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1 The SABR(UK) Number 5 January 1995 RESEARCH Examiner SPECIAL

THE JOURNAL OF THE BOBBY THOMSON CHAPTER OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN RESEARCH (UK)

BRITISH BASEBALL BOBBY THOMSON CHAPTER'S OWN VER- RESEARCH TAKES OFF! SION OF BURNS' NIGHT While we are still very much at ball has almost always been treated On January 28, on or near the foot of the mountain in relation to in British publications in a tangental the traditional Scottish Robert the History Committee's ambition of manner; interest being focused not Burns' Night, the History Com- producing a comprehensive account on the game itself, as a game, but mittee plans to have its own SABR of baseball in these islands, prepara- rather as a curiosity or a phenom- version designed for baseball fa- tions for the ascent have been going enon of transatlantic socio-sporting natics. The gathering - appropri- on. cross-culture. This makes it difficult During November I had an op- to know where to start, particularly in ate to a Chapter with a Patron portunity to spend a week (some of it relation to the period prior to the native to Glasgow and whose nick- in company with Chapter President Wright/ Red Stockings-Ath- name is "The Staten Island Scot" Mike Ross) in the British Library News- letic tour of 1874. I have come to - will enable members to meet and paper Library at Colindale The pur- think of the century preceding this update each other on research pose of the time spent there was not to watershed event as the Dark Ages of and other progress and also (cour- pursue any specific subject, but rather history, the period tesy of Martin Hoerchner) to view to begin collating an index of periodi- during which the various bat and ball the first two-hour "" of Ken cal sources which may be of use to diamond games failed on this side of Burns' monumental nine-part other baseball historians pursuing the Atlantic to evolve and unify, as did research on specific topics. This, baseball in America, from casual PBS documentary entitled "Base- while intriguing and rewarding for the childrens' pastimes into a naturedly- ball". SABRites will be aware of interested researcher, is a very hit codified mass participation . The this production and the impact it and process requiring strong de- social, cultural, economic and politi- has had in America, and will ap- tective instincts and a good deal of cal reasons for that failure, I feel, lie at preciate the opportunity to get a lateral thinking. the core of our studies. foretaste. Scotch whiskey will The basic problem is that base- On the other hand, Ian Smyth probably be available for those in Leeds is continuing and expanding who like it, but members will be his study of the 1938 / expected to supply their own hag- EDITOR'S NOTE: America "Test" Series, and has, Welcome to the latest number of through the Committee, written to the gis. the SABR(UK) Examiner. This time SABR Bulletin requesting help in re- we put research to the fore, and we've searching the histories of various Here's the crucial part: space is also broken ground in that we've got Canadians (Ross Kendrick in particu- extremely limited so you must act five different contributors - keep those lar) who played for England at that fast. We will be holding the meeting at articles coming in! time. the SABR(UK) Headquarters, which Congratulations to Patrick More research is being carried is shared by the abode of our Chair- Morley - his article "An Englishmen on by History Committee members man, Mike Ross. Because this is a Plays His First Game" appeared in and we depend on them to keep us, meeting of the History Committee, we The National Pastime. We missed the Chapter and SABR at large in- especially want those who are inter- scooping TNP because we wanted to formed of their progress. We're here ested in research. Please phone Mike put his submission in the Historical to hear, and to help. Ross or any of the other officers if you Issue. We have made some interesting want to attend. You'll need to send Our friend Chris Harte is also a discoveries in the short time we have your cheque to Andy Parkes A.S.A.P. member of the Association of been searching; more of these in com- Addresses are on page 2. The £7.50 Historians. He wants to inform us all ing issues of the Examiner. So far, includes a sumptuous spread, mean- about ASH, so we've enclosed a pam- what we are discovering has raised ing you'll get more than Mike's legen- phlet. You should find it compelling more questions than it has resolved. dary popcorn! So please phone imme- If any of these discoveries in- But the questions are getting more diately or you might miss out! trigues you, remember that we are and more specific. We're on the right scratching the surface and there is "a track. - Patrick Carroll - Patrick Carroll lot more where that came from". 2

VIEW FROM THE CHAIR by Mike Ross We are a research society. In Really, we are in a position to If you find original articles in any some cases wed exhume ancient bod- unearth texts never before used in British press, other than day to day ies of information (although research modern baseball research. And I can reports, and news stories, they should aside, some of the toughest digs we've tell you, if you have never done re- be noted and submitted to the re- had so far have been in tracing and search work, great joys await you. search chairman. tracking a few of our own SABR(UK) The 1847 volume of Sporting Life con- I have made arrangements to members from the woody rural wiles tained some clues as to the origins of acquire antiquarian baseball books, of these British Isles). Now with our baseball, and the squelching thereof. and others out-of-print, from a few new found wealth as secured for us by I have submitted a short item in this specialized