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K
<p>A ball game recorded in the “Younger Edda:” Its rules are not known.</p>
<p>In April 2022, Bruce Allardice added this comment to chronology item [[1000c.1]]:</p>
<p>"Vikings also played a ball game with stick and ball. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to get hurt or even killed, as Vikings played rough. Women did not participate in these games, but they would gather to watch the men . . . . </p>
<p>The stick-ball game was <em><strong><span title="Icelandic-language text"><em lang="is">Knattleikr</em></span></strong></em> (English: 'ball-game'), an ancient ball game similar to hurling played by Icelandic Vikings."</p>
<p>--</p>
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<p>On 4/4/2022, this Youtube introduction to the game, described as an Icelandic game similar to lacrosse, was found at: </p>
<p>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6KSqgkJxnY</p>
<p>Historical sources for this interpretation are not supplied. The game as illustrated does not appear to involve baserunning.</p>
<p>On 4/5/2022, Swedish scholar Isak Lidstrom added:</p>
<p>"That is a great game! Usually called knattleikr. The rules and practice of the game is unclear. In the early 20th century a theory was launched stating that lacrosse was developed out of knattleikr. A more plausible theory states that knattleikr is closely related to hurling or shinty. This article mentions everything worth knowikng about the game. <a id="LPlnk39510" class="OWAAutoLink" href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24862870?seq=1">https://www.jstor.org/stable/24862870?seq=1</a></p>
<p>Isak"</p>
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<p>A fungo game in which a player who catches the ball on the fly qualifies to become the hitter. Regionally variant names include Knock-Up and Knock-Up and Catch.</p> +
<p>“Among the several types of Dutch kopfspeel there is one like rounders.” No other lead to kopfspeel is provided, and we don't know if the game is still alive.</p> +
a traditional Finnish game, features of which were incorporated into Pasepallo. +
L
<p>One 1895 source, identifies this game as Tip-cat. He writes that Tip-cat “is doubtless a very old diversion for children. It is illustrated as “La Batonet” in the charming series of children’s games designed by Stella and published in Paris, 1657, as “Les Jeux et Plaisiris [sic] de l’Enfance.”</p> +
<p>Maigaard (1941) notes they while most forms of rounders and longball were now lost, three - baseball, cricket, and bo-ball - remain vigorous. Bo-Ball is played in Finland. The only known source on this game, called Lahden Mailaveikot in Finnish, is a Finnish-language website, on that shows photographs of a vigorous game with aluminum bats, gloves, helmets, and much sliding and running but no other helpful hints for English-speakers. Similarities to Pesapallo are apparent.</p>
<p><strong>HELP?</strong> Can you help us get a fix on the nature of contemporary Lahden Mailaveikot?</p> +
<p>Varying accounts of this game are found. It is claimed that evidence places a form of the game to the time of Peter the Great, and that bats and leather balls date back to the 1300s. One 1989 news article reports that it is now strictly a children’s game. Still, some Russians say that “baseball is the younger brother of baseball.” In contemporary play, the fielding team’s “server” stands next to a batter and gently tosses a ball up to be hit. After the hit, runners try to run to a distant line [one 1952 account calls this the “city”] and back without being plugged. Caught fly balls are worth a point, but a successful run is two points. A time clock governs a game’s length.</p>
<p>A 1952 article does not mention a pitcher or points awarded for catches (but not runs?), but notes use of a round stick to hit with and also confirms the use of plugging. Neither account says that runners can stay safely at the "city" if they don't venture to run back home.</p>
<p>As of July 2020, we note four lapta finds on YouTube. They show some variance in playing rules. In some, batters strike the ball directly overhead, as seen in a tennis serve. The bats sown are narrow flat paddles. After each hit, multiple runners (other members of the batting side?) take diverse paths, evading plugging by fielders. Tennis balls are commonly used.</p> +
<p>Apparently a form of Stickball played in Chicago area streets as early as the 1940s that uses 16-inch circumference softballs (the standard softball is about 12 inches), a slow-pitch delivery, small teams, and an unspecified bat. The type of hit achieved depended on where the ball fell among lines marked on the street (implying that baserunning was not part of this game.</p> +
<p>Maigaard sees Long Ball as the oldest ancestor of rounders, cricket and baseball, a game that was played in many countries. Long Ball is described as using teams of from 4 to 20 players. It involved a pitcher, batter, and an “out-goal” or base that the batter-runner tried to reach after hitting (or after missing a third swing) and without being plugged. Caught flies signaled an immediate switch between the in-team and the out-team. Many members of the in-team could share a base as runners. Runs were not counted, as the objective was to remain at bat for a long period. A 1914 US text describes Long Ball in generally similar terms, but one that uses a regular "indoor baseball." There is a single base to run to, scoring by runs, a three-out-side-out rule, and no foul ground. Plugging is allowed.</p>
<p>A weblog written in the Australian outback in 2007 described a version of contemporary Long Ball. Modern variants of Long Ball are still played on a club or school basis, including Danish Longball in Denmark and England, <em>Schlagball</em> in Germany and Silesia and <em>Palant</em> in Poland.</p> +
<p>Only two sources mentions this game. Cassidy implies that there were only two bases, and that if a runner only got to the far base, that runner would need to return home as the pitcher and catcher played catch. The era of play is uncertain.</p>
<p>A 2004 website for a teen camp program also soptslights its "long-dutch baseball" tradition for both boys and girls. The camp is located at Onaway Island in Wisconsin.</p>
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<p>Curtis (1914) mentions Long Town as an alternative name for Long Ball. We have several references to Long Town Ball, most in the South and mid-West states, none north of a line between New York and Chicago. Most describe no rules of the game. One account in Lehigh County PA (about 50 miles NE of Philadelphia) recalls the game as played in the 1850s as having two bases about 25 paces apart, plugging, a fly rule, and as allowing multiple runners on the (non-batting) base.</p> +
M
<p>This is the game played according to rules that were codified in May 1858 in Dedham Massachusetts. It featured short basepaths, an absence of foul ground, plugging of runners, a smaller and softer and lighter ball, wooden stakes in place of sascks as bases,winners definied as the first team to reach 100 “tallies,” and a one-out-side-out rule. It remains unclear how close these rules -- written 13 years after the Knickerbocker rules were codified -- were to round ball, goal ball, and/or base games played in MA for the previous 50-75 years.</p>
<p>The Massachusetts Game declined fairly rapidly after 1860.</p> +
<p>This invented game, an invented form of Kick Ball, is an indoor game reportedly played in many US schools. It uses large mats instead of bases, and multiple runners can safely occupy a base. The standard format uses an all-out-side-out rule to define a half-inning, can involve large teams, can have areas (e.g., a scoreboard or a basketball hoop) for designated home runs, a fly rule, tagging, and scoring only when a runner passes home and successfully returns to first base. Some schools use the infield format of Massachusetts base ball - the striker hits from between the first and fourth base. Foul territory varies, but forward hits are required.</p> +
<p>Described in 1977 as a children’s game played at PS 172 in New York City, Mickey resembles traditional Barn Ball. A pitcher bounces a spaldeen ball off a wall and a batter tries to hit it on the rebound. Rules for baserunning and scoring are not given.</p> +
<p>per Games and Sports. Each player is assigned the name of a day of the week. A player throws a ball against a wall, calling out a day. The player assigned that day must catch the ball, or if missing it must throw as one of his fleeing compatriots, losing a point if he misses.</p> +
<p>per Brewster. Baseball for small groups. This game is very similar to Scrub, Work-up and Rounds, but sets the usual number of players at 12, and specifies a rotation of 1B-P-C-batter instead of 1B-C-P-batter. A variant name is Move-up Piggy.</p> +
<p>per Gomme. A boy throws a small stick to another boy standing near a hole, who tries to hit it with a three-foot stick, and then to run to a prescribed mark and back without being touched by the smaller stick, and without that stick being thrown into or very near the hole. Any even number of boys can play this game.</p> +
N
<p>per Brewster. A Czech variant of Call Ball is called Nations. Each player is assigned a country name, a ball is placed in a hole, and a country name is called out. The player with that name retrieves the ball as all others start running away. The ball-holder can then call “stop,” and the others must freeze in position while he attempts to plug one of them.</p> +
