for the other side.”
The [
In August, Barre MA arranged a game with players from
Petersham MA and Hardwick MA. Barre
Patriot, August 17, 1855. Barre MA
is about 40 miles NE of Springfield, and the two other towns are about 7 miles
from Barre.
1855.27 – In Brooklyn, the
On July 31, 1855, according to Craig Waff’s Protoball
Games Tab, the first games were played by new clubs in
The Putnams appear to be the first
Here is the
1855.28 – Thanksgiving is for
Football? Not in
“[Thanksgiving] day was unpleasantly raw and cold; but
various out of door amusements were greatly in vogue. Target companies looking blue and miserable
were every where. Every vacant field in
the out skirts was filled with Base Ball Clubs; a wonderfully popular
institution the past season, but vastly inferior to the noble game of Cricket
in all respects.”
“Viola,” “Men and Things in
Responding to Dennis’ find, Craig Waff, posting to the
19CBB listserve, cited two accounts that confirm the holiday hubbub. The Clipper wrote, “There seemed to be
a general turn-out of the Base Ball Clubs in this city and vicinity, on
Thursday, 29th Nov. Among
those playing were the Continental,
1855.29 – Even the Australians Are Bothered by Sunday Baseball!
“Sabbath Desecration. – A correspondent requests us to
call attention to the practice of a number of boys and young men, who
congregate in Mr. Wilkinson’s paddock, near Patrick and Murray Streets, on
Sunday afternoons, for playing at cricket, base-ball, Sec, making a great
noise, and offending the eyes and ears of persons of moral and religious
feeling.”
Colonial Times
[city?], Saturday, September 22, 1855, page 3.
Posted to the 19CBB list November 21, 2009, by Eric Miklich. Subsequent comments from Bob Tholkes and
Richard Hershberger [11/23/09] led to conjecture that this form of “base-ball”
arrived Down Under from
1855.30 – Early Season Game Goes
to Knicks, 27-14;
In what appears to be only the second game of the 1855
season [see the Protoball Games Tab at http://retrosheet.org/Protoball/GamesTab.htm],
“a grand match of this national game” took place at Elysian Fields pitted the
Knicks and the Eagles. A 9-run 4th
put the Knicks into the [imaginary] win column after leading only 12-12 after
two. Player positions aren’t listed, but
DeBost [Knicks] and Place [Eagles] are noted as “behind men.” The reporter added: “
“Base Ball.
Knickerbocker vs. Eagle Club,”
1856.22 – Young Brooklyn Clubs Play, But Reporter is Unimpressed
The Harmony Club beat the Continentals, 21-15, in the
“intense heat” of
“Base Ball. –
1856.23 – Olympics 100, Green
Mountains 98, on
News accounts of ballplaying in
“Exciting Game of Ball. A trial game at ball took place on the Common
this morning, between the members of the Olympic Ball Club and the Green
Mountain Boys. One hundred tallies constituted the game, and after three hours
of hard and exciting playing the victory was won by the Olympics, Their rivals
counted 98 tallies.”
1856.24 – First
“Though baseball match games had been played in
John R. Husman, “
1856.25 –
“A great game of ball, says the Berkshire Courier, cam
off in that village on Friday last. The
parties numbers 17 on a side, composed of lawyers, justices, merchants
mechanics, and in fact a fair proportion of the village populations were
engages wither as participants or spectators . . . . The excitement was intense
. . . best of all the game was a close one, the aggregate count in [illeg: 8?] innings being 192 and 187.”
1857.19 – Wicket Described in February Porter’s
Implying that wet weather had left a bit of a news
vacuum, Porter’s explained it would “give place to the following
communications in relation to the game of ‘Wicket,’ of which we have ourselves
no personal knowledge or experience.”
What followed were [1] a request for playing rules a
“I would like to see the old game of Wicket (not
Cricket) played. It is a manly
game and requires the bowler to be equal to playing a good game of ten
pins. The ground is made smooth and
level, say six feet wide by sixty to ninety in length. The ball from five to five and a half inches
in diameter, hand wound, and well covered.
The bat of light wood, say bass. [A rough field diagram is supplied
here] The wicket is placed at each end,
and on the top of a peg drove in the ground just high enough to let the ball
under the wicket, which is a very light piece of wood lying on top of the
pegs. The rules are very similar to
those of cricket. Can a club be
started? Yours, Wicket. [
Porter’s Spirit of the Times, Saturday, February 14, 1857. Accessed via subscription search, May 15,
2009.
