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FilterThe <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Property_page/Filter">search filter</a> allows the inclusion of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Query_expressions">query expressions</a> such as <code>~</code> or <code>!</code>. The selected <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Query_engine">query engine</a> might also support case insensitive matching or other short expressions like:<ul><li><code>in:</code> result should include the term, e.g. '<code>in:Foo</code>'</li></ul><ul><li><code>not:</code> result should to not include the term, e.g. '<code>not:Bar</code>'</li></ul>

Showing 50 pages using this property.

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George Thompson, November 2013 +

<div class="source"> </div> <div class="source">[[George Thompson]] contributed two essays to the Special Protoball Issue of Base Ball this May: </div> <ul> <li> <div class="source">"<a title="1805 -- An Enigmatic 1805 "Game of Bace" in New York">1805 -- An Enigmatic 1805 'Game of Bace' in New York</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 55 - 57. </div> </li> <li> <div class="source_note">"<a title="1823 -- Game of Baseball Reported in "National Advocate"">1823 -- Game of Baseball Reported in "National Advocate"</a>." Base Ball. 51: 61 - 64.</div> </li> </ul> +

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Craig Waff, May 2011 +

<div class="source">[[Craig Waff]] contributed two essays to the Special Protoball Issue of Base Ball the spring:</div> <ul> <li> <div class="source">"<a title="1856 -- The New York Game in 1856: Poised for a National Launch">1856 -- The New York Game in 1856: Poised for a National Launch</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 114 - 117 (co-written with [[Larry McCray]].</div> </li> <li>"<a title="1860 -- Atlantics and Excelsiors Compete for the "Championship"">1860 -- Atlantics and Excelsiors Compete for the "Championship"</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 139 - 142.</li> </ul> +

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David Block, May 2011 +

<div class="source">[[David Block]] contributed two essays to the "Special Protoball is of Base Ball," Guest-edited by Protoball functionary Larry McCray: </div> <div class="source"> </div> <ul> <li> <div class="source">"<a title="1609: Polish Workers Play Ball at Jamestown, Virginia: An Early Hint of Europe's Influence On Base Ball">1609: Polish Workers Play Ball at Jamestown, Virginia: An Early Hint of Europe's Influence On Base Ball</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 5 - 9.</div> </li> </ul> <ul> <li> <div class="source">"<a title="1796 -- German Book Describes Das Englisch Base-ball: But Was It Baseball or Rounders?">1796 -- German Book Describes Das Englisch Base-ball: But Was It Baseball or Rounders?</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 50 - 54.</div> <div class="source"> </div> </li> </ul> <div class="source"> </div> <div class="source"> </div> +

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Tom Altherr, May 2011 +

<div class="source">[[Tom Altherr]] contributed two essays to the Special Protoball Issue of Base Ball this May:</div> <ul> <li> <div class="source">"<a title="1841 -- Barn Ball">1841 -- Barn Ball</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 85 - 88.</div> </li> <li> <div class="source">"<a title="1850 -- Southern Ball-Games">1850 -- Southern Ball-Games</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 103 - 105. </div> </li> </ul> <div class="source_note"> </div> <div class="source"> </div> +

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Gregory Christiano, August 2013 +

“Baseball in the Bronx, before the Yankees,” is Gregory Christiano’s new book. It focuses some on the Morrisania Unions, and draws extensively on Craig Waff’s Games Tab (<a>http://protoball.org/Games_Tabulation</a>) and other PBall data. A google search of <”Gregory Christiano” Bronx> takes you to Amazon page for Gregory’s book. +

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Brian Sheehy, January 2013 +

“I can read all about variant games in books and on the net, but I find I don’t really understand them until I play them,” reports Brian Sheehy. Brian teaches “Sports of the Past” to upperclassmen at North Andover High School, north of Boston. Among the safe-haven games the students have studied (and played) are Knickerbocker rules base ball, the Massachusetts game, wicket, cricket, stoolball, and rounders. He is thinking about trying the ancient Russian game of lapta, and perhaps Irish rounders, in the spring. +