<p>Sometimes described as a board game or a form of quoits, Nine Holes is elsewhere (1853-1868) depicted as a running game -- in which players had to run among holes without being plugged by a ball -- that resembles Hat-ball and Egg-Hat.</p> +
<p>A game described as the same as [[Trap Ball]]. Also names as Nor and Spel, Knur and Spell, and Nur and Spel. Gomme notes that a wooden ball was sometimes used. The objective was mainly to hit the ball for distance.</p> +
<p>A game described as the same as [[Trap Ball]].</p> +
<p>This game is mentioned, along with Swede Ball in a 1908 book on North Dakota folkways. Said to be taught to local children by Swedish newcomers and a Swedish teacher, the game is only depicted as being “played somewhat like ‘one old cat.’” It seems conceivable that this game is Brannboll. Maigaard (1941) notes a Norwegian form of Long Ball, noted as “probably recent,” that uniquely uses a field that resembles baseball’s use of a 90-degree fair territory delimitation.</p> +
O
<p>A game played at the intersection of West 184th Street and Park Avenue in New York City, as recalled by Gregory Christiano. A player would slam the ball into a painted square on a concrete median barrier, and it would rebound onto Park Avenue, then still paved with cobblestones. The player would then try to reach the first base (an open sewer) before a fielder could field it and throw to the baseman there. There were two sewer-bases and home in this game.</p> +
<p>A game played in Romania, reportedly traced back to a shepherd’s game, played in southern Romania from the year 1310. The game is described as involving two 11-player teams that alternate batting as in a one-innings game of cricket. The pitch is a soft toss from a teammate.</p>
<p>One 1990 report says that there are nine (fielder's?) bases set out over 120 yards, that the defensive team can score on tagging and plugging putouts, and that there were over 1500 teams throughout Romania, mostly in rural areas. That account describes a ball the size of a baseball and a bat resembling a cricket bat. A second report from 1973 describes the ball as small, and the bat only a little thicker than a billiard cue, and that if a runner deflects a thrown ball with the palms, he is not put out. Note: Protoball’s initial evidence on oina came from the two western news accounts provided in the Hall of Fame’s “Origins of Baseball” file (cited below).</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">2017 Input: </span>In early 2017 we viewed a handful of Youtube videos (only one of which was in English), and we office the following rough impressions of the game. Most were discovered by John Thorn, and they depict mature players. </p>
<p>The most interesting feature, to a baseball fan, is that oina has found a way to preserve plugging (you may know it as burning, soaking, etc.) as a way to retire runners. This appears to be handled by requiring fielders to throw at runners from a few specific spots, so that runners at risk can remain at some distance. They resemble dodgeball players in their attempted evasions, but if they deflect a ball with the palms of their hands, they remain immune.</p>
<p>The detailed rules for scoring remain non-obvious.</p>
<p>In the available clips, we did not see outs made when fly balls were caught. There are foul lines for hit balls.</p>
<p>Baserunners appear to be restricted to the far end-line when a new batter bats. Two or more baserunners may occupy that station, according to rules that are hard to fathom at this point.</p>
<p>Pitches are very soft short lobs, none appearing to soar much above the batter's head. Servers must smartly step away to avoid the lustily swung bat.</p>
<p>Very long hits appear to be treated as (trotless) home runs. </p>
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B
<p>The term “old fashioned base ball” appears to have been used in the decades after the 1850s to describe whatever game was played locally before the New York game arrived. The term was used extensively in upstate New York and New Jersey. We are still uncertain as to whether OFBB had common rules. In Western New York State, OFBB seems to align with the old form of the Massachusetts game, but prior to the codification of Mass Game rules in 1858. It is possible that the term was used for diverse variations of local safe-haven games in other areas.</p>
<p>One might speculate that later still, such games would be thought of as “town ball.”</p> +
O
<p>A game described in 1845 as another name for town ball, and played in North Carolina with an all-out-side-out rule. </p>
<p>There is not conclusive evidence that Old Hundred is or was a safe-haven ballgame. However, one North Carolina writer saw it as a "variety of baseball" as played in the 1840s: see chronology entry [[1840c.33]]. </p> +
<p>In a 1939 account, Om El Mahag is described as elementary baseball, and said to be analogous to rounders and old-cat. It was reported that Om El Mahag was only played by the Berber tribes.</p>
<p>Descriptions of the game are not detailed enough at this point to determine how it related, or relates, to base ball, long ball, or other early safe-haven games.</p> +
<p>per Culin. A non-team variety of base ball entailing fly outs and four bases and a three-strike rule, but no plugging. Players rotate through a series of fielding positions with each out, until they become one of two batters. “An ordinary base-ball bat is used.”</p> +
<p>per Culin. Identical to Culin’s One O’Cat, differing only in the way that players call out their initial positions.</p> +
<p>A 1934 reference from Massachusetts: “One-three-one-one” was the old game the boys used to play when I went to school. Regular baseball - very similar to Stub One.”</p>
<p><strong>Query:</strong> This is our only reference to one-three-one-one or Stub One. Can we find others? Is it reasonable to surmise that "1 3 1 1" reflected the number and deployment of fielders?</p> +
<p>This game[141] is described as a reduced form of softball with no running (ghost runners determine when runs score) and soft tossing by a team-mate as pitching. Fair ground is defines by an acute angle much smaller than 90 degrees, and a line is drawn about 20 yards from home. Three or four players make up a team. Balls hit past the line and not caught on the fly are counted as singles, unless they pass the deepest fielder. A bobbled grounder is counted as Reached on Error. The game is played as a beach game in the San Diego area[142]. Pitches are gentle lobs. Peter Morris writes that this game is an offshoot of softball.</p> +
P
<p>A Polish game. Chetwynd (2008) notes that Palant, similar to baseball, had a long history. “Poland had played its own traditional bat-and-ball game - particularly in the areas of Upper Silesia and the Opole District - dating back centuries and, by the 1920s, the game of Palant had a popular following.”</p>
<p>A Polish website describes Palant as using a rectangular field of about 25 yards by 50 yards, being governed by a clock, and having a provision by which, if a runner is hit, his teammates can enter play and retain their ups by plugging a member of the fielding team. David Block identifies Palant [Pilka Palantowa] as the Silesian game played in Jamestown VA in 1609 by a small group of Polish craftsmen.</p>
<p>Polish play is now reportedly resticted to rural areas.</p>
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<p>A form of baseball in which the ball is slapped by the slapper-runner, rather than being batted with a club. (Needs verification.)</p> +
<p>Patch Baseball is evidently name for a form of baseball that allows the plugging of runners. We find the term used in upstate New York in about 1850. "Patching" is another word for "plugging" or "burning" baserunners.</p> +
<p>Described as akin to Pepper, this bat-control game involved hitting lobbed pitches toward a fence featuring extra-base zones. Cleanly-fielded balls, wide hits, and hits over the fence were outs. Baserunning is not part of this game.</p> +
<p>(Cat’s Pellet, Cat’s Pallet, Gidigadie) - per MacLagan (1905). This game is played like Tip-Cat, but with a ball and a one-handed bat, and with plugging instead of crossing to put runners out. An Orkney game. Elsewhere MacLagan described the game as using four small holes in a twelve-foot square. An 1882 source finds a usage of “cat’s pellet” in 1648, and defines it as “a game, perhaps the same as tip-cat.” Court records from 1583 seem to indication that the game “Cat’s Pallet” was also called Gidigadie, at least in the Manchester area.</p> +
<p>A drill to sharpen the batting eye and fielding reflexes in baseball. A few players stand side by side in a line and toss the ball to a batter who hits short grounders to them in turn. Forms of the game involve penalizing players for fielding errors and mis-hits. There is no running and no team play in this exercise.</p>
<p>A lifelong baseball man Reflected on the game of pepper. "Another problem [with today's practices] is the absence of pepper games. I had a discussion once with Ted Williams, ans we both agreed that playing pepper was important in the conditioning of every player. Every movement that you make in a pepper game, whether you're swinging a bat or fielding the ball or throwing the ball or whatever, you would use in a professional baseball game. . . . But pepper games are gone. . . . It would still be worth putting every player through a pepper session every day."</p> +