1857.24 – Cricket Stories in the
May 23 Clipper
From the New York Clipper, Saturday, May 23,
1857 [four cents!]:
The
Two six-player teams played in
Two elevens played in
Twenty upcoming matches are listed.
Two elevens played in
A cricket club is reportedly being organized in
Two intramural matches in NYC are reported [with
boxes}
Facsimile contributed by Gregory Christiano, November
15, 2009.
1857.26 –
“
George V. Tuohey, “The Story of Baseball,” The
Scrap Book Volume 1, July, 1906 (Munsey, New York, 1906), page 442. Accessed 2/16/10 via Google Books search
("
1857. 32 – Daybreak Club Forms in
“Base Ball at
Porter’s Spirit of the Times, Saturday, May 9, 1857. Facsimile contributed by Gregory Christiano,
November 24, 2009. Query: Is this item newsworthy because it
is an early
1857.33 – Clipper Thinks Base Ball is Catching On
“The National Game: The game of Base Ball is fact
taking hold of the attention of our young men and in different cities we
perceive new organizations constantly spring up. It is one of the most exhilarating or our
field sports, and cannot fail eventually to become extremely popular
everywhere. A visit to the Elysian
Fields, at
1857c.34 – Wicket Played at
Eastern OH College; Future
“In the street, in front of [
F. M. Green, Hiram College (Hubbell Printing,
Cleveland, 1901), page 156. Accessed via
Google Books search ("hiram college" green). James A. Garfield was
Principal and Professor at
1858.9 –Eagle Contrasts Base Ball and Cricket
“Base ball is the favorite game, as it is more simple
in its rules, and a knowledge of them is easily acquired. Cricket is the most scientific of the two and
requires more skill and judgment in the use of the bat, especially, than base.”
“Cricket and Base Ball,”
1858c.44 – Wolverines and Wicket
“Wicket was then about our only outdoor sport – and it
was a good one, too – and I remembered that we challenged the whole University
to a match game.”
Lyster Miller O’Brien, “The Class of 1858,”
1858.49 – Nation Plays Nation – Senecas and Tuscaroras Have a Ballgame
“At 2 o’clock a grand annual National Base Ball play,
on the [county fair] ground, for a purse of $50, between the Tuscarora and the
Seneca tribes of Indians.”
Buffalo Daily Courier, September 22, 1858, reporting on the schedule of the
1858.50 –
“Although the Minerva Club was established in 1857, it
members lived a quiet and largely unpublicized existence. The first report of the
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 115. His source for the 1858 game is the New York
Clipper, November 27, 1858.
1858.51 – At Harvard, Two Clubs
Play Series of Games by
The Lawrence Base Ball Club and a club from the
“The
1858.52 – Grand Wicket Match in
Local interest in wicket is seen has having crested in
1858 in western
J. Anderson, ed., The Town and City of
1858.53 – At
The Kenyon Club, comprised of Kenyon students, lost to
the boys from Milnor Hall at the College, losing 93 to 68 in three
innings. Each side fielded eleven
players. The box score reveals an
unusual feature. Players scored widely
varying runs in an inning; Denning, for example scored 10 times in the first
inning for the Kenyon Club, while three of his teammates did not score at all. This might indicate that either an all-out/side
out game was played, or a cricket-style rule allowed each batter to retain his
ups until he was retired.
“Base Ball at
1858.54 – OFBB Variant Played in
“Old Fashion Base Ball – The Buffalo Base Ball Club,
of this city [Buffalo NY], and the Frontier Club, of Suspension Bridge, will
play their first match game, on the grounds of the Buffalo Club . . . . They play by the rules adopted by the
Massachusetts State Convention of Ball Players, being the so-called
‘old-fashioned base,’ or ‘round ball’ – not the ‘toss’ or ‘national’ game. Rare playing may be expected, as this game
requires more activity than any other, and the players ore the ‘best eleven’
from the best two clubs in
While the teams nodded to the new [May 1858]
1858.55 – First Club Forms in
“In December (1858) the first base-ball club was
organized, It was called the Olympic: S. P. Jennison, captain.”
