Baseball's Beginnings

At the turn of the century, the town of Barnard had a baseball team, the Silver Lake team. Woodstock, White River Junction and Lebanon also had teams. In small towns throughout America, people were crazy for baseball, as it was becoming the “national pastime”. Even the thought of a “pastime” was a new concept. Industrialization and mechanization was enabling Americans to have enough leisure time to either play a sport, or follow their home teams as spectators.

Baseball developed from British stickball games, espe cially a game called Rounders. Rounders was played with a bat and a ball. Batters hit the ball and ran around four bases to try to make it all the way around the bases without being “out”. In Rounders, as in baseball, there were nine players out in the field, trying to get the runners “out”. Rounders was different from baseball in that the ball is shorter and is swung one-handed. There are no strikes – if the pitch is good, the batter has to run automatically – and be out if the ball isn't in play, or have a chance if the ball was hit out to the field. There are no gloves used in Rounders. The bases are marked with posts rather than bases and the setup of the field is a little different, especially the position of home base and the bowler (the pitcher). A Rounders field is set up as a square, rather than a diamond, as was baseball in the beginning. Rounders was sometimes called baseball. One of the first references to baseball in literature was in a children's book, “A Little Pretty Pocket-Book”, published in 1744 by John Newbery, famous children's author and illustrator. (The Newbery Prize, given yearly to the best children's book of that year, is named after John Newbery). As Americans played Rounders, they changed the rules and the layout of the field, developing the game of baseball. 

 

 

Why did baseball become America's national game, rather than soccer or football? One of the biggest reasons was that a baseball player was less likely to get injured than a soccer player or a football player. An American farmer (or blacksmith) could play baseball on a Saturday afternoon and be reasonably sure he would still be able to milk cows, tend his crops or go back to the forge the next day. Football was played mostly by Ivy League college students who were independently wealthy and did not have to depend on their physical strength and health to earn a living.

Baseball began as a rural or small-town pastime, and aspects of the game's farm and village beginning linger in the game today. Baseball uses bases rather than the posts of Rounders because the posts were permanent. Rounders fields were permanent, but with baseball, at the end of the game, you could pick up the bases and the field went back to being a pasture, hayfield or whatever. The bases were often grain bags, which is why we still speak of “tagging the bag”. When I was a kid, baseball and softball bases were still “bags”. Bats were wooden, and to this day, the major leagues use only wooden bats.

Baseball became popular in northeastern towns and villages, as young men formed baseball clubs to organize teams. The rules of the game varied with locale. Clubs got together and formed leagues, to schedule games between clubs. Leagues were also important because all the clubs in a league played by the same rules. It would be impossible to play baseball if each team followed different rules. Here, I write about baseball teams, but officially, and if you really know baseball, you still speak of the teams as “clubs”, and on the major league level, each club has a manager rather than a head coach.

By the 1850's, baseball players had started promoting baseball as America's “national pastime”. The following decade, there wasn't much in the way of “pastime” during the Civil War. The men were off fighting and the women were home trying to keep the farms and households going during the absence of their husbands and fathers. As we know from the story of Seth's father and the 16^th Vermont, soldiers had a lot of down time. They often passed the time playing baseball, and many returned home with a love of the game. This, combined with a new national fervor after the Civil War, combined to cement America's love affair with baseball during the end of the 19^th century.

Baseball was as popular in Vermont during that era as it was nationwide. Jackie Calder of the Vermont Historical Society is quoted on the VHS website: “The town teams in the early part of the 20^th century were the heart and souls of many communities in the Green Mountain State. There were at least 200 teams in small towns across the state." Baseball games were often the focus of county fairs, Fourth of July and Memorial Day celebrations. (Speaking of Memorial Day, when I was looking through the Town of Barnard's town reports from the late 1800's, I saw Charles Aikens listed as a participant in the Memorial Day activities in the late 1890's, no doubt as a veteran of the Civil War.)

There are many baseball related terms of speech. We speak of someone being “way off base” or “out in left field”, or “striking out”. I'm always saying “give me a ballpark figure” when I ask my husband to estimate something. To “cover your bases” means that you have taken whatever steps you need to make sure everyone is safe. A “heavy hitter” is a force to be reckoned with. Another phrase I like to use is “It's hit or miss”. Meaning, either it's successful or it's not – referring to a batter either hitting or missing the ball. My sister always says, “It was a home run”, meaning something great just happened. When you say, “That guy needs to step up to the plate”, we mean he needs to fulfill his responsibilities. I also often say, “Right off the bat, that kid had a rough day”, a baseball term that means “at the very beginning”.