19th-century baseball

Every now and then, the referral logs bring SC a welcome surprise. A post that your host wrote some time ago on the Russian game of lapta has been picked up as a reference by a site which is far, far more interesting if you want to learn about baseball's origins.

That site, 19th Century Baseball, is an absolute treasure trove. The front page alone contains the first useful short summary of cricket that SC has ever read. There are also interesting discussions of other predecessors, like "town ball" and rounders, and the evolution of the field and equipment. Can you imagine the game without overhand pitching? It was illegal in 1873. There's plenty more where that came from, and I don't want to spoil it, so go pay them a visit now.

Comments

[language hat]

I love 19th-century baseball (I'm constantly correcting people who say the first World Series was in 1903), and I was lucky enough recently to see a "vintage base ball" game played by 1886 rules in Wahconah Park here in Pittsfield (the park itself goes back to the 19th century and is a little gem, with a row of tall trees behind the low outfield fence).