Town ball
Encyclopedia
The term town ball, or townball, describes the bat-and-ball, safe haven games played in North America
in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were similar to rounders
and were precursors to modern baseball
. In some areas - such as Philadelphia and along the Ohio River
and Mississippi River
- the local game was called Town Ball. In other regions the local game was named "base", "round ball", "base ball", or just "ball." The players might be schoolboys in a pasture with improvised balls and bats, or young men in organized clubs. As baseball became dominant, town ball became a casual term to describe old fashioned or rural games similar to baseball.
Generally the infield was a square or rectangular shape, with four bases or pegs. Similarly to baseball, the fourth base was called home base, as it was the final goal of a runner. However, differently from baseball - and more like rounders
- the striker would stand between first and fourth base, at a kind of fifth base called the striker's stand. The thrower stood in the middle of the square and delivered the ball to be hit by the striker. If the struck ball were caught in mid-air or on the first bounce, the striker was called out. If no one caught it, the striker became a runner and advanced as many bases as possible, with the option to stop at any base as a safe haven.
In most varieties of the game, fielders could hit the runner with the ball and if he were not on a base he would be called out. But in some, the cross-out was used: the fielder threw the ball so as to cross the runner's path, between him and the next base. A runner who reached fourth base safely was said to have achieved a round or tally.
The concept of innings was used: the team with the bat was "in", until put "out" by the opposing side. If one-out, all-out was the rule, the defensive team only needed to retire one man to end the inning. However, the game might also be played as all-out, all-out, meaning that every player had to be retired (as in cricket
) before sides were changed. Matches might be played for an agreed-upon number of innings, or until one side had achieved a requisite number of tallies.
has been debated since the early 1900s, and the two sides of the debate stem from a friendly quarrel between an editor and his publisher. In the 1903 edition of Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide, editor Henry Chadwick, who was born in England, wrote "Just as the New York game was improved townball, so was townball an improved form of the two-centuries-old English game of rounders."
Albert Goodwill Spalding, star player, sports equipment entrepreneur, and publisher of the Spalding Guide, asserted that baseball's origins were American. Spalding wrote an article titled "The Origin and Early History of Baseball" for the January 15, 1905 Washington Post. He described the game of Four Old Cat, in which four throwers and four batsmen stand in four corners. "Some ingenious American lad" got the idea of placing one thrower in the center of the square, wrote Spalding. "This was for many years known as the old game of Town Ball, from which the present game of baseball no doubt had its origin, and not from the English children's picnic game of 'Rounders'." http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/search.html
Later, in 1905, Spalding organized a panel of experts known as the Mills
Commission to investigate the issue. Abner Graves, whose testimony was the basis of the Mills Commission claim that Abner Doubleday
invented baseball in 1839, named townball as the "old" game that the boys of Cooperstown, New York
played before baseball. http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/about/history.htm. In the townball game that Graves described, the batsman struck the tossed ball with a flat bat, and ran toward a goal fifty feet away, and back again. Graves said there were generally twenty to fifty boys in the field, which generated many collisions among those trying to catch the ball.
article dated Sept. 19, 1857, reporting a “Game of Town Ball” at Germantown
(now a neighborhood of Philadelphia). Reporting another game, the Clipper for August 11, 1860 commented, "The Olympic Club dates its existence back to 1832, so that properly speaking it is the parent Town Ball organization in the city of Philadelphia."
Informal groups were playing town ball at Market Street in Philadelphia and across the Delaware River
in Camden, New Jersey
in 1831 and 1832. Irving Leitner quotes a 19th century source: "All the players were over 25 years of age, and to see them playing a game like this caused much merriment among the friends of the players. It required 'sand' in those days to go out on the field and play, as the prejudice against the game was very great."
