Bringing the baby back home, all grown up
On July 16, 1874, the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Stockings of the pioneer National Association of Base Ball Players set sail for England to spread the gospel of baseball. The midseason tour pulled the teams out of league play for nearly two months.
The All England XI cricketers from Great Britain had been a sensation in 1859 when they crossed the Atlantic, and a return tour was planned for 1862, but our Civil War put that on hold. At that time there had been frequent mention in the press of our “national games,” reflecting the equal stature of cricket and baseball. By War’s end, baseball alone was described as the national pastime.
Harry Wright, leader of the Bostons, wished to return the favor of the 1859 tour (and those less popular visits of 1868 and 1872). His father had been a cricket professional in England and in America; Harry and his brother George—both ensconced in the Baseball Hall of Fame—were prominent cricketers before they ever tried their hands at baseball. They thought they would show off our new improved game to the Mother Country, but upon their arrival sporting fans wanted them to play cricket, turning up their noses at baseball. The Americans won all their cricket matches but only by playing 18 men against the home country’s 11. They played 14 dates in England, at some sites displaying their skills in both cricket and baseball. The middle seven of these were played in London, where Major League Baseball now proposes to return in 2019.
The plan to bring our new game to England was largely a failure. The baseballists were informed that their game was simply rounders, made duller by the dominant role of the pitcher. A correspondent signing as “Grandmother” wrote to the London Times on August 11, 1874:
Sir — — Some American athletes are trying to introduce to us their game of base ball, as if it were a novelty: whereas the fact is that it is an ancient English game, long ago discarded in favor of cricket….
Baseball had indeed been born in England and was long played under that name, as a rural pastime with quite different rules, such as hitting the ball with one’s hand rather than a bat. Women and girls played it along with men and boys, as a picnic recreation, from perhaps as early as 1690. As “English Baseball” split off from its rural cousin, rounders—a game played with a bat, and bases that were run clockwise—the old game of baseball was left to the fair sex, who continued to play it until late in the nineteenth century.
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, a novel written in 1798 but published posthumously twenty years later, is today well known in baseball-history circles for this passage:
Mrs. Morland was a very good woman, and wished to see her children everything they ought to be; but her time was so much occupied in lying-in and teaching the little ones, that her elder daughters were inevitably left to shift for themselves; and it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, base ball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books — or at least books of information….
Yet before Abner Doubleday was affirmed as baseball’s father in a nationwide celebration in 1939, few Americans knew that English boys and girls had played a game called baseball, whatever its rules may have been. Few knew the Austen passage, and fewer still knew of John Newbery’s A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, published in London in 1744 — which offers a woodcut showing boys playing baseball and a rhymed description of the game.
BASE-BALL.
The Ball once struck off,
Away flies the Boy
To the next destin’d Post,
And then Home with Joy.
MORAL
Thus Britons, for Lucre,
Fly over the Main,
But, with Pleasure transported,
Return back again.
That baseball is an odyssey in which a protagonist braves the perils between bases before ultimately coming home, like Ulysses, is today a familiar trope; it is delightful to note it in this first printed mention of the game. Newbery’s charming alphabet book was published in pirated editions in America, too, as early as 1762 and again in 1787, by Isaiah Thomas. (In the American edition the word “Britons” in the second stanza is replaced by “seamen.”) The bases in the depicted game are wooden posts, not sandbags, though either may be understood as safe havens from being put out. There is no bat.
Magnanimously, we had granted the Brits their primacy in cricket; some American cosmopolites might have gone as far as to acknowledge a playing-fields link between their national game and ours — perhaps, as the early sportswriter Henry Chadwick claimed, through rounders — but baseball, well, that was our game.
Not so. When scholar Robert Henderson revealed the Doubleday legend to be made of whole cloth, baseball writer John Kieran wrote in the New York Times:
Oh, Abner of the Doubledays in far-off fields Elysian,
Your claim to fame is called a foul by later-day decision.
Some prying archeologists have gone and found some traces
Of baseball footprints ages old in sundry English places.
Dryly, Kieran proposed that “in view of the enjoyment which we in this country derive from baseball, it would be a sporting gesture to let the English inventors know that we are very much obliged to them.”
American professional baseball returned to England as the last stop in the World Tour of 1888–1889, which had begun in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), then progressed to Australia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Egypt, actually playing a formal game before the Great Pyramid. After stops at Naples, Florence, and Rome, the world tourists spent ten days in Paris and another ten in London.
By this time British men who had continued to play the game of rounders had formed associations in Wales, Scotland, and England. In Liverpool, a weekly rounders newspaper reported on the dozens of matches (or fixtures) that were contested each week. In the 1890s rounders devotees created confusion for all those who today study the game by changing the name of their game and forming the London Base Ball Association. Meanwhile the ancient and honorable game of “English Baseball,” which had become an exclusively female pastime, had pretty much disappeared.
