From the Associated Press:

Officials and historians in Pittsfield, Massachusetts released a 213-year-old document Tuesday that they believe is the earliest written reference to baseball. The evidence comes in a 1791 bylaw that aims to protect the windows in Pittsfield's new meetinghouse by prohibiting anyone from playing baseball within 80 yards of the building.

The bylaw would have been produced well before Abner Doubleday is said to have written the rules of the game in 1839.

Historian John Thorn was conducting research on the origins of baseball when he found a reference to the bylaw in an 1869 book on Pittsfield's history. He shared his find with former major leaguer and area resident Jim Bouton, who told told city officials about the ordinance.

A librarian found the document in a vault at the Berkshire Athenaeum library. Its age was authenticated by researchers at the Williamstown Art Conservation Center.

"It's clear that not only was baseball played here in 1791, but it was rampant," Thorn said. "It was rampant enough to have an ordinance against it."

The long-accepted story of baseball's origins centers on Coopperstown, NY, where Doubleday is said to have come up with the rules for the modern game. The Pittsfield group hopes its find puts to rest the debate about the game's origins.

"Pittsfield is baseball's Garden of Eden," Mayor James Ruberto said. But experts say it may be impossible to say exactly where and when baseball was created because it evolved from earlier games, such as cricket and rounders, another English game played with a bat and ball.

For now the document will be kept in the vault until officials figure out how to properly display it in Pittsfield, a city of about 45,000.


My favorite part of this is the use of "rampant" in the description of how often the game was played in Pittsfield at the time. It's rampant, I tell you--RAMPANT!! wink

~Adam

[ May 12, 2004, 09:45 AM: Message edited by: Adam ]

This sounds to me that baseball, rather than being a sport at the time, was a nuisance game. An ordinance against it and the use of the word rampant, suggests to me that it was something city elders were trying to disuade children from playing in general, but certainly in the vicinity of city hall. This ordinance in no way contradicts the myth of Doubleday being the first to write down the rules of the modern game. We've all participated in games that have widespread acceptance and agreement as to the rules, but have never been formalized. Think tag.

"... for the Preservation of the Windows in the New Meeting House ... no Person or Inhabitant of said Town, shall be permitted to play at any game Called Wicket, Cricket, Base ball, Bat ball, Foot ball, Cat, Fives or any other Game or Games with Balls, within the Distance of Eighty Yards from said Meeting House."

Hmm... yeah, this looks like kind of a laundry list of fun things that bust windows. "Fives" is an old name for handball ; cat is an old name for baseball, and presumably "Bat ball" is as well (interesting that they don't mention "town ball"); one assumes Wicket and Cricket are the same thing; and "Foot ball" could be pretty much anything that involves kicking a ball around.

Anyway, calling this the Earliest Written Mention of Baseball is kind of a technicality: "George Ewing, a soldier in George Washington's army at Valley Forge, in April 1778 recorded in his journal playing a game [called] base ." Or try googling on "baste ball". Close enough for me... but then I'm not trying to rain on Pittsfield's parade. It looks like this will raise interest in restoring Wahconah Park , so it's All For The Best.

Did anybody EVER believe that silly Abner Doubleday story?

Check your drivers licenses. Your date of birth was the day they cut the cord. You went through many stages from conception to your trip through the canal. Baseball was "born" in Cooperstown. It was conceived after a huge party somewhere in England some time before.

Check here for a chronology that goes back to 1085 (yes, that's the year 1085!)

Point of curiosity, J1780: why do you think Cooperstown has anything to do with the development of baseball at all? It's pretty well-established that Abner Doubleday never set foot in Cooperstown; and Doubleday kept diaries throughout his life that never once even MENTION baseball. Or so I understand from everything (everything ) I've ever read on the subject. :confused: