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[Enrico Palazzo]

Austen heroine aids claim UK invented baseballStory Highlights
Author claims baseball originated in Britain and traveled to the United States

Julian Norridge says American sporting magnate covered up baseball's origin

Norridge argues reference in Jane Austen novel supports his hypothesis
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(CNN) -- Is it a case of British "Sense and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice" or just a wrong-headed piece of "Persuasion?"


The British help invent baseball before it traveled to America, according to author Julian Norridge.

According to author Julian Norridge baseball originated in Britain, and part of his proof comes from a reference in Jane Austen's novel "Northanger Abbey."

Norridge, whose book "Can we Have our Balls Back, Please?" