Project PROTOBALL

Responding to points made under a ”Note” heading in particular chronology entries. Most of these points show where additional information is needed.

Suggesting new entries. Please note that want to supply citations for each item so that readers can find their way to the original documents.

Helping us find a savvy person who could help make the site better-looking, and more useful to readers

Terms of Use of This Site

This site operates under the general operating philosophy of Retrosheet: researchers and others are free to use the information on the site, but we request that the site be acknowledged in your writings if its information proves useful.

The data on this site are not guaranteed to be accurate, nor to adhere to common standards of publishability. We are attempting to identify and remove any errors, but need the help of you and other researchers in doing so, particularly because the Project does not possess many of the original sources that are cited and used for the site. Our policy is to ventilate questionable material [noted as such] in order to determine if it is reliable.

For security reasons, readers cannot put comments directly to the Protoball site. However, we plan at some point to conduct a moderated discussion of open issues and research ideas. To suggest specific points that might be added to particular entries on the Protoball Chronology, or to other site features, contact Larry McCray at lmccray@mit.edu.

About Project Protoball

Project Protoball was conceived when it became clear that interesting new finds were still being added to our store of knowledge about the origins of baseball . . . and about earliest forms of ballplaying.

A few years ago, John Thorn and Tom Heitz assembled a helpful chronology of early baseball, one that listed about 70 key documented events from 2000 BC to the Civil War. In 2000, Tom Altherr published a prize-winning paper in Nine that included scores of new citations to “baseball-like” games from 1621 to 1830. Our project began as an attempt to build, and to maintain, a comprehensive tabulation of such evidence, adding bibliographic sources for each.

Our hope is to provide a wide range of primary and secondary information on the evolution of ballplaying to today’s researchers, so that they can identify interesting patterns readily -- and do so without chasing after elusive texts stored in libraries and personal collections around the globe.

Our central online document is the Protoball “Fat Chronology,” a listing of primary sources on known events in ballplaying. Owing to recent finds by [most importantly] in David Block’s stunning 2005 book, Baseball Before We Knew It, in John Thorn’s recent research, and to a fresh scouring of the research notes of Harold Seymour and the 1905 Mills Commission files, the current version has about 625 entries.

The primary focus of the chronology, like the Protoball effort itself, is on what some term “bat-and-ball” games, but which are called “safe-haven” games at this site. [The desire is to understand the evolution of ballgames that involve bases --where runners are magically immune from harm -- and not to spotlight the many other games that employ striking clubs, such as golf, hurling, lawn tennis and other racquet sports, croquet, field hockey, lacrosse, and such ancient non-base games as soule, bandy, kingball, ballstock, and northern spel.] The site’s current time range is from Antiquity to 1860, with fragmentary information now being collected for the years 1861-1871 for possible later inclusion.

The Project’s files include a [often sparsely filled] folder for each entry in the chronology, and about twelve shelf-feet of baseball histories, each of which has at least nominal coverage of pre-1861 ballplaying. We are happy to consult with site visitors about these assembled sources to help answer questions, and can supply current Word versions of our documents upon request. The Project is centered at the Massachusetts home of Larry McCray, who can be reached at lmccray@mit.edu and at 125 Vine Street, Lexington MA 02420.

The Project has close ties to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Many of the individuals whose names appear on this site are SABR members, and SABR’s Nineteenth Century Baseball [19CBB] listserve is the primary venue for our discussions of the early evolution of ballplaying. For more information on SABR, go to http://www.sabr.org/ or contact Larry.

Project Advisors

Priscilla Astifan, Rochester, NY

Evelyn Begley, New York City

Tom Ruane, Poughkeepsie NY

George Thompson, New York City

John Thorn, Kingston NY

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Other Special Contributions -- The Project is particularly indebted to John Thorn (Kingston NY), who offered enabling encouragements, access to his rich personal files, and many key strategic design ideas; to Dave Smith (Newark DE), impresario of the amazing Retrosheet data base, who offered substantial practical assistance; to Tom Ruane (Poughkeepsie NY), who is providing crucial advice, and hours of painstaking assistance, in organizing web space for the Project; to Paul Wendt (Watertown MA), chair of SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee, who made innumerable helpful bibliographic and other practical suggestions, and whose 19CBB listserve is a continuous wellspring of data and perspectives on the evolution of ballplaying; to David Block (San Francisco), who has been extremely generous in providing both information and advice based on his prodigious new finds on early ballgames; to Phil McCray (Ithaca NY), who provided often patient advice and always savvy assistance in use of the Seymour Collection at Cornell University and baseball coverage in Syracuse newspapers; and to Tim Wiles (Cooperstown NY), who provided broad early encouragement, and help in searching the files of the Giamatti Research Center at the Baseball Hall of Fame;

Our Plans for This Site

This small website, like the Project that it reflects, is in a primitive state. We welcome your suggestions for making it most useful in supporting new research on the evolution of ballplaying to 1860.

