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A
<p>[A] A boys’ game reportedly played in Hawaii before the game of base ball was introduced in the 1860s. As described, its rules were consistent with those of [[wicket]], but no running or scoring is mentioned.</p>
<p>[B] See also item [[1855c.10]]:</p>
<p>"In 1855 the new game of wicket was introduced at Punahou [School] and for a few <a id="PXLINK_1_0_1" class="pxInta">years</a> was the leading athletic game on the campus. . . . [The] fiercely contested games drew many spectators from among the young ladies and aroused no common interest among the friends of the school."</p>
<p>"One game they all enjoyed was wicket, often watched by small Mary Burbank. Aipuni, the Hawaiians called it, or rounders, perhaps because the bat had a large rounder end. It was a forerunner of baseball, but the broad, heavy bat was held close to the ground."</p>
<p>[Through further digging, John Thorn suggests the migration of wicket to Hawaii through the Hawaii-born missionary Henry Obookiah. At age 17, Obookiah traveled to New Haven and was educated in the area. He may well have been exposed to wicket there. He died in 1818, but not before helping organize a ministry [Episcopalian?] in Hawaii that began in 1820.</p>
<p>See also John Thorn's 2016 recap is the supplementary text to [[1855c.10]].</p>
<p> </p> +
H
Games featuring baserunning and/or plugging (but no batting). +
B
Safe-Haven games featuring running among bases, a bat, pitching, and two distinct teams. +
A
<p>A hybrid cricket-baseball game reportedly introduced in Chicago in 1870. The game is described as generally having cricket rules, except with no LBW rule, and with the addition of a third base, so that the bases form a triangle with sides of 28-yards. We have no other accounts of this game.</p>
<p>Full text: </p>
<p>"A NEW AMERICAN GAME</p>
<p>The <em>Philadelphia Mercury</em> contains the following: 'A new game of ball has recently been introduced in Chicago, under the name of American cricket. The field is laid out like a cricket-field, and the striker wields the willow instead of the ash. The bowler, who stands twenty-two yards from the striker, bowls as in cricket. The striker, in making a tally, runs to first base and then to third (dispensing with the second), these being in the form of a triangle and at a distance of twenty-eight yards apart. There are no fouls to cause delays. There are none of the stupid and senseless six-ball 'overs.' 'Out leg before wicket' is dispensed with, a rule which, while in force, gives great annoyance to the umpire and general dissatisfaction to the batsman. The prominent and attractive features of both the English game of cricket and the American pastime of base-ball are taken and rolled into one, thereby making a magnificent game.'"</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> +
B
<p>In 1805 a game of “bace” was reportedly played among adult males in New York City. Its rules were not reported. The word “bace” is extremely rare in sport: it appeared in a 1377 English document, and, in a list of obsolete Cornish terms, for the game Prisoner’s Base in Cornwall in 1882. Unlike the usual case for prisoner’s base, however, a final score [41-35] was reported for this match.</p>
<p>"Bace" is also reported as an obolete term for a British game, the nature of which is not yet known. </p> +
<p>Elmore (1922) describes this as a game of attrition for ages 8-12 that involves throwing a ball against a wall. One player is named to catch it. If the player does, “stand” is shouted, and other players are to freeze in their places. If the player with the ball can plug someone, that player is out; if not, the thrower is out. This game has not batting or baserunning.</p> +
<p>per Perrin (1902). A school-time running game of one-on-one contests between a pitcher and a batter, who propels the tossed ball with the hand and runs bases while the pitcher retrieves the ball. Caught flies and a failure to reach third base before the pitcher touches home with the ball in hand are outs. Batters receive one point for each base attained, and five for a home run. Three-out half innings are used.</p> +
<p>per Block. The 1836 book Perth Traditions described Ball-Paces, by then almost extinct, as a game that used a trap to put a ball into play, at which point in-team runners at each of four bases run to the next bases, stopping only when the ball was returned to the original batsman’s station. There is no mention of plugging.</p> +