C. C. Andrews, History of St.
1858.56 – Mr. Babcock Shows Base Ball to San Franciscans
“Allow me to correct an error which appeared in your
last issue in relation to the first game of base ball played in
“Correspondence. Base Ball in
1858c.57 – Modern Base Ball Gets
to Exeter Prep [from Doubleday’s
“The present game [of baseball] was introduced by
George A. Flagg, ’62 [and three others and] Frank Wright, ’62. Most enthusiastic of these early players was
Mr. Flagg, who abandoned the
Laurence M. Crosbie, The Phillips Exeter Academy: A
History (1923), page 233. Posted to
the 19CBB listserve on [date?] by George Thompson. Accessible in snippet view 2/19/2010 via Google Books search (crosbie
1859.8 – Sixty Play for Their Supper
“On Saturday last New Marlborough and Tolland played a
game of ball for a supper – Tolland beat.
There were 30 players on a side.”
1859.36 – Ball Club Forms in
The Daily Chronicle and Sentinal [Augusta?] in
1860 reported that the Base Ball Club of Augusta had formed the previous
year. It reported on this “noble and
manly game” as played on November 7, 1860”
“There were 6 innings. Doughty’s side made 32 rounds;
Russell’s side made 20 rounds.”
From an unidentified clipping marked [in hand]
September 15, 1985, Augusta GA, in the Origins file at the
1859.38 – NYU Forms a Base Ball Club
The students of
1859.47 – Outmanned
“The matched game of Base Ball between the
“The Ball Match Yesterday,” Buffalo Daily Courier
The Alden club fielded 15 players to the confront the
Niagaras’ 12; they included two “behinds” as well as a catcher, two left
fielders, two right fielders, a fourth baseman, and one more team member listed
simply as “fielder.” Both teams’
pitchers were termed “throwers.” The
game was evidently limited to 12 innings instead of to a set total of tallies,
as was found in other upstate “old-fashioned base ball” games of this
period. Taken at face value, this
account implies that three games were played in the region at the time – the
A return match was hosted by the Alden club on
September 3rd, with the
1859.48 – Wicket Club and Base Ball Club Play Demo Matches for Novelty’s Sake
“Novel Ball Match – The
1859.49 -- Clubs Form in
“The first interclub game reported in
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 113.
Another pair of clubs followed closely. The Southern and Magnolia clubs played in
early October. [John Husman, “
1860.12 –
“A great match at base ball comes off here today
between the Excelsior Club of Brooklyn, and a Club of the same name belonging
to this city. . . . Thousands are already on their way in the
Macon [GA] Weekly Telegraph, October 4, 1860, reprinting from a
1860.33 – Base Ball Beats Football to
“In 1860,
John M. Kovach, From Goosepasture to
Greenstockings:
1860.50 – A Truly “Grand” Game of
The Excelsior Club of Upton MA and the Union Club of
Medway agreed to meet for a purse of $1000 in September at the Agricultural
Fair Grounds in
“
1860.51 – Base Ball Is Reaching
Remote Spots in
“The Dunkirk Journal says that the young men of
that village have organized a ‘young American Base Ball club. . . . [we in
1860. 52 – First Base Ball Match
in
“The historical record states that the St. Louis
Republican newspaper announced on July 9, 1860 that the first regular game
of baseball in
Website of the Missouri Civil War Museum, http://www.mcwm.org/history_baseball.html,
accessed April 10, 2009.
Jeff Kittel has found the report of the match. It turns out that a 17-run 2nd
inning was decisive. The article reports
“a large number of spectators, among whom were several ladies.” New Yorker S. L. Putnam was the ump. Source:
1860.53 – Organized Town Ball in
“Town Ball. – All the Deputy Sheriff’s, Marshall’s and
some of the clerks at the Court House went out on Franklin Avenue, in
Leffingwell Avenue, yesterday afternoon, and had a spirited game of old town
ball. We are glad to know that this
pleasant game has been revived this season. A regular club has been organized,
and will meet once a week during the season.”
1860.54 – Yes, The Game Would Move Right Along . . . But Would it be Cricket?
“Whenever the cricket community realized that American
participation and interest were low, they talked about changing the rules. Some Americans suggested three outs per
inning and six innings a game.”
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 103. Attributed
to the Chadwick Scrapbooks. Query:
Were there really several such proposals? Can we guess what impediments required that
it take another century to invent one-day and 20/20 cricket?
