Cat-and-Dog

Glossary of Games

Curated by Larry McCray and Jeffrey Kittel
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Game	Cat-and-Dog
Game Family	Baseball Baseball
Location
Regions	Britain, US
Eras	Predecessor, 1700s, 1800s, Post-1900
Invented	No
Tags
Description	A game for three players. Two defend foot-wide holes set about 26 feet apart with a club, or “dog.” A third player throws a four-inch cat toward the hole, and the defender hits it away. If the cat enters the hole, defender and thrower switch places. Gomme, who uses the name Cat and Dog Hole, describes a game using a ball in which a stone replaces the hole where the batter stands, and adds that if the third player catches a hit ball in the air, that player can try to hit the stone, which sends the batter out. On US play, 1866: "Cat and Dog -- An interesting trial of skill at this old time game was played at Pittsburgh Pa., on the 5th inst., between the Athletics, of South Pittsburgh, and the Enterprise of Mt. Washington.  The game was witnessed by a large crowd of ladies and gentlemen. [The printed box score shows three players on each side, a pitcher-catcher and two fielders.  The result was the Athletics, 180 "measures" and the Enterprise 120 measures.  There is no indication of the use of innings, a side-out rule, or fly rule] [This spare account leaves the impression of a one-time throwback demonstration.] For other references to cat-and-dog, see these Chronology items; http://protoball.org/1706.2 [Scotland] http://protoball.org/1833.3 [Cat-and-dog as the ancestor of cricket] http://protoball.org/1841.11 [Scottish dictionary account] http://protoball.org/1856.30 [Nyack, NY, 1856] http://protoball.org/1866.10 [Pittsburgh PA throwback game]
Sources	John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: The Origins of Our Vulgar and Provincial Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions (London: George Bell and Sons, 1900)., page 95. [In their account, Steel and Lyttelton put the distance at 13 yards. Cricket (Longmans, Green, 1890), page 4.] Alice. B. Gomme, The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland (David Nutt, 1898), page 410.  US play: New York Clipper, September 15, 1866.
Source Image	[[Image:|left|thumb]]
Comment	Protoball welcomes input on the nature and rules of this game, and how it differs, if at all, from other "cat" games found on our lists of presumed predecessor games. Note that as of 2015, we see no explicit indication that cat-and-dog was a baserunning game, 'tho hitting and fielding are indicated.  Scoring reflected the length of hit balls, but not necessarily the scoring of "runs." The same seems true of early stoolball.  Further evidence on this point is welcome. Edit with form to add a comment
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