US sources at a discount our patron saint of Baltimore, Nor- issue. price. If anyone wants a particular man Macht, we are able to support It would be nice to find out when book or wants to be tempted, let me our impulses to delve into the origins the children's running games joined know. We can order almost any book and history of the game without hav- up with the game of "ball" and how you can think of. ing to spend the kids', or our own, that evolved. Hope to see you on January 28 milk money on direct expenses. If you have an inclination and on Burns Night for the first meeting of Our chairman of research, the spare time we hope you will make the Research Committee. Patrick is Patrick Carroll, made a 'pilgrimage' to some effort at research in your locale coming in from the West Country. Let the British Newspaper Library at - which is one advantage we have of him know if you would like to make a Colindale. We met there one day and being spread out over a million square presentation, or if there is something although we have made hardly a dent miles of barren baseball wasteland. you would like to discuss at the meet- into the available materials, exciting Again I urge members and asso- ing. Even if you cannot make it due to inroads have been opened in what we ciates to try to make contact with space considerations, please phone hope will be disclosure of 'new' mate- officers and/or each other. Martin anyway, then we can be assured you rial. With the 'library angel' at my would like to hear from you particu- received your Examiner; the phone is shoulder, I got lucky, simply by taking larly on the Examiner. And Patrick for our one way of keeping contact with the first book at hand and flicking a research. Have you received each everyone. We'd hate to think we were few pages and discovering... issue? Any ideas? Any submissions? missing anyone. ANDY PARKES REPORTS FROM THE SABR CONVENTION Our well-travelled Treasurer files this four days. Bobby Brown, Mel Allen, Bing Devine, report from the this year's SABR con- During my visits to Convention Stan Musial, Red Schoendist, Nolan vention in Arlington, Texas: events, I have listened and some- Ryan, Robin Roberts, Buck O'Neil, This was the Charley Pride, yes, the fourth convention I country and western have attended, and as singer who played in the far as I'm concerned, it Texas League, and the was by far the best yet. delightful Bobby The organisation was Bragan. first class and the Texan So for someone welcome is all they say who prior to 1989 had it is. The convention only heard AFN and had the full co-opera- read the Herald Trib- tion of the Texas Rang- une, this was an educa- ers, and they had their tion. At the end of the brand-new Ballpark at Convention, I was able Arlington to show us. to catch up with Nor- They were justifiably man Macht, and pre- proud of it. sented him with an en- I was travelling graved tankard in ap- solo, so I was assigned preciation for all the a roommate. It turned help and kindness he out to be Bob Bencks has shown us (see from Cape Elizabeth, photo). Maine who knows Mike Next year SABR Ross well and lives less comes to Pittsburgh, so than a mile from his mother! We both times spoken to, in no particular or- don't forget that whatever happens in enjoyed each other's company for the der, Buck Showalter, Phil Rizzuto, the baseball world, SABR will be there! Hope to see you there! OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN Chairman: Mike Ross, 2 Maida Avenue, Suite B, Little Venice, W2 1TF (Tel: 071 723 9848; Fax: 071 266 3166) Treasurer: Andy Parkes, 84 Hillingdon Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 8PJ (Tel and Fax: 061 865 2952) Procedural Advisor: Hugh Robinson, 567 Kings Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 8JQ (Tel: 061 864 1250) Chairman of British Baseball Historical Committee: Patrick Carroll, 10 Court Barton, Crewkerne, Somerset TA18 7HP (Tel: 0460 74183) Publications Editor: Martin Hoerchner, 3 Sheridan Crescent, Chislehurst, Kent BR7 5RZ (Tel: 081 467 2828) European Co-ordinator: Laurens De Jong, Carnisseweg 61, 2993 Ad Barendrecht, Netherlands 3

THIS SABR'D ISLE by Martin Hoerchner This is not an article about base- circa 1800 in the West Country of they needed; nothing had to be proved ball. It is about days of old when England. Was it the baseball we and no delays were met. They pointed knights were bold. know? Did they have the three-strike me towards the public room, which I have been turning issues relat- rule or the infield fly rule? Was the was fairly large and mostly empty and ing to the genealogy of baseball over distance from to batter sixty had a retrieval desk and rows of chairs in my mind, and I offer some unsolic- feet six inches, and was the distance and counters. I filled out a card ited opinions. It seems to me that the between the bases ninety feet? I'd be requesting the letter - I already had a question of whether baseball is de- surprised. This game is another mem- reference number. scended from or vice versa ber of the family. For the heterodox, So it was brought to me, just is a confusion, just like the early the real birthday of baseball as we stuck in a cardboard folder. They just 20th-century controversy about evo- know it was September 23, 1845, handed it to me and walked away. I lution. Darwin did not say humans when proposed could have made a paper airplane out were descended from the apes; he his twenty rules to his Knickerbocker of it. This was probably the most said they were cousins, not father and Base Ball Club. These were pretty important letter this great monarch child. Baseball and rounders are much the same rules we know, except had ever written in her life. She was both are a member of a distinct family for the pitching distance and the win- writing it to save her life; at that time of games