Early baseball in Massachusetts/Predecessor Game 6
From SABR Encyclopedia
Spread of baseball: Home -> Massachusetts -> Early baseball in Massachusetts/Predecessor Game 6 |
Location | Massachusetts |
---|---|
Year | 1775 |
City | Dorchester |
State | MA |
Country | US |
Name of game | "Bowl" (ball) |
Thomas Altherr writes in 2008: "Ephriam [Ephraim? – TA] Tripp, a soldier at Dorchester in 1775, also left a record, albeit brief, of ball playing: �Camping and played bowl,' he wrote on May 30. �Bowl' for Tripp meant ball, because elsewhere he referred to cannonballs as �cannon bowls.' On June 24 he penned: �We went to git our meney that we shud yak when we past muster com home and played bawl.'" Note: Dorchester MA, presumably? Is it clear whether Tripp was a British soldier? May 1775 was some months before an American army formed.
E. Tripp, "His book of a journal of the times in the year 1775 from the 19th day," Sterling Memorial Library Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University: "Diaries (Miscellaneous) Collection, Group 18, Box 16, Folder 267. Per Thomas L. Altherr, "Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games," Base Ball, Volume 2, number 1 (Spring 2008), page 39