Note: This site was last updated
in December 2008
Project Protoball
Supporting
Research on the Origins of Baseball
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New! Craig Waff’s “Games
Tabulation”
Tables of over 1500 Game Accounts through 1860, each including date
played, source, playing site, and many with excerpts from the game
account. Over 1200 of the games are from
the
The names and short descriptions of 120 games – most of them safe-haven
games
A Big Handful of Chronologies – Each Comprising Short Historical Entries
on the Evolution of Ballplaying through 1861, with Bibliographic Sources. New! Seven
new sub-chronologies -- on NYC ballplaying before the Knicks, on holiday play,
on college play, etc. New! – A
version of the master Chronology with post-1844 entries ordered by date within
the given year. New! – A listing of the 195 items
just added in Version 10 [December 2008].
365 Histories
and Other References – to be annotated, eventually – that cover safe-haven
ballplaying up to 1871. New! – A
version of the bibliography that is organized in chronological order.
34 Active Origins Researchers, and What They’re All Working On
Current and Recent Research on
Origins
Brief notes
on 39 current researchers, and their recent and ongoing work
Some Notes on
the Use of this Site
5 Smart and
Large-Hearted People Who Provide Guidance and Help
Some Ways to
Join in Research on Early Ball Play
Where We
Think We’re Going, Generally
Who We Are,
What We Think We’re Up To, and Our Free Personal Services
Special Feature – Ballmaking
in the Protoball Era
Rob Loeffler
Gives a Chronology of Ballmaking up to 1870 – and lists 32 Ballmakers, 1858 to
1890
Research
Questions? Suggestions? Corrections?
Tell Us About Them
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Active Researchers and Their Special
Interests
[Note: for a bit more on some diggers’ current work, go here.]
A.
Regional Focus
At Large – Bill Wagner
Capitol Area of NYS -- Craig Waff
Central MA -- Dixie Tourangeau
Chicago and the old “NW Territory” -- John
Freyer
Eastern Shore MD -- Marty Payne
B. Thematic Focus
19th Century Rules – Eric
Miklich
Ballmaking – Rob Loeffler
Ballplaying Equipment -- Bob
Schaefer, Jerry Casway
Baserunning -- Larry McCray
General Knowledge -- John
Thorn
Gloves – David Arcidiacono
Henry Chadwick -- Andrew Schiff
Length of Games – Phil Lowry
Newspaper Coverage -- Andrew Schiff, Craig Waff
Spread of
Town Ball – Richard Hershberger, David Nevard
US Cricket -- Larry McCray
The basic idea of this site is to make material available to researchers
so that they can use it and improve it.
If you’re interested in working on early ballplay, you can help by:
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This site operates under the general operating philosophy of Retrosheet:
researchers and others are free to use the information compiled on the site,
but you must acknowledge the Protoball website in your writings if its
information proves materially useful in those writings.
The data on this site are not guaranteed to be accurate, nor to adhere
to common standards of publishability.
We are attempting to identify and remove any errors, but need the help
of you and other researchers in doing so, particularly because the Project does
not itself possess many of the original sources that are cited and used for the
site. Our policy is to ventilate
questionable material [noted as such, especially in comments labeled as “Caution” are “Caveat”] in order to determine if it is reliable.
For security reasons, readers cannot put comments directly to the
Protoball site. However, we may at some
point to conduct a moderated discussion of open issues and research ideas. To suggest specific points that might be
added to particular entries on the Protoball Chronology, or to other site
features, contact Larry McCray at lmccray@mit.edu.
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Origins: Project Protoball was conceived when it
became clear that interesting new finds were still being added to our store of
knowledge about the origins of baseball . . . and about earliest forms of
ballplaying.
A few years ago, John Thorn and Tom Heitz assembled a helpful chronology
of early baseball, one that listed about 70 key documented events from 2000 BC
to the Civil War. In 2000, Tom Altherr
published a prize-winning paper in Nine
that included scores of new citations to “baseball-like” games from 1621 to
1830. Our project began as an attempt to
build, and to maintain, a comprehensive tabulation of such evidence, adding
bibliographic sources for each.
Aims: Our central objective is to provide a wide
range of primary and secondary information on the evolution of ballplaying to
today’s researchers, so that they can identify interesting patterns readily --
and do so without chasing after elusive texts stored in libraries and personal
collections around the globe.