As first uploaded in July 2005, the site comprised mainly a rudimentary chronology of about 460 entries, with proximate citations for most, and the first draft of a general bibliography of secondary sources on early ballplaying. Since then a score or more of researchers have contributed about 160 additional items.

Future goals include:

The Chronology -- The initial chronology included short 1 or 2 paragraph] coverage drawn from 10 or 12 of the richest sources of data on early baseball and base-ball-like games, including David Block’s new Baseball Before We Knew It [2005], Robert Henderson’s classic Bat, Ball, and Bishop [1947], Tom Altherr’s A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball [2000], Harold Seymour’s Baseball: the Early Years [1960], and Seymour’s extensive research notes. A next step is to screen about 150 other standard baseball histories, along with a small stack of isolated finds collected informally since 1999, in search of additional items. Later, we hope to extend the coverage of each entry to make it both more extensive -- including original text wherever feasible -- and more easily searchable.

The Bibliography -- The bibliography of secondary work on early ballplay remains incomplete. We hope to add missing sources, to procure hard copies for the Project collection, and provide annotations for each source that will help lead new researchers to the most productive sources.

Other Possible Site Features (Eventually?) --

1. A Local Resource Guide for New Researchers?

2. Short “Why, Dad?” Write-up? [Why nine innings? Why not flat bats?]

3. “Best Recent Finds” Awards?

4. A Collection of Early Baseball Images?

5. First Appearance of Baseball Terms? “1-2-3 Inning?” “Double Play?”

6. Your Other Suggestions?

Send your ideas and criticisms to Larry McCray at lmccray@mit.edu.

Contact Us

To contact the Protoball Project by email, write to lmccray@mit.edu.

The mailing address:

The Protoball Project

125 Vine Street

Lexington, MA 02420

USA

Some Research Reports: Project Updates

Note: These brief summaries are taken from “The Next Destin’d Post,” a minimalist research summary updated every so often. If you would like to be added to the email list for this update, contact Larry McCray.

Tom Altherr [Conifer CO], has revised a paper he presented at NASSH in 2006 [“Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries in Pre-1839 North American Ball Games History”] for possible publication. His 2007 contribution at the Cooperstown symposium is based on further research and more theoretical speculations why baseball emerged in the late 18^th an -early 19th centuries. It may appear in the next biennial anthology. After his week in Cooperstown, Tom spent a very solid week researching at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. This has all led him to see a possible book on all pre-1840 North American games – base ball and beyond -- played with a ball. [January 2008]

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David Arcidiacono [East Hampton, CT] has been looking to confirm the report that baseball gloves were first used in an 1858 Massachusetts-rule game. Old-timers later recalled that a ball with a bullet core was put in play, and that players then donned gloves to protect their hands. Contemporary accounts haven’t yet confirmed this story. [March 2007]

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Priscilla Astifan [Rochester NY] is expanding her earlier work on early base ball in Rochester into a monograph, and has recently examined the circumstances surrounding Samuel Hopkins Adams’ famous story about base ball in the Flower City in 1827. She and Larry McCray [Lexington MA] have drafted a 10-page research note on what was called “old-fashioned base ball” – it was portrayed as the predecessor to the New York game -- in Western New York State. [March 2007]

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“Gentlemen at the Bat” is the working title of Howard Burman’s [Felton CA] current book project, one that focuses on the Knickerbocker Club. The book’s story is told by club members in the form of a collective oral history, in which Howard’s historical research is presented through the medium of fictionalized dialog. His earlier books include one on Shoeless Joe Jackson and one on 1950’s stickball in New York. [January 2008]

