The Diamond Fan

Sports Illustrated’s web site has an interesting article about the discovery of a diary entry from 1755 with a reference to the game of “base ball.” This pre-dates the earliest previously known reference to baseball (by that name) by a good half a century.

I’m not sure the discovery is all that earth-shaking.  It is well-known that the sport that developed in 19th Century America had antecedents that date back centuries, and given the nature of that category of games it is not surprising that someone might have referred to one such game as “base ball.”  In any event the game that the diarist (William Bray) described must have been a rather sedate affair, as fully half of the participants mentioned were women.  It’s hard to imagine young women from British society during the reign of George II engaging in anything resembling the robust, competitive sport that was baseball in its early days of development in the USA.

Still, it is an interesting discovery, and warrants further research into what kind of sport this “base ball” may have been and what role it may have played as a forerunner of American baseball.