The Chronologies: Our central online document is the Protoball
Chronology, a listing of primary sources on known events in ballplaying. Owing to recent finds by [most importantly]
in David Block’s stunning 2005 book, Baseball
Before We Knew It, in John Thorn’s recent research, and to a fresh
scouring of the research notes of Harold Seymour and the 1905 Mills Commission
files, the current version has about 950 entries. Recently, over 15 “sub-chronologies have been
added on topical areas.
The primary focus of the chronology, like the Protoball effort itself,
is on what some term “bat-and-ball” games, but which are called “safe-haven”
games at this site. [The desire is to
understand the evolution of ballgames that involve bases --where runners are magically
immune from harm -- and not to spotlight the many other games that employ
striking clubs, such as golf, hurling, lawn tennis and other racquet sports,
croquet, field hockey, lacrosse, and such ancient non-base games as soule, trap
ball, bandy, kingball, ballstock, and northern spel.] The site’s current time range is from
Antiquity to 1861, with fragmentary information now being collected for the
years 1862-1871 for later inclusion.
Source Materials: The Project’s files include a [often sparsely filled] folder for each entry in the chronology, and about twelve shelf-feet of baseball histories, each of which has at least nominal coverage of ballplaying prior to the advent of the pro era [1871].
Need a Hand? We are happy to consult with site visitors
about these assembled sources to help answer questions, supply current Word
versions of our documents upon request, and mail photocopies at cost. The Project is centered at the
The Project has close ties to the
Society for American Baseball Research
Protoball’s expenses are met, in
part, by funds received from the late
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Priscilla Astifan,
Evelyn Begley,
Tom Ruane,
George Thompson,
John Thorn,
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Other Special Contributions -- The Project is particularly indebted
to John
Thorn
This small website, like the Project that it reflects, is still in a primitive state. We welcome your suggestions for making it most useful in supporting new research on the evolution of ballplaying to 1871.
As first uploaded in July 2005, the site comprised mainly a rudimentary chronology of about 460 entries, with proximate citations for most, and the first draft of a general bibliography of secondary sources on early ballplaying. Since then a score or more of researchers have contributed almost 500 additional items.
Future goals include:
The Chronology -- The initial chronology included short 1 or 2 paragraph] coverage drawn from 10 or 12 of the richest sources of data on early baseball and base-ball-like games, including David Block’s new Baseball Before We Knew It [2005], Robert Henderson’s classic Bat, Ball, and Bishop [1947], Tom Altherr’s A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball [2000], Harold Seymour’s Baseball: the Early Years [1960], and Seymour’s extensive research notes. A long-delayed next step is to screen about 150 other standard baseball histories, along with a small stack of isolated finds collected informally since 1999, in search of additional items. Later, we hope to extend the coverage of each entry to make it both more extensive -- including original text wherever feasible -- and more easily searchable.
The Bibliography -- The bibliography of secondary work on early ballplay remains incomplete. We hope to add missing sources, to procure hard copies for the Project collection, and provide annotations for each source that will help lead new researchers to the most productive sources.
Send your ideas for improvements and your criticism to Larry McCray at lmccray@mit.edu.
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To contact the Protoball Project by email, write to lmccray@mit.edu.
The mailing address:
The Protoball Project
Some Research Reports: Project Updates
Note: These
brief summaries are taken from “The Next
Destin’d Post,” a minimalist research summary updated every so often. If you would like to be added to the email
list for this update or have news to report, contact Larry McCray.
