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05-03-2006, 03:34 PM
Posted By: <b>Bruce Babcock</b><p>Congrats to Hal on winning REA LOT 661: 1787 A Little Pretty Pocket Book-First Book To Mention Baseball<br /><br />I have a couple of later (mid-19th century) chap books, both acquired from Barry Sloate, which mention or depict games of ball. Sidney Babcock is not related, but is actually notorious for printing and distributing a family history and a coat of arms in 1844, which were both proven to be false by one of my relatives in 1903.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/uffda51/BabcockBook1cover72dpt.jpg"> <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/uffda51/BabcockBook172dpi.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/uffda51/BabcockBook2cover72dpi.jpg"> <img src="http://www.network54.com/Realm/uffda51/BabcockBook2dpi72.jpg">
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05-03-2006, 03:39 PM
Posted By: <b>Josh K.</b><p>It seems the first book appears to describe the game of cricket rather than baseball. Still a very cool item.
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05-03-2006, 03:50 PM
Posted By: <b>davidcycleback</b><p>Doing research of sports equipment I saw that the unique thing about basketball was that it didn't evolve from another sport, but was invented by one person at a point in time. An instructor at a YMCA was asked a YMCA director to come up with a game that could be played indoors during winner, so this instructor invented the game of basketball. The week before he invented it, basketball didn't exist.<br /><br />The inventor of baskeball, James Naismith, asked the YMCA janitor to get a pair of boxes to nail to the gymnasium rafters. The janitor couldn't find boxes and came to Naismith with two baskets. Thus, the sport became basketball.