The two groups merged in 1833 to form the Olympic Ball Club. In the introduction to his book Baseball, John Montgomery Ward
wrote of the Philadelphia game:
A copy of the Olympic Ball Club's constitution exists http://www.sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,611,3,158, but it contains only rules for governing the club, and no rules for playing ball. Contemporary accounts describe Philadelphia town ball as played with eleven men on a side, with four bases and the batter standing between 4th and 1st bases. They played two innings of all-out, all-out or eleven innings of one-out, all-out. Typical games were high-scoring with the victorious side often topping 75 runs. The players are said to have made their own bats and balls. They were adept with two types of bats. For a two-handed swing, a flat cricket
-type bat was used. For a one-handed swing, a smaller round model, called a delill, was chosen. There is evidence that over the course of three decades the Olympics played varieties of baseball, wicket, and old cat, as well as town ball.
Richard Hershberger's research indicates that Philadelphia Town Ball did not use "soaking" or "burning" to retire the base runner. In fact the bases - rather close together - were not safe havens, but merely marked the complete circuit the batter-runner must take. In this all out-all out game there were no men left on base.
In 1860 the Olympics converted to the modern "New York game", but the old style was still being played in rural areas. That year members of Athletic of Philadelphia
- originally formed as a town ball club - traveled to Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania for two contests, one of New York-style baseball and the other of town ball. The Mauch Chunk lads defeated the A's 45-43 at town ball. But playing New York rules, the A's defeated the country players 34-2. The Athletics were soon to be a national baseball powerhouse. The Olympic Club, after a bitterly publicized rivalry with the A's, dropped out of major match play in 1864, and many of the members went back to playing Town Ball.
in 1858. This game was played by ten to fourteen players with four bases 60 feet apart and no foul territory. The ball was considerably smaller and lighter than a modern baseball, and runners were put out by "soaking" - hitting them with the thrown ball. Innings were one-out, all-out and the first club to reach 100 runs was the winner. Although it had its adherents until the 1860s, the Massachusetts game was superseded by the three-out, all-out "New York game" of baseball, with its Knickerbocker Rules
which formed the basis of the modern game of baseball.
continued to play old fashioned base ball at least until 1865. After the Civil War
, old-timers still put on exhibitions of traditional baseball at picnics and charity events. For instance, in Mauston, Wisconsin
in 1888, the festivities at The Old Settlers Jubilee included "an old fashioned base ball game" http://www.rootsweb.com/~wijuneau/Pioneers21888.html Ironically, the only mention of baseball in The Chronicles of Cooperstown describes an old fashioned game:
Many articles were written waxing nostalgically for the old game. This nostalgia was satirized by Robert J. Burdette in his story "Rollo Learning to Play":
Varieties of town ball remained a popular schoolyard activity, especially in rural areas, well into the 20th century. http://home.comcast.net/~buffalohead/townball2.htm In recent times the Massachusetts Rules have occasionally been used by "vintage" baseball clubs, such as the Leatherstocking Base Ball Club of Cooperstown, NY.http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ruletown.shtml
Project Protoball lists Abraham Lincoln
as a player in the 1840s. According to biographer Albert Beveridge, "He joined with gusto in outdoor sports -- foot-races, jumping and hopping contests, town ball, wrestling."
In another Protoball reference, Henry C. Whitney, in Lincoln the Citizen writes of the future President in 1860: "During the settling on the convention Lincoln had been trying, in one way and another, to keep down the excitement . . . playing billiards a little, town ball a little, and story-telling a little."
Irving Leitner quotes a story by Frank Blair, grandson of Francis P. Blair, one of Lincoln's political confidants:
Ty Cobb
In his book My Life in Baseball, Ty Cobb
wrote about ballplaying in Georgia
around 1898: "At eleven and twelve, I liked to play cow-pasture baseball—what we called town ball." He wrote of whacking a string ball and "then chasing madly about the bases while an opponent tried to retrieve said pill and sock you with it." In this version of town ball, a home run entitled the hitter to another turn at bat.
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were similar to rounders
Rounders
Rounders is a game played between two teams of either gender. The game originated in England where it was played in Tudor times. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by...
and were precursors to modern baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
. In some areas - such as Philadelphia and along the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
and Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
- the local game was called Town Ball. In other regions the local game was named "base", "round ball", "base ball", or just "ball." The players might be schoolboys in a pasture with improvised balls and bats, or young men in organized clubs. As baseball became dominant, town ball became a casual term to describe old fashioned or rural games similar to baseball.
Rules
The rules of town ball varied, but distinguishing characteristics most often cited were:- The number of players on a team was usually more than nine.
- There was no foul territory; all struck balls were in play.
- In many versions, base runners could be put out by hitting them with the ball - a practice known as "soaking" or "plugging".
Generally the infield was a square or rectangular shape, with four bases or pegs. Similarly to baseball, the fourth base was called home base, as it was the final goal of a runner. However, differently from baseball - and more like rounders
Rounders
Rounders is a game played between two teams of either gender. The game originated in England where it was played in Tudor times. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by...
- the striker would stand between first and fourth base, at a kind of fifth base called the striker's stand. The thrower stood in the middle of the square and delivered the ball to be hit by the striker. If the struck ball were caught in mid-air or on the first bounce, the striker was called out. If no one caught it, the striker became a runner and advanced as many bases as possible, with the option to stop at any base as a safe haven.
In most varieties of the game, fielders could hit the runner with the ball and if he were not on a base he would be called out. But in some, the cross-out was used: the fielder threw the ball so as to cross the runner's path, between him and the next base. A runner who reached fourth base safely was said to have achieved a round or tally.
The concept of innings was used: the team with the bat was "in", until put "out" by the opposing side. If one-out, all-out was the rule, the defensive team only needed to retire one man to end the inning. However, the game might also be played as all-out, all-out, meaning that every player had to be retired (as in cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
) before sides were changed. Matches might be played for an agreed-upon number of innings, or until one side had achieved a requisite number of tallies.
Town Ball and the Doubleday Myth
Townball's role in the origins of baseballOrigins of baseball
The question of the origins of baseball has been the subject of debate and controversy for more than a century. Baseball and the other modern bat, ball and running games, cricket and rounders, were developed from earlier folk games....
has been debated since the early 1900s, and the two sides of the debate stem from a friendly quarrel between an editor and his publisher. In the 1903 edition of Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide, editor Henry Chadwick, who was born in England, wrote "Just as the New York game was improved townball, so was townball an improved form of the two-centuries-old English game of rounders."
Albert Goodwill Spalding, star player, sports equipment entrepreneur, and publisher of the Spalding Guide, asserted that baseball's origins were American. Spalding wrote an article titled "The Origin and Early History of Baseball" for the January 15, 1905 Washington Post. He described the game of Four Old Cat, in which four throwers and four batsmen stand in four corners. "Some ingenious American lad" got the idea of placing one thrower in the center of the square, wrote Spalding. "This was for many years known as the old game of Town Ball, from which the present game of baseball no doubt had its origin, and not from the English children's picnic game of 'Rounders'." http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/search.html
Later, in 1905, Spalding organized a panel of experts known as the Mills
Abraham G. Mills
Abraham Gilbert Mills was the fourth president of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs , and is best known for heading the "Mills Commission" which controversially credited Civil War General Abner Doubleday with the invention of baseball.- Early life :Mills was born in New York City...
Commission to investigate the issue. Abner Graves, whose testimony was the basis of the Mills Commission claim that Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the opening battle of the war, and had a pivotal role in the early fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was his finest hour, but his...
invented baseball in 1839, named townball as the "old" game that the boys of Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown, New York
Cooperstown is a village in Otsego County, New York, USA. It is located in the Town of Otsego. The population was estimated to be 1,852 at the 2010 census.The Village of Cooperstown is the county seat of Otsego County, New York...
played before baseball. http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/about/history.htm. In the townball game that Graves described, the batsman struck the tossed ball with a flat bat, and ran toward a goal fifty feet away, and back again. Graves said there were generally twenty to fifty boys in the field, which generated many collisions among those trying to catch the ball.