American baseball was played in London during a couple of early twentieth-century tours, but the game had taken so slight a hold that when World War I broke out it was left to Canadians to instruct English soldiers how to play (the U.S. didn’t enter the conflict until April 1917). In the fall of 1917, a series for the championship of the Canadian forces overseas was played in England. One hundred and one teams took part, with several minor league and semipro players dotting the rosters. Servicemen’s baseball was alive and well in Europe in both 1917 and 1918. An Anglo-American League was formed, composed of regular teams of American and Canadian soldiers, and was organized in London by W.E. Booker and former big leaguer Arlie Latham. The league played a regular weekend schedule in London, the English provinces, and Scotland. Every team had four or five professional players. A benefit game between American Army and Navy teams in London, on July 4, 1918, drew more than forty thousand spectators, including the King.
What became of baseball in England? The pastime formerly known as rounders is now more familiarly known as Welsh Baseball and endures as an organized sport in both Cardiff and Liverpool. English Baseball, the ancient game that in the 18th century gave birth to America’s national pastime, died out.
Major League Baseball has yet to take root, but perhaps, as Sherlock Holmes said to Watson, “The game is afoot.” The sleuth’s creator, Arthur Conan Doyle, wrote to the the Times of London nearly a century ago (October 25, 1924):
Sir, — As one who has sampled most British sports, may I say a word upon baseball? It seems to me that in those Press comments which I have been able to see too much stress is laid upon what may appear to us to be a weakness or a comic aspect in the game and not nearly enough upon its real claim to our attention…. If it were taken up by our different Association teams as a summer pastime I believe it would sweep the country as it has done America. At the same time it would no more interfere with cricket than lawn tennis has done….
Next at Our Game, “The Great Baseball Rivalry (Yanks and Red Sox, of course).
Today’s press release announcing the games between the Red Sox and Yankees here:
The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees will play an historic two-game series in London in 2019, marking the sport’s first games ever played in Europe, in the MLB London Series, Major League Baseball (MLB), the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) and the Mayor of London jointly announced today.
The 2019 series will be played on June 29–30 at London Stadium, the site of the 2012 Olympic Games, which will take on a baseball configuration for the event. The estimated capacity of London Stadium for the series will be 55,000. The United Kingdom will follow other international venues that have hosted regular season Major League games, joining Mexico, Japan, Puerto Rico and Australia. The parties have agreed to a two-year deal that will include another series in London in 2020, with participating teams to be announced, and other initiatives that will aim to establish a footprint in the city.
The announcement of a two-year commitment to play games in London was made today in the capital by Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr.; Tim Slavin, Chief of Business Affairs and Senior Counsel, Business for the MLBPA; the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan; Boston Red Sox Principal Owner John W. Henry; and New York Yankees Managing General Partner/Co-Chairperson Hal Steinbrenner and General Partner/Vice Chairperson Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal.
Commissioner Manfred said: “Major League Baseball is excited to be bringing one of the most storied rivalries in sports to the passionate fans of London. In our ongoing efforts to grow baseball, there is nothing as impactful as bringing live games and our talented players to fans. This is our most significant endeavor ever in Europe and we look forward to showcasing Major League Baseball in one of the world’s great cities.”
Tony Clark, Executive Director of the MLBPA, said: “Some of the most talented and dynamic players in the world will be playing in these games. They are excited about the chance to meet new fans, and showcase the game they love. They are aware they’ll be a part of history, but they also know these games count. So fans can expect intense competition during what will surely be a great few days in London.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am absolutely delighted that we have secured this historic agreement for Major League Baseball to come to London in 2019 and 2020. All the hard work has paid off. There is no better way to start the London Series and the first Major League Baseball fixture in Europe than a clash between two heavyweights of international sport — the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. This is a major coup demonstrating, once again, that London is the sporting capital of the world and I am excited about a new partnership with MLB and the long term future of this sport in our great city.”
Boston Red Sox Principal Owner John W. Henry said: “For several years the Red Sox and Yankees have discussed playing in London as the first-ever Major League Baseball regular season game in Europe. It’s also the first time the Red Sox and Yankees have played one another outside of New York or Boston. There were significant challenges that had to be overcome. We could not be happier that Commissioner Manfred has been able to make this a reality. This series will surely be the most significant international event to date for Major League ball. I can’t wait to hear someone shout ‘play ball’ at London Stadium.”
New York Yankees Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner said: “To have the opportunity to participate in this historic baseball endeavor and showcase our game in London is something our entire organization is thrilled to be a part of. Bringing these storied teams together for British fans — who have such a profound appreciation for sports at the highest level — only adds to the unique allure of one of the world’s greatest sporting rivalries. We expect an exciting and intense pair of games and appreciate the significance of representing our sport in such a meaningful way.”
Graham Gilmore, CEO of London Stadium 185, said: “As a venue, we are immensely proud to be hosting MLB’s London Series at London Stadium in 2019. London Stadium has a track record of successfully delivering major global events, moving from Premier League Football and both international and domestic showpiece rugby fixtures to hosting some of the biggest names in music. We look forward to welcoming MLB, teams and fans to London Stadium for the first year of what we hope to be a fruitful, long term partnership.”
Fans can stay up to date on all news regarding the 2019 MLB London Series by following @MLBLondonSeries on Instagram and Facebook and can pre-register for MLB London Series tickets at:
Baseball in London was originally published in Our Game on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.