Block:Tut Ball in South Yorkshire on October 23 1872
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| Data | “Tut-ball” was used as a basis of comparison in trying to explain (and denigrate) baseball to a Sheffield, Yorkshire, newspaper audience by an arrogant columnist covering the American tour of the All-England Eleven cricket team. “Base-ball (a kind of “tut-ball,” played with hedge-stakes), however, being less laborious, not at all scientific, and soon over, will continue to please the youthful Americans most; just as euchre takes the place of whist, and spirits the place of wine. Something simple, requiring no thought, soon over, and at which one can talk, is preferred in this superficial land.” |
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| Sources | Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, Oct. 23, 1872, p. 3 |
| Block Notes | This sort of open contempt for the U.S. was not commonplace in British newspapers of this period. The reference to hedge-stakes is more likely a put-down of spindly baseball bats (as compared to cricket bats), rather than a reference to the stakes used as bases in the Massachusetts game. |
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