which flourished England ning of 21 instead of nine in- people rarely left the Tower alive. There and America from at least the 18th nings. Before then we have a tangled was a debate about whether her hand- century, and whose origins stretched web of relations, like a mystery novel. writing shows a panicked state of back much further than that, really to But this is where it gets interesting. mind, or whether it shows someone time immemorial. This family in- This is where we really have to get our who was either confident of eventual cludes , rounders, and base- Sherlock Holmes magnifying glasses vindication or had the courage and ball; it also includes extinct games out. And this is also the point where presence of mind to bury her fears. I like ball, , hard facts become scarce, and sup- had seen her handwriting from the goal ball, stool ball, one , two position and interpretation take over. same time period, written under fairly old cat, plus more modern variations banal circumstances, in a document like and stick ball. In his article, Mike writes of the in the British Museum. I could com- "joys of research". I must confess my pare them. They handed me the When I was a child growing up baseball research has been mainly letter, and I couldn't believe it. I ran in California in the early sixties, we done in either bookshops or my own my fingers over the writing, and espe- played a game at school called . library. But I do have a good research cially her signature. The second and This was obviously a variation of base- story, and frankly, it was a very mov- last page, after the text was finished, ball, played on the playground tarmac. ing experience, even though it has she finished the page off by scrawling We used a big red-brown inflatable nothing to do with baseball. It was it with diagonal lines so no one could rubber ball, about a foot and a half in soon after I moved to London, and I add anything afterwards. I was en- diameter. The layout of the defense was interested in writing a screenplay tranced; I spent a long time just run- was exactly like it is in baseball, albeit about the princesshood of Queen ning my eyes over the words, trying to on a smaller scale, with bases and Elizabeth I. Her elder sister, Mary, study the mind that wrote them. infielders and . The ball ascended the throne in 1553, and the The letter didn't save her from was delivered by a "pitcher", and the next year a rebellion broke out against the Tower. She was taken down river kicked with all the "striker"'s might. the Catholic monarch in favour of her the next day, with the tide. But no He/she would run the bases as in more Protestant sister. Mary didn't evidence was ever found against her, baseball; the rules for scoring a run or know if Elizabeth was a co-conspira- and she was released after three being put out were the same. A wrin- tor (history has said she was not), but months. Mary died after a reign of kle was that the kicker could call for she had to protect herself and ordered only six years, and Elizabeth became their type of "pitch" - either fast or Elizabeth to the Tower of London Queen at 25. Oh, and about the slow, rolling or bouncing. A bit like (where Elizabeth's mother, Anne handwriting - yes it certainly wasn't before 1887, when the Boleyn, had been beheaded only eight- as neat as the British Library letter - batter could call for a high or low een years before). The boats came to I was imagining her writing it with pitch. I was a "power kicker" and the Palace of Westminster (where ball armed guards standing over her - but would always call for "fast bouncies" games had been forbidden since the it shows none of the panic that I read (as opposed to "slow rollies", which fourteenth century! - see page 6). about, and the presence of one of the were for wimps). When the ball came Elizabeth, ever fast-thinking, asked keenest minds of that time, if not any bouncing towards me, I would time to be able to write a plea to her sister time. That I held it in my hands, I my motion to meet the ball at the the Queen. She was allowed, and she shall never forget. height of its bounce, and then with all purposely took her time in writing the I think this is my fascination my might slam it with my foot and letter, so that by the time the letter with research, that of a solid, tangible take it as far as I could, hopefully over was finished, the tide had shifted, link with the past. It doesn't have to the heads of the outfielders. Even and it was no longer possible to take be your past - I have no English blood today I can remember what it was like her by boat from Westminster to the - but life as we know it was influenced to get hold of one. It was a good Tower. It was called the "Tide Letter". by the happenings of so long ago, in playground game, not needing the I read this letter was at the Public countries sometimes far away - space, the grass, or having the worry Record Office, off Chancery Lane. So whether a princess fighting for her about broken windows that baseball I went there to see it. I first had to life, or children fighting to play a game carries. Has anyone else ever heard apply for a User's Card; they asked they loved. Artifacts from those days of or played this game? the reason for my interest, and I said are nothing but benchmarks in the Jane Austen writes of "Base Ball" I was writing a screenplay. That's all march of time. 4 The Chicken or the Egg? Some off-the-cuff ramblings from American sport, not descended from there the statement "The earliest the Chairman of the Historical Com- or related to English ball and bat known literary reference to rounders mittee: games". And, as I have said else- was in 1744 when "A Little Pretty Undoubtedly the most tedious where, it is not really convincing to Pocket Book" included a woodcut of experience for the baseball enthusi- suppose