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Jeffrey Kittel, January 2013 +

“This Game of Games”, a snazzy website dedicated to the history of 19th century St. Louis baseball, is the creation of Jeff Kittel. See (<a href="http://thisgameofgames.blogspot.com/">http://thisgameofgames.blogspot.com/</a>.) Jeff has agreed to help curate Protoball’s “Glossary of Games” feature, which is meant to serve as a registry for diverse baseball-like games, both those that precede our game and that appear to have later been derived from it (<a>http://protoball.org/Glossary_of_Games</a>). In that role he has helped write short accounts of evidence about town ball, the Massachusetts game, and English Rounders (<a>http://protoball.org/Essays</a>.) He has contributed essays to SABR’s Pioneer Project reports and to The Rank and File of 19th Century Major League Baseball. (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rank-Century-Major-League-Baseball/dp/0786468904">http://www.amazon.com/Rank-Century-Major-League-Baseball/dp/0786468904</a>) Jeff is currently working on an extensive monograph on baseball’s full history in St. Louis, in which he traces the roots of the game in the city back to the 18th century. +

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Eric Miklich, June 2013 +

Eric is working on a book on the World Baseball Tour of 1874. +

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Beth Hise, May 2011 +

[[Beth Hise]] contributed two essays to the Special Protoball Issue of Base Ball this May. <ul> <li> <div class="source_note">"<a title="1744 -- "How Is It, Umpire?" The 1744 Laws of Cricket and Their Influence on the Development of Baseball in America">1744 -- "How Is It, Umpire?" The 1744 Laws of Cricket and Their Influence on the Development of Baseball in America</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 25 - 31.</div> </li> <li> <div class="source">"<a title="1862 -- American Cricket in the 1860s">1862 -- American Cricket in the 1860s</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 143 - 148. </div> </li> </ul> <div class="source_note"> </div> +

Brian Turner, May 2011 +

[[Brian Turner]] co-wrote a contribution to the "Special Protoball Issue" of Base Ball this Spring: <ul> <li>Turner, Brian and Larry McCray (2011) "<a title="1621 -- Pilgrim Stoolball an the Profusion of American Safe-Haven Ballgames">1621 -- Pilgrim Stoolball and the Profusion of American Safe-Haven Ballgames</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 10 -16.</li> </ul> The article surveys base ball's the many predecessor games before the New York game was established. +

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Larry McCray, May 2011 +

[[Larry McCray]] participated in several short articles in the Special Protoball Issue of Base Ball this spring. He also served as Guest Editor of the issue: <ul> <li>"16<a title="1621 -- Pilgrim Stoolball an the Profusion of American Safe-Haven Ballgames">21 -- Pilgrim Stoolball an the Profusion of American Safe-Haven Ballgames</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 10 -16 (with Brian Turner).</li> <li>"<a title="1672 -- The Amazing Francis Willughby, and the Role of Stoolball in the Evolution of Baseball and Cricket">1672 -- The Amazing Francis Willughby, and the Role of Stoolball in the Evolution of Baseball and Cricket</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 17-20. </li> <li>"1<a title="1829 -- The Rise and Fall of New England-Style Ballplaying">829 -- The Rise and Fall of New England-Style Ballplaying</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 69 - 72. </li> <li> "<a title="1830 -- Thoreau's Diary Entry and Other Tiny Clues as to Who Played Early Ball">1830 -- Thoreau's Diary Entry and Other Tiny Clues as to Who Played Early Ball</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 73 - 76.</li> <li>"<a title="1845 -- The Knickerbocker Rules, and the Long History of the One-Bounce Fielding Rule">1845 -- The Knickerbocker Rules, and the Long History of the One-Bounce Fielding Rule</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 93 - 97. </li> <li>"<a title="1856 -- The New York Game in 1856: Poised for a National Launch">1856 -- The New York Game in 1856: Poised for a National Launch</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 114 - 117 (with Craig Waff).</li> <li>"<a title="1859 -- State Championship Wicket Game in Connecticut: A Hearty Hurrah for a Doomed Pastime">1859 -- State Championship Wicket Game in Connecticut: A Hearty Hurrah for a Doomed Pastime</a>." Base Ball. 5(1): 132 - 135. </li> </ul>

