"Base ball"

[Jonathan Lighter]

1755 John Kidgell _The Card_  I (Dublin: Sam. Price) 8:
The younger part of the Family, perceiving Papa not inclined to _enlarge_
upon the Matter, retired to an _interrupted_ Party at _Base-Ball_ (an
_infant_ game, which as it advances in its _Teens_, improves into _Fives_,
and in its State of _Manhood_ is called _Tennis_.

I take the connection to tennis to be facetious.  Of interest is that the
game was evidently also known in Ireland at this date.

JL

On Sun, Jul 18, 2010 at 12:54 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "Base ball"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A correspondent alleges the following references to "base ball" prior
> to 1800.  Are these useful?  Useless?  Presumably unrelated to the
> American game, but so -- I assume -- is the OED's c1815 Jane Austen
> quote.  They would be at least instances of the use of the phrase.
>
> I would look in the ADS-L archives except that there are over 1800
> messages with the word "baseball" in them -- and that's only since 1999.
>
> Joel
>
>
> >There are several references to base ball in England before  in
> >writing  before 1800.
> >
> >David Block, in his Baseball Before We Knew It mentions them in
> >several places, most notably in chapter10..
>
> [Apparently all the following are taken from Block and Wiles  GB, Preview.
>
>
> >A book intended for children, A Pretty Little Pocket Book, mentions
> >a game for children in which they struck a ball and ran around bases.
> >
> >Lady Hervey ( aka Mary Lepel) writes of the royal children playing
> >at base ball in a letter of November 1748. They played indoors with
> >aristocratic children and lords and ladies in waiting, it is assumed.
> >
> >Then Jane Austen, writing in the 1790s, mentions that her heroine
> >Catherine preferred baseball to studies.
>
> [I read, actually first published in 1817, although probably written
> 1798-1799 and the OED cites c1815.]
>
>
> >In 1875 , in Jolly Games for Happy Homes describes a game without a
> >bat but which included running around bases. It was a game girls could
> play.
> >
> >Also mentioned is a quote from a character in a book of 1799,
> >Battleridge in which a man bemoans being sent to Geneva because, "No
> >more cricket, no more base-ball."
>
> Cooke, Cassandra.  Battleridge: an historical tale, founded on facts
> ... By a lady of quality ... .  London, G. Cawthorn,
> 1799.  [Apparently in ECCO.]
>
> Joel
>
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