Last Updated December 1, 2008
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Holidays and Ballplaying
A Working Chronology
Note:
This list was derived from version 10 of the full Protoball Chronology,
which was uploaded in December 2008.
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A. Fast
Day
1659.1
-- Stuyvesant: No Tennis, Ball-Playing, Dice on Fast Day
“We shall interdict and forbid, during
divine service on the [fasting] day aforesaid, all exercise and games of
tennis, ball-playing, hunting, plowing and sowing, and moreover all unlawful
practice such as dice, drunkenness . . .” proclaimed Peter Stuyvesant.
1820s.14
–
Alfred Holbrook was born in 1816. His autobiography, Reminiscences of
the Happy Life of a Teacher
“The [school-day] plays of those times,
more than sixty years ago, were very similar to the plays of the present time.
Some of these were “base-ball,” in which we chose sides, “one
hole cat,” “two hole cat,” “knock up and catch,”
Blackman,” “snap the whip,” skating, sliding down hill, rolling
the hoop, marbles, “prisoner’s base,” “football,”
mumble the peg,” etc. Ibid.
page 35. Note: was “knock up and catch” a fungo game, possibly?
“Now, it was both unlawful and wicked
to play ball on fast-day, and none of my associates in town were ever known to
engage in such unholy enterprises and sinful amusements on fast-days; [p 52/53]
but other wicked boys, with whom I had nothing to do, made it their special
delight and boast to get together in some quiet, concealed place, and enjoy
themselves, more especially because it was a violation of law. Not infrequently, however, they found
the constable after them. . . .” “Soon after, this blue law,
perhaps the only one in the
1830c.2
– Thoreau Associates “Fast Day” with Base-Ball Played in
Russet Fields
“April 10 [1856]. Fast-Day. . . .
. I associate this day, when I can remember it, with games of baseball played
over beyond the hills in the russet fields toward Sleepy Hollow, where the snow
was just melted and dried up.
Submitted by David Nevard. On 8/2/2005,
George Thompson submitted the following reference: Torrey, Bradford, Journal
of Henry David Thoreau vol. 8, page 270. He notes that
1833.11
– MA Clergyman Notes “Usual” Fast Day Defections For
Ballplaying
As one of his several diary references to ballplaying
[see also #1796.2 and #1806.4] Thomas Robbins D.D. in 1833 wrote this diary
entry about Fast Day in Mattapoisett MA:
“Fast. Meetings well
attended . . . . A part of the people were off playing ball, according to their
usual practice . . . . Am very much fatigued. The afternoon exercise was very
long. Read.”
On December 28, 1829 at
Increase
1835c.5
– Base Ball Recalled as Very Popular at
“The games of bat-and-ball in former
years were various, but most popular were “four old cat” and base
ball. The latter alone survives to this day [1883], and in a very changed
condition. . . . A very large proportion of the students participated in
the sport; and the old residents will readily recall with what
regularity. Fast day used to be devoted to the base ball of the period.”
Charles H. Bell, Phillips Exeter Academy
in New Hampshire: A Historical Sketch
1840s.30
– Ballplayer Recalls Boyhood Matches, Ballmaking, Adult Play
On Fast Day [page 68]: “The town meeting was succeeded in
April by Fast Day, appointed always for a Thursday. For some unknown reason Thursday in
On ball-making, and on plugging [page 174]
: “Our ingenuity was
exercised in weaving watch chains in various patterns with silk twist; in
making handsome bats for ball, and in making the balls themselves with the
raveled yarn of old stockings, winding it over a bit of rubber, and sewing on a
cover of fine thin calf skin. This
ball did not kill as it struck one, and, instead of being thrown to the man on
the bases was more usually at thee man running between them. He who could make a good shot of that
kind was much applauded, and he who was hit was laughed at and felt very
sheepish. That was true sport,
plenty of fun and excitement, yet not too serious and severe. The issue of the game was talked over
for a week. I did my daily stint of
stitching with only one thing in mind, to [p174/175] play ball when through; for
the boys played every afternoon.
When there was to be a match game the men practices after the
day’s work was done.”
On bootmakers [page 170]: “The smaller [bootmaking] shops
were the centers for the gossip, rumors, and discussions which agitated the
community. There men sharpened
their wits upon each other, played practical jokes, sang, argued the questions
of that [p170/171] day, especially slavery, and arranged every week from early
spring to late autumn a match game of ball either among themselves or the
bootmakers of neighboring towns for Saturday afternoon, which was their half
holiday.”
