Baseball is as American as ... tea and crumpets?
That may be case, according to a diary uncovered in southern England last year but only now being made public.
Julian Pooley, the manager of the Surrey History Center, said on Thursday he has authenticated a reference to baseball in a diary by English lawyer William Bray dating back to 1755 — about 50 years before what was previously believed to have been the first known reference to what became the American pastime.
PHOTO: AP
“I know his handwriting very well,” Pooley told reporters in a telephone interview, adding he believed the game wasn’t very common at the time. “He printed it to show it was new to him. He doesn’t mention baseball again. It was something that seemed special.”
Bray wrote that he played the game with both men and women on the day after Easter, a traditional holiday in England.
“He was about 18 or 19 [at the time of the diary entry],” Pooley said. “He was a very social man. He enjoyed sports.”
The entry reads: “Easter Monday 31 March 1755: ‘Went to Stoke Ch. This morning. After Dinner Went to Miss Jeale’s to play at Base Ball with her, the 3 Miss Whiteheads, Miss Billinghurst, Miss Molly Flutter, Mr. Chandler, Mr. Ford & H. Parsons & Jelly. Drank Tea and stayed till 8.”
Baseball has long been thought to have been a US invention, with roots in the British games of rounders and cricket.
The first recorded competitive baseball game took place in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1846 between the Alexander Cartwright’s Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York and the New York Nine.
The first professional team played in 1869 and the first professional league started two years later.
Bray, who died in 1832, kept a diary for much of his life and wrote a history of Surrey. He also transcribed and published the diary and writings of English writer John Evelyn.
Pooley said he first became aware of Bray’s reference in July last year after local historian Tricia St. John Barry notified Major League Baseball to say she found a notation of the game that predated their own findings.
“She said, ‘I’ve got a reference in a diary I found in the shed,’” Pooley said.
Pooley said St. John Barry only told MLB about the diary after researchers came to England last year working on a movie by Major League Baseball Advanced Media called Base Ball Discovered, which examines the origins of the sport.
“She didn’t realize its significance [before that],” Pooley said.
The movie is to be shown next week at the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, New York, the home of the sport’s Hall of Fame.
“While filming our documentary in England, we met Tricia, who responded to a BBC piece on our film crew being in country, looking at the roots of baseball,” MLB.com said on its Web site. “This discovery places William Bray in a new role of importance and provides insight into baseball’s beginnings.”
The Surrey History Center said there is a reference to baseball that came earlier than Bray’s, but it appears in a fictional book by John Newberry called A Little Pretty Pocket-Book.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey also refers to baseball. It was written in 1798 but not published until 1817.
“It is a game steeped in history and now Surrey County Council’s History Center and an inquisitive local historian have provided the earliest manuscript proof that the game the Americans gave to the world came from England,” said Helyn Clack, an executive member for safer and stronger communities at Surrey County Council.
A copy of the diary is to go on display at Surrey History Center today.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to