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Jerry Casway’s [Columbia MD] work continues on the 19^th-century. He wrote an expanded piece on the Philadelphia Pythians and its captain, Octavius Catto. It will be published in Pennsylvania Legacies, a periodical for the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The issue, published in May, examines Negro baseball in Pennsylvania. At the Cooperstown Symposium in June, Jerry presented “Which Irish Played Baseball in the Emerald Age?” He is now finishing up a study of the life and career of Lipman Pike. [January 2008]

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Kyle DeCicco-Carey [New Bedford MA] is researching early base ball on the southern coast of Massachusetts, from Fall River to New Bedford. He reports finding a 33-inning Massachusetts-rules game from 1858, and has discovered that New Bedford clubs in those days were willing to play by either NY or MA rules. [March 2007]

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Researcher and author John Freyer [Chicago] reports that his interest is still Chicago-area baseball from back before the National League. Among other feats, he has accumulated every Chicago boxscore between the years 1859 and the Chicago Fire in 1871. He also enjoys researching New York baseball before the Civil War. John has an ongoing project of bat and ball games over history, from Wicket to Wiffleball, but hasn't determined whether it amounts to a new book. Currently, John is working with others to establish a Chicago Baseball Museum, and serves as the project’s ad hoc historian. [January 2008]

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The Vintage Base Ball Association’s [VBBA] recently-installed president is Glenn Drinkwater [Rochester NY]. One of Glenn’s objectives is to review the organization’s Rules and Customs program to reinforce historical accuracy. Glenn is in touch with Peter Morris, Fred Ivor-Campbell, and Tom Schieber as part of that initiative. [January 2008]

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César Gonzalez [San Pedro, Mexico] is exploring the origins of baseball in Mexico and Cuba. His article “A New Perspective on Mexican Baseball Origins” appeared in the inaugural issue of Base Ball. [January 2008]

Brock Helander [Sacramento CA] is collecting information on baseball history in towns -- like Syracuse and Troy NY -- that once had, but then lost, major league teams. Brock is at helander@neteze.com if you want to know more, or to help out. [March 2007]

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Long-term preparation for a special exhibit on cricket and baseball is under way by Beth Hise [Sydney, Australia]. The exhibit is slated for spring of 2010 at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, home of the MCC cricket museum, where Beth serves as a guest curator. The exhibit may also tour in the US and Australia. For details, contact Beth at bethhise@bigpond.net. au. Beth, a Yale-educated Cleveland Indians fan, has 20 years experience in curating social-history events at Australian and American museums. [January 2008]

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The UK Chapter of SABR is preparing to resume publication of The Examiner, which has given us several accounts of members’ research on English ballplaying [see http://www.sabruk.org/examiner/index.html.] Martin Hoerchner [Kent, England], who has uncovered contemporary stoolball and trap ball in the olde country, is leading the renewed effort. [March 2007]

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In addition to helping lead the Boston SABR Chapter and pushing along an anthology of Deadball Era baseball poetry, Joanne Hulbert [Holliston MA is working on a local project that brings together the histories of the Massachusetts game and the NY Game as they impacted one small town -- Holliston. She sees a big story in these local events. She says that when one wanders around among the ghosts of the game, the stories are impressive: they involve triumph and tragedy, sex and violence, pathos and drama. Besides, she lives in the original Mudville, and that’s part of the story. Her tentative title: For Fun, Money or Marbles: How Baseball Transformed a Perfectly Good Town. She hasn’t set a target date for publication yet. [January 2008]

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A book-length evaluative history of baseball from 1845 to 1857 -- Knickerbocker Base Ball -- is occupying Fred Ivor-Campbell [Bristol RI]. A first segment, treating the 1857 base ball convention, is slated for the second issue of Base Ball. [March 2007]

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Wendy Knickerbocker's [Castine ME] main baseball research interest is Billy Sunday. However, she is also interested in American cultural history in general, and while doing research on a book about a contemporary of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she was delighted to find [and to submit for the Protoball chronology] an entry on baseball from Emerson's journals. It was while reading Emerson's journals to get a handle on Emerson’s friendship with (and admiration for) her current research subject, Edward T. Taylor, that she found the June 1840 baseball reference [see Protoball entry 1840.20], which imagines that some young ballplayers feel “a faint sense of being a tyrannical Jupiter driving spheres madly from their orbits.” [January 2008]