John Albee, Confessions of Boyhood
1840s.31
–Lem: Juvenile
Fiction’s Boy Who Loved Round-ball
Noah Brookes, Lem: A New England Village
Boy: His Adventures and his Mishaps
On pages 93-97, the novel lays out the game
that was played by Lem [born 1830] and his playmates, which seems to follow the
customs of the
On spring, pp 92-93: “Ball-playing began early in the
spring; [p92/93] it was the first of the summer games to come out.
On Fast Day, p. 93: “I am afraid that Lem’s only
notion of Fast Day was that that was the long-expected day when, for the first
time that year, a game of ball was played on the Common.”
On the pleasant effects of a change in the
path of the
On making teams for simulating Revolutionary
War tussles, p. 107: “We can’t all be Americans; and we have agreed
to choose sides, as we do in round ball.”
Note: we welcome comment on the authenticity of
Brooks’ depiction of ballplaying in the 1840s,
1841.16
– The Fast Day Choice in ME: Hear a “Fact Sermon” or Play
Ball?
“Thursday wind northeast cloudy &
cool fast day the people assemble at Holts to play Ball & some quarreling I
fear it would be better to go to meeting and hear a fact sermon as once was the
fasion.” “Journal of
Jonathan Phillips of Turner,
http://files.usgwarchives.org/me/androscoggin/turner/diary/phillips.txt,
accessed 11/14/2008. Phillips was
born in Sylvester [not Turner] ME in 1780.
Turner is now a town of about 5000 souls and is about 60 miles north of
1844.10
– NH Fast Day Games All Set for the Common – Unless Arborism Goes
Too Far!
“In
http://www.ci.keene.nh.us/library/upperashuelot/part8.pdf. This account describes the arguments
against planting 141 trees along Keene streets, one being that trees
“would impair use of the Common as a parade ground for military and civic
reviews, as a market place for farmers and their teams, as a field for village
baseball games on Fast Day, as an open space for wood sleds in winter, and as a
free area for all the activity of Court Week.” Note: Is it fair to infer that [a] Fast Day games were a
well-established tradition by 1844, and that [b] ballplaying on the Common was much
less often seen on other days of the year? What was Court Week?
1844.11
– Why Fast Day Comes Only Once a Year?
“Thursday April 4th. A very warm day it is fast day* & I
have played ball so much that I am to tired I can hardly set up I don’t think
I shall want to have fast day come again for a year.” Diary of Edward Jenner Carpenter of
http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?DocID=126
as accessed November 17th 2008.
Carpenter was an 18 year old apprentice to a
B. Town Meeting Day
1846.9
– Town Ball in
“I came West 59 years ago, in 1846, and
found “Town Ball” a popular game at all Town meetings. I do not
recall an instance of a money bet on the game; but, at Town meeting, the side
losing had to buy the ginger bread and cider.” [July letter]
“[Town Ball] was so named because it
was mostly played at “Town Meetings.” It had as many players
on a side as chose to play; but the principal players were
“Thrower” and “Catcher.” There were three bases
and a home plate. The players were put out by being touched with ball
[sic] or hit with thrown ball, when off the base. You can readily see
that the present game [1900’s baseball] is an evolution from Town
Ball.” [April letter]
Letters from H. H. Waldo,
1855c.1
– “
“This [
“It was an extremely convenient game
because it required as a minimum only four on a side to play it, and yet you
could play it equally as well with seven or eight. . . . There were no men on
the bases; the batter having to make his bases the best he could, and with
perfect freedom to run when and as he chose to, subject all the time to being
plugged by the ball from the hand of anyone. It was lively jumping
squatting and ducking in all shapes with the runner who was trying to escape
being plugged. When he got around without having been hit by the ball, it
counted a run. The delivery of the ball was distinctly a throw, not an
under-hand delivery as was later the case for Base Ball. The batter was
allowed three strikes at the ball. In my younger days it was extremely
popular, and indulged in by everyone, young and old.”
T. King, letter to the Mills Commission,
November 24, 1905; accessed at the
C. May Day
1850s.25
– If It’s May Day,
“On the first of May each year, large
crowds filled the [
D. Muster Day; Training Day
[no ballplaying references yet
found]
E. July Fourth
1849.11
– Character in Fictional Autobiography Played Cricket, Base-Ball
“On fourths of July, training days and other
occasions, young men from the country around, at a distance of fifteen or
twenty miles, would come for the purpose of competing for the championship of
these contests, in which, in which, as the leader of the school, I soon became
conspicuous. Was there a game at
cricket or base-ball to be played, my name headed the list of the
athletae.” W.S. Mayo, Kaloolah,
or Journeying to the Djebel Kumri.