that baseball "just growed" the game and a verse under it under ast in Britain is the almost-unfailing from the native ingenuity of the Ameri- the name of (wait for it) 'Base Ball'." repetition of the phrase, "Oh, you can Boy. I am aware that there have The Oxford Companion goes on to cite mean rounders" mouthed by the av- been studies made of this subject but R.W. Henderson's book "Ball, Bat & erage Brit whenever the subject of I have not as yet had an opportunity Bishop: The Origin of Ball Games" in baseball comes up. Apart from the to read any of them. In order to fill in which the author maintains that base- universal human instinct to patron- until such a chance arises I betook ball stems from the English game. ise that about which one is ignorant, myself to the local library and pulled Not having been able to get hold of it is difficult to understand the mo- down a hefty tome entitled "The Ox- Henderson's book, I am unable to notonous predictability with which ford Companion To Sport & Games", comment on the basis of his argu- this phrase is trotted out. It's boring. edited by the late and much lamented ment, but whatever it is it doesn't It isn't original. It isn't witty. And, John Arlott, the Red Barber of cricket. seem to have lessened the confusion more to my immediate Turning the entry for baseball I of those responsible for the relevant point, there is consid- companion en- erable doubt as to tries. The prob- whether it's even true. lem is becoming Having been con- one of semantics tinuously peppered with and may be stated this cliché for the nearly thus: baseball thirty years I've spent evolved from in close proximity with rounders, only Perfidious Albion, I de- rounders, at the cided recently to try to time when base- begin justifying my au- ball was evolving gust office within this from it, wasn't organisation by under- called rounders, it taking an innocent, dis- was called base- interested enquiry into ball. Got it? Good. the whole "Oh, you In justice (or mean rounders" busi- injustice) to the ness. compilers of the I took as a start- Oxford Compan- ing point John ion I must observe Montgomery Ward's that they manage "BASE-BALL: How to to get their boxer- Become a Player - with shorts in a similar the Origin, History and tangle over Explanation of the Game". This ex- find, after an exegesis of the rules and cricket. In the book's lengthy cricket cellent booklet was originally pub- so forth of the game, this statement: entry there is a section dealing with lished in 1888 and has been lovingly "Baseball, long regarded as the Ameri- the origins of the game which gives a reproduced in a SABR edition, with a can national game, evolved directly wonderfully English Heritage account forward by Mark Alvarez, and given (my italics) from the old (again, my of how it arose out of the Saxon mists, free for our delectation to us lucky emphasis) English game of round- played (this is all quite specific) by members. In his introduction: An ers". Pretty authoritative and posi- shepherds - particularly in Kent and Enquiry into the Origin of Baseball, tive, what? The entry goes on to say, Sussex where the terrain favoured its with a brief Sketch of its History, "The myth that baseball was sponta- development - using hurdle gates as Ward argues eloquently against the neously invented by , their crooks as bats and bun- theory that baseball is a development in 1839 at Cooperstown has no basis dles of wool as balls. Very pictur- or deviation from the game of round- in fact." Well, no, it never did. Even esque indeed. ers. in Ward's day that piece of American Unfortunately for the coherence The crux of Ward's argument is counter-propaganda katzenjammer of this fairy story, in other entries it is that despite being invariably referred had been thoroughly debunked. But suggested that cricket came about to as "the old English game of round- check out the end of the paragraph through the marriage of two other ers" those propounding the rounders- which, referring to rounders, says, games, club ball and stool ball, both as-chicken-baseball-as-egg theory "The game was played in a simple of which, in historical reference, post- have never been able to adduce any form under the name 'base ball' in date those cunning shepherds bat- historical evidence whatsoever of England and America as early as the ting the wool around the gate with rounders' antiquity as a game in its eighteenth century." their crooks. I give you this from the own right. Unfortunately for his com- Hmm, do you, as I do, get the entry on stool ball: "It was one of the plete credibility, Ward's argument was, feeling that there is a screw loose in two older pastimes from which the as Alvarez points out in his forward, the logic of this historical analysis? modern game of cricket probably "flawed by [his] chauvinistic insist- The feeling is not assuaged by turning sprang, ...the idea of at a ence that our game was a purely to the entry for rounders and finding , an essential feature in the 5 by Patrick Carroll The Last Game, con't development of cricket, was borrowed sion. report in the local paper. Looked at from stool ball where, as the name Then we have Pesapallo: Finn- now nearly 50 years later I see it was suggests, the wicket was a stool." ish baseball. Also known as 'nest ball' actually quite an amusing piece. Compare this with the following: "Club and 'burn ball'. (Surely Nolan Ryan "No girls, I'm sorry (the pa- ball was an ancient pastime played didn't come from Helsinki.) It is said per's reporter wrote). You've with a stick and ball and ... [a] 'rude to be based on modern baseball and got it wrong. When an American and unadulterated simplicity'. certain traditional Finnish games such talks of squeeze play he's not (Sounds like Lenny Dykstra's kind of as kuningaspallo, pitkapallo and thinking on the same