Last Updated March 11, 2010
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Wicket
A Working Chronology
Note: This list was derived from
version 11 of the full Protoball Chronology, which was uploaded in April
2010. (Search term: wicket) Additional relevant entries may have
been added to any later versions of the full Chronology; not all entries on
this subchronology are necessarily identical to those on the most recently
updated full Chronology. Readers
are encouraged to suggest or perform updates. Please send notes about omissions,
mistakes, typos, etc, to lmccray@mit.edu.
-----
1704.1 – Traveler Observes Ball-Playing in CT
Madame Knight, “in her inimitable journal of her
ride from
“The Game of Wicket and Some Old-Time Wicket
Players,” in George Dudley Seymour, Papers and Addresses of the
Society of Colonial Wars in the State of
1725c.1 – Wicket Played on
“Sam. Hirst got up betimes in the morning, and
took Ben Swett with him and went into the
Per George Dudley Seymour, Papers and Addresses of
the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of
1766.2 -- Cricket Challenge in CT
“A Challenge is hereby given by the Subscribers,
to Ashbel Steel, and John Barnard, with 18 young Gentlemen . . . to play a Game
of BOWL for a Dinner and Trimmings . . . on Friday next.” Connecticut
Courant , May 5, 1766, as cited in John A. Lester, A Century of Philadelphia
Cricket [University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1951], page
6. Note: is “game of
bowl” a common term for cricket?
Could this have been a wicket
challenge?
1778.4 – Ewing Reports
Playing “At Base” and Wicket
at
George Ewing, a Revolutionary War soldier, tells of
playing a game of “Base” at
Ewing, G., The Military Journal of George Ewing
1778.6 -- NH Loyalist Plays Ball in NY; Mentions “Wickett”
The journal of Enos Stevens, a NH man serving in
British forces, mentions playing ball seven times from 1778 to 1781. Only one specifies the game played in
terms we know: “in the after noon played Wickett” in March of 1781. C. K. Boulton, ed., “A Fragment of
the Diary of Lieutenant Enos Stevens, Tory, 1777-1778,” New England
Quarterly v. 11, number 2
1779.2 – Lieutenant Reports Playing Ball, and Playing Bandy Wicket
“Samuel Shute, a New Jersey Lieutenant, jotted
down his reference to playing ball in central Pennsylvania sometime between
July 9j and July 22, 1779; ‘until the 22nd, the time was spent
playing shinny and ball’ Incidentally, Shute distinguished among various
sports, referring elsewhere in his journal to ‘Bandy Wicket.’ He did not confuse baseball with types of field
hockey [bandy] and cricket [wicket]
that the soldiers also played.”
-- Thomas Altherr. Note: Gomme says that “bandy wicket” was a name for cricket in
[Shute, Samuel], “Journal of Lt. Samuel
Shute,” in Frederick Cook, ed., Journals of the Military Expedition of
Major General John Sullivan against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779
[Books for Libraries Press, Freeport NY, reprint of the 1885 edition], p. 268.
Per Altherr ref # 28.
1786.2 -- Game Called Wicket Reported in
“The late game of Wicket was decided by an extraordinary catch made by Mr. Lenox, to
which he ran more than 40 yards, and received the ball between two
fingers.” Morning Post and
Daily Advertiser
1787.2 – VT Man’s Letter Says “Three Times is Out at Wicket”
Levi Allen to Ira Allen, July 7, 1787, in John J.
Duffy, ed., Ethan Allen and His Kin, Correspondence, 1772 – 1819
[University Press of New England,
1790s.6 – Cricket as Played in
“[D]escriptions of the game [cricket] from
Hamburg in the 1790s show significant variations often quite similar to
outdated provisions of American “Wicket,”
which may well not be due to error on the part of the author, but rather to
acute observation. For example, the
ball was bowled alternatively from each end
1791.1 –
“Bafeball” Among Games Banned in
In Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to promote the safety of
the exterior of the newly built meeting house, particularly the windows, a
by-law is enacted to bar “any game of wicket, cricket, baseball, batball, football, cats, fives, or any
other game played with ball,” within eighty yards of the structure.
However, the letter of the law did not exclude the city’s lovers of
muscular sport from the tempting lawn of “Meeting-House Common.”
