1836.5: Difference between revisions

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|Year=1836
|Year=1836
|Year Number=5
|Year Number=5
|Headline=Yanks and British Play Baserunning Game . . . in Canton, China
|Headline=Yanks and British Play Baserunning Game with Plugging . . . in Canton, China
|Salience=2
|Salience=2
|Country=China
|Country=China
Line 8: Line 8:
|Immediacy of Report=Contemporary
|Immediacy of Report=Contemporary
|Age of Players=Adult
|Age of Players=Adult
|Text=<p>[A] John Murray Forbes wrote from Canton, China, to his wife on March 25, 1836, &ldquo;I had bats and a ball made an we got up a sort of game; the next day some of the English found their way down to us and we have since had several games: the Balls and bats have improved.&rdquo;</p>
|Text=<p>[A] In his March 1836 letter home, from Canton, China, the 23-year-old John Murray Forbes referred to playing ball with Englishmen there.&nbsp; He asked his wife to imagine him "throwing the ball at this man, running like mad to catch it, or, when my innings come, running the rounds jumping breast high to avoid being hit, or falling down to the ground for the same purpose." &nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;&ldquo;We have been very steady at our ball exercise.&nbsp; Is it not funny the idea of a parcel of men going out to play like schoolboys? [ . . .]&nbsp; The English have one trait in which they differ widely from us; they keep up their boyish games through life.&nbsp; [. . .] Cricket and Ball of all sorts is played in England by men of all ages.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He also noted: &ldquo;We have been very steady at our ball exercise.&nbsp; Is it not funny the idea of a parcel of men going out to play like schoolboys? [ . . .]&nbsp; The English have one trait in which they differ widely from us; they keep up their boyish games through life.&nbsp; [. . .] Cricket and Ball of all sorts is played in England by men of all ages.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;[B] (A runner could be) "pelted by the hard ball as he tried to run in, for it was then the fashion to throw at the runner, and if hit he was out for the inning." Forbes asked his wife to imagine him &ldquo;throwing the ball at this man, running like mad to catch it, or, when my innings come, running the rounds jumping breast high to avoid being hit, or falling down to the ground for the same purpose.&rdquo;</p>
<p>[B] In a passage from his 1899 memoir about the same incident, Forbes reminded readers who were no longer familiar with retiring baserunners by "plugging"&nbsp;them that a runner could be "pelted by the hard ball as he tried to run in, for&nbsp;it was then the fashion to throw at the runner, and if hit he was out for&nbsp;the inning."&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
|Sources=<p>[A]&nbsp;Sarah Forbes Hughes, ed., <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Letters (Supplementary) of John &nbsp;Murray Forbes</span> [George H. Ellis Co., Boston, 1905] volume 1, page 25.</p>
<p>[B] Sarah Forbes Hughes, ed., <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes</span> [Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1899] volume 1, page 86.</p>
<p>Submitted by John Bowman, 7/16/2004 and supplemented by Brian Turner, 7/23/2013.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
|Comment=<p>John Bowman adds: "Forbes was a Massachusetts man, and one supposes that when he played baseball at the Round Hill school in Northampton (see item #1823.6 above) , 'soaking' or 'plugging'&nbsp;was then a routine aspect of the game."</p>
|Sources=<p>[A] Sarah Forbes Hughes, ed., <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes</span> [Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1899] volume 1, page 86.</p>
|Query=<p>Can we clarify what game Forbes played (rounders? round ball?).&nbsp;</p>
<p>Submitted by John Bowman, 7/16/2004 and supplemented by Brian Turner, 7/23/2013.</p>
<p>[B] This is a later account by Hughes, citation pending.</p>
|Comment=<p>John Bowman adds: "Forbes was a Massachusetts man, and one supposes that when he played baseball at the Round Hill school in Northampton (see item #1823.6 above) , 'soaking' was then a routine aspect of the game."</p>
|Query=<p>Can we clarify what the game was (rounders? round ball?) and whether Americans and English both played?&nbsp; How old was Forbes in 1836?</p>
|Submitted by=John Bowman, Brian Turner
|Submitted by=John Bowman, Brian Turner
|Submission Note=Emails of 7/16/2004 and 7/23/2013
|Submission Note=Emails of 7/16/2004 and 7/23/2013, respectively
|Reviewed=Yes
|Reviewed=Yes
|Has Supplemental Text=No
|Has Supplemental Text=No
}}
}}

Revision as of 05:56, 25 July 2013

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Yanks and British Play Baserunning Game with Plugging . . . in Canton, China

Salience Noteworthy
City/State/Country: Canton, China
Immediacy of Report Contemporary
Age of Players Adult
Text

[A] In his March 1836 letter home, from Canton, China, the 23-year-old John Murray Forbes referred to playing ball with Englishmen there.  He asked his wife to imagine him "throwing the ball at this man, running like mad to catch it, or, when my innings come, running the rounds jumping breast high to avoid being hit, or falling down to the ground for the same purpose."  

He also noted: “We have been very steady at our ball exercise.  Is it not funny the idea of a parcel of men going out to play like schoolboys? [ . . .]  The English have one trait in which they differ widely from us; they keep up their boyish games through life.  [. . .] Cricket and Ball of all sorts is played in England by men of all ages.”

[B] In a passage from his 1899 memoir about the same incident, Forbes reminded readers who were no longer familiar with retiring baserunners by "plugging" them that a runner could be "pelted by the hard ball as he tried to run in, for it was then the fashion to throw at the runner, and if hit he was out for the inning."  

 

Sources

[A] Sarah Forbes Hughes, ed., Letters (Supplementary) of John  Murray Forbes [George H. Ellis Co., Boston, 1905] volume 1, page 25.

[B] Sarah Forbes Hughes, ed., Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes [Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1899] volume 1, page 86.

Submitted by John Bowman, 7/16/2004 and supplemented by Brian Turner, 7/23/2013.

 

Comment

John Bowman adds: "Forbes was a Massachusetts man, and one supposes that when he played baseball at the Round Hill school in Northampton (see item #1823.6 above) , 'soaking' or 'plugging' was then a routine aspect of the game."

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Query

Can we clarify what game Forbes played (rounders? round ball?). 

Edit with form to add a query
Submitted by John Bowman, Brian Turner
Submission Note Emails of 7/16/2004 and 7/23/2013, respectively



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