Straight Town: Difference between revisions

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|Term=Straight Town
|Term=Straight Town
|Game Family=Baseball
|Game Family=Baseball
|Location=VA
|Game Regions=US
|Game Regions=US
|Game Eras=1800s
|Game Eras=1800s
|Invented Game=No
|Invented Game=No
|Description=<p><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">19th-century reflections from essays by schoolboys in rural Virginia:</span><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">&nbsp;</span></p>
|Description=<p>As of mid-2023, we have only two (late 1800s] mentions of <strong>Straight Town</strong>.&nbsp; It is described as a variant of Round Town, for which the four bases are lain out in a straight line, rather than as a circuit.&nbsp; Left unsettled is the matter whether advancing to the outmost base results in the scoring of a run.&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">[William Ayers Dyer essay:] "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&nbsp;were straight town, round town, base, bull pen and antnee over." (Bull pen was dodgeball, but played with a baseball. Ouch!)</span></p>
|Sources=<p>Email from Bill Hicklin, February 2016:</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">----------</span></p>
<p>". . . Bill Hicklin adds:</p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">[Hampton Osborne (b. 1894) essay:] "'Round-town' and <strong>'straight-town'</strong> 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. <strong>Straight-town</strong> had four bases in a row and you used the same rules as round-town.</span><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">"There were three or four base games, but 'Stink-base' was the most popular..." (describes game effectively identical to prisoner's base, which we&nbsp;take to&nbsp;be&nbsp;a form of capture-the-flag)</span>=</p>
<p>I found two references to Virginia 'round-town',<strong>&nbsp;</strong>both from Dickinson County, Virginia (in the Appalachian coal country).&nbsp; They come from<em> School and Community History of Dickenson County, Virginia</em> (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 superintendent with senior and retired Dickenson teachers.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;[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''',&nbsp;round town, base, bull pen and antnee over." (Bull pen was dodgeball, but played with a baseball. Ouch!)</p>
|Sources=<p><span style="font-family: Arial Black;">Dennis Reedy, ed., <span style="text-decoration: underline;">School and Community History of Dickenson County, Virginia</span></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;[2]Hampton Osborne (b. 1894):'Round-town' 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>
|Comment=<p>Found by Bill Hicklin, email of February 6, 2016.</p>
|Has Supplemental Text=No
|Has Supplemental Text=No}}
}}
}}

Latest revision as of 08:12, 31 May 2023

Glossary of Games
Curated by Larry McCray and Jeffrey Kittel
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Game Straight Town
Game Family Baseball Baseball
Regions US
Eras 1800s
Invented No
Description

As of mid-2023, we have only two (late 1800s] mentions of Straight Town.  It is described as a variant of Round Town, for which the four bases are lain out in a straight line, rather than as a circuit.  Left unsettled is the matter whether advancing to the outmost base results in the scoring of a run. 

Sources

Email from Bill Hicklin, February 2016:

". . . Bill Hicklin adds:

I found two references to Virginia 'round-town', both from Dickinson County, Virginia (in the Appalachian coal country).  They come from School and Community History of Dickenson County, Virginia (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 superintendent with senior and retired Dickenson teachers.

 [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, round town, base, bull pen and antnee over." (Bull pen was dodgeball, but played with a baseball. Ouch!)

 [2]Hampton Osborne (b. 1894):'Round-town' 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."

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