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Rob Lthe stitching style of the early baseballs (lemon peel and belt) go back at least 100 years prior to the advent of baseball. The earliest form of these two styles of stitching are evident in the feather golfballs of the 1700s with the belt style actually being more prevalent. I would have to imagine that these styles of stitching would continue for any type of homemade ball that were played with by kids in the 1700s and early 1800s. Although we can't say for certain that the child in the dag is holding a baseball, the size of the ball in the image, the timing of the photo with regards to the rapidly rising popularity of both the New York and Massachusetts games as well as prevalence of townball being played all over the eastern half of the US makes it an intriguing possibility.
Rob L