Tom Altherr [
Tom has revised a paper he
presented at NASSH in 2006 [“Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries in
Pre-1839 North American Ball Games History”] for possible publication. His 2007
contribution at the
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David Arcidiacono [
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Priscilla Astifan [Rochester NY] and a colleague discuss the
predecessor game to Knicks-style base ball in upstate New York in
“Old-Fashioned Base Ball” in Western New York, 1825-1860,” which appeared in the fall 2008 issue of Base Ball. The article notes
that until 1860 the unusually unnamed earlier game was still played
competitively in several places. About
20 news accounts from that time, and from later accounts of a number of
“throwback” games, allow a partial picture of the nature of that earlier game. Strong similarity to the Massachusetts Game
is found. [December 2008]
Priscilla is expanding her earlier work on early base ball in
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David Block [San Francisco] contributed an article to
the spring 2008 issue of Base Ball on
what is recognized as the earliest appearance of the word “base-ball,” the John
Newbery’s 1744 Little Pretty Pocket-Book. David examines some remaining mysteries of
this source [which gives us that ringing phrase, “the next destin’d post”]
including whether we can claim 1744 as the year “base-ball” first saw print
when no editions of the book are available prior to 1760, and whether the
absence of a bat in the relevant woodcut means that the bat hadn’t yet joined
the game – one can, of course, “bat” a ball with one’s hands, and the text only
refers to a ball that is “struck off.” [December 2008]
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“Gentlemen at the Bat” is the working title of Howard Burman’s [
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Jerry Casway’s [
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Kyle DeCicco-Carey [
Kyle is researching early
base ball on the southern coast of
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Researcher and author John Freyer
[Chicago] reports that his interest is still Chicago-area baseball from back
before the National League. Among other
feats, he has accumulated every
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The Vintage Base Ball Association’s [VBBA] recently-installed president
is Glenn Drinkwater [
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Murray Dubin and Daniel
Biddle are completing a book on the civil rights movement in the US in the
19th century, tentatively titled There
Must Come a Change: Murder, Baseball and the Battle for Equality in Civil War
America. The book, slated for 2010 release, will
include a chapter covering black baseball and the effort to integrate pro
baseball in the late 1860s by the Pythians in
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César Gonzalez [
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Brock Helander [
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Richard Hershberger [
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Beth Hise [
Long-term preparation for a special exhibit on cricket and baseball is under way by Beth. The exhibit is slated for spring of 2010 at
Lord’s Cricket Ground in
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The UK Chapter of SABR is preparing to resume publication of The Examiner, which has given us several
accounts of members’ research on English ballplaying [see http://www.sabruk.org/examiner/index.html.]
Martin Hoerchner [Kent,
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In addition to helping lead the Boston SABR Chapter and pushing along an
anthology of Deadball Era baseball poetry, Joanne
Hulbert [Holliston MA is working on a local project that brings together
the histories of the Massachusetts game and the NY Game as they impacted one
small town -- Holliston. She sees a big
story in these local events. She says
that when one wanders around among the ghosts of the game, the stories are
impressive: they involve triumph and tragedy, sex and violence, pathos and
drama. Besides, she lives in the
original Mudville, and that’s part of the story. Her tentative title: For Fun, Money or Marbles: How Baseball
Transformed a Perfectly Good Town.
She hasn’t set a target date for publication yet. [January 2008]
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John Husman [
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A book-length evaluative history of baseball from 1845 to 1857 --
Knickerbocker Base Ball -- is occupying Fred
Ivor-Campbell [
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Wendy Knickerbocker's [Castine ME] main baseball research interest is Billy Sunday. However, she is
also interested in American cultural history in general, and while doing
research on a book about a contemporary of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she was
delighted to find [and to submit for the Protoball chronology] an entry on
baseball from Emerson's journals. It was while reading Emerson's journals to
get a handle on Emerson’s friendship with
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Jim Lannen [
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Jeremy LeBlanc [West Boylston MA] is particularly
interested in the period between 1830 and 1870, and in black baseball before
the Negro Leagues.
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A chronology of the evolution of ballmaking has been assembled by Rob Loeffler [Rancho Santa Margarita
CA]. It appears elsewhere
on this Protoball site. Rob has a
collection of photos of well over 200 19th C baseballs and is
analyzing them to estimate their size and weight. [March
2007]
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Base Ball Discovered continues to charm audiences. The MLB Advanced Media documentary on
baseball’s origins, written and produced by Sam Marchiano [
MLB Advanced Media is preparing a full-length documentary on the origins
of baseball. Directed by Sam, Origins of the Game traces baseball
back to its early roots, and shows why predecessor games from outside the
MLB Advanced Media runs the website MLB.com. Sam, who has covered ports for nearly 20
years, has worked there since 2003, receiving two Emmy nominations, including
one for the 2006 documentary Vintage Base
Ball.
The documentary is scheduled to be released online at about the All-Star
break of 2008. Online viewing will be
free, with downloads available at a fee.
"The Next Destin’d Post will provide additional details on the
release of The Origins of the Game"
when they become available. [January 2008]
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Larry McCray [
Larry is succeeding Mike Ross [
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Wayne McElreavy [
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The earliest days of
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Eric Miklich [
Eric, author of a compendium of 19th Century rule changes, is currently
researching information on the history of pitching deliveries for an article
for his website, www.19cbaseball.com.