Philadelphia Town Ball
Most accounts of a game called Town Ball were recorded many years later as reminiscences or memoirs. It is more difficult to find contemporary descriptions. One of the earliest was a New York ClipperNew York Clipper
The New York Clipper, also known as The Clipper, was a weekly entertainment newspaper published in New York City from 1853 to 1924. It covered many topics, including circuses, dance, music, the outdoors, sports, and theatre. It had a circulation of about 25,000. The publishers also produced the...
article dated Sept. 19, 1857, reporting a “Game of Town Ball” at Germantown
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Germantown is a neighborhood in the northwest section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, about 7–8 miles northwest from the center of the city...
(now a neighborhood of Philadelphia). Reporting another game, the Clipper for August 11, 1860 commented, "The Olympic Club dates its existence back to 1832, so that properly speaking it is the parent Town Ball organization in the city of Philadelphia."
Informal groups were playing town ball at Market Street in Philadelphia and across the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
in Camden, New Jersey
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
in 1831 and 1832. Irving Leitner quotes a 19th century source: "All the players were over 25 years of age, and to see them playing a game like this caused much merriment among the friends of the players. It required 'sand' in those days to go out on the field and play, as the prejudice against the game was very great."
The two groups merged in 1833 to form the Olympic Ball Club. In the introduction to his book Baseball, John Montgomery Ward
John Montgomery Ward
John Montgomery Ward , known as Monte Ward, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, shortstop and manager. Ward was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Renovo, Pennsylvania...
wrote of the Philadelphia game:
... it is recorded that the first day for practice enough members were not present to make up town-ball, and so a game of "two-old-cat" was played. This town-ball was so nearly like rounders that one must have been the prototype of the other, but town-ball and base-ball were two very different games. When this same town-ball club decided in 1860 to adopt base-ball instead, many of its principal members resigned, so great was the enmity to the latter game. - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19975
A copy of the Olympic Ball Club's constitution exists http://www.sabr.org/sabr.cfm?a=cms,c,611,3,158, but it contains only rules for governing the club, and no rules for playing ball. Contemporary accounts describe Philadelphia town ball as played with eleven men on a side, with four bases and the batter standing between 4th and 1st bases. They played two innings of all-out, all-out or eleven innings of one-out, all-out. Typical games were high-scoring with the victorious side often topping 75 runs. The players are said to have made their own bats and balls. They were adept with two types of bats. For a two-handed swing, a flat cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
-type bat was used. For a one-handed swing, a smaller round model, called a delill, was chosen. There is evidence that over the course of three decades the Olympics played varieties of baseball, wicket, and old cat, as well as town ball.
Richard Hershberger's research indicates that Philadelphia Town Ball did not use "soaking" or "burning" to retire the base runner. In fact the bases - rather close together - were not safe havens, but merely marked the complete circuit the batter-runner must take. In this all out-all out game there were no men left on base.
In 1860 the Olympics converted to the modern "New York game", but the old style was still being played in rural areas. That year members of Athletic of Philadelphia
Athletic of Philadelphia
Athletic of Philadelphia was a prominent National Association, and later National League, professional baseball team that played in the second half of the 19th century.-Early History:...
- originally formed as a town ball club - traveled to Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania for two contests, one of New York-style baseball and the other of town ball. The Mauch Chunk lads defeated the A's 45-43 at town ball. But playing New York rules, the A's defeated the country players 34-2. The Athletics were soon to be a national baseball powerhouse. The Olympic Club, after a bitterly publicized rivalry with the A's, dropped out of major match play in 1864, and many of the members went back to playing Town Ball.
