1820s.9

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In Middletown CT, "Wicket" Recalled, but Not Base Ball.

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags
Location
City/State/Country:	Middletown, CT, United States
Modern Address
Game	WicketWicket
Immediacy of Report
Age of Players	Juvenile, YouthJuvenile, Youth
Holiday
Notables
Text	"[In the summer] ball was the chief amusement, and if the weather permitted (and my impression is that it generally did permit) the open green about the meeting-house and the school-house was constantly occupied by the players, little boys, big boys, and even men (for such we considered the biggest boys who consented to join the game) . . . . These grown-up players usually devoted themselves to a game called 'wicket,' in which the ball was impelled along the ground by a wide, peculiarly-shaped bat, over, under, or through a wicket, made by a slender stick resting on two supports.  I never heard of baseball in those days."   -- John Howard Redfield
Sources	Delaney, ed., Life in the Connecticut River Valley 1800 - 1840 from the Recollections of John Howard Redfield (Connecticut River Museum, Essex CT, 1988), p. 35. Per Thomas L. Altherr, "A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball," reprinted in David Block, Baseball before We Knew It, pp. 246-247 and ref #86.
Warning
Comment	The description of field play of wicket seems a little odd; as if the stick-handlers's aim was to score by dislodging a wicket, and thus resembling field hockey. Were two separate games conflated in memory?  Edit with form to add a comment
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1820s.9 In Middletown CT, "Wicket" Recalled, but Not Base Ball."

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