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Jim Lannen [Ann Arbor MI] has just completed coding all of the 178 rich entries in David Block’s bibliography in Baseball Before We Knew It for SABR’s Baseball Index [http://www.baseballindex.org/]. In doing this, Jim has added several new search codes to TBI, including stool-ball, trap-ball, trapstick, cat, and tipcat. [January 2008]

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A chronology of the evolution of ballmaking has been assembled by Rob Loeffler [Rancho Santa Margarita CA]. It appear elsewhere on this Protoball site. Rob has a collection of photos of well over 200 19^th C baseballs and is analyzing them to estimate their size and weight. [March 2007]

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MLB Advanced Media is preparing a full-length documentary on the origins of baseball. Directed by Ms Sam Marchiano [New York, NY], Origins of the Game traces baseball back to its early roots, and shows why predecessor games from outside the US are just now being considered integral parts of the sport's evolution. The crew consulted with SABR’s John Thorn, David Block, and Martin Hoerchner, among others, in piecing the story together. And its work in England in June led to an original find of a 1755 diary entry referring to young adults playing "base ball." [David describes this lucky disclosure in the Fall 2007 issue of Base Ball.] The MLB.com crew spent a damp week filming games of stoolball, rounders, cricket, and trapball. There were times when a combination of equipment malfunction, rain, noisy low-flying aircraft, and early-morning auto mishaps might have discouraged a weaker soul, but Sam kept on smiling.

MLB Advanced Media runs the website MLB.com. Sam, who has covered sports for nearly 20 years, has worked there since 2003, receiving two Emmy nominations, including one for the 2006 documentary Vintage Base Ball.

The documentary is scheduled to be released online at about the All-Star break of 2008. Online viewing will be free, with downloads available at a fee.

"The Next Destin’d Post will provide additional details on the release of The Origins of the Game" when they become available. [January 2008]

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Eric Miklich [North Babylon, NY], author of a compendium of 19th Century rule changes, is currently researching information on the history of pitching deliveries for an article for his website, www.19cbaseball.com. Eric is hoping to release a new book on base ball in the 1860’s by next summer. This book, written in part with the perspective of someone with extensive VBB experience, will offer suggestions of why certain rules evolved as they did. [January 2008]

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Larry McCray [Lexington MA] is succeeding Mike Ross [London] as chair of SABR’s Committee on the Origins of Baseball. Mike has led the SABR-UK chapter for many years, including its creative early examination of the British roots of baseball in the 1990s. [January 2008]

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Wayne McElreavy [Claremont NH] is trying to piece together the history of baseball in the Claremont area. [January 2008]

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The earliest days of California base ball are being investigated by Angus McFarlane [San Francisco CA]. He identifies the local Knickerbockers as the first CA team, and is working with Mexican historian Cesar Gonzalez to ascertain the role of the New York Volunteer Regiment, which sailed to CA in 1846, in implanting baseball in Mexico. [March 2007]

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The latest book by Peter Morris [Haslett MI] is Level Playing Fields: How the Groundskeeping Murphy Brothers Shaped Baseball. It includes coverage of the development of early ballfields before 1872. Peter’s next project is a textbook on the history of baseball from 1840-1870, and will include the scoop from many new sources that Peter has turned up. [March 2007]

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SABR’s Seymour Medal, awarded to “the best book of baseball history or biography from the previous year,” was awarded to Peter Morris [Haslett MI] for the amazing two-volume Game of Inches [Ivan R. Dee, 2006]. He thinks of his book as “a never-ending project,” and in that vein he is posting updates to the book on his website at http://www.petermorrisbooks.com. Peter reports that the work has gone through several printings, with sales of about 4000 copies.

Peter’s next publication will be But Didn’t We Have Fun, which examines the first generation of ballplayers, and is based on “dozens of previously unpublished or unavailable reminiscences.” It is slated for release in March 2008. [January 2008].