Town Ball in the West
- In Cincinnati, OhioCincinnati, OhioCincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
the informal Excelsior Townball Club was formed in 1860; the players were young schoolteachers and their friends, and hospital interns. Reportedly they used a small bat which was swung with one hand, in games of four innings, with 10 to 15 players on a side. The more formal Cincinnati Buckeye Townball Club was established on 1863.
- IndianaIndianaIndiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
Author Edward EgglestonEdward EgglestonEdward Eggleston was an American historian and novelist.-Biography:Eggleston was born in Vevay, Indiana, to Joseph Cary Eggleston and Mary Jane Craig. As a child, he was too ill to regularly attend school, so his education was primarily provided by his father. He became an ordained Methodist...
remembers a pre-Civil WarAmerican Civil WarThe American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
schoolyard game:
Town-ball is one of the old games from which the scientific but not half so amusing "national game" of base-ball has since been evolved. In that day the national game was not thought of. Eastern boys played field-base, and Western boys town-ball in a free and happy way, with soft balls, primitive bats, and no nonsense. There were no scores, but a catch or a cross-out in town-ball put the whole side out, leaving others to take the bat or "paddle" as it was appropriately called. - Scribner's Monthly, March 1879 http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/moa-cgi?notisid=ABP7664-0017-124
- The town of Canton, IllinoisCanton, IllinoisCanton is the largest city in Fulton County, Illinois in the United States. The population was 18,288 as of the 2000 Census. The Canton Micropolitan Statistical Area covers all of Fulton County; it is in turn part of the wider Peoria-Canton, IL Combined Statistical Area .-Geography:Canton is...
was incorporated in 1837. At the first meeting of the town trustees (aldermen), 27 March 1837, Section 36 of the Ordinances was enacted: "any person who shall on the Sabbath day play at bandy, cricket, cat, town-ball, corner-ball, over-ball, fives, or any other game of ball, within the limits of the corporation, or shall engage in pitching dollars or quarters, or any other game, in any public place, shall, on conviction thereof, be fined the sum of one dollar."http://www.illinoisancestors.org/fulton/1871_canton/pages95_126.html
- Henry J. Philpott described himself as "a pupil and teacher in country schools within twenty miles of the Mississippi RiverMississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, and about half-way between St. LouisSt. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
and St. PaulSaint Paul, MinnesotaSaint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
." He wrote a story called "A Little Boys' Game with a Ball" for Popular Science Monthly in 1890. Philpott writes that the boys played Old CatOld CatOld Cat games were 19th century bat-and-ball, safe haven games played in North America. The games were numbered according to the number of bases...
until they had more than eight players; then they switched to town-ball. "In 'town-ball' there was as yet no distinction between base-men [infielders] and fielders. After the pitcher and catcher had been selected, the others on that side went where they pleased; and they did not get to bat until they had put all the batters out." He writes that after baseball was introduced, town-ball "was so different that for some years the two games were played side by side, each retaining its own name." http://books.google.com/books?vid=LCCN92642492&id=kzAKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA656&lpg=PA656&dq=%22Town+Ball%22&as_brr=1
The Massachusetts Game
New Englanders usually called their game "base" or "round ball" (from running 'round the bases). The "Massachusetts game" or "New England game" was a formalized version with many clubs active in the Boston area. A set of rules was drawn up by the Massachusetts Association of Base Ball Players at Dedham, MassachusettsDedham, Massachusetts
Dedham is a town in and the county seat of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,729 at the 2010 census. It is located on Boston's southwest border. On the northwest it is bordered by Needham, on the southwest by Westwood and on the southeast by...
in 1858. This game was played by ten to fourteen players with four bases 60 feet apart and no foul territory. The ball was considerably smaller and lighter than a modern baseball, and runners were put out by "soaking" - hitting them with the thrown ball. Innings were one-out, all-out and the first club to reach 100 runs was the winner. Although it had its adherents until the 1860s, the Massachusetts game was superseded by the three-out, all-out "New York game" of baseball, with its Knickerbocker Rules
Knickerbocker Rules
The Knickerbocker Rules are a set of baseball rules formalized by Alexander Cartwright in 1845. They are considered to be the basis for the rules of the modern game.-The rules:...
which formed the basis of the modern game of baseball.