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Bob Tholkes, February 2013 +

“Not Likely to Flourish,” appearing in Base Ball,volume 6, number 2 (Fall 2012), pp. 22 ff, is [[Bob Tholkes’]] survey of the New York game for the 1862 base ball season. The season began with the sadly mistaken conjecture that the Civil War would end soon enough to save the ballplaying season. Still, 1862 saw William Cammeyer’s historic opening of the enclosed ballfield at the Union Grounds, the June visit of Philadelphia clubs to New Jersey, Brooklyn and games with three NYC clubs at Elysian Fields, and the October death of Excelsior Club great Jim Creighton. +

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Monica Nucciarone, August 2013 +

Monica Nucciarone has been contributing to a new documentary about base ball in Hawaii. The film, by former Boston University student Drew Johnson, touches on the influence of base ball on the political evolution of Hawaii, starting with 1840s ballplaying there as introduced by missionaries. Drew notes that Japanese baseball, as well as the US game, was part of the later story of Hawaiian baseball. +

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Sam Marchiano, December 2008 +

Base Ball Discovered continues to charm audiences. The MLB Advanced Media documentary on baseball’s origins, written and produced by Sam, received the Award for Baseball Excellence at the 3rd annual Baseball Film Festival at the Hall of Fame in September. The award recognizes the film that best captures “research, factual accuracy, historical context, and appreciation of the game.” This follows the warm reception Sam was given at this year’s SABR Convention in Cleveland, where she addressed the SABR Origins Committee and screened the film for a packed house of conventioneers. Others agree: Vin Scully calls the film a “grand slam,” and the unexcitable George Will calls it “fascinating.” +

B

Beth Hise, February 2013 +

Swinging Away (Marylebon Cricket Club and Scala Press, 2010) is curator [[Beth Hise]]’s new book on her exhibitions on base ball and cricket at Lord’s and at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Besides writing two essays on cricket in the United States for the recent Origins Issue of Base Ball, Beth has contributed a paper on the English response to exhibition base ball games in England in the early 1900s. +

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Howard Burman, January 2008 +

“Gentlemen at the Bat” is the working title of Howard's current book project, one that focuses on the Knickerbocker Club. The book’s story is told by club members in the form of a collective oral history, in which Howard’s historical research is presented through the medium of fictionalized dialog. His earlier books include one on Shoeless Joe Jackson and one on 1950’s stickball inNew York. +

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Monica Nucciarone, March 2007 +

“The Cartwright Conundrum: Fact and Fiction of Cartwright’s Baseball Legacy” was the subject of a poster session by Monica Nucciarone at the SABR 36 convention. She is in the rewrite phase of her treatise on Alexander Cartwright, and may present some results at the St. Louis SABR convention. She spent part of last April doing research in Hawaii. +

A

Andrew Schiff, January 2008 +

Andrew notes that his new biography of Henry Chadwick, The Father of Baseball, is scheduled for early 2008. To order this $29.95 McFarland offering, or for more details, go to <a href="http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/">http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/</a> and search “Schiff.” +

Angus Macfarlane, March 2007 +

Angus is investigating the earliest days of California base ball. He identifies the local Knickerbockers as the first CA team, and is working with Mexican historian Cesar Gonzalez to ascertain the role of the New York Volunteer Regiment, which sailed to CA in 1846, in implanting baseball in Mexico. +

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Beth Hise, December 2008 +

Beth notes that April 2010 is the time slotted for her exhibition on Cricket and Baseball at the Marylebone Cricket Club [Lord’s Grounds] in London. It is possible that the exhibit would also be shown in Australia and at Cooperstown afterward. Part of the exhibition will focus on bat and balls games prior to 1840, and Beth is looking into stoolball history and the 1755 William Bray diary as well. +