<p>Pesapallo is “Finnish Baseball.” This invented game is based on American baseball, and on the traditional Finnish games kuningaspallo, pitkapallo, and poltopallo, and was introduced in 1922. Some call it Finland’s national game.</p>
<p>Pesapallo involves two 9-player teams, pitching via vertical toss from close to the batter, a zigzag basepath of progressive length [about 65 feet from home to first, about 150 feet from third to home], optional running with fewer than two strikes, a three-out-side-out rule, runners being either “put out” or “wounded” (thus not counted as an out, and allowed to bat again), no ground-rule home runs, and four-inning games.</p>
<p>Nations with sizable Finnish emigrants (Sweden, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) compete in the annual world cup of Pesapallo.</p>
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<p>Called an “advanced form” of [[German Bat Ball]], this game involves three bases for runners instead of one, and runners can remain at a base if they believe they cannot safely advance further. Runners can tag up after caught flies. Otherwise, the rules of German Bat Ball apply.</p> +
<p>The game that arose in Philadelphia in the 1830’s. The rules of this game have recently been induced from game accounts by Richard Hershberger. The game is distinct from the Massachusetts Game. It’s signature features were 11-player teams, an absence of set defensive positions, stakes [as bases] set in a circle 30-foot diameter, non-aggressive pitching, a lighter, softer ball, an all-out-side-out rule, and a bound rule.</p>
<p>This game was evidently the game of choice in the Philadelphia area until about 1860, when the New York game came to dominate Philly play.</p>
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<p>Heslop (1893) defines this word: “a game resembling the game of Rounders, however, the ball is always struck with the hand.”</p> +
<p>A game - evidently evolved uniquely by Bob Boynton -- with two players, a field marked with zones for singles, doubles, etc., and employing a ping-pong ball thrown from 33 feet to a batter standing at a home plate of 12 inches square. Bats were the size of broomsticks with toweling for padding. There was some fielding but all “baserunning” used only imaginary runners.</p> +
<p>Gregory Christiano recalls this urban game as being a derivative of [[Stickball]] for two or more players. A square painted on a building was the strike zone. A batter used a broomstick to hit a pitched spaldeen ball across the street, where the height at which the ball hit a wall across the street determined the bases advanced orand runs scored. This game could be played with only two players. He played he game in The Bronx in the mid-1950s.</p> +
<p>a traditional Finnish game, features of which were incorporated into [[Pesapallo]].</p> +
<p>a game defined in the OED as “a game similar to Rounders in which a ball is hit with the flat of the hand.” The game is mainly associated with the English North Country, and is said to feature three or four ‘tuts,’ or stopping-places. The first cited use appeared in 1796. Gomme (page 45) adds that if the batter-runner is hit before reaching on of the “tuts” he is “said to be <em>burnt</em>, or out.</p> +
<p>Johnson (1910) lists Playground Ball among seven “Baseball" games. The rules of this game are not explained.</p> +
<p>This game is modification of cricket evidently designed to expedite play, and is played at several English schools. Batters must run when they make contact with a bowled ball. Bowled balls can not hit the ground in front of the wicket, and a baseball bat is used instead of a flat cricket bat.</p> +
<p>According to an undated early 19th-Century text, “La Ball Empoisonée” was a game for two teams of eight to ten boys involving repelling the ball (presumably by hitting it by the palm of the hand) and running to bases trying to avoid being plugged.</p>
<p>"THE IMPOISONED BALL. Eight should play at this game; and the method is as follows:</p>
<p>"Make a hole, and mark it so as to know it again; then draw, to see who is to throw the ball; that done, he must endeavor to put it into one of the holes, and the person's hole it enters must take the ball and throw at a player, who will endeavor to catch it; the person touched must throw it at another, and he who fails in either of these attempts, or he who is touched, is obliged to put into the hole which belongs to him, a little stone, or a piece of money, or a nut, or any thing to know the hole by. This is called a counter. He who first happens to have the number of counters fixed upon, is to stand with his hand extended, and every player is to endeavor to strike the hand with the ball."</p>
<p> </p> +
<p>a traditional Finnish game, features of which were incorporated into [[Pesapallo]].</p> +
<p>Maigaard (1941) lists this game as the Swiss variation of Long Ball.</p> +
<p>[A] This is a variation of baseball in which a rubber ball is punched, and not hit with a bat, to start a play. One set of modern rules is at <a href="http://www.spaldeen.com/punchball.html">http://www.spaldeen.com/punchball.html</a>. Johnson (1910) lists Punch Ball under “Baseball games.”</p>
<p>[B] A <strong>big-city</strong> form of this game is recalled by Gregory Christiano as being played in The Bronx in the 1950s: </p>
<p>"Played with a 'spaldeen' and a fist in the middle of the street. Similar to a stickball game except that there was no pitching-in or use of a stick. The "batter" would throw the ball in the air and punch it toward the fielders, and running the bases (which were usually car door handles on parked cars), tires or sewers. It was scored like a regular baseball game."</p>
<p>[C] <strong>Brooklyn. </strong> "Regular baseball rules. Batter uses fist to hit. One swing. Miss ball and you are out. No bunting, no stealing. Sometimes when there were not enough players for full teams you had to shorten the field by bringing in the foul lines so that you virtually played on a square, with the foul lines each 90 degrees from first and third bases. You had to do this because with a fist a good player could place a line drive anywhere on the field. So there were 9 or 10 players on the field. No pitcher because the batter held the ball and there was no bunting. Catcher is the most important position as this is a hitter's game. Scores are 20-30 runs a team. Many plays at the plate. Most outs are made on the bases. Very action-packed game. (Communication from Neil Selden and Mark Schoenberg on Brooklyn games.)</p>
<p>[D] <strong>Bronx.</strong> "Punch ball in another section of the p.s. 81 schoolyard, located between 2 fences - baserunning involved - played with from 3 to infinity players per team - scraggly schoolyard trees formed first and third bases, a sand pit [located on the schoolyard for no good reason and never used for any purpose other than as second base] was second base, home plate was marked on the concrete - batter bounced spaldeen, hit it with a closed fist, and then ran the bases - most regular baseball rules applied. (E-Mail from Raphael Kasper, 2/3/2020.)</p>
<p>[E] A brief 4/30/1989 letter to the New York Times argued that stickball was a "sissyfied" sport in comparison to punchball. "We played with six or seven players, nickel a player. We had one-sewer homers and two-sewer homers. The game was so popular in Brooklyn that a daily newspaper, <em>The Graphic</em>, sponsored a punchball tournament, pitting one street against another." The players used a spaldeen, and chalked in foul lines and first and third bases."</p>
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R
<p>per Brewster. When a player throws a ball high in the air, the others run away. When he catches it, he yells “caught,” the others freeze in position, and he tries to plug them.</p> +
<p>per Culin. (Elsewhere Roly Poly, Roll Ball, Roley Holey.) Each player defends a hole (or hat). If another player rolls a “medium-sized” rubber ball into the hole, he tries to hit another player with it to prevent having a count made against him.</p> +
<p>McCurdy (1911) lists this game, along with [[Old Cat]] and [[Fungo]], as minor forms of bat-and-ball. One might speculate that it is a non-team game like [[Scrub]] and [[Move-Up]], in which players rotate among positions on the field as outs are made.</p> +
<p>This appears to be the name given to the game played in Massachusetts . . . and possibly beyond that . . . in the years before the Dedham rules of 1858 created the [[Massachusetts Game]].</p>
<p>We have about a dozen references to round ball from about 1780 to 1856 -- all in New England and especially the state of Massachusetts. New England also has references to goal, or goal ball, base, or base ball, and bat-and-ball for this period. There is no indication if or how these games differed, or whether they are direct antecedents of the Mass Game rules of 1858.</p>
<p>Morris, p. 23 has a description of the game, from an early Detroit baseball player reminiscing in 1884: ""Previous to the time [1857] we had played the old-fashioned game of round ball. There were no 'balls' or 'strikes' to that. The batter waited till a ball came along that suited him, banged it and ran. If it was a fly and somebody caught it, he was out and couldn't play any more in the game. If the ball was not caught on the fly the only way to put a batter out was to hit him with the ball as he ran. There were no basemen then; everybody stood around to catch flies and throw the ball at base runners." (citing Detroit Free Press, April 4, 1884)</p> +