This is the first indigenous instance of the game of baseball being referred to by that name on the North American
continent. It is spelled herein as bafeball. “
Per John Thorn:
The History of
1793.1 -- Engraving Shows Game
with Wickets at
A copper engraving showing
Submitted by Scott Meacham 8/17/06.
1800.2 – John Knox Owns a
“Ball Alley” and
Item from John Thorn, 6/25/04. Note:
It seems possible that a “ball alley” is for bowling, but wicket was also played on what was
termed an alley.
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.
1805.8 – Yale Grad Compares
“July 9 [1805, we think] . . . . The mode of
playing ball differs a little from that practiced in New-England. Instead of tossing up the ball out of
one’s own hand, and then striking it, as it descends, they lay is into
the heel of a kind of wood shoe; and upon the instep a spring is fixed, which
extends within the hollow to the hinder part of the shoe; the all is placed
where the heel of the foot would commonly be, and a blow applied on the other
end of the spring, raises the ball into the air, and, as it descends, it
receives a blow from the bat.
“They were playing also at another game
resembling our cricket, but differing from it in this particular, that he
perpendicular pieces which support the horizontal one, are about eighteen
inches high, and are three in number, whereas with us they are only two in
number, and about three or four inches high.”
Benjamin Silliman, Journal of Travels in
Silliman thus implies that an American [or at least
1818.1 – Yale Student Reports Cricket on Campus
A student at
Lester, ed., A Century of Philadelphia Cricket
[U Penn Press,
1820s.9 – In
Delaney, ed., Life in the Connecticut River Valley
1800 – 1840 from the Recollections of John Howard Redfield
[Connecticut River Museum, Essex CT, 1988], p. 35. Per Altherr ref # 82.
1820s.25 – In
“’Election Day’ was, however, the universal
holiday, and the prevailed amongst the farmers that corn planting must be
finished by that day for its enjoyment. It was a day of general hilarity, with
no prescribed forms of observation, though ball playing was ordinarily included
in the exercises, and frequently the inhabitants of adjacent towns were pitted
against one another in the game of wicket. Wrestling, too, was a common amusement
on that day, each town having its champions.”
Charles J. Taylor, History of Great
1825.8 -- Wicket Bat Reported Held in
The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association reported
that, as of 1908, it retained a wicket
bat dating from 1825-30. Submitted
by John Thorn, 1/13/2007. Note: John is trying to ascertain
whether the bat remains in the collection.
1830s.5 -- Wicket Played in The
“How far the
1830s.12 -- Wicket Ball in
“[The Indians] would lounge on the steps of the
‘
Samuel M. Welch, Home History: Recollections of
1830c.27 –
Recalling a genial local sheriff, the author writes:
“We well remember the urbanity of his manner as he passed the students of
Lenox Academy, always bowing to them and greeting them with a pleasant
salutation, which tended to increase their self-respect . . . .As he drove by
us when we were playing ‘wicket’
– the game of ball them fashionable – he did not drive his stylish
horse and gig over our wickets, as
many took a malicious pleasure in doing, but turned aside, with a pleasant
smile . . . .”
J. E. A. Smith, The History of
1833.8 – Untitled Drawing of Ball Game [Wicket?] Appears in Songbook
Watts’ Divine and Moral Songs – For the
Use of Children [
A drawing shows five children – a tosser,
batter, two fielders, and boy waiting to bat. The bats are spoon-shaped. The wicket looks more like a cricket wicket than the long low bar in wicket. Is it wicket? Base-ball? Here’s Block’s
commentary. “ . . .an interesting woodcut portraying boys playing
a slightly ambiguous bat-and-ball game that is possibly baseball . . . . A goal in the ground near the batter
might be a wicket, but it more
closely resembles an early baseball goal such as the one pictured in A
Little Pretty Pocket-Book”
1834.6 -- In Wicket, It’s Hartford CT 146, Litchfield CT 126
The contest took three “ins.” “Thus, it appears that the
‘Bantam Players’ ‘barked up the wrong tree.’ The utmost harmony existed, and every
one appeared to enjoy the sport.”