1860.55 – Ballplaying Near
“A base ball match was played yesterday at
San Joaquin Republican, May 26, 1860.
Accessed via subscription search May 20, 2009.
The Alligator, Rough and Ready, and Independent Base
Ball Clubs announced meetings on a late October day.
Query:
1860.57 – Alabamans Choose Cricket
“Cricket in
1860.58 – Many Try the New Game
in
In early 1860, the Olympic Club of Macon GA played a
series of intramural games, most following Association rules. The Macon Weekly Telegraph recorded
five [and another that may be misdated] games in February and March, each with
a box score.
However, defection was in the air:
“A number of gentlemen are about to form another base
ball club, the game to be played after fashion in the South twenty years ago,
when old field schools [school fields, maybe?] were the scenes of trial and
activity and rosy cheeked girls were the umpires.”
1860.59 – Game Set for CA
Two base ball clubs were scheduled to play a game in
Mariposa, a southern Sierra gold mining town,
1861.11 – Meeting of National Association is Subdued
Meeting in late 1861, the National Association of Base
Ball Players undertook no large issues, perhaps in light of what a reporter
called “the disturbed state of the country.”
Sixty-one clubs attended, one-third less strength that in 1860.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 12, 1861, page 11. Facsimile
contributed by Gregory Christiano, November 2009.
1861.12 – Modern Base Ball Comes
to
“The national game of base-ball was introduced in
1861.”
Edwin Emery, The History of Sanford Maine (Fall
River MA, 1901), page 383.
1861.13 – Modern Game Comes to
the
“The Portage County Democrat reported in its
April 10, 1861 edition, ‘The young men of
John Husman, “
1861.14 – “Silver Ball” Match
Features Brooklyn and
Harry Wright
played 3B for
A box score and inning-by-inning summary appeared in the New York Atlas on October 27, 1861. Facsimile contributed by Bill Ryczek, December 29, 2009.
1861.15 -- First Sunday in the Army: “Ball-playing, Wrestling, and Some Cards
In early May 1861, the new 13th Illinois
Regiment assembled in
Military History and Reminiscences of the Thirteenth
Regiment of the
1861.16 – NY Regiment Plays
“Favorite Game” After Dress Parade in
“After [the camp’s dress] parade, which generally
lasted about an hour, the camp was alive with fun and frolic . . . leap-frog, double-duck,
foot and base-ball or sparring, wrestling, and racing, shared their attention.”
J. Harrison Mills, Chronicles of the Twenty-First
Regiment,
1861.17 -- American Guard [71st NY Regt] 42, Nationals BB Club 13
“The National Base Ball Club requests the pleasure of
your company on their grounds at the intersection of Maryland Avenue and 6th
Street, East, on Tuesday, July 2d [1861], at twelve o’clock, to witness a match
game with the 71st Regiment Base Ball Club”
The 71st had the duty to protect the
Nation’s Capital against rebel incursions, and fielded a picked nine to play a
National BBC nine. After three innings,
they led 12-2, and coasted to victory. A
familiar name for the 71st was 3b Van Cott, and for the Nationals
French played 3b. The regimental history
later reported that the game “was witnessed by a large number of
spectators.” The Philadelphia Inquirer announced the contest on July 1 under the
headline “The New York Seventy-First Despairing of Work, Going to Play
Ball.” Note: Frank Ceresi reports [19CBB posting of 2/28/2009] that the
French collection of the Washington Historical Society includes a handwritten
scoresheet for the match, which describes a 41-13 Army victory.
The two sides played again a year later. On August 7, 1862, the Nationals won a
rematch, 28-13. The regimental history
says that “the game was played on the parade ground; the result was not as
satisfactory to the boys as the year before.
There was quite a concourse of spectators on the occasion, including a
number of ladies . . . . At the close the players were refreshed with
sandwiches and lager.” On June 25th,
1862, and the regiment’s company K took on the rest of the regiment and lost
33-11.
Source: 71st Regiment Veterans Association,
“History of the 71st Regiment, N.G., N.Y.,”
1861.18 -- Confederate Base Ball
Players Finds Field “Too Boggy” in VA
“Confederate troops played townball as well as more
modern versions of the game in their army camps. In November 1861 the Charleston Mercury of
Source:
1861.19 -- Second NJ Regiment Forms BB Club in Virginia Camp
A six-inning game of base ball was played at
Source: “A Game of Ball in the Camp,”
Members of the 2nd
One may infer that the 2nd NJ remained at
winter quarters in
1861.20 -- Confederate Soldier’s Diary Reports on Town Ball Playing, 1861-1863
December 1861
January 1862
March 1863
March 1863
Source: W. W.