Bill Ryczek, January 2008 +

Bill is putting together a narrative history of baseball from 1845 to the Civil War. Look for it to hit the shelves in 2009. +

Bob Tholkes, December 2008 +

Bob has founded and is editing Origins, the monthly e-newsletter of the SABR Committee on the Origins of Baseball. Bob also edits The Base Ball Player’s Chronicle, the Vintage Base Ball Association’s three-times-a-year newsletter. +

Brock Helander, March 2007 +

Brock is collecting information on baseball history in towns -- like Syracuse and Troy NY -- that once had, but then lost, major league teams. Shoot him an email if you want to know more, or to help out. +

C

César Gonzalez, January 2008 +

César is exploring the origins of baseball in Mexico and Cuba. His article “A New Perspective on Mexican Baseball Origins” appeared in the inaugural issue of Base Ball. +

J

John Thorn, March 2007 +

Conceived and edited by John, the new McFarland offering Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game will be appearing soon. The inaugural issue will have several substantial articles on pre-1870 ballplaying, including Joanne Hulbert’s work on Fast Day in Massachusetts, Angus McFarland’s work on San Francisco’s first team, Fred Ivor-Campbell’s take on the 1857 Convention, and John’s reflections on that surprising find of bafeball in 1791 Pittsfield MA. +

D

Dan Selz, March 2007 +

Dan and associates are collecting information for a prospective documentary on the meaning of baseball for localities. They have interviewed [[Priscilla Astifan]] about events in early Rochester. +

David Block, December 2008 +

David contributed an article to the spring 2008 issue of Base Ball on what is recognized as the earliest appearance of the word “base-ball,” the John Newbery’s 1744 Little Pretty Pocket-Book. David examines some remaining mysteries of this source (which gives us that ringing phrase, “the next destin’d post”) including whether we can claim 1744 as the year “base-ball” first saw print when no editions of the book are available prior to 1760, and whether the absence of a bat in the relevant woodcut means that the bat hadn’t yet joined the game – one can, of course, “bat” a ball with one’s hands, and the text only refers to a ball that is “struck off.” +

David Arcidiacono, March 2007 +

David has been looking to confirm the report that baseball gloves were first used in an 1858 Massachusetts-rule game. Old-timers later recalled that a ball with a bullet core was put in play, and that players then donned gloves to protect their hands. Contemporary accounts haven’t yet confirmed this story. +

Dennis Pajot, December 2008 +

Dennis is working on a monograph on the history of baseball in Milwaukee from its earliest appearance in the late 1850s. The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball: The Cream City from Midwestern Outpost to the Major Leagues, 1859-1901 is slotted for publication by McFarland in 2009. +

E

Eric Miklich, December 2008 +

Eric joined the Vintage Base Ball Association’s Rules and Interpretations Committee in summer 2008. He remains active in Bethpage NY’s 19th Century Base Ball Program, the oldest in the US. Eric’s fine website, <a href="http://www.19cbaseball.com/">http://www.19cbaseball.com/</a>, has several items pertinent to the origins of base ball, including a detailed listing of rule changes starting in 1854, the early evolution of ballplaying equipment, and treatment of the baseball’s predecessor games. +

F

Fred Ivor-Campbell, March 2007 +

Fred is working on a book-length evaluative history of baseball from 1845 to 1857 -- Knickerbocker Base Ball. A first segment, treating the 1857 base ball convention, is slated for the second issue of Base Ball. +