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David Nevard [Waltham MA] has researched and written Wikipedia pieces on Town Ball and the Massachusetts Game, and has also written a brief overview of the class of safe haven games for the site. Next: he will try to understand, and explain, what those “old-cat” games were all about. [March 2007]

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“The Cartwright Conundrum: Fact and Fiction of Cartwright’s Baseball Legacy” was the subject of a poster session by Monica Nucciarone at the SABR 36 convention. She is in the rewrite phase of her treatise on Alexander Cartwright, and may present some results at the St. Louis SABR convention. She spent part of last April doing research in Hawaii. [March 2007]

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Marty Payne [Saint Michaels MD] continues to explore the influence of the advent of the New York Game on rural towns. He is finding that The New York game (along with improved transportation) brought competition, and had a profound social, economic, and cultural impact on small towns that previous, less structured versions of ballplay did not. Marty has also consulted with vintage clubs in his area that formed in the last year. [January 2008]

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A narrative history of baseball from 1845 to the Civil War is being put together by Bill Ryczek [Wallingford CT]. Look for it to hit the shelves next year. [January 2008]

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SABR-UK maintains an interest in the origins of baseball. A handsome compilation of articles on the English roots of baseball in 1995-2003 issues of the SABR-UK Examiner has been produced by Martin Hoerchner [Orpington, Kent, England]. The material was distributed at the June 20 meeting of SABR’s UK chapter in London, which was addressed by David Block and Jules Tygiel. [January 2008]

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Dan Selz [New York] and associates are collecting information for a prospective documentary on the meaning of baseball for localities. They have interviewed Priscilla Astifan about events in early Rochester. [March 2007]

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Andrew Schiff [Brooklyn NY] notes that his new biography of Henry Chadwick, The Father of Baseball, is scheduled for early 2008. To order this $29.95 McFarland offering, or for more details, go to http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/ and search “Schiff.” [January 2008]

John Schiffert [Newnan, GA] identifies his continuing primary interest as baseball [and base ball] in Philadelphia, not the easiest choice for someone living far from the local sources at Temple University and the Free Library of Philadelphia. His Base Ball in Philadelphia [McFarland, 2007] is out, with contributions from our colleagues Altherr, Casway, Helander, Hershberger, Thorn, and Marshall Wright, but John still longs to know such things as “did the Olympic Club there really, as Robert Smith wrote in 1993, play on a diamond-shaped field? What was Smith's source for that assertion? And who were the original Olympics . . . a bunch of local rope-makers?” He admits to having thoughts about doing a more extensive book on Philadelphia’s hardball origins, once Georgia and the people at Clayton State University let go of him. [January 2008]

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George Thompson [New York NY] recently re-discovered the elusive 1859 NY Tribune article that challenges the superiority of the New York Game to the Massachusetts Game. George continues to examine all aspects of life in New York City from the 1790s to 1860, including all varieties of sports. [March 2007]

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Conceived and edited by John Thorn [Kingston NY], the new McFarland offering Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game will be appearing soon. The inaugural issue will have several substantial articles on pre-1870 ballplaying, including Joanne Hulbert’s work on Fast Day in Massachusetts, Angus McFarland’s work on San Francisco’s first team, Fred Ivor-Campbell’s take on the 1857 Convention, and John’s reflections on that surprising find of bafeball in 1791 Pittsfield MA. [March 2007]

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Trained in the history of science, Craig Waff [Beavercreek OH] is focusing for now on early ball in New York and Brooklyn, and on games played on ice skates in the mid-1800s. He has been using the online databases of the New York Times and Brooklyn Daily Eagle to not only track the development of interest in astronomy in New York City and Brooklyn in the late 19th century, but also to collect systematically, for the PROTOBALL archives, copies of all baseball-related articles that appeared in these newspapers up to 1860. During that search he discovered what may be the first recorded triple play (occurring on 16 April 1859). He is also researching the winter baseball games played with skates on ice from 1860 to 1887. [January 2008]

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The Evolution of the Baseball Up To 1872

Contributed by Rob Loeffler, 3/1/2007

Rancho Santa Margarita, California 92688

loefflerrd@cox.net

rloeffler@advgeoenv.com

The following chronology represents key points in the development of the baseball in the time period of the early 1800s to 1872. The information listed is based on research that I have been conducting on the development of the baseball in the 19^th Century over the last 6 years. Any additional information to further refine this timeline would be greatly appreciated.