Heartsill, Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army: A Journal
Kept by W. W. Heartsill: Day-by-Day, of
the
1862.1 –
Three games were announced in June 1862 for which net
proceeds would be used for sick and wounded Union soldiers. The Eckfords and the Atlantics would play for
a silver ball donated by the Continental Club.
William Cammeyer provided the enclosed Union grounds without
charge. Admission fees of 10 cents were
projected to raise $6000 for soldiers’ relief.
“Releif for the Sick and Wounded,” Brooklyn Eagle,
June 21, 1862, page 2. Contributed by
Gregory Christiano, December 8, 2009. Note: is there a good poc hoc account of this project?
1862.2 – The Death of Jim Creighton at 21
Excelsior star Jim Creighton, 21 years old, suffered
some sort of injury during the middle innings of a game against Morrisania on October
14, 1862, and died four days later of a “strangulated intestine” associated
with a hernia. [Other accounts cite a
ruptured bladder – ouch.] One legend was
that Creighton suffered the injury in the process of “hitting out a home
run.” Excelsior officials attributed the
death to a cricket injury incurred in a prior cricket match.
R. M. Gorman and D. Weeks, Death at the Ballpark
(McFarland, 2009), pages 63-64.
1862.3 –
“The cricket season last year was a very dull one,
this clubs in this locality [
“For several years, cricketers had been talking of
forming as association similar to that set up by the baseball fraternity. Despite several meetings, they had not done
so. At the annual convention of 1862,
the Clipper noted the meager attendance and proclaimed the gathering ‘a
mere farce.’ It despaired of cricket
ever becoming popular unless it was made more American in nature. The disappointing convention was the last the
cricketer would hold.”
William Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning
(McFarland, 2009), page 105. The Clipper
quoted is this May 24, 1862 issue.
1862.4 – State Championship Base Ball Game in PA
“Base Ball Match. – A grand base ball match will take
place at the St. George’s Cricket Ground, near Camas’s Wood, for the
championship of Pennsylvania, between the ‘Olympic’ and ‘Athletic’ Clubs, on
next Saturday.”
1862.5 – Brooklynites and Philadelphians Play Series of Games
Various assortments of leading players from Brooklyn
and
In October, the Eckfords traveled to
Sources: various, including overviews at “
1862.6 – Harvard Turns to the
“Base-Ball, the second in importance of [Harvard]
University sports, is even younger than Rowing [which still prevailed]. It originated apparently, in the old game of
rounders. Up to 1862 there were two
varieties of base-ball – the
D. Hamilton Hurd, compiler, History of Middlesex
County, Massachusetts (J. W. Lewis, Philadelphia, 1890), page 137. Accessed 2/18/10 via Google Books search
("flagg and frank" hurd).
Flagg and Wright reportedly had played avidly at
1862.7 – “
An advertisement in a
1862.8 – Base Ball in
“The first baseball games in
Rocky Mountain News, March 13 and April 29, 1862.
Cited in Brian Werner, “Baseball in
Richard Hershberger, email of 1/19/2009, reports that
on April 29 the [Denver CO] Daily Evening News reported on intramural
game played by the Denver Base Ball Club, a likely reference to the games cited
by Werner. He also notes that a March 12
issue of the Evening News referred to a “game played yesterday [that]
went off well, considering that there were but two or three persons engaged who
had ever played the game before, according to the
1862.9 – First Admission Fees for Baseball?
May
15, 1862: “The Union Baseball Grounds at March Avenue and
James
Charlton, The Baseball Chronology (Macmillan, 1991), page 15. Query:
is the claim here that there were no prior fees, or that such fees had not been
assessed at closed fields?
1862.10 – PA Base Ball Moves Beyond
“Base Ball Match.
1862.11 – Banned in
“Sect. 10. No
person or persons shall, without the consent of the mayor or board of aldermen,
engage in games of ball, foot-ball, or other athletic sports, upon the public
garden.”
Ordinance and Rules and Order of the City of
1862.12 – Reverend Beecher: Base-Ball is Best Form of Exercise
“It is well, therefore, that so many muscular games
are coming into vogue. Base-ball and
cricket are comparatively inexpensive, and open to all, and one can hardly
conceive of better exercise.”