lines as game.) It is important because it (wouldn't you know it) rounders, called you but of an intricate situation introduced the straight (as opposed to in Finnish the 'four goals' and in on the . curved) bat and, it seems, the placing Swedish brannboll. "That was only one of the of fielders to catch the ball." This, The last entry in the Oxford things I learned at the Baseball combined with the use of the stool as Companion to which I will refer is for Ground on Saturday. Another wicket in stool ball, apparently equals the certifiably ancient game of trap was that all the players on the the recognizable ancestor of modern ball. This game is recorded as being fielding side keep up a nonstop cricket. Poor old John Arlott, chewing played at least as long ago as the babel of shouting. It may be over all this in the great Long Room in fourteenth century, being especially encouragement, it may be im- the sky, might well be tempted to call associated with Shrove Tuesday fes- precation, it may be directed at for another bottle of claret. tivities. The game is essentially the the guy who happens to be lis- So, our earliest references to same as baseball or rounders but for tening. I don't know. What I do baseball (so called) are early-to-mid the fact that the ball instead of being know is that it isn't cricket! eighteenth century. Rounders - which thrown was projected toward the hit- "I gathered from my Yankee as it is now played, has always seemed ter by means of a miniature version of guide, counsellor and friend that to me to be a rather stilted and artifi- the type of catapult used at that pe- the Derby crowd, in its deplor- cial game; one that gives the feeling of riod to hurl cauldrons of molten lead able ignorance, applauded spec- having been codified by P.E. teachers at one's military adversaries. This tacular aerobatic catches when rather than naturally evolved by play- medieval pitching machine consisted it should have taken these for ers - gets no historical reference that of a spoon suspended by a thole be- granted but failed lamentably I know about prior to 1827. Before tween two uprights; the thin, or han- to show due appreciation of the that every (English) commentator as- dle, end of the spoon being struck squeeze play and another mys- sumes it is an old English game but all downwards thus slinging the ball at tifying move known as making his historical sources refer to it as the batter. Truly, there is nothing a double play." 'base ball'. Cartwright drew up his new under the sun. There are no Some things clearly have rules in 1845. The first governing entries in the Oxford Companion for changed little over the years. The body for rounders did not come into town ball, or for one- or two-old-cat, reporter (a woman by the way) notes being until 1889. that 'favorite of boyhood' which Ward that "the baseball umpire, that is the My researches in the Oxford maintained was the one true lineal referee, is just as defective in vision Companion also led me to the entry ancestor of baseball. Perhaps the and general mental capacity as in for Welsh baseball (of which we have omissions occur because these games ." And after reporting that the read previously in this newsletter). It are thought to be too strictly Ameri- game ended in a 3-3 tie, called after says in part, "Supporters of this form can and 'unorganized'. However, there seven (why I never discov- of the sport claim that the American are references in the trap ball entry to ered), she writes: "Very sportingly, the game grew from Welsh baseball. The games with such suggestive names commentator offered to have the play- ancient [that word again] game of as tribet, tip cat, kit-kat and others ers demonstrate any particular point rounders flourished in the West of using various combinations of stick, in the game when the match was over. England and almost certainly led to ball, and hole culminating in Knurr That, girls, should have given you the this refinement building up in South and Spell, a game widely played in opening coyly to inquire about 'squeeze . It spread to isolated pockets of Yorkshire and appearing to be one of play'". England, notably around ." a number of games developed from a Whatever the girls got up to after Internal migration of the Welsh to variety of primitive Scandanavian golf. the game, I made my way home filled Liverpool, of which there was a great Having had some fund with in- with starry eyed satisfaction. Care- deal, would, of course, easily explain consistencies of the Oxford Compan- fully folded in my pocket was the this, but why should the mere process ion compilers, I feel that it is only fair special souvenir programme. I have it of crossing the Channel change to leave the last word with them. In still, creased and faded now but a the name of the game from rounders the cricket entry, after all that flap- reminder of that distant happy day. It to baseball? doodle about Kentish shepherds, there hadn't been the Yankees or the Gi- Then there is Irish rounders. is this wisely modest observation: "The ants, just two scratch teams of Ameri- I've seen this game played. It is also basic pattern of one person casting a can servicemen. It didn't happen in called base rounders, as it uses bases ball at a target - hurdle, gate, stool or Yankee Stadium or the Grounds, rather than posts, and it is described stone - defended by another who tries which all my dreams said it should. in the Oxford Companion as being to hit the ball away with a stick is so But it had been my first live baseball "...very similar to the softball version simple that it may well have separate game and that was satisfaction of baseball." This is accurate enough origins in different communities..." In enough. not to warrant any quibbling from me. my present state of benign and igno- And, it may be Irish chauvinism on rant agnosticism, I'll go with that for my part but I find it a much more now. attractive game than the English ver- 6 1847 Sporting Life Articles Shed Light