J

Joanne Hulbert, January 2008 +

In addition to helping lead the Boston SABR Chapter and pushing along an anthology of Deadball Era baseball poetry, Joanne is working on a local project that brings together the histories of the Massachusetts game and the NY Game as they impacted one small town — Holliston. She sees a big story in these local events. She says that when one wanders around among the ghosts of the game, the stories are impressive: they involve triumph and tragedy, sex and violence, pathos and drama. Besides, she lives in the original Mudville, and that’s part of the story. Her tentative title: For Fun, Money or Marbles: How Baseball Transformed a Perfectly Good Town. She hasn’t set a target date for publication yet. +

Jim Lannen, January 2008 +

Jim has just completed coding all of the 178 rich entries in [[David Block]]’s bibliography in Baseball Before We Knew It for SABR’s Baseball Index (<a href="http://www.baseballindex.org/">http://www.baseballindex.org/</a>). In doing this, Jim has added several new search codes to TBI, including stool-ball, trap-ball, trapstick, cat, and tipcat. +

John Schiffert, January 2008 +

John identifies his continuing primary interest as baseball (and base ball) in Philadelphia, not the easiest choice for someone living far from the local sources at Temple University and the Free Library of Philadelphia. His Base Ball in Philadelphia (McFarland, 2007) is out, with contributions from our colleagues Altherr, Casway, Helander, Hershberger, Thorn, and Marshall Wright, but John still longs to know such things as “did the Olympic Club there really, as Robert Smith wrote in 1993, play on a diamond-shaped field? What was Smith's source for that assertion? And who were the original Olympics . . . a bunch of local rope-makers?” He admits to having thoughts about doing a more extensive book on Philadelphia’s hardball origins, once Georgia and the people at Clayton State University let go of him. +

John Husman, December 2008 +

John is the author of “Ohio’s First Baseball Game; Played by Confederates and Taught to Yankees” which appeared in the spring 2008 issue of Base Ball. The match game itself, apparently played by New York rules, took place at a Civil War military prison on a Lake Erie island near Sandusky OH in August 1864. John concludes that the southern players, who were gentleman officers having connections to eastern US culture, were the ones who introduced the new game to local Ohioans. +

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Larry McCray, December 2008 +

Larry has put an initial [[Glossary of Games]] onto the Protoball website. This primitive listing includes about 120 distinct games, and names of games, of potential interest to those contemplating the full range of baseball-like games. Corrections and additions ([[Tom Altherr]] tipped us off on the game of [[Chermany]], said to resemble baseball, found in Virginia and the south) are welcome. Most of the games entail safe-haven bases. +

Larry McCray, January 2008 +

Larry is succeeding Mike Ross as chair of SABR’s Committee on the Origins of Baseball. Mike has led the SABR-UK chapter for many years, including its creative early examination of the British roots of baseball in the 1990s. +

B

Beth Hise, January 2008 +

Long-term preparation for a special exhibit on cricket and baseball is under way by Beth. The exhibit is slated for spring of 2010 at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, home of the MCC cricket museum, where Beth serves as a guest curator. The exhibit may also tour in the US and Australia. For details, send Beth an email. Beth, a Yale-educated Cleveland Indians fan, has 20 years experience in curating social-history events at Australian and American museums. +

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Marty Payne, January 2008 +

Marty continues to explore the influence of the advent of the New York Game on rural towns. He is finding that The New York game (along with improved transportation) brought competition, and had a profound social, economic, and cultural impact on small towns that previous, less structured versions of ballplay did not. +

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Peter Morris, March 2007 +

Peter’s latest book is Level Playing Fields: How the Groundskeeping Murphy Brothers Shaped Baseball. It includes coverage of the development of early ball fields before 1872. Peter’s next project is a textbook on the history of baseball from 1840-1870, and will include the scoop from many new sources that Peter has turned up. +

G

Greg Perkins, December 2008 +

Pre-Civil War town ball in Cincinnati is the subject of an article by Greg Perkins in the fall 2008 issue of Base Ball. The article, “The Cincinnati Game: Townball in Cincinnati, 1858-1866,” traces the rise of a distinctive form of town ball (with a hexagonal infield, and with bases 60 feet apart, and with an all-out-side-out rule) before the War. Covington KY fielded 10 townball clubs, and 28 Cincinnati games received newspaper coverage in summer 1858 alone (average score, 155 to 112, most games lasting four innings, average team size of over 12 players). Greg, who majored in history at the University of Cincinnati, is now collecting information on Henry M. Millar, a Cincinnati reporter who traveled with the 1869 Red Stockings and later wrote a memoir of the experience. +