<p>Round Cat is a game noted by Tom Altherr in September 2009. We find several brief mentions of this game being played from Washington DC southward, but no explanation of how it was played. One account identifies it as similar to [[Scrub]] as played in New England.</p> +
<p>Round Town (also found as 'round-town,' or 'Round Town Ball') has been found in a handful of sources listed below. It appears to have been played at times from the 1850s-1890s in locations outside the northeast US:</p>
<p>[A] "In rural Virginia the ball game of choice was known as round-town, a sport that was "well understood and much enjoyed by every country boy, though only a few of their city cousins know the first rudiments of it." </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>[B] As played in Eastern PA in the 1850s, <strong>Round Town</strong> is recalled as having four or five bases or “safety spots,” tagging instead of plugging, the fly rule, the sharing of bases by multiple runners, and a bat made of a rail or clap-board. A game “similar to baseball” recalled as being played by school boys in 1891 in a grove of trees in Beech Grove, Kentucky.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>[C] Another game called <strong>Round Town</strong> is described as follows:</p>
<p><span>An Old Virginia Ball Game</span><br/><br/><span>Mount Crawford, a town in Rockingham County, Va., was the scene of a novel </span><span>ball game on, January 13 last, the occasion being a contest at the old </span><span>Virginia game of ball known as "Round Town, " the weather being unusually </span><span>mild for winter.</span><br/><br/><span>This game is well understood and is much enjoyed by every country boy, though </span><span>only a very few of their city cousins know the first rudiments of it. </span></p>
<p><br/><span>Forty-four men and boys were engaged in the game mentioned above, and they</span><span> were the best throwers, surest catchers, and hardest strikers of the two </span><span>neighborhoods. A large sized crowd watched with unabating interest the </span><span>movements of the game. </span></p>
<p><span>The game of <strong>round-town</strong> is played in this manner: Two </span><span>sides are formed, the number of players of the division being equal. Four </span><span>bases are used and are placed in the same manner as if they were being fixed </span><span>for a game of baseball, although men are only placed in the positions of the </span><span>pitcher, catcher, and first baseman, the rest of the players being scattered </span><span>in the field where they think the ball is most apt to be knocked. The first </span><span>batsman on the opposing side takes his place at the plate, and he has in his </span><span>hand a paddle an inch or two thick, and in which only one hand is used ins </span><span>striking. The pitcher delivers a solid gum ball with all the swiftness </span><span>attainable, the use of the curve never being thought of, and it is therefore </span><span>very seldom that a "strike out" occurs. The batter hits the ball at the </span><span>first opportunity and endeavors to drive it over the heads of the opponents, </span><span>for if it is caught on the fly or the first bound the runner is called out, </span><span>and also if it is begotten to the first baseman before the runner arrives at </span><span>the base. Should the runner reach first base safely he can continue to run </span><span>to the other bases if he wishes, but his opponents have the privilege of </span><span>hitting him with the ball, and as it is very painful to be struck with a gum </span><span>ball, the runner is very cautious, and if he is struck he is counted out of </span><span>the game, although should he reach any of the other bases he is safe. </span></p>
<p><span>Another batsman appears and if he makes a safe hit with the ball the runners </span><span>can continue to move until stopped from fear of being hit with the ball. In </span><span>case a man is on second base and a ball is knocked and caught on the fly or </span><span>first bound, the runner must stay at the base until the ball is returned to </span><span>the pitcher. Each side has only one inning and that continues until every </span><span>man has made out: therefore if a man makes an out at the first time at the </span><span>bat he is disqualified to play until all on his side have done likewise, then </span><span>they take the field. If a player makes the circuit safely it is called a run.</span><br/><br/><span>The result of the contest was the success of the Mt. Crawford twenty-two by a </span><span>score of 104 runs to 90, the contest occupying the whole afternoon.</span></p>
<p><span>---<br/></span></p>
<p><span>[D] In February 2016, Bill Hicklin added:<br/></span></p>
<p>I found two references to Virginia "<strong>round-town</strong>," both from Dickinson County, Virginia (in the Appalachian coal country). They come from <span style="text-decoration: underline;">School and Community History of Dickenson County, Virginia</span> (ed. Dennis Reedy), a compilation of articles published over many years in the local paper, which were themselves based on a series of oral-history interviews conducted at the behest of the school superintendant with senior and retired Dickenson teachers.</p>
<p> [1] William Ayers Dyer: "I was born May 10, 1880 at Stratton, Dickenson County, Virginia and started to school to Johnson Skeen at the Buffalo School in 1885 when I was 5 years old... The games we played at the Buffalo were straight town, <strong>round town</strong>, base, bull pen and antnee over." (Bull pen was dodgeball, but played with a baseball. Ouch!)</p>
<p> [2]Hampton Osborne (b. 1894): "'<strong>Round-town'</strong> and 'straight-town' were popular games. Round-town had four bases in a circle, as baseball does today. If the batter was caught or crossed-off both ways, he was out. Straight-town had four bases in a row and you used the same rules as round-town.</p>
<p><span>--- </span></p>
<p>[E] Bruce Allardice contributed:</p>
<p>"There are several newspaper mentions in the late 1800s of "round town" by people who claimed to have played it as a boy:</p>
<p>Easley (SC) <em>Messenger</em>, May 2, 1884. W. P. Price (1846-1940) claimed to have played "round Town" and "cat" as a boy at Holly Springs Academy</p>
<p>Piqua (OH) <em>Daily Call</em>, Aug. 22, 1891: J. P. Smith of Urbana, OH says he played "round town" and "bull pen" as a boy.</p>
<p>Edina (MO) Sentinel, Aug. 5, 1886: writer played "round town" as a boy.</p>
<p>Greenleaf <em>Sentinel</em>, Nov. 11, 1887. when writer was a boy we used to play "round town," "three cornered cat" and "bull pen." Similar, Smithfield (NC) <em>Herald</em> Aug. 17, 1917.</p>
<p>Scranton <em>Tribune</em>, May 8, 1899. Writer talks of boys playing "Round Town Ball and Two Holy Cat."</p>
<p>Philadelphia <em>Times</em>, Aug. 3, 1890 has a long article with a complete description of Round Town Ball, as it was played in Perry County.</p>
<p>Old-time "round, or town ball" played. Warren (PA) <em>Democrat</em>, July 9, 1895.</p>
<p>Asheville <em>Gazette-News</em>, Aug. 9, 1913: "afore the war" the "darkies" played "round town ball from which the [game of] baseball originated."</p>
<p>New Philadelphia <em>Times</em>, June 13, 1910 claims Cy Young played "round town" ball and three cornered cat as a youth.</p>
<p>Bucyrus (OH) <em>Evening Telegraph</em>. Aug. 18, 1915 says there will be a game of round town ball at a picnic. Ditto Jackson (OH) <em>Center News</em>, Oct. 15, 1920; Dresden (TN) <em>Enterprise</em>, Dec. 4, 1914; Wilkes-Barre <em>Times Leader</em>, Sept. 5, 1908; Harrisonburg (VA) <em>Evening News</em>, Dec. 5, 1899, March 15, 1909.</p>
<p>Doney, "Cheerful Yesterdays" p. 67 says he learned to play RTB and others c. 1877.</p>
<p>Prokopowicz, "All for the Regiment" p. 85 quotes a Feb. 7, 1862 diary entry from a soldier in Co. C, 17th Ohio saying the soldiers play RTB in their spare time.</p>
<p>Pleasant's "History of Crawford County, Indiana" (1926) says that c. 1840, the boys played three cornered cat, round town ball, long town ball, bat ball and baseball.</p>
<p>"Punxsatawney Centennial, 1849-1949" p. 22 says c. 1870 the boys played RTB and long town ball."</p>
<p>-- Bruce Allardice</p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> <strong>What Protoball Knows, May 2023</strong></span></p>
<p>Note that our sources now extend to MD, NC, OH, PA, SC, and VA, as of May 2023. </p>
<p>Known reports of Round Town appear to run to the end of the 19th Century.</p>
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<p>This game resembles contemporary British rounders. The bases form a regular pentagon, a pitcher stands at its center, fly balls are outs, and there is plugging. A baserunner, however, could make plays on subsequent batter-runners as a member of the fielding team.</p> +
<p>per Brewster. Baseball modified for small groups. Players count off, the first two or three becoming batters, the next the pitcher, the next the catcher, the next first base, etc. For most outs, the retired player goes to the last fielding position, and others move up one position, the pitcher becoming a batter. For fly outs, the batter and the successful fielder exchange places. The game is not notably different from [[Scrub]] and [[Workup]].</p> +
<p>Gene Carney describes this game as a one-out-all-out team game, but notes that “a fielder catching a ball on the fly joined the offense immediately.”</p> +
