Run-Around
| Game | Run-Around |
|---|---|
| Game Family | Baseball |
| Location | Massachusetts |
| Regions | US |
| Eras | 1800s, Predecessor |
| Invented | No |
| Tags | |
| Description | 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. "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." "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." |
| Sources | See Protoball Chronology item #1855c.1. The letter was written to the Mills Commission, which was examining the origins of American baseball. |
| Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
| Comment | The game of "run around" is also mentioned in the Sycamore (IL) True Republican, May 29, 1878. The New Bedford Evening Standard Aug. 18, 1886 says old fashion "run round" will be played on Thursday in Marion, MA. Reunions of the King School in Lynn, class of 1850, mention playing "run-round tally" and "one-o-cat." See Lynn Daily Evening Item, Aug 23, 1890; Boston Herald, 21 July 1899, 20 July 1900. The descriptions of the game mention a flat-sided bat, and soaking. Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | Edit with form to add a query |
| Has Supplemental Text |
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