Clues and Conjectures regarding the the first issues of a British publica- Just an idea. Origin and Suppression of Ball Games: tion, The Sporting Life (TSL), dated My favourite contention has Baseball did not appear as a 1847. The writer (no by-line) laments been that baseball was unable to de- result of spontaneous generation the demise of the old children's games, velop in England because of the power somewhere near Cooperstown, pretty much forbidden (already) on of the aristocracy and the remnants New York, as a purebred Ameri- many greens. One such game was of feudal Britain. The game was forced "base", mentioned in a couple of to America, and there permitted to can thing. Such a myth surrounds Shakespeare plays and quoted by the grow up. And akin to the Pilgrims, the ubiquitous Abner Doubleday TSL writer from Shakespeare's baseball can be regarded as an un- who was miles away from Cymbaline: derlying cause of the American Revo- Cooperstown when he was sup- "'He, with two striplings, lads lution. posed to have been there invent- more like to run the country base, We are reminded of the original ing the modern game. The yarn then to commit such slaughter, quote from John Tener, former presi- has been spun by A.G. Spalding made good the passage'" dent of the : "Britain and been supported by various The country base? How be it? is a democratic country, but lacks the commissions and societies hyp- One supposes that the quote refers to finishing of baseball". Well, not boys playing games rather than run- so surprising when we consider the ing the American dream. ning to war. The writer adds: ponderous process required by base- Being liberated from such no- "Drayton and Spenser, contem- ball to win out. tions, SABR(UK) has every reason to porary with Shakespeare, also Our TSL writer alludes to what get down to the business of verifying allude to 'Prison Base'. It was a might relate to baseball's origins, the bone fide showing where roots of base- the squeeze was ball, with a on: variation on "The rural the theme of games are its derivation nearly abol- from round- ished, that ers. many persons For a perhaps kickoff we can scarcely know search for any of them ex- customs relat- cepting by ing to old Brit- name. Some ish children's are entirely or games, and all but entirely they lead to extinct and oth- the fields, ers are only dales and kept up in out- wayward of-the-way greens of ru- nooks of the ral England running game, and therefore we country, where modern manners and the parks of London. may presume chiefly a youth's have been less successful in in- Really, with the talk of research- amusement; yet it is also known truding..." ing baseball's origins, and while forced to have been played by men in Modern manners? Or was it to assume it sprang from British soil, Cheshire and the counties ad- restrictions imposed by the upper SABR(UK) has a tough turkey to carve. joining, within the memory of classes perhaps as far back as the After all, scant information has been the present generation." middle ages? What say to the notion set down. With the , Not much to go on, but if conjec- that the go back up until the publication of Ball, Bat ture indeed be acceptable, let us then that far? and Bishop [Henderson] in 1947, no suggest that, when a batter gets on "It is mentioned so long ago as one really knew the story. While the base, that we regard him as being a the reign of Edward III [1327- Americans were shifting the goalposts prisoner? Let's face it, when one is 'on 1377] when an order of Parlia- from England to the USA, the British base', if he (or she) possesses any ment forbade 'boys and others' bothered not about staking a claim to degree of competitiveness, an inkling to play at it ["base"] in the av- a game they invented, and were in- of team spirit would result in an in- enues of the Palace at Westmin- deed asleep at the wheel. In a way, nate longing to break out, to go home. ster, on account of the interrup- the Britons' failure to lift a pen to The baserunner, while safe, is tion which it gave the members prove what was theirs, is almost an unable to move forward toward his passing to and fro as their busi- insult to our beloved game. The Rus- destination without help. So, ness required'". sians would have had their own while the base is a prison, it is also a Well, we wouldn't want those Cooperstown by now. refuge. And if he gets caught off base, poor M.P.'s to be disturbed by silly At the British Library Newspa- he is out. Out of luck, out of the game, children's games, would we? per Library in Colindale, London, while out of life. A player's position on base Alexander Cartwright of the New searching for clues to baseball's murky is a formality if he fails to make it York Knickerbockers organized a game origins, an article emerged from among home of baseball at Hoboken, New Jersey, 7

