Slight Antedating of Modern Sense of "Baseball"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 10:46 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
>
> On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 9:30 PM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>>
>> baseball (OED, 1.b., 1845 [23 Oct.])
>>
>> 1845 _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_ 21 Oct. 2/3 (Newspapers.com)  A GREAT MATCH AT
>> BASE BALL. -- This afternoon, at 2 o'clock, the New York Bass Ball Club play
>> a match at ball with the Brooklyn Club at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken.  The
>> interest attached to this match will attract large numbers from this and the
>> neighboring city.
>
> There was an item the same day in the New York Herald:
>
> 1845 _N.Y. Herald_ 21 Oct. 2/4 The New York Base Ball Club will play a
> match of base ball against the Brooklyn Club, to-morrow afternoon, at
> 2 o'clock, at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken.
> visible here: http://www.rarenewspapers.com/view/203248?acl=278654971
>
> The date there is confusing, suggesting there was a game on 10/22. But
> there were only games on 10/21 and 10/24, according to this:
>
> http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2012/02/11/inventing-baseball/

The Herald reports that the two teams were originally scheduled to meet on 10/6:

1845 _N.Y. Herald_ 6 Oct. 2/4 Sporting Events. A Base Ball match
between eight players of Brooklyn and eight of New York, was announced
to take place in Brooklyn to-day, and also a shooting match among the
members of the Anglo-American Club of this city. It is not believed,
however, that either of the events will "come off," in consequence of
some mal-arrangement or misunderstanding among the several parties.

1845 _N.Y. Herald_ 7 Oct. 3/3 A True Prophecy. We stated yesterday
that the proposed Base Ball match between eight players of New York
against eight players of Brooklyn, would turn out to be a failure; and
so it was, for the New Yorkers did not make their appearance on the
ground, and the supper provided by their order was necessarily
untouched.

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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