An Autobiography
1861.6
– The Clipper Looks Back at the 1861 Season
The Clipper
The
War: “[D]espite the interruptions and
drawbacks occasioned by the great rebellion [it] has been really a very
interesting year in the annals of the game, far more than was expected . . . ;
but the game has too strong a foothold in popularity to be frowned out of favor
by lowering brows of ‘grim-faced war,’ and if any proof was needed
that our national game is a fixed institution of the country, it would be found
in the fact that it has flourished through such a year of adverse circumstances
as those that have marked the season of 1861.”
Juiced
Ball? On July 23, it was Eagles 32, Eckfords
23, marking the Eckfords’ first loss since 1858. “The feature of the contest was
the unusual number of home runs that were made on both sides, the Eckfords
scoring no less than 11, of which Josh Snyder alone made four, and the Eagles
getting five.” 3000 to 4000
fans watched this early slugfest.
F. Thanksgiving
1848.4
-- The Knicks’ Defensive Deployment, Thanksgiving Day Game
In the Knickerbockers’ Thanksgiving
Day, 1848, intramural game, two squads of eight squared off. Each featured three
19CBB posting by John Thorn, 7/23/2005.
The source is presumably the Knick scorebooks.
1858.45
– 1000 Watch November Base Ball in
The
“In the afternoon there were several
‘scrub’ games, that is games which the various Clubs unite and play
together. The regular Ball season
is considered to close with Thanksgiving, though many games will doubtless be
played through the winter when the weather will permit.” Text provided by Kyle DeCicco-Carey,
email of 1/14/2008.
G. Christmas
1621.1
– Some Pilgrims “Openly” Play “Stoole Ball” on
Christmas Morning in
Governor Bradford describes Christmas Day
1621 at
Bradford, William, Of
1771.2
–
“[M]any disorders are occasioned within
the town of
“An Act to prevent and punish Disorders
usually committed on the twenty-fifth Day of December . . . ,“
1816.5
-- In “The Year Without a Summer,” CT Lads Play Ball on Christmas
Day
“My father [Charles Mallory] arrived
there [
Baughman, James, The Mallorys of Mystic:
Six Generations in American Maritime Enterprise [
H. General Holiday Comments
1800c.11
– MA Man Recalls Games of Ball in Streets, with Wickets
“The sports and entertainments were
very simple. Running about the
village street, hither and thither, without much aim . . . . games of ball, not
base-ball, as is now [c1857] the fashion, yet with wickets – this was
about all, except that at the end there was always horse-racing [p.19]. ..But
as to sports and entertainments in general, there were more of them in those
days than now. We had more
holidays, more games in the street, -- of ball-playing, of quoits, of running,
leaping, and wrestling. [p.21]”
Mary E. Dewey, ed., Autobiography and
Letters of Orville Dewey, D.D.
1850c.26
-- Needed: More Festival Days – Like Fast Day? -- For Playing
“[T]hey committed a radical error in
abolishing all the Papal holidays, or in not substituting something
therefore. We have Thanksgiving,
and the Fourth of July, and Fast-Day when the young men play ball. We need three times as many
festivals.” Arethusa Hall,
compiler, Life and Character of the Reverend Sylvester Judd
Part II. British Holidays
1720.2
-- Holiday in
In 1907, a kindred spirit of ours reported
[in a listserve-equivalent of the day] on his attempts to find early news
coverage of cricket. He reports on
a 1720 article he sees as “the first newspaper reference I have yet found
to cricket as a popular game:”
“The Holiday coming on, the Alewives of
Islington,
Alfred F. Robbins, “Replies: The
Earliest Cricket Report,” Notes and Queries: A Medium of
Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc, September 7,
1907, page 191. Provided by John
Thorn, 2/8/2008, via email. He
reports his source as Read’s Weekly Journal, or British-Gazeteer,
June 4, 1720, and advises that he has omitted phrases not “welcome to the
modern taste. Accessed via Google
Books 10/18/2008.
There are also many early stoolball references to Shrovetide celebrations. We’ll list them if anyone asks us to do that.
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