Pre-1845: Baseballs are constructed of cores consisting of nuts, bullets, rocks or shoe rubber gum and even sturgeon eyes [1a – 1d] wrapped with yarn and covered in leather or sheepskin in the lemon-peel style or the belt/gusset ball style. Both cover styles are identical to those used in feathery golf balls from the 1700s. Typically homemade, the sizes ranged anywhere from 5.1 to 9.8 inches in circumference and could weigh anywhere from 1 oz. to 7 oz. with the typical baseball weighing 3 oz. Because outs were made by “soaking” a runner in the game of rounders or town ball, the early baseballs were typically lighter. [1e]

1845 – 1854: The Knickerbockers developed and adopted the New York Game style of baseball in September 1845 in part to play a more dignified game that would attract adults. The removal of the “soaking” rule allowed the Knickerbockers to develop a harder baseball that was more like a cricket ball. [1e]

Dr. D.L. Adams of the Knickerbocker team stated that he produced baseballs for the various teams in New York in the 1840s and through 1858. He would produce the balls using 3 to 4 oz of rubber as a core, then wound with yarn and covered with leather. [2a]

1854: Joint rules committee at Smith’s Tavern, New York: The weight of the ball was increased to 5 ½ to 6 ounces and the diameter to 2 ¾ to 3 ½ inches, (a variance in circumference from 8 5/8 to 11 inches). [3a]

1858: Dedham Rules of the Massachusetts Game specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than two, nor more than two and three-quarter ounces, avoirdupois. It must measure not less than six and a half, nor more than eight and a half inches in circumference, and must be covered with leather.” [4a]

William Cutler of Natick, MA reportedly designs the Figure 8 cover. The design was sold to Harrison Harwood. [4b]

Harrison Harwood develops the first baseball factory (H. Harwood and Sons) in Natick, Massachusetts. Baseballs that are manufactured at this facility include the Figure 8 design as well as the lemon peel design. [4c]

1860: National Association of Baseball Players rules specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than five and three-fourths, nor more than six ounces avoirdupois. It must measure not less than nine and three-fourths, nor more than ten inches in circumference. It must be composed of India rubber and yarn, and covered with leather, and, in all match games, shall be furnished by the challenging club, and become the property of the winning club, as a trophy of victory.” [5a]

1863: Weeks patents the cork center ball for use in cricket [6a]

1863 - 1866: National Association of Baseball Players rules specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than five and one-half, nor more than five and three-fourths ounces, avoirdupois. It must measure not less than nine and one-half, nor more than nine, and three-fourths inches in circumference. It must be composed of India-rubber and yarn, and covered with leather, and, in all match games, shall be furnished by the challenging club, and become the property of the winning club as a trophy of victory.” [7a]

1860s – 1870: At least 9 manufacturers are producing baseballs during this time period, including 1) Harwood and Sons, Natick, MA, 2) Ryan and Harvey Ross, NY, 3) John Van Horn, NY, 3) Edward Horsman, NY, 4) Andrew Peck and Co., 5) Peck and Snyder, 6) Rice, NY, 7) S.W. Brock, NY, 8) George Ellard, Cincinnati, OH, and 9) John Whiting, NY. [ 8a]. One NY manufacturer is reported to have produced 162,000 baseballs in 1870 alone. [8b]

1870: The New York Rubber Company reportedly manufactures a ball with a rubber cover which is deemed a failure for baseball uses because the rubber cover tears easily.

1872: National Association of Baseball Players rules specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than five nor more than five and one quarter ounces avoirdupois. It must measure not less than nine nor more than nine inches and one-quarter inches in circumference. It must be composed of india rubber and yarn, and covered with leather. The quantity of rubber used in the composition of the ball shall be one ounce, and the rubber used shall be vulcanized and in mould form. The ball is required to weigh not less than 5 and not more than 5 1/4 ounces, with a circumference of not less than 9 and not more than 9 1/4 inches.” [9a]

REFERENCES

[1a]. Woodbury Reporter, March 6, 1926. 70 Years Ago, Youths Made Balls at Home.

George F. Morris, a Woodbury resident, recalls that overshoes were made from pure rubber gum and were salvaged by boys when they were worn out. Strips of rubber from the ball, wound into an egg-sized ball and baked in an oven until the rubber could be pressed into a solid ball. Yarn was then wound around the ball and a cobbler would be paid $ 0.25 to sew on a cover.

[1b]. Brooklyn Eagle, February 3^rd 1884

Base Balls. Manner and Extent of the Manufacture in this Country – How they were Made Fifty Years Ago – Gradual Growth of the Business – Preparing for the Next Season’s Trade – Dead Balls Going Out of Favor – Ball Makers’ Wages.