Connecticut
Courant, volume 70, Issue 3618, page
3 [probably reprinted from the
1840.27 --
“Wicket
Ball – The ball players of this city met those of
1840s.28 -- At
At upstate NY’s
1840c.39 – Cricket [or Maybe Wicket] Played by Harvard Class of 1841
“Games of ball were played almost always
separately by the classes, and in my case cricket prevailed. There were not even matches between
classes, so far as I remember, and certainly not between colleges. . . . The game was the same then played by
boys on Boston Common, and was very unlike what is now [1879] called
cricket. Balls, bats, and wickets were all larger than in the
proper English game; the bats especially being much longer, twice as heavy, and
three-cornered instead of flat. . . . What game was it? Whence it came? It seemed to bear the same relation to
true cricket that the old Massachusetts game of base-ball bore to the present
‘New York’ game, being less artistic, but more laborious.”
Member of the Class of 1841, “Harvard Athletic
Exercises Thirty Years Ago,” Harvard Advocate [
1841.9 -- County-wide Wicket Challenge Issued Near Rochester NY
“A CHALLENGE. The undersigned, Amateur (Wicket) Ball Players, of the Town of
Noted by Priscilla Astifan, 19CBB posting,
1/28/2007. Priscilla adds: “Pioneer baseball players’
[in
1841.10 --
“The Ball Players of Bloomfield and vicinity,
respectfully invite the Pall Players of the city of
Hartford
Daily Courant, June 23, 1841, page
3. Notes: Is the bound rule [2] usual in wicket? What is rule 3
getting at? What is rule 4 getting
at?
1841.17 – Clevelanders Play
Ball at Sunset on
A
“Playing Ball is
among the very first of the ’sports’ of our early years. Who has
not teased his grandmother for a ball, until the ‘old stockings’
have been transformed into one that would bound well? Who has not played
‘barn ball’ in his boyhood, ‘base’ in his youth, and
‘wicket’ in his manhood?
– There is fun, and sport, and healthy exercise, in a game of
‘ball.’ We like it; for with it is associated recollections of our
earlier days. And we trust we shall never be too old to feel and to ‘take
delight’ in the amusements which interested us in our boyhood. If ‘Edith’ wishes to see
‘a great strike’ and ‘lots of fun,’ let her walk down
1843.4 -- Wicket at Yale
“Were it spring or autumn you should see a brave
set-to at football on the green, or a brisk game of wicket.”
Belden, Sketches of Yale College [Pubr?, 1843]
, per John Lester, A Century of Philadelphia Cricket [UPenn,
John Thorn, 6/25/2005, mentions that he has an account
of wicket at Yale. Note -- XXX Need to follow up with John Is he referring to the Belden
citation? Does it say any more, or
give a view date?.
1844.13 – Wicket Play in
“The members of the New Orleans Wicket Club, are requested to meet at
the Field, This Day, Thursday at 5 o’clock, PM, precisely.”
Times Picayune,
November 7, 1844. Accessed via
subscription search, March 27, 2009.
1846.7 –
“Friday, October 16. At prayers as usual. Studied Demosthenes till breakfast
time. After breakfast came off the
great match between our class and the juniors. We beat them 77 to 53. They had on the ground nineteen men out
of twenty-nine, and we thirty out of thirty-five. Had the remainder of both
classes been there, at the same rate we should have beaten them 90 to 81. As a
class they were completely used up. Their players, however, averaged about 0.23
each more than ours. The whole was played out in about an hour. The victory was
completely ours, a result different from what I expected. Got a lesson in
Demosthenes and went to recitation.”
On October 3, the MA diarist had written: “played a game of wicket, with a party of fellows . . . .
Had a fine game, though I, knowing little of the rules, was soon bowled
out. Then cam home and wrote
journal till 5PM. Then to prayers and afterward to supper.”
1846.8 –
Dr. Edward Hitchcock gives this account of
the game of MA wicket: "In my
days baseball was neither a science nor an art, but we played ‘wicket’. On smooth and level ground about 20 feet
apart were placed two 'wickets,'
pine sticks 1 inch square and 8 to 10 feet long, supported on a block at each end
so as to be easily knocked off. The ball was made of yarn, covered with stout
leather, about six inches in diameter and bowled with all the power of the wicket tender at each end. The aim was
to roll it as swiftly as possible at the opposite wicket and knock it down if possible. This was defended by the man
with a broad bat, 3 feet long, and the oval about 8 inches [broad], who must
defend his wicket. If the bowler could by a fair ball,
striking twice between the wickets,
knock down the opposite wicket, the
striker was out. But if the batter could by a direct or sideways hit send the
ball sideways or overhead the outside men, they [ i.e. ., the batter and
his teammate at the opposite end] could run till the ball was in the hands of the
bowler. But the bowler to get the batter out must with the ball in his hand
knock the wicket outwards before the
batter could strike his bat outside a line three feet inside the wicket . . . . This game was played on
the lowest part of the 'walk' under the trees which now extends from chapel to
the church."