<p>In his definition of Rounders, Hazlitt suggests that “it is possible that this is the game which, under the name of rownes (rounds) is mentioned in the ‘English Courtier and the Country Gentleman,’ in 1586.”</p> +
<p>A name given in some localities, evidently, to the game played in the Boston area in the early 19th century; it is possibly another name for what is elsewhere in New England recalled as Round Ball. Our single reference to this game comes from a letter written in 1905 by a Boston man, T. King.</p>
<p>"This [Massachusetts Run-Around] was ever a popular game with us young men, and especially on Town Meeting days when there were great contests held between different districts, or between the married and unmarried men, and was sometimes called Town Ball because of its association with Town Meeting day."</p>
<p>"It was an extremely convenient game because it required as a minimum only four on a side to play it, and yet you could play it equally as well with seven or eight. . . . There were no men on the bases; the batter having to make his bases the best he could, and with perfect freedom to run when and as he chose to, subject all the time to being plugged by the ball from the hand of anyone. It was lively jumping squatting and ducking in all shapes with the runner who was trying to escape being plugged. When he got around without having been hit by the ball, it counted a run. The delivery of the ball was distinctly a throw, not an under-hand delivery as was later the case for Base Ball. The batter was allowed three strikes at the ball. In my younger days it was extremely popular, and indulged in by everyone, young and old."</p> +
S
<p>A longball variant still played in Germany. “German Schlagball (‘hit the ball’) is similar to rounders.” No other clues to schlagball are provided.</p>
<p>Other unverified sources state that schlagball evolve as early as the 1500s.</p>
<p>The game certainly features pitching and hitting. An early form was described by Gutsmuths as the German Ballgame ([[Deutsche Ballspiel]]). Rules can be found [[Modern rules of Schlagball|here]]. One write-up compares schlagball to [[lapta]] stating that while the running base in lapta is a line, in schlagball runners proceed along a series of discrete bases; this is a misapprehension. In modern Schlagball the goal line is replaced with two side-by-side "touch posts," either one of which may serve as the running base.</p> +
<p>Scrub appears to usually denote non-team games, as seen with the games of [[Work-up]] and [[Move-Up]]: A handy way to get a game going when two full teams cannot be mustered, the available players are fed initially divided between several defensive positions and a smaller number of batters. If a batter is put out, he/she becomes the fielder who is last in line [in right field, perhaps] to return to the batting position, and must work the way back, advancing position by position. A fielder who catches a fly ball exchanges places immediately with the batter. Because the small number of player precludes team play, “ghost (imaginary) runners” and special ground rules are sometimes required. Plugging is allowed, at least when the ball is soft enough to permit that. Once called [[Ins and Withs]] in the Philadelphia area (Source?).</p> +
<p>Single-wicket cricket uses teams smaller than the usual 11-player teams. All bowling is to a single wicket.</p>
<p>There is, in effect, a foul ground behind the wicket, so unlike full-team cricket, only balls hit forward are deemed to be in play.</p>
<p>As late at 1969 there were annual single-wicket championships at Lord’s in London. In the very early years, most cricket is believed to use a single wicket, and each references to cricket in the US usually reported very small numbers of players. Early cricket rules called for single-wicket play when team sizes were five or fewer.</p>
<p>This game was nearly as popular as cricket in England through the 1840s, when it lost favor (see Steel). Frederick Duke of York (1763-1827; son of George III) played SWC with his brothers when he was young.</p>
<p>The Sunbury <em>Gazette</em>, Sept. 3, 1859 reprints an essay on cricket from the <em>North American</em>, and labels single-wicket a predecessor game to cricket.</p>
<p>H. Rowell, "The Laws of Cricket for Single and Double Wicket" (Toronto, 1857) p. 17 says single wicket is for teams of 5 or less, and specifies "bounds" placed 22 yards apart in a line from the off and leg stump (which appears to give a 180 degree fair territory). The ball had to be tossed, not thrown, underhand. </p>
<p>"THE LAWS OF CRICKET<br/>Revised by the Marylebone Club in the Year 1823<br/>Printed by Carpenter and Son, Engravers and Printers, 16 Aldgate High=Street.<br/>Broadsheet in Sloane=Stanley Collection.<br/>Copy by RS Rait Kerr held at the MCC Library at Lord’s</p>
<p>LAWS FOR SINGLE WICKET</p>
<p>When there shall be less than five players on a Side, Bounds shall be placed twenty-two yards each in a Line from the Off, and Leg Stump.</p>
<p>The Ball must be hit before the Bounds to entitle the Striker to a Run; which Run cannot be obtained unless he touch the Bowling Stump (or Crease in a line with it) with his Bat, or some Part of his Person; or go beyond them; returning to the Popping Crease as at double wicket according to the 22nd Law.</p>
<p>When the Striker shall hit the Ball, one of his Feet must be on the Ground, and behind the Popping Crease; otherwise the Umpire shall call “No Hit”.</p>
<p>When there shall be less than five Players on a Side neither Byes, nor Overthrows shall be allowed; nor shall the Striker be caught out behind the Wicket, nor stumped out.</p>
<p>The Field’s Man must return to Ball so that it shall cross the Play between the Wicket and the Bowling Stump, or between the Bowling Stump, and the Bounds; the Striker may run till the Ball shall be so returned.</p>
<p>After the Striker shall have made one Run, if he start again he must touch the Bowling Stump, and turn before the Ball shall cross the Play to entitle him to another.</p>
<p>The Striker shall be entitled to three Runs for lost Ball, and the same number for Ball stopped with Hat; with Reference to the 29th, and 34th Law at double wicket.</p>
<p>When there shall be more than four Players on a side there shall be no Bounds. All Hits, Byes, and Overthrows shall then be allowed.</p>
<p>The Bowler is subject to the same Laws as at double Wicket.</p>
<p>Not more than one Minute shall be allowed between each Ball."</p>
<p>A 2009 article reports on a game played mostly in Chicago involving a ball of 16” circumference and using no gloves. No other variations are covered. The article is not clear on the local name for the game, but another account calls the large ball a “clincher,” and notes that games were sometimes played in the street. (Note: [[Line Ball]], another Chicago game, also used a large ball.) It appears that the game generally follows the rules of softball.</p>
<p><strong>Query: </strong>Can you supply further details about this game?</p> +
<p>A game banned, along with cat-ball, in Norwich CT in 1832. A 1890 source describes Sky-Ball as a fungo game in which a player who can catch the hit ball qualifies to hit the next fungo.</p> +
<p>Maigaard (1941) lists this game. It varies from other regional variations in placing the batting area mid-way between the home area and the first of two "resting areas" for runners. It is possible that this represents a form of [[Palant]].</p>
<p><strong>Query: </strong>can we determine the local name for this game?</p>
<p><strong></strong></p> +
<p>Hall-of-Famer Cap Anson recalls that "'soak ball' was at this time [as an Iowa schoolboy in the early 1860's] my favorite sport. It was a game in which the batter was put out by running the bases by being hit with the ball," which was "comparatively soft." [[Patch baseball]] was, arguably, another name for this game.</p>
<p> </p> +
<p>An 1887 source reporting that Rounders was still being played in some Southern and Western states, also noted that the game was called Sockey in some states. Our only reference to Sockey is in an 1888 recollection of ballplaying at a PA school, and notes that this game was played against the wall of a stable.</p> +
<p>As described in Bealle, Softball evolved from Indoor Baseball, which was first played in 1887. Softball rules are close to Baseball rules, but the infield dimensions were set to be smaller and the ball is pitched with an underhand motion. A full team has ten players. Many forms are played, depending on the age and agility of the players. The term Softball debuted in 1926.</p> +
<p>per MacLagan. The Uist form of [[Pellet]]. A horse-hair ball is put in play with a trap, and the batter attempt to hit it with a bat. Outs are attained by caught fly balls, three missed swings, throwing the ball into the hole at home, and plugging runners between two calaichean (harbors). Points are scored by measuring the lengths of hits in bat-lengths.</p>
<p><strong>Query:</strong> can we determine when this game was played?</p> +
<p>The name for rounders in Crathie in Scotland around 1900, according to a 1975 source.</p> +
<p>per Leavy. A biography of Sandy Koufax reports that he played “stickball, punchball, square ball, and Gi-Gi ball in his neighborhood. In one 1922 handbook, Square Ball appears to be a variant of Corner Ball in which the peripheral plugging team and the central target team are equal in number, and is which the ball, after hitting a player on the target team, can be retrieved, “Halt!” called, and the ball thrown at “frozen” members of the peripheral team.</p> +