Old Fashioned Base Ball
Another term applied retroactively to precursor baseball games was Old Fashioned Base Ball. This game was generally identified as a type of baseball with large numbers on each side, where the fielders threw the ball at the runner. The Knickerbocker Antiquarian Base Ball Club of Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
continued to play old fashioned base ball at least until 1865. After the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, old-timers still put on exhibitions of traditional baseball at picnics and charity events. For instance, in Mauston, Wisconsin
Mauston, Wisconsin
Mauston is a city in and the county seat of Juneau County, Wisconsin, United States. The population is 4,411 according to the 2010 census.-History:...
in 1888, the festivities at The Old Settlers Jubilee included "an old fashioned base ball game" http://www.rootsweb.com/~wijuneau/Pioneers21888.html Ironically, the only mention of baseball in The Chronicles of Cooperstown describes an old fashioned game:
1877. A famous game of old-fashioned base ball was played here, in August — Judge Sturges heading the "Reds" and Judge Edick the "Blues" — 16 on a side. The victory was with the "Blues." It called together a large concourse of people.
Many articles were written waxing nostalgically for the old game. This nostalgia was satirized by Robert J. Burdette in his story "Rollo Learning to Play":
"And town ball," he said, "good old town ball! There was no limit to the number on a side. The ring was anywhere from three hundred feet to a mile in circumference, according to whether we played on a vacant Pingree lot or out on the open prairie... The bat was a board, about the general shape of a Roman galley oar and not quite so wide as a barn door. The ball was of solid India rubber; a little fellow could hit it a hundred yards, and a big boy, with a hickory club, could send it clear over the bluffs or across the lake. We broke all the windows in the school-house the first day, and finished up every pane of glass in the neighborhood before the season closed. The side that got its innings first kept them until school was out or the
last boy died." - The Wit and Humor of America, Vol. 5 1907 http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19323
Varieties of town ball remained a popular schoolyard activity, especially in rural areas, well into the 20th century. http://home.comcast.net/~buffalohead/townball2.htm In recent times the Massachusetts Rules have occasionally been used by "vintage" baseball clubs, such as the Leatherstocking Base Ball Club of Cooperstown, NY.http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ruletown.shtml
Famous Town Ball Players
Abraham LincolnProject Protoball lists Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
as a player in the 1840s. According to biographer Albert Beveridge, "He joined with gusto in outdoor sports -- foot-races, jumping and hopping contests, town ball, wrestling."
In another Protoball reference, Henry C. Whitney, in Lincoln the Citizen writes of the future President in 1860: "During the settling on the convention Lincoln had been trying, in one way and another, to keep down the excitement . . . playing billiards a little, town ball a little, and story-telling a little."
Irving Leitner quotes a story by Frank Blair, grandson of Francis P. Blair, one of Lincoln's political confidants:
There were eight or ten of us, our ages ranging from eight to twelve years. Although I was but seven or eight years of age, Mr. Lincoln's visits were of such importance to us boys as to leave a clear impression on my memory. He drove out to the place quite frequently. We boys, for hours at a time played 'town ball' on the vast lawn, and Mr. Lincoln would join ardently in the sport. I remember vividly how he ran with the children; how long were his strides, and how far his coat-tails stuck out behind, and how we tried to hit him with the ball, as he ran the bases. He entered into the spirit of the play as completely as any of us, and we invariably hailed his coming with delight."
Ty Cobb
In his book My Life in Baseball, Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb
Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...
wrote about ballplaying in Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
around 1898: "At eleven and twelve, I liked to play cow-pasture baseball—what we called town ball." He wrote of whacking a string ball and "then chasing madly about the bases while an opponent tried to retrieve said pill and sock you with it." In this version of town ball, a home run entitled the hitter to another turn at bat.