Hitchcock, Edward, “Recollections,” in
George F. Whicher, ed., Remembrance of
1846.11 -- Suspicious
“You speak . . . of Harrington, the express
robber as being in prison here.
This is incorrect. He
isn’t, neither has he been in jail since his arrival here, unless you can
call the Eagle Hotel a jail. . . . [W]hen the weather has been pleasant, he has
occupied his time in playing wicket
in the public square; or playing the fiddle in his room . . . to solace and
relieve the tedium of his boredom.”
Rochester Police Officer Jacob Wilkinson letter of
April 7, 1946, as quoted in “The Express Robbery,” The National Police Gazette, Volume 1,
Number 32 [April 18, 1846], page 277.
Submitted by John Thorn, 9/2/2006.
Note: It is possible to
construe wicket as a daily
1852.10 – Fictional
“Up-Country” Location Cites Bass-Ball and Wicket
“Both houses were close by the
road, and the road was narrow; but on either side was a strip of grass, and in
process of time, I appeared and began ball-playing upon the green strip, on the
west side of the road. At these times, on summer mornings, when we were getting
well warm at bass-ball or wicket, my
grandfather would be seen coming out of his little swing-gate, with a big hat
aforesaid, and a cane. He enjoyed the game as much as the youngest of us, but
came mainly to see fair play, and decide mooted points.”
L.W. Mansfield, writing under the pseudonym “Z.
P.,“ or Zachary Pundison, Up-country Letters
1846.19 – One-Horse Wagon’s Driver 1, Wicket Players 0
A man drives his wagon along a road in Great
Barrington MA, passing though was a dozen wicket
players think of as their regular playing grounds. A throw hits the man in the pit of his
stomach [now remember, wicket balls
were darned heavy]. Naturally, he
sues the players for trespass.
The defendants’ case: “at the time of the accident,
Fayar Hollenbeck, on of the defendants, whose part in the game was to catch the
ball after it had been struck, and to throw it back to the person whose
business it was to roll it, was stationed in a northeasterly direction from the
latter, who was atone of the wickets. The plaintiff had passed the wicket a little, and was west of a
direct line from Hollenbeck to the person at the wicket. At this moment, Hollenbeck threw the ball with an intention
to throw it to the person at the wicket;
but the ball being wet, it slipped in his hand, when he was in the act of
throwing it, and was thus turned from the intended direction, and struck the
plaintiff.”
In the fall of 1848, the MA Supreme Court found for
the traveler, saying, but much less succinctly, that the roads were built for
travelers and that wicket was obviously
too dangerous to play there.
Luther S. Cushing, Cases Argued and Determined in
the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Volume 1 (Little, Brown and
Co., Boston, 1865), pp. 453-457. Accessed 2/10/10 via Google Books search
(cushing "vosburgh vs. john").
1850s.16 -- Wicket Play in
“The immediate predecessor of baseball was wickets. This was a modification of cricket and
the boys who excelled at that became crack players of the latter sport of
baseball. In wickets there had to be at least eight men, stationed as
follows: Two bowlers, two stump
keepers or catcher, two outfielders and two infielders or shortstops. . . .
“The wickets
were placed sixty feet apart, and consisted of two ‘stumps’ about
six inches in height above the ground and ten feet apart. . . . The ball was as
large as a man’s head, and of peculiar manufacture. Its center was a cube of lead weighing
about a pound and a half. About this were tightly wound rubber bands . . . and
the whole sewed in a thick leather covering. This ball was delivered with a stiff
straight-arm underhand cast . . . . Three out was side out, and the ball could
be caught on the first bound or on the fly.”
“Baseball Half a Century Ago,”
1850c.35 –
A member of the class of 1849 recalls college life:
“Athletics were not regularly organized, nor had we any gymnasium. We played base-ball, wicket ball, two-old-cat, etc., but
there was not foot-ball.”