Henry W. Beecher, Eyes and Ears (Sampson Low,
London, 1862), age 191. Accessed 2/18/10
via Google Books search ("vogue baseball"
1862.13 – Government Survey: Athletic Games Forestall Woes of Soldiers
Gambling
After examining nearly 200 regiments, the Sanitary
Commission [it resembled today’s Red Cross] was reported to have found that “in
forty-two regiments, systematic athletic recreations
“War Miscellanies.
Interesting Army Statistics,”
1862.14 -- 22nd MA beats 13th NY in the Massachusetts Game
“Fast Day
J. L. Parker and R. G. Carter, History of the
Twenty-Second Massachusetts Infantry
1862.15 -- NY and MA Regiments Play Two Games Near the
Civil War Front
Mr. Jewell, from the 13th NY Regiment’s
Company A, provided a generous [15 column-inches] account of two regulation
NY-rules games played on April 15, 1862, near the Confederate lines at
Source:
1862.16 – 13th
“In the afternoons, after battalion drill, the game of
base-ball daily occupied the attention of the boys. On one of these occasions, General Hartsuff
riding by, got off his horse and requested permission to catch behind the bat,
informing us there was nothing he enjoyed so much. He gave it up after a few minutes and rode
away, having made a very pleasant impression.”
Charles E. Davis, Jr., Three Years in the
Army: The Story of the Thirteenth
Massachusetts Volunteers (Estes and Lauriat, Boston MA, 1894), page
56. The entry is dated May 6, 1862, when
the regiment was in the vicinity of
Davis also mentions a game of ball being played in
April 1863 as large numbers of troops were awaiting a formal review by
President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton near the Potomac River, “to the
no small amusement of the lookers-on” [page 198]. In November 1863, still in
In March 1864, the 13th played the 104th
NY and won 62-20. “As opportunities for
indulging our love for this pastime were not very frequent, we got a deal of
pleasure out of it.” [page 309.] Later that month, the regiment celebrated the
escape and return the colonel of the 16th
1862.17 -- Ballplaying Frequently
Played at
Beginning in 1862, prisoners’ diary accounts refer to
a number of base ball games [by
In an unattributed and undated passage in Wells
Twombley’s 200 Years of Sport in
Otto Boetticher, a commercial artist before the war,
was imprisoned at
Adolphus Magnum, A visiting Confederate chaplain,
noted in 1862 that “a number of the younger and less dignified [Union officers]
ran like schoolboys to the playing ground and were soon joining In high glee in
a game of ball.”
An extended account of ballplaying at Salisbury, along
with the Boetticher drawing, are found in Patricia Millen, From Pastime to
Passion: Baseball and the Civil War
1862.18 -- 51st
The 51st PA regimental history has four
references to ballplaying. In July 1862,
the unit arrived at
Thomas H. Parker, History of the 51st
Regiment of PV [
1862.19 -- The 39th
The regimental history of the 39th MA has
two passing references to ballplaying.
On Thanksgiving Day of 1862, “There was a release from the greater part
of camp duties and the time thus secured was devoted to baseball, football and
other diversions so easily devised by the American youth” [p. 50]. The regimental camp was in southern MD,
within 15 miles of
Alfred S. Roe, The Thirty-Ninth Regiment.
1862.20 -- Wisconsin Man’s Diary Included a Dozen References to Ballplaying
Private Jenkin Jones sprinkled 12 references to ballplaying
in his Civil War Diary. They range from
December 1862 to February 1865. Most are
very brief notes, like the “played ball in the afternoon he recorded in
·
·
·
·
Fort Hall,
4/64: “[
·
·
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman’s Diary
1862.21 -- Michigan Colonel Plays
Ball in
The 12th Michigan Regiment had the task in
December 1862 of guarding a supply railroad in
J. Robertson, compiler, Michigan in the War (W.
S. George, Lansing MI, 1882), page 327.
Accessed 6/4/09 on Google Books via “”
1862.22 -- Crowd of 40,000 Said to Watch Christmas Day Game on SC Coast
“In Hilton Head,
Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball
and the Civil War
1862.23 -- Soldiers’ Christmas in
Virginia – Ballplaying “on Many a
A correspondent near
“Christmas in the Army,”