Posted on 09/11/2008 3:29:28 PM PDT by C19fan
Baseball is as American as ... tea and crumpets?
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
The fans come from the USA and pay high prices to watch people who at best are successful 25 to 30 percent of the time. Multimillion dollar pitchers are getting as much as $4000 per pitch. An intentional walk can run as high as $12000. What a country!
The man played a game then called Base Ball. There is no description of the game and no other reference. The name similarity indicates the possibility of some genetic relationship but there would have to be other evidence to make it any more than an interesting reference.
Had an English friend tell me once that Baseball was nothing but Cricket on speed. ;-)
Could of been you threw balls at the people moving from base to base and if you hit them they were out. Sounds very british to me.
It’s no secret that baseball evolved from previous bat and balls games. This wouldn’t surprise me in the least, but I do agree that the name means nothing without a physical description. Remember that what the Brits call football...the name means nothing in and of itself.
Hmmmmmm ... an intentional walk gets discounted by 25% ?
Even if some early early version of baseball came from Mother England it’s obvious that they did not really appreciate what they had, since they’re still stuck with that silly sport called “cricket” and they don’t seem to have any serious baseball.
American football is derived from British football as well, via Rugby, which was derived from football....
Anyway, the fact that rounders is similar to baseball, probably means that this ‘baseball’ was another name for rounders, and the name stuck in the US, wheras ‘rounders’ became more popular in Britain, were it evolved into something slightly different...
Rounders is the closest British variant, I think. Town ball is the early U.S. version.
Sort of interesting from the diary entry “base ball” back then it could be played with eligible ladies. Nice way to meet a future wife. LOL!!!
I believe that characteristic was part of early American baseball.
WOW I just reinvented baseball.
First time I see some Redcoats at a ballgame, the Chin Music will commence.
The diary would seem to imply that both women and men played “base ball”...that would suggest that it was something other than the fast moving and physical game we know as baseball.
Yes...and our democracy was given to us by England but it was unworkable in the form we received it and corrected it for daily use as well. What else have they given us that we have essentially had to tear down and rejigger just to make it work right...I know, the military?
Golf, tennis, rugby, badminton, ...
Our republic was given to us by England. I'm going to let you off with a warning - we're a Republic, and that's why it's called Free Republic.
Carry on, jc. :-)
> What else have they given us <
Well, the English language for starters. Then there’s a little thing called the common law.
End of story, sports fans.
O,yeah, did I forget to mention Rounders was played exactly like Softball, with bases and home, strikes, outs, etc.etc. At, at err, ah, girls' boarding schools, actually
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