The college history later explains: “The game of wicket, which was a modification of cricket, was played with a soft
ball five to seven inches in diameter, and with two wickets (mere laths or light boards) laid upon posts about four
inches high and some forty feet apart.
The ‘outs’ tried to bowl thee down, and the
‘ins’ to defend them with curved broad-ended bats. It was necessary to run between the wickets at each strike.”
Wilfred Shaw, The
1851.3 -- Wicket Players in CT Found Liable
“In a recent case which occurred at Great
Barrington, an action was brought against some 12 or 15 young men, by an old
man, to recover damages for a spinal injury received by him and occasioned by a
wicket ball, which frightened his
horse and threw him from his wagon.
The boys were playing tin the street. . . . . If this were fully understood,
there would be less of the dangerous and annoying practice so common in our
streets.”
“Caution to Ball Players in the Street,” The Pittsfield Sun, Volume 51, Issue
2647 [June 12, 1851], page 2.
Submitted by John Thorn, 6/10/2006.
1851.6 – Word-man Noah Webster Acknowledges Only Wicket
“Wicket,
n. A small gate; a gate by which the chamber of canal locks is emptied; a bar
or rod, used in playing wicket.”
Noah Webster, A Dictionary of he English Language,
Abridged from the American Dictionary (Huntington and Savage, New York,
1851), page 399. Accessed 2/10/10
via Google Books search (“used in playing wicket”). No
other ballgames are carried in this dictionary. Webster was from
1854.13 – English Visitor
Sees Wicket at Harvard
“It
was in the spring of 1854 . . .
that I stepped into the
“They
politely invited me to take the bat. Any cricketer could have stayed there all
day and not been bowled out. After I had played awhile I said, “You must
play the modern game cricket.” I had a ball and they made six stumps.
Then we went to Delta, the field where the Harvard Memorial Hall now stands. We
played and they took to cricket like a duck to water. . . .I think that was the
first game of cricket at Harvard.”
“The Boyhood of Rev. Samuel Robert Calthrop.” Compiled by His Daughter, Edith Calthrop
Bump. No date given. Accessed
10/31/2008 at:
http://www-distance.syr.edu/SamCalthropBoyhoodStory.html. Actually, Mr. Calthrop may have come
along about 95 years too late to make that claim: see #1760s.1 above.
1855c.3 – Wicket, Seen as a CT Game, Was Played
in
In 1880 the Brooklyn Eagle carried long
articles that include a description of the game of wicket, described as a
“Instead of eleven on a side, as in cricket,
there are thirty, and instead of wickets
used by cricketers their wickets
consist of two pieces of white wood about an inch square and six feet long,
placed upon two blocks three inches from the ground. The ball also differs from that used in
cricket or base ball, it being almost twice the size, although it only weighs
nine ounces. The bat also differs
from that used in cricket and base ball, it being more on the order of a
lacrosse bat, although of an entirely different shape, and made of hard, white
wood. The space between the wickets is called the alley, and is
seventy-five feet in length and ten feet in width. Wicket also differs from cricket in the bowling, which can be done
from either wicket, at the option of
the bowlers, and there is a centre line, on the order of the ace line in racket
and hand ball, which is called the bowler’s mark, and if a ball is bowled
which fails to strike the ground before it reaches this line it is considered a
dead ball, or no bowl, and no play can be made from it, even if the ball does
not suit the batsman. The alley is
something on the order of the space cut out for and occupied by the pitcher and
catcher of a base ball club, the turf being removed and the ground rolled very
hard for the accommodation of the bowlers.”
1855c.10 – Wicket Played in HI
“One game they all enjoyed was wicket, often watched by small Mary
Burbank. Aipuni, the Hawaiians
called it, or rounders, perhaps because the bat had a large rounder end. It was a forerunner of baseball, but the
broad, heavy bat was held close to the ground.”
Ethel, Damon M, Sanford Ballard Dole and His Hawaii
[Pacific Books,
Through further digging, John Thorn traces the
migration of wicket to
“The ball players of Sandisfield and Otis,
thinking themselves equal for almost all things, send a challenge to the Tolland
players for a match game in the former town, on Friday the 14th. Tolland
accepted, and with twenty-five players on each side the game commenced,
resulting in the complete triumph of he challenged or Tolland party, whose
tally footed up 265 crosses, to 189 for the other side.”