<p>per Dick, 1864. A team game like rounders, but having large safety areas instead of posts or bases. A feeder makes a short gentle toss to a batter, who tries to hit it. The batter-runner then chooses whether to run for a distant goal-line or a nearer one, for which there is a smaller chance of being plugged. The nearer station can hold several runners at once. Three missed swings makes an out, as does a caught fly. Versions of Ball-Stock are found in British and American boys’ books in the mid-Nineteenth Century.</p>
<p>From another source:</p>
<p>BALL-STOCK, or Ball-stick, is, as its name would indicate, a German game, but in some respects resembles our favorite English sport of "Rounders." The players are divided into two parties; six bases are then marked out, as in the accompanying Diagram; and for the first " innings" the players toss up.</p>
<p> C _l_l_l_l_l_l_l_ D</p>
<p> E (.) F</p>
<p> A _l_l_l_l_l_l_l_ B</p>
<p> l l l</p>
<p> c b a</p>
<p>The in-players occupy the "home" — A to B; the out-players station themselves as in Cricket, having one boy as feeder who stands at <em>a</em>, and another at <em>c</em> who acts as wicket-keeper, and tosses back the ball when tipped or missed. The striker stands at <em>b</em>. The ball having been thrown, and, we will suppose, well hit by the striker, he runs off to the base C — D, touching on his way at the resting base E — F; but if he has only tipped the ball, or struck it but a very short distance, or if it is stopped by one of the out-players, he should make off at once for the resting base E — F, and remain there until relieved by one of his fellow-players, whose fortunate hit may drive the ball so far out of range as to enable him to escape to C — D, or even run " home." If struck with the ball on his way from one base to another, he goes out. The other regulations are the same as in "Rounders."</p>
<p>From Elliott, <em>The Playground and the Parlour</em> (1868), p. 57</p>
<p>Translated as “rounders” in an 1855 translation of a French poem. Maigaard identifies it as a longball-type game with four bases [set in a line] and in which the ball is thrown into the field by a member of the in team to initiate play.</p> +
<p>A fungo-like game played in Elizabethan times in England. The ball was an inflated leather bag, and was knocked with the arm - sometimes aided by a wooden brace. Hitting for distance was evidently desired, but no running or fielding is described.</p>
<p>An illustration and description of "balloon ball" is in Hone, p. 96</p> +
<p>According to Gomme [1894], Bandy-Wicket is Cricket played with a bandy (a curved club) instead of a cricket bat. This name was evidently once used in Norfolk and Suffolk.</p>
<p>"Bandy Wicket" was also used in the US.</p> +
<p>A two-player game set against a wall or barn. The pitch is made from about ten feet away against the wall, and the batter tries to hit it on the rebound. If successful, he runs to the wall and back. If he misses the ball, and the pitcher catches the rebounding pitch on the fly or on one bound, the batter is out. Beard (1896) calls a similar game House Ball. It specifies a brick house, perhaps for the peace of mind of occupants.</p> +
H
Games for which the rules of play are not known and, and some that are commonly encountered by researchers but that are not safe-haven games (including shinty, bandy, and stow-ball). +
K
Safe-Haven games featuring running among bases, pitching, and two distinct teams (but no batting). +
F
Games featuring batting/hitting (but no baserunning). +
S
Safe-Haven games featuring running among bases, pitching, and a bat (but no teams). +
B
<p>Sometimes seen as a name for base ball. While some references to “base” most likely denote Prisoner’s Base (a team form of tag similar in nature to modern Capture the Flag and, perhaps, today’s Laser Tag), others denote a ball game. David Block reports that the earliest clear appearance of “base” as a ball game is from New England in 1831, and that his source groups base with cricket and cat as young men’s ballgames.</p> +
<p>Elmore (1922) describes this game as a form of Square Ball (Corner Ball) for 7th graders through high schoolers in which a player can prevent being called out by catching a ball thrown at him. An “indoor baseball” is used. The game involves no batting or baserunning.</p> +
<p>America’s national pastime since about 1860. Writing about rounders in 1898, Gomme mused that “An elaborate form of this game has become the national game of the United States.” The term “baseball” actually arose in England as early as 1748, referring to a simple game like rounders, but usage in England died out, and was soon forgotten in most parts of the country. The term first appeared in the United States in 1791.</p> +