Eric is hoping to release a new book on base ball in the 1860’s by next
summer. This book, written in part with
the perspective of someone with extensive VBB experience, will offer
suggestions of why certain rules evolved as they did. [January
2008]
The next book from Peter Morris [Haslett
MI] will be Catcher: How the Man Behind
the Plate Became an Iconic American Folk Hero, due out in spring 2009. The book centers on the later professional
era, but also covers the catchers of the 1860s.
Along with Richard Malatzky
and John Thorn, Peter is guiding The Pioneer Project toward print. The project goal is to comprise histories of
a large number of the oldest base ball clubs, including many from the 1850s and
1860s. The two dozen writers now at their
drafting tables include David
Arcidiacono, Priscilla Astifan, David Ball, Fred Burwell, John Bowman, Frank
Ceresi, Ben Dettmer, Scott Fiesthumel, Robert Gregory, César Gonzalez, Richard
Hershberger, Bill Humber, Jeff Kittel, Angus Macfarlane, Richard Malatzky,
Peter Morris, Greg Perkins, Jeff Sackmann, Trey Strecker, John Thorn, Dixie
Tourangeau, Brian Turner, Craig Waff, and John Zinn. For more details on the project, go to;
http://www.petermorrisbooks.com/pioneer_project.htm.
[December 2008
SABR’s Seymour Medal, awarded to “the best book of baseball history or biography from the previous year,” was awarded to Peter for the amazing two-volume Game of Inches [Ivan R. Dee, 2006]. He thinks of his book as “a never-ending project,” and in that vein he is posting updates to the book on his website at http://www.petermorrisbooks.com. Peter reports that the work has gone through several printings, with sales of about 4000 copies.
Peter’s next publication will be But
Didn’t We Have Fun, which examines the first generation of ballplayers, and
is based on “dozens of previously unpublished or unavailable
reminiscences.” It is slated for release
in March 2008. [January 2008].
Peter’s latest book is Level Playing Fields:
How the
Groundskeeping Murphy Brothers Shaped Baseball. It includes coverage of the
development of early ball fields before 1872.
Peter’s next project is a textbook on the history of baseball from
1840-1870, and will include the scoop from many new sources that Peter has
turned up. [March 2007]
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David Nevard [
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“The Cartwright Conundrum: Fact
and Fiction of Cartwright’s Baseball Legacy” was the subject of a poster
session by Monica Nucciarone at the
SABR 36 convention. She is in the
rewrite phase of her treatise on Alexander Cartwright, and may present some
results at the St. Louis SABR convention.
She spent part of last April doing research in
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Pre-Civil War town ball in
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Dennis Pajot [
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Marty Payne [Saint Michaels MD] continues to explore
the influence of the advent of the New York Game on rural towns. He is finding that The New York game
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Had you assumed that stoolball is now only to be found in very old
English love poems? Wrong. John
and Kay Price [
Contemporary interest in stoolball has been expressed in Roujan in
southern France, where a club from Kent has been hosted during the last two
Easter holidays; in Augusta, Maine, where re-enactment games have been played;
in India, where ten states have joined the Indian Stoolball Federation; in
Pakistan, where another Stoolball Federation has formed; in Japan, where
stoolball broadcasts may be relayed on TV in the coming year; and in Thailand,
where schools have shown interest. John
and Kay are also working with Beth Hise on including stoolball in the 2010
exhibition on early ballplay at Lord’s.
[December 2008]
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A narrative history of baseball from 1845 to the Civil War is being put
together by Bill Ryczek [
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SABR-UK maintains an interest in the origins of
baseball. A handsome compilation of articles on the English roots of baseball
in 1995-2003 issues of the SABR-UK Examiner has been produced
by Martin Hoerchner [
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Dan Selz [
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Andrew Schiff [
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John Schiffert [
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Bob Tholkes [
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George Thompson [
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John Thorn’s [
1845, here comes John to show us that an earlier club, one with close
connections to taverns, to decidedly ungenteel personages, and to political
strongmen. His note: “It must have rankled the ballplaying
Knickerbockers that they had to share . . . their game with a bunch of
ruffians.” [December 2008]
Conceived and edited by John, the new McFarland offering Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game
will be appearing soon. The inaugural
issue will have several substantial articles on pre-1870 ballplaying, including
Joanne Hulbert’s work on Fast Day in
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Craig Waff