[Ads-l] Earliest Proven Printed Occurrence of "Baseball"

[Sammy Dean]

The mention of Walton caught my interest as I live a few miles from there in an area rich in royal history. On a point of detail, he was 42 at the time of the game. [Britannica: "Frederick Louis, prince of Wales (born Jan. 6, 1707, Hannover, Hanover—died March 20, 1751, London"] There was an article in the Walton-on-Thames website about the Block discovery at the time and one in the Daily Mail on this date (12 June) in 2013. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2340053/U-S-baseball-expert-proves-baseball-played-England-royalty.html 
SD
----- Original Message -----
From: Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Mon, 10 Jun 2024 17:52:04 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Earliest Proven Printed Occurrence of "Baseball"

I haven't checked whether this has already been posted on ADS-L in the past, but below is information about the earliest proven printed occurrence of "baseball" (discovered by super-early-baseball-researcher David Block).

Fred Shapiro


"On Tuesday last, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and Lord Middlesex, played at Bass-Ball (sic), at Walton in Surry (sic); notwithstanding the Weather was extreme bad, they continued playing several hours."
Sources:
Whitehall Evening Post, September 19. 1749.  David Block's 2013 find was reported at the SABR.org website on 6/19/2103, and it includes interview videos and links to related documentation.  Confirmed  6/19/2013 as yielding to a web search of <block royal baseball sabr>.
Comment:
Block points out that this very early reference to base-ball Indicates that the game was played by adults -- the Prince was 38 years old in 1749, further weakening the view that English base-ball was played mainly by juveniles in its early history.
The location of the game was Walton-on-Thames in Surrey.
 Comparing the 1749 game with modern baseball, Block estimates that the bass-ball was likely played on a smaller scale, with a much softer ball, with batted ball propelled the plaayers' hands, not with a bat, and that runners could be put out by being "plugged" (hit with a thrown  ball) between bases.

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