by Mike Ross and is now officially recognized as the exists to this day, baseball utterly III and the fellas made the rules (and inventor of the modern game. Not failed to succeed here. Elizabeth wrote the Tide Letter!), would Doubleday. Credit was given to We may acknowledge a linger- have been in close proximity to what Cartwright for his pacing out the 90 ing feudalism that has often caused is now Hyde Park. There HyPISCO (30 yards) between bases. Such a the suppression of initiative in the threw down the gauntlet and, against perfect distance! Practically mysti- British commoners. And suppose, negative tradition, has succeeded in cal. Not to deprive Cartwright and their children's natural impulses were playing ball at their regular pitch for company of glory - we need our bench- thwarted for the pleasure of the lords, 31 years. But, more than once, mod- marks - but that 90-foot space has most noticeable in London's parks ern-day edicts have banned them. been around a long time. The 1847 and "commons". Not so strange that Déja vu. In the last decade, a bowler- TSL quotes a Mr Strutt writing in his baseball failed to flourish. hatted stroller, attending a "royal re- "Sports and Pastimes", about the Just an idea. view", stubbornly refused to recog- games of Base or Prison Base: Since the events surrounding nise the game's boundaries. He inad- "The performance of this pas- Edward III in the 1300's, the notion of vertently received a conk on his bowler, time requires two parties of equal a free range would not materialize for and wrote a letter to the authorities. numbers, each of them having a the children. Described as a game of As a result, police maintained restric- base or home, as it is usually "unrestrained exercise", even in the tions for awhile. Some of the national called, to themselves at the dis- mid-1800's they were "fast disappear- press found the incident compelling. tance of about twenty or thirty ing". So the culprit was not baseball And get this: At the same Re- yards..." in the eyes of the lords; it was the gent's Park mentioned above, while Well, we know about the 30 natural freewheeling and imaginative cricket and soccer were permitted, yards, so the 20 yards was to accom- activity of "unrestricted" children's softball and baseball (gaining increas- modate the little leaguers from the games. ing popularity) officially were banned Middle Ages. Softball also relates to From an issue of The Sporting in 1992 (the charge was for "digging Strutt's numbers. Remember, we Life of the same year, 1847, a further up the grass"). That edict was over- speak of these as simply running indictment: turned, for the numbers now playing games. Do we detect the beginnings "A FEW MORE WORDS UPON organized softball in London are vast. of what in baseball is termed 'the HYDE PARK That is not to say that in the future the running game'? Were some lads pre- [Hyde Park] is of a goodly ex- Duke of Westminster or Lady Porter empting Ty Cobb or Rickey Henderson tent... This park is a royal prop- might again induce the House of Lords and setting the pace? And one might erty, and is used now and then to end softball in 'their' royal parks. suspect that, at some point, Base for (royal) reviews; but for noth- The Sporting Life of 1847 con- joined with the game of ball; hence ing else; for as we stated in our cludes: "base ball". last paper with reference to Re- "(an act) which one might sus- The writer speaks of the concept gent's Park, "It is all for the eye" pect emanated from the brain of of "going home", and of a player being - children not even being allowed some Old Bailey clause-picking tagged "out". First team to get a score to play trap-ball [i.e. an early lawyer, rather than from that of 20 would end a contest. Twenty- form of baseball] within its pre- quarter where the soul of hon- one was needed in Knickerbocker cincts. This monopoly of space our is supposed, most essen- baseball. Another childlike variation on the part of the government is tially, to be a freehold resident. was known as bars, "with stakes a great moral injustice if ever To take the fraternity of Brother placed in the ground at 90 feet inter- there was trusteeship on the Bobs [commoners, one sup- vals", an innovation used in round- part of the nation, it but ill be- poses], as a class there does not ers. comes it to employ that preroga- exist a more inoffensive one to "...Bars - it is necessary to have tive to the very letter of the law the rights of property in the on each side a row of stakes that allows it. We have walked whole of Her Majesty's domin- driven into the ground about over Hyde Park dozens of times ions; and to make them thirty yards in advance of the and could not help feeling sur- suffer...is a despotic act not at home boundaries; this row of prised each time we did so, that all in keeping with the common- stakes is called the prison. Such so large a space of ground should est notions of common justice. was the arrangement adopted be suffered to lay idle..." Representing as we do...the in- in Essex where the game was As in Italy and Sweden particu- terests of this class, we are thus played by men since the begin- larly, baseball is a spectator sport. In emboldened to speak out, and ning of the reign of George III Britain only about 1200 players from hoping that our first words may [1760-1820]." assorted leagues keep the flame alive. not pass unregarded, for the England is far behind several The governing federation is ill- present we lay down our pen." other European countries in adopting equipped to deal with the opposition And with that, so will we, leaving the game on a national scale. Yet from above which also affected softball the issue open-ended. English uncles, brothers and cousins during its rise in Britain, from 1963. But stop press! I have just played baseball in America and at- Then a few Hollywood moguls, filming acquired a copy of "Ball, Bat, and tempted to introduce it 'back home'. in London, started a club in Hyde Bishop", which traces the history of Despite the various baseball missions Park which evolved into HyPISCO ball games back to the year dot. I and the efforts of Spalding, the eager (Hyde Park International Softball & have just began to make a dent into and wealthy John Moores, and Canoeing Organisation). the information contained therein. Frances Ley of Derby who built "The Now, that Palace of Westmin- More on this book later on. Baseball Ground" there in 1890, which ster, mentioned above, where Edward 8