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Priscilla Astifan, December 2008 +

Priscilla and a colleague discuss the predecessor game to Knicks-style base ball in upstate New York in “Old-Fashioned Base Ball” in Western New York, 1825-1860,” which appeared in the fall 2008 issue of Base Ball. The article notes that until 1860 the unusually unnamed earlier game was still played competitively in several places. About 20 news accounts from that time, and from later accounts of a number of “throwback” games, allow a partial picture of the nature of that earlier game. Strong similarity to the Massachusetts Game is found. +

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John Freyer, January 2008 +

Researcher and author John Freyer reports that his interest is still Chicago-area baseball from back before the National League. Among other feats, he has accumulated every Chicago box score between the years 1859 and the Chicago Fire in 1871. He also enjoys researching New York baseball before the Civil War. John has an ongoing project of bat and ball games over history, from Wicket to Wiffleball, but hasn't determined whether it amounts to a new book. Currently, John is working with others to establish a Chicago Baseball Museum, and serves as the project’s ad hoc historian. +

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Rob Loeffler, March 2007 +

Rob has assembled a chronology of the evolution of ballmaking. Rob has a collection of photos of well over 200 19th C baseballs and is analyzing them to estimate their size and weight. +

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Martin Hoerchner, March 2007 +

The UK Chapter of SABR is preparing to resume publication of The Examiner, which has given us several accounts of members’ research on English ballplaying (see <a href="http://www.sabruk.org/examiner/index.html">http://www.sabruk.org/examiner/index.html</a>). Martin, who has uncovered contemporary stoolball and trap ball in the olde country, is leading the renewed effort. +

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Glenn Drinkwater, January 2008 +

The Vintage Base Ball Association’s [VBBA] recently-installed Glenn as their president. One of Glenn’s objectives is to review the organization’s Rules and Customs program to reinforce historical accuracy. Glenn is in touch with [[Peter Morris]], [[Fred Ivor-Campbell]], and [[Tom Shieber]] as part of that initiative. +

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Tom Altherr, December 2008 +

Tom has brought to light another big slug of references to early ballplaying. His article in the spring 2008 issue of Base Ball, "Chucking the Old Apple; Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games," resulted in 33 new entries for the Protoball Chronology. Included are references to ballplaying by slaves between 1797 and the 1840s, soldierly play between 1775 and 1815, and numerous accounts of campus ballgames between 1813 and about 1840. +

Tom Altherr, January 2008 +

Tom has revised a paper he presented at NASSH in 2006 (“Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries in Pre-1839 North American Ball Games History”) for possible publication. His 2007 contribution at theCooperstown symposium is based on further research and more theoretical speculations why baseball emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It may appear in the next biennial anthology. After his week in Cooperstown, Tom spent a very solid week researching at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester. This has all led him to see a possible book on all pre-1840 North American games – base ball and beyond -- played with a ball. +

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Craig Waff, January 2008 +

Trained in the history of science, Craig is focusing for now on early ball in New York and Brooklyn, and on games played on ice skates in the mid-1800s. He has been using the online databases of the New York Times and Brooklyn Daily Eagle to not only track the development of interest in astronomy in New York City and Brooklyn in the late 19th century, but also to collect systematically, for the PROTOBALL archives, copies of all baseball-related articles that appeared in these newspapers up to 1860. During that search he discovered what may be the first recorded triple play (occurring on 16 April 1859). He is also researching the winter baseball games played with skates on ice from 1860 to 1887. +

W

Wayne McElreavy, January 2008 +

Wayne is trying to piece together the history of baseball in the Claremont area. +

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