Posted By:
Rob LThe term "base ball" has been around for a long time and was refered to as such in the early 1800s. Although A.G. Spalding wanted baseball to be a purely American "invention", it is pretty clear that the game developed from Rounders, an English bat and ball game. The American game known as a Town Ball, judged by many to be a direct precursor to baseball as we know it, is a derivation of Rounders. Anyways, all of these games have been referred to as "base ball". The mention of "base ball" in the 1791 document is not surprising nor a discovery that baseball as we know it was played in Massachusetts then. It clearly is a reference to a bat and ball game that was popular, i.e. Rounders/Town Ball. Baseball, in a form that we can relate to, is still in Alexander Cartwright's court.