THE LAST GAME by Patrick Morley Fifty years ago we were in the lish Baseball Cup three years out of ports in the American newspapers we middle of a World War. Britain was four, they also trounced a top Ameri- occasionally got to see, with their packed with thousands of American can team, the 1897 National League incomprehensible box scores. troops all waiting to go over to join the Champions, the Beaneaters, I wrote to the Office of War Infor- fighting in newly invaded , once when they were unwise enough to pay mation at the American Embassy in the breakout had been achieved from a visit in what was intended as a London for enlightenment. Consider- the invasion bridgeheads. Yet amaz- triumphal tour of England. ing there was a world war on, they ingly, some of those troops found time By 1898 it was clear the public's were remarkably helpful. They could to stage an exhibition baseball game enthusiasm for baseball didn't match have given me a polite brush off but for several thousand bemused Eng- that of Sir Francis Ley. The game not a bit of it. They sent a long lish spectators in a Midlands town. rapidly declined over here but by then detailed letter, telling me precisely It was probably the last baseball Derby were playing football what every item on the box score game ever played at the Baseball regularly at the Baseball Ground and signified, explaining a variety of base- Ground in Derby, home of Derby the name stuck. ball terms and also listing all the County Football Club. The Ameri- Now, after a lapse of over 40 major league grounds. cans, stationed at a huge army camp years, baseball was back again at the Then an aunt who lived in several miles out of the America put me in touch town, had been in- with a boy of my own age trigued as to how a foot- who was an avid fan of ball stadium, as they the Dodgers. called it, came to be Ships running the gaunt- named after their na- let of the U-boats to bring tional sport. vital supplies across the The answer lay in Atlantic also carried his a factory whose chim- letters containing base- neys poured out smoke ball magazines, newspa- right next to the Base- per cuttings, and even ball Ground. Ley's Mal- photographs he had leable Castings had taken himself at Ebbets been founded by a Vic- Field and the Polo torian industrialist, Sir Grounds. Before long I Francis Ley. In 1888 he went to Baseball Ground. The Americans had was the best informed 14-year-old on America on a business trip and be- promised to show the people of Derby baseball in Britain. I was familiar came so enamoured of baseball he what baseball was about, and even with all the heroes of the day and their decided to support those who were though D-Day had arrived only six nicknames before they vanished to trying to introduce the game over weeks before, they kept their word. join the forces: Jolting Joe DiMaggio, here. His money and enthusiasm The date was Saturday, July 22, 1944, the Yankee Clipper, Hammering Hank was a big factor in setting up an and among the crowd of several thou- Greenberg; Stan the Man Musial; Ted English league. sand was an excited schoolboy who Williams, the Splendid Splinter. I The Baseball Ground emerged probably knew more about the game absorbed the jargon of the game with from what had originally been a sports than any other Englishman there. a speed and ease that surprised me. If ground for the workers at the factory. My passion for baseball began only I could have mastered physics Part of it was used by Derby County with the film Pride of the Yankees. I and algebra with the same thorough- F.C. whose players were to make up watched mystified but entranced as ness. the nucleus of the baseball team. Gary Cooper, in the role of Lou Gehrig, But nothing spurred my enthu- There were four teams in the league tried to fulfill his promise to a crippled siasm more than watching a real live formed in 1890, all based on football child to hit three home runs in the baseball game. The Americans cer- clubs. Apart from Derby the others same game. The crouching man in tainly did it in style. There was a full were Preston North End, Aston Villa the mask snarling exultantly every military band, an informed, radio- and Stoke City. That first league time Coop swung and missed was style commentary over the loudspeak- lapsed after a couple of seasons but in clearly the villain of the piece. But ers and even popcorn and chewing 1894 a National Association was what was it all about? Why didn't gum dished out free. I was enthralled. formed. Gary Cooper belabour the squatting Every now and then, as I sat there I'd Most notable player in the Derby growling figure by his side with his close my eyes and imagine I was in side was Steve Bloomer, the England bat? I must know more about this Yankee Stadium. Maybe when I international inside right, capped 23 fascinating ritual. opened them again I'd see not the times and a prolific goal scorer with I began listening regularly to usual grimy factory chimneys but the over 350 goals during his soccer ca- AFN, the American Forces Network skyscrapers of New York. reer. For the Derby baseball team he set up in England for the growing Almost all of the crowd at the played second base but sadly the army of Yanks flooding into the coun- game was totally bemused by what statistics of his performance on the try for the invasion of . AFN they saw. But there was at least one diamond have not come down to us. transmitted live or recorded commen- spectator who understood and appre- The side also boasted another Eng- taries on major league games most ciated it all. I listened with amused land soccer international, goalkeeper days and I listened to them avidly. I condescension to the uncompre- Jack Robinson, the third baseman. got the general drift of what was going hending remarks of those around me The Derby team did amazingly on but most of the details escaped me. - continued on page 5 well. Not only did they win the Eng- Equally baffling were the baseball re- and read with even more disdain the