The [
In August, Barre MA arranged a game with players from
Petersham MA and Hardwick MA. Barre
Patriot, August 17, 1855. Barre
MA is about 40 miles NE of Springfield, and the two other towns are about 7
miles from Barre.
1856.25 –
“A great game of ball, says the Berkshire
Courier, cam off in that village on Friday last. The parties numbers 17 on a side, composed
of lawyers, justices, merchants mechanics, and in fact a fair proportion of the
village populations were engages wither as participants or spectators . . . .
The excitement was intense . . . best of all the game was a close one, the
aggregate count in [illeg: 8?]
innings being 192 and 187.”
1857.19 – Wicket Described in February Porter’s
Implying that wet weather had left a bit of a news
vacuum, Porter’s explained it would “give place to the
following communications in relation to the game of ‘Wicket,’ of which we have ourselves no personal knowledge or
experience.”
What followed were [1] a request for playing rules a
“I would like to see the old game of Wicket (not Cricket) played. It is a manly game and requires
the bowler to be equal to playing a good game of ten pins. The ground is made smooth and level, say
six feet wide by sixty to ninety in length. The ball from five to five and a half
inches in diameter, hand wound, and well covered. The bat of light wood, say bass. [A
rough field diagram is supplied here]
The wicket is placed at each
end, and on the top of a peg drove in the ground just high enough to let the
ball under the wicket, which is a
very light piece of wood lying on top of the pegs. The rules are very similar to those of
cricket. Can a club be
started? Yours, Wicket. [
Porter’s Spirit of the Times, Saturday, February 14, 1857. Accessed via subscription search, May
15, 2009.
1857.27 – Game of Wicket Reaches IA
“BALL GAMES IN THE WEST. – It is with
pleasure that we observe the gradual progression of these healthy and athletic
games westward. A Wicket Club has recently been organized
in
1857c.34 – Wicket Played at Eastern OH College;
Future
“In the street, in front of [
F. M. Green, Hiram College (Hubbell Printing,
Cleveland, 1901), page 156.
Accessed via Google Books search ("hiram college" green).
James A. Garfield was Principal and Professor at
1858.26 -- Wicket, as Well as Cricket and Base Ball, Reported in
“Exercise clubs and gymnasia are spring up
everywhere. The papers have daily
records of games at cricket, wicket,
base ball, etc.”
Editorial, “Physical Education,” Graham’s American Monthly of
Literature, art, and Fashion, Volume 53, Number 6 [December 1858], page
495. Submitted by John Thorn
9/2/2006.
1858c.44 – Wolverines and Wicket
“Wicket
was then about our only outdoor sport – and it was a good one, too
– and I remembered that we challenged the whole University to a match
game.”
Lyster Miller O’Brien, “The Class of
1858,”
1858.52 – Grand Wicket Match in
Local interest in wicket
is seen has having crested in 1858 in western
J. Anderson, ed., The Town and City of
1859.8 – Sixty Play for Their Supper
“On Saturday last New Marlborough and Tolland
played a game of ball for a supper – Tolland beat. There were 30 players on a side.”
1859.24 -- CT State Championship in Wicket Attracts 4000
“When
1859.48 – Wicket Club and Base Ball Club Play Demo Matches for Novelty’s Sake
“Novel Ball Match – The Buffalo Dock Wicket Club have invited [the Buffalo
Niagaras] to play a game of wicket,
and a return game of base ball. It
is intended, not as a trial of skill,
1860c.11 – Man Played Base Ball and Wicket in CT Before the War
“I am a native of
Letter from Philip W. Hudson,
1860.30 – CT Wicketers Trounce CT Cricketers --at Wicket
Was wicket
an inferior game? “the game
[of wicket] certainly reached a
level of technical sophistication equal to these two sports [base ball and
cricket]. This was clearly
demonstrated during a wicket match
at
1862.20 -- Wisconsin Man’s Diary Included a Dozen References to Ballplaying
Private Jenkin Jones sprinkled 12 references to
ballplaying in his Civil War Diary.
They range from December 1862 to February 1865. Most are very brief notes, like the
“played ball in the afternoon” he recorded in
·
·
·
·
Fort Hall,
4/64: “[
·
·
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman’s Diary
-----
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