<p>According to Block, an 1838 encyclopedia describes the game of Squares as “roughly identical” to contemporary Rounders and Baseball.</p> +
<p>A game usually played in urban streets. The ball is rubber -- a “spaldeen,” now virtually the same that used in racketball, and bats vary but include broom handles. Allowances are made for traffic of various sorts, and the bases are specified at the start of play. (Verification sought.)</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>[A] Some Bronx Variants:</strong></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>(1) A report from <em>Kevin Finneran,</em> 1/19/2023:</p>
<p><span>"You will be happy to learn that stickball is still played in the South Bronx on a street that has been named Stickball Boulevard. But it's not real stickball because it's played by adults and is organized into formal teams with standings and team shirts. You can learn all about it here: </span><a href="https://vimeo.com/36239036">https://vimeo.com/36239036</a>. That is where you will learn that stickball was included in the 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. </p>
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<div>One key characteristic of stickball: it was illegal. The cops in my neighborhood liked to break the bats in front of us. To focus on the many <em>varieties of stickball</em>: In my neighborhood alone there were at least half a dozen popular stickball venues, and the rules were different at each place and for the two or three varieties of the game played at each place. At the great anarchic heart of stickball is the fact that there was nothing standard, not even the Spalding spaldeen, which was the most common ball. There was also a more expensive and somewhat bouncier ball we called a Pinky, a name sometimes applied incorrectly to spaldeens. We seldom used it because it gave the hitter too much advantage, and we couldn't afford it. In addition, the length and thickness of the bat, the distance between manhole covers, the width of the street, the placement of impediments, the slope of the street, and anything else you can imagine also varied. All of these will be documented in my four-volume dissertation, a work that will be matched in significance only by the Reverend Causabon's "A Key to All Mythologies" from Middlemarch. I've started talking to a friendly editor at Simon & Schuster about the size of my advance. The only problem is that there are thousands of kids who grew up playing stickball, and each of them has his own compendium of games. I need to get there first.</div>
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<div>A sidebar on the hazards of pinkness, which were not just political: I've already told you about the toxic sewer ball, but what I feared even more was the <span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">egg ball</span>. A spaldeen hit with a lot of spin would deform into an egg shape in the air, which meant as a fielder you would be trying to catch in your tiny 8-year-old bare hands a dauntingly spinning pink egg. It's a recurring nightmare that probably also afflicted Joe McCarthy.</div>
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<div>(2) A report from <em>Norm Metzger,</em> 1/19/2023:</div>
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<div><span>Stickball was a game for poor boys in a poor neighborhood, a game created out of materially little and shared imagination.</span></div>
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<div>Stickball in my part of the Bronx (i.e. poor part) had several features worth noting, and maybe best forgotten. There was of course the game itself plus the ancillaries including confiscations of our hard to acquire sticks, the economics of maintaining a supply of Spaldeens, various encounters with neighbors not least NYPD District 46, and certainly including local candyman Leo.</div>
<div>
<p>The game is a simple one. No running the bases since there were none, certainly no umpires, but there were rules:</p>
<p>If the ball hit a car and bounced back into the field of play aka the street it was playable; else out. If hit beyond two sewers that was a homerun. However, rules were flexible. For example, if too few showed up to play meaning no "outfielders", the game became one-sewer stickball. </p>
<p>There were risks, meaning the appearance of a NYPD District 46 squad car. The "handover" was ritualized. The car slowed down, the cop stuck out his hand, stick surrendered, and a search launched for another one; there was no "bat rack".</p>
<p>The loss of the ball was another matter. Most often, a ball was "lost" when the batter fouled it over the roof of the back of the one-story Safeway. Then, finances become operative, and whoever "lost" the ball was obliged to get another Spaldeen, an "obligation" frequently violated. Acquiring a new Spaldeen meant a trip to the end of our block, our "playing field", and a visit to the corner candy store and a chat with the proprietor, Leo, who had several distinctions including his generally good disposition and a tattoo of blue numbers on his right forearm. Leo also made very good egg creams, which, following the classical recipe, contained neither egg or cream. Go figure. </p>
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<p>(3) A report from Raph Kasper, 2/4/2020: </p>
<p>Stickball as played in the Public School 81 schoolyard [Bronx] -- no live baserunning - played with 1 or 2 players per team - pitcher threw a Spaldeen or tennis ball from a line ~65-70 feet from the school wall on which was marked a chalk rectangle running from knee - shoulder kid height and about 2x as wide as a baseball home plate [hence considerably larger than a normal strike zone] - batter stood in front of wall - balls that were not hit were called balls or strikes depending on whether they struck the wall within or outside the rectangle - arguments occasionally occurred, usually when the pitcher had particularly good curve ball - batted balls were scored as outs if they were grounders or were caught on a fly - balls that hit a very high chain link fence ~125 feet away from the school wall on one bounce were singles, on the fly were doubles, over the fence but short of another fence a further ~100 feet away were triples, balls that hit the second fence on a fly or cleared it were home runs</p>
<p>(4) From Gregory Christiano, who played in the 1950s:</p>
<p>Stickball wasTHE quintessential game played on most city streets. Everyone played stickball. The equipment: A broomstick and the Spalding High-Bounce Pink Ball (the Spaldeen), three manholes and a lot of kids. [You have to consider – this light rubber bouncing ball made playing a ball game in the street safe. Apart from a hardball or softball, the Spaldeen bounced harmlessly off parked cars, never broke a window, and never knocked anyone out cold]. Bases were car door handles, car tires, manhole covers, and Johnny pumps, anything that served as a practical base. The walls of the apartment buildings were the foul lines. If the ball hit them it was foul. Parked cars were ignored except if they were used for bases. (full text at Supplemental Text, below).</p>
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<p><strong>[B]</strong> <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Brooklyn variants</strong></span>: From Neal Seldman and Mark Schoenberg</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">1- With (invisible, or "ghost" base runners)</span>. Pitching and balls and strikes. Strikes determined by a chalk drawn box on wall behind batter. Box is filled in with chalk so that all strikes make a mark on the ball. Ball has to be wiped off after strike.</p>
<p>A ball hit past the pitcher on a fly is a single, a hit midway to the outfield fence is a double, hitting the fence and bouncing is a triple, and over the fence is a home run. A ground ball that gets past the fielders and hits the fence is a single. If the grounder is caught cleanly it is an out. If missed it is and error and hitter is on first. </p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">2 - With live baserunning.</span> Same rules, runners run out the hits. If there is a catcher, there is stealing. Sometimes this game is played with the pitch coming on a bounce</p>
<p>When no facility was nearby, this game was often played on the street using sewer covers and cars as bases and landmarks for the number of bases awarded.</p>
<p>Traditional pitching and catching. Umpires call balls and strikes from behind the pitcher. There is stealing.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">At Inlet Grounds</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">, PS 206</span>, East 23rd Street and Gravesend Neck Road.</p>
<p>The inlet is about 120 feet wide and five stories high. Two high walls with windows (with metal bars to prevent breaking windows: a well hit Spaldeen easily breaks a window.) Best played with three people on a team. Pitcher, catcher, and fielder. But there are 4-person games *(2 fielders) and one-on-one games. The fielders stand somewhere near the batter in order to catch the ball off the wall behind the pitcher. Caught off the wall, is out. A hit off the wall up to the second floor is a single. Higher up the wall, a double, then a triple. On the roof is a homer. BUT most of the balls hit on the roof come back. That is, the spin of the hitting a ball that soars within 120 feet has a backspin. If the ball is caught off the roof it is an out. This is a very dramatic play as it takes a few seconds for the ball to get on the roof, a few more seconds to the ball to roll back, then a few more seconds to see if the fielder will be able to make the play on a ball falling five stories and within a few inches of the wall, with backspin.</p>