An article discussing the early development of the baseballs. This article discusses the use of overshoe rubber to make a core for the baseball. In the lake regions, sturgeon eyes were used as a core. The article also discusses the business of making baseballs in the 1870s and 1880s.

[1c]. New York Times, April 30, 1871

[1d]. Major League Baseball Official Program, American League Championship Series, 1996

An article by Tim Wiles, titled “What a Ball” about the history of the baseball.

[1e]. Gilbert, 1995, Elysian Fields, The Birth of Baseball, pg. 16 – 17.

Includes a discussion of the Knickerbockers development of a harder baseball due to the removal of the “soaking” rule.

[2a]. Sporting News, February 29, 1896

Dr. D.L. Adams, Memoirs of the Father of Baseball. Dr. Adams reiminces about the early days of baseball when he was member of the Knickerbockers. Dr. Adams recalls that for six or seven years, he made all of the baseballs for his team as well as the other local teams. He discusses that he would use three or four ounces of rubber cuttings, wound with yarn and then covered with leather. It was not until 1858 that he found a saddler that would produce the ball for them.

Sullivan reprints this article in Early Innings, A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908, pages 13-18.

[3a]. Peverelly, 1866, The Book of American Pastimes, pgs. 346 – 348.

An annual joint meeting between the Knickerbockers, Gotham and Eagle clubs was held on April 1, 1854 at Smith’s Tavern in New York. The rules of baseball were revised and rule 17 dictated the weight and size of the baseball.

[4a]. Massachusetts Association of Base Ball Players, May 13, 1858

The Massachusetts Association of Base Ball Players convened to codify the rules of the Massachusetts Game (town ball) in Dedham, Massachusetts. Rule one discusses the ball size and weight.

[4b]. Bob Schaefer, http:/groups.yahoo.com/group/19cBB/message/2146

Mr. Schaefer indicates that he received information from the Natick Historical Society that Col. William Cutler designed the figure 8 ball cover in his kitchen at 10 West Central Street, Natick, MA around the year 1858. The idea was then sold to the Harwoods.

[4c]. Natick Baseball Factory, http:/www.natickhistory.com/timeline/baseball.html

A small article on the Natick Baseball Factory by the Natick Historical Society and Museum. I have a photo of a lemon peel ball and it’s box that Harwood manufactured, indicating that they made both types of baseballs.

[5a]. 1860 National Association of Baseball Players, Rules and Regulations Adopted by the National Association of Baseball Players - New York, March 14^th 1860. This reference is available online at http://opensite.org//Sports/Baseball/History/Rules/1860_National_Association_of_Baseball_Players/

[6a]. In 1863, an Englishman named Weeks patented a cork center ball for cricket. http://webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/evolution.html

Although not directly related to the baseball before the 1870s, this fact is important to the later development of the baseball. In 1910, George Reach developed the first cork-centered baseball.

[7a]. 1866 National Association of Baseball Players, Rules and Regulations Adopted by the National Association of Baseball Players, Held in New York, December 12^th 1866. This reference is available online at http://opensite.org//Sports/Baseball/History/Rules/1866_National_Association_of_Baseball_Players/

Although this rule is commonly associated with 1866, these ball dimensions were in use by the National Association of Baseball Players on December 1863. The 1863 rules can be found in the 1864 edition of The American Boy’s Book of Sports and Games, pgs. 89-93.

[8a]. Robert Loeffler, 19^th Century Baseball Manufacturers

[8b]. New York Times, April 30, 1871.

Bats, Balls and Mallets. Concerning the Implements of Base-Ball - Facts, Figures and Fancies About the Trade- Neglected Cricket and Fascinating Croquet – Games that Have Gone Out, and Games That Ought to Come In – A Plea for Ladies’ Archery Meetings.

[9a]. The Rules of Baseball for 1873, as Revised by the National Association in 1872. http://wiki.vbba.org/index.php/Rules/1873

19th Century Baseball Manufacturers

1. Harwood Baseball Factory – 1858 – 1890s
Corner of Walnut Street and North Avenue, Natick, MA

2. Andrew Peck & Co. – 1858 – mid-1860s
105 Nassau Street, N.Y.
(merged with Snyder to become Peck and Snyder around 1868)
(started stitching baseballs after in 1866 after returning from
Civil War – obit)