1857.30

Olympic Club's Version of MA Game Rules Published

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags
Location	New EnglandNew England
City/State/Country:	Boston, MA, US
Modern Address
Game	Base BallBase Ball
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	AdultAdult
Holiday
Notables
Text	The Olympic Ball Club's rules, adopted in 1857, appear in Porter's Spirit of the Times, June 27, 1857 [page?]. Facsimile provided by Craig Waff, September 2008. The rules show variation from the 1858 rules [see #1858.3 below] that are sometimes seen as uniform practice for the Massachusetts game in earlier years. Examples: games are decided at "say 25" tallies, not at 100; minimum distance from 1B to 2B and 3B to 4B is 50 feet, and from 4B to 1B and 2B to 3B is 40 feet, not 60 feet in a square; pitching distance is 30 feet, not 35 feel; in playing a form of the game cited as "each one for himself" entails a two-strike at-bat and a game is set at a fixed number of innings, not the number of tallies; the bound rule is in effect, not the fly rule. The Olympic rules do not mention the size of the team, the size of the ball, whether the thrower or specify the use of stakes as bases.
Sources	Porter's Spirit of the Times, June 27, 1857 [page?].
Warning
Comment	Cannot confirm this source. The rules described appeared in the New York Clipper, October 10, 1857. Edit with form to add a comment
Query	Edit with form to add a query
Source Image	[[Image:\|left\|thumb]]
External Number
Submitted by	Craig Waff
Submission Note	Facsimile provided September 2008.
Has Supplemental Text

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