<p>Usually pink Spaldeens were used. But tennis balls allowed the pitcher much more variation and sharper curves and screwballs -- more surface.</p>
<p>(Communication from Neal Seldman and Mark Schoenberg)</p>
<p> Stickball was played all over Brooklyn when I grew up. The game and its rules were infinite depending location and availability of "cawts". The "coop" in the school yard could be one on one or 2 on two.</p>
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<div dir="auto">One swing and if not in play was an out. Anything caught on a fly off the wall behind pitcher was an out. Pitcher catching hit on bounce was a single. Designated spots, higher and higher on building wall were double, triple, or HR.</div>
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<div dir="auto">Also played with balls and strikes if there was an available wall to chalk on strike zone.</div>
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<div dir="auto">Played in the street, with narrow foul lines. Could be running bases or not. All kinds of ground rules. Cars shallower than first "sewer" (manhole cover could be out or foul, Off cars behind first sewer was fair ball. (Please mister, could you pawk foider up da street, yaw parkin' on da cawt.)</div>
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<div dir="auto">Always used broomstick bat and pink Spaldeen ball</div>
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<div dir="auto"><strong>[C] NYC </strong></div>
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<div dir="auto">(From a 2022 FaceBook ) "Your rules are more complicated than the ones we used on Long Island."</div>
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<div dir="auto">Roth: Rules were not complicated as much as rules had to accommodate where you played and how many people were available. Each location had its "ground rules."</div>
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<div dir="auto">-- Joshua Roth, 3/18/2022 FB posting.</div>
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<p>According to Gomme (1898), stones was a game played in Ireland in about 1850, using either a ball or a lob-stick. A circle of about a half-dozen stones is arranged, one for each player on the in team. A member of the out team throws the ball/stick at the stones in succession. If the defending player hits it away, all members of the out team must move to another stone. The in and out teams exchange places if a stone is hit by the thrower, the ball/stick is caught, or a player is hit while running between stones.</p> +
<p>Stoolball’s first appearance was in the 1600’s; there are many more references to stoolball than to cricket in these early years. For Protoball's listing of over 60 specific (but mostly fragmentary) sources on early stoolball -- 45 of them preceding the year 1700 -- see [[Chronology:Stoolball]].</p>
<p>Believed to have originated as a game played by English milkmaids using a milking stool set on its side as a pitching target, stoolball evolved to include the use of bats instead of bare hands, and running among goals or bases.</p>
<p>The modern form of the is actively played in counties in the south east of England, and uses an opposing pair of square targets set well off the ground as goals, and heavy paddles as bats. Since 2010, the game has experienced a renaissance, and now has active youth programs, a season-ending All-England match of prominent players, and the expansion of mixed-gender play. (The ancient game was played by women and men, but in recent years most players and have been women.) The game is reportedly played in other countries as well.</p>
<p>For more information on Stoolball England and the current status of the game, see <a href="http://www.stoolball.org.uk/">http://www.stoolball.org.uk/</a>. Also see an account of today's stoolball at <a>https://protoball.org/Stoolball_Today_--_The_Rejuvenation_of_an_Ancient_Pastime</a></p>
<p>Note: McCray suggests that before 1800, there is limited convincing evidence that stoolball involved baserunning.</p> +
<p>A fungo-style game for two teams as shown in an 1863 handbook. A feeder throws the ball to a batter, who hits it as far as possible. A member of the out-team picks up that ball and bowls it toward the bat, which lies on the ground. If the ball hits or hops over the bat, the batsman is out. The batsman is also out with three missed swings.</p> +
<p>This game is most often seen as a schoolyard game with from two to five players. A strike zone is drawn on a suitable wall, and a batter stands before it, attempting to hit a tennis ball, a rubber ball or another type of projectile. Baserunning is not usual. All other rules - for base advancement by imaginary runners, changing of batters, etc., seem flexible to circumstance. (Verification needed.)</p>
<p>As of Fall 2013, it is our preliminary impression that there are several local variants of strike-out, the name used in Central New York, and we group them together here under that name; they include [[PeeGee ball]] and [[Indian Ball]].</p>
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<p>Apparently a baseball-like game, perhaps played in Massachusetts in the early 20th Century. We have but one obscure reference to this game, in Cassidy.</p> +
<p>This game is mentioned, along with Norwegian Ball in a 1908 book on North Dakota folkways. Said to be taught to local children by Swedish newcomers and a Swedish teacher, the game is only depicted as being “played somewhat like ‘one old cat.’” It seems conceivable that this game is related to Brannboll. Maigaard (1941) lists two Swedish variants for Long Ball.</p> +
T
<p>Arabian -- In an 1873 book on Arab children’s games Tabeh is described as “base ball and drop ball.” That’s all we know right now.</p> +
<p>Craig Waff came across an 1894 reference to Three-Base Ball as having been played at Erasmus Hall, a school in Brooklyn. The game, reported as being playing circa 1840, involved vigorous plugging and while its rules are not further described, its playing positions suggest base ball. [[Two Old Cat]] is described separately in the 1894 article.</p> +
<p>Block discusses whether Thèque belongs on the list of baseball’s predecessors. Thèque is an old Norman game, but there are evidently few descriptions of the game before baseball and rounders appeared. He cites an 1899 depiction of the game that shows five bases, plugging, and the pitcher belonging to the in-team, but otherwise resembles baseball and rounders. Block concludes that there is insufficient evidence to say whether Thèque came before or after the English counterpart game.</p> +
<p>Strutt (1801) says there were various versions of Tip-Cat, and describes two of them. The first is basically a fungo game: a batter stands at the center of a circle and hits the cat a prescribed distance. Failing that, another player replaces him. (A similar version appears in <em>The Boy’s Handy Book</em>, but adds the feature that the fielding player tries to return the cat to the hitter’s circle such that the hitter does not hit it away again.)</p>
<p>In a second version, holes are made in a regular circle, and each is defended by an in-team player. The players advance after the cat is hit away by one of them, but they can be put out if a cat crosses them - that is, it passes between them and the next hole. Gomme (1898) notes that in some places runners are put out be being hit with the cat, and three misses makes an out. She adds that Tip-Cat was “once commonly played in London streets, now forbidden.” Writing in 1864, Dick noted that Tip-Cat was only rarely being played in the U.S. In 1896, however, Beard advises that it was experiencing a revival in the US, Germany, Italy, “and even in Hindostand,” whereas in about 1850 it had been confined to “rustics on England.” Richardson (1848) notes Tip-Cat’s resemblance to [[Single-Wicket Cricket]]. “Twenty-one [runs] is usually a game,” he adds. The earliest reference to a cat-stick we have is the 1775 report that a witness to the Boston Massacre carried a cat-stick with him.</p> +
<p>There appear to be two distinct games that have been labeled Touch-Ball. One was as a local synonym for Rounders, as recalled in an 1874 Guardian article written on the occasion of the 1874 base ball tour in England. That game was recalled as having no bats, so the ball was propelled by the players’ hands; the “touch” was the base. Writing in 1922, Sihler that in Fort Wayne IN from 1862 to 1866 (when base ball arrived) “the favorite game was ‘touch-ball,’ where “touch” referred to the plugging or tagging of runners.</p> +
<p>Writing of the Ohio youth of a Civil War general in about 1840, Whitelaw Reid (1868) reported that “Touch-the-Base” was the favorite game, and of all who engaged in the romp, none were more eager or happy than ‘Jimmy” (the late Major-General James McPherson). We cannot be sure that this was a ball game.</p> +
<p>Writing of the late 1860’s boyhood of a World War I General, Johnston (1919) writes that “the French boys were accustomed to play a game called tournoi, or tournament, which was something similar to the game of Rounders.” That’s all we seem to know about Tournoi.</p> +
