An interesting article I found on the Telegraph. References of a game called Base Ball found in a diary in Guilford, Surrey in 1755. I always knew that the English game I played Rounders was a form of baseball but had never heard that Base Ball itself was a named sport in the UK prior to it being made popular in the US. Major League Baseball told: Your sport is British, not American - Telegraph Baseball Discovered: Bray Diary | MLB.com: Media Center
Question: Do they ever make reference to the rules of the game within that historical proof? Is it possible that it was just a game with a similar name that didn't actually have the same rules and may not be related at all?
I honestly do not know, but I do know that rounders is very similar to baseball, in the same way that canadian football and American Football are similar and come from the same source. From reading the write ups on the MLB site, it would appear that they did tie the two together.
Supposedly Abner Doubleday (the alleged inventor of Baseball) based it off a form played in England at one time. While there was always question about when and where the game was first played, there is no doubt the rules we have today were of his creation.
I don't know how accurate any of it is but I do think it is telling that the MLB did do a documentary on it and have agreed that this is the first known instance of Baseball being chronicled. It wouldn't surprise me like other sports in the US, that immigrants brought the game to the US which then became popular.
That wouldn't be surprising, nor is it a bad thing. It just goes to show why America is what it is. A bunch of different people and cultures all coming here for one basic idea. Freedom, and bringing all of their different sports, languages, and cultures to make one.
Actually in the space I have read trying to see more of this, the credit given to Abner Doubleday as inventor of the game has been said to be a myth by different historians, and there has been no found link to baseball in any of his letters that have been found.
exactly Just interesting to me, as a Brit living in the US as Baseball to me is as American as Apple Pie (and how on earth did my twins lose to the royals today???).
Whats funny is that Doubleday himself never made the claim he invented baseball. Although a 1907 commision gave him the credit after investigating all sides. If you ever visit the HOF in Cooperstown, they have a ball there said to be found in Doubleday's posession after he died. This further fueled the theory that he was one of its originators.
Bray could've been referring to Cricket(very similar to BB) in his journal,which has been around since the 1600's? Just an idea.
I doubt it because then he would have called it cricket, as that game has been around since the 1500s if not earlier in some form or fashion. Also as there are no Bases in Cricket, so doubt he would call cricket base ball.
That's a tough one I have a couple friends who went to school there, they still play the original version on occasion.
same here, I would love to find out how it was or why the Mills Commission appointed him the inventor of the game. It looks like they served together (Mills and Doubleday), but I think it is interesting that someone who had no background with the game, wasn't even living in the area when it is said he invented the game, was credited to it. That is actually more fascinating to me than where it actually originated.
Here is a video from BBC South, about the new discoveries..... BBC News Player - Baseball history rediscovered