<p>Ideas of how to understand the term “Town Ball” are still evolving. In most common usage, the term seems to have been used generically to denote, in substantially later years, any of a variety of games that preceded the New York game in a particular area. [[Philadelphia Town Ball]], however, used the term to denote a current game before the New York game emerged, and had generally standard rules (see “[[Philadelphia Town Ball]],” entry, above). In Cincinnati another form evolved, and there are many recollections of town ball from the South and mid-West. Town ball is not infrequently confused with the [[Massachusetts Game]], but the term is in fact very rarely found in MA sources in the 19<sup>th</sup> century.</p>
<p>For more information on Town Ball, see Chronology entry [[1831.1]] and [[Philadelphia Town Ball]] in the Protoball Glossary of Games.</p>
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<p>Heslop (1893) defines this word as “a boys’ game of ball, otherwise known as [[Rounders]], and formerly called [[Pie-Ball]] locally.</p> +
<p>Trap ball is one of the earliest known ball games. Its distinguishing characteristic is the use of a “trap,” a mechanical device that, when triggered by a batter, lofts the ball to a height at which it may be struck. Most forms of trap ball do not involve running or bases; to the modern eye, it is a fungo-type game. Trap ball commonly used foul territory to define balls that were in play, where the “play” involved the catching and tossing back of the ball toward the batter. Trap ball persists today in Kent, England, as a tavern game.</p>
<p><span>Per wikipedia article on "knurr and spell": "<strong>Knurr and spell</strong><span> (also called </span><strong>northern spell</strong><span>,</span><sup id="cite_ref-cne_1-0" class="reference"></sup><span> </span><strong>nipsy</strong><span> or </span><strong>trap ball</strong><span>) is an old </span><a title="England" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England">English</a><span> game, once popular as a </span><a title="Pub game" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pub_game">pub game</a><span>. </span>The game originated in the </span><a title="Moorland" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorland">moors</a><span> of </span><a title="Yorkshire" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yorkshire">Yorkshire</a><span>, in </span><a title="England" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England">England</a><span>, but then spread throughout the north of England.</span><sup id="cite_ref-nie_2-0" class="reference"></sup><span> It can be traced back to the beginning of the 14th century.</span><span> It was especially popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, but was virtually unknown by the 21st century,</span><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"></sup><span> though there was a local revival in the 1970s.</span><sup id="cite_ref-countryfile_4-0" class="reference"></sup><span> As late as the 1930s exhibition games of knur and spell by veterans drew large crowds to the </span><a class="new" title="Rusland Valley (page does not exist)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rusland_Valley&action=edit&redlink=1">Rusland Valley</a><span> in North </span><a title="Lancashire" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancashire">Lancashire</a><span>, according to the chronicles of the </span><em><a class="mw-redirect" title="North-West Evening Mail" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-West_Evening_Mail">North-West Evening Mail</a></em><span>, but even then it was regarded as an archaic game....</span></p>
<p>In Yorkshire it is played with a levered wooden trap known as a spell, by means of which the knurr, about the size of a <a title="Walnut" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walnut">walnut</a>, is thrown into the air. In Lancashire the knurr is suspended stationary from string. The knurr is struck by the player with the stick. The object of the game is to hit the knurr the greatest possible distance, either in one or several hits. Each player competes as an individual, without interference, and any number can enter a competition.<sup id="cite_ref-nie_2-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knurr_and_spell#cite_note-nie-2"><br/></a></sup></p>
<p>The stick is a bat consisting of two parts: a 4 feet (1.2 m) long stick made of <a class="mw-redirect" title="Ash tree" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ash_tree">ash</a> or <a title="" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxandra_lanceolata">lancewood</a>; and a pommel, a piece of very hard wood about 6 inches (150 mm) long, 4 inches (100 mm) wide and 1 inch (25 mm) thick. This was swung in both hands, although shorter bats for one hand were sometimes used. A successful hit drives the ball about 200 yards (180 m). The stroke is made by a full swing round the head, not unlike a drive in <a title="Golf" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf">golf</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-nie_2-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knurr_and_spell#cite_note-nie-2"><br/></a></sup></p>
<p>Originally the ball was thrown into the air by striking a lever upon which it rested in the spell or trap, but in the later development of the game a spell or trap furnished with a spring was introduced, thus ensuring regularity in the height to which the knurr is tossed, somewhat after the manner of the <a title="Shooting" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting">shooter</a>'s <a title="Clay pigeon shooting" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_pigeon_shooting">clay pigeon</a>. By means of a <a class="mw-redirect" title="Thumbscrew (fastener)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumbscrew_(fastener)">thumb screw</a>, the player can adjust the spring of the spell or trap according to the velocity of release desired for the ball.<sup id="cite_ref-nie_2-4" class="reference"></sup><sup id="cite_ref-eb_5-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knurr_and_spell#cite_note-eb-5"><br/></a></sup></p>
<p>On a large moor, and where the game is general, the ground is marked out with wooden pins driven in every 20 yards (18 m). In matches each player supplies their own knurrs and spells and has five rises of the ball to a game."</p>
<p><span>In the US, in 1821 the Kensington House, a popular resort near NYC, advertised that its grounds were "well adapted to the playing of the noble game of cricket, base, trap-ball, quoits, and other amusements..."</span></p>
<p><span>Illustration in Hone.</span></p>
<p>Gomme (1898) identifies this game as the Lancashire version of [[Trap Ball]]. A game named Trypet is listed in a English-Latin dictionary from the 1300s.</p> +
<p>An old Dutch game. Chetwynd reports that a proponent of the importation of baseball to the Netherlands in the 1910s “pitched it as an ideal summer activity. It probably helped that Grasé pointed out that baseball bore a resemblance to an ancient Dutch game, called “Tripbal,” which had been played by American colonists.” We have no other reference to this game in the US, and no indication of how it was played.</p> +
<p>Gomme (1898) identifies this game as the Newcastle version of [[Trap Ball]].</p> +
<p>Gomme (1898) identifies this game as a Norfolk version of [[Trap Ball]], but with a hole for the trap and a cudgel for a bat.</p> +
<p>Gomme's compilation (1898) includes the game of Trunket, played with short sticks, and using a hole instead of wickets. </p>
<p>"The ball being 'cop'd', instead of bowled or trickled on the ground, it is played in he same way [as cricket]; the person striking the ball must be caught out, or the ball must be deposited in the hole before the stick or cudgel can be placed there."</p>
<p>This implies to Protoball that the batter runs bases after hitting the ball. </p> +
<p>Also called Tut, this game was in 1777 called “a sort of stool ball much practiced about the Easter holidays,” according to the OED. OED identifies Tut-Ball with [[Stoolball]] and [[Rounders]].</p>
<p>[A] Gomme also cites a view that “This game is very nearly identical with ‘rounders.’” Another writer is known to say that Tut-Ball is the same as Pize-Ball. </p>
<p>Gomme, however reports that balls were hit back with the palm of the hand, not a bat, at least in its earlier form.</p>
<p>[B] Writing in 1905, Joseph Wright said: </p>
<p>"<span>Yorkshire</span>: Now only played by boys, but half a century ago [1850's] by Adults on Ash Wednesday, believing that unless they did so they would fall sick in harvest time. This is a very ancient game, and was elsewhere called stool-ball. [West Yorkshire]. <span>Shropshire</span>: Tut-ball; as played at a young ladies school at Shiffnal fifty years ago. (See also [[1850c.34]]). The players stood together in their 'den,'behind a line marked on the ground, all 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 three brick-bats, called 'tuts' . . . . 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 place in the den and the other went 'out' in her stead. This game is nearly identical with rounders."<span> </span></p> +
<p>This game is a fungo game that enhances fielding skill. A batter hits a ball, fungo style, to a number of fielders. A fielder receives 7 points for a caught fly, 5 points for a ball caught on one bounce, 3 points for catching a bouncing ball, and 1 point for retrieving a ball at rest. Points are similarly lost for muffed balls. Fielders who amass 21 points become the batter. Another form of this game is [[<span class="toctext">Five Hundred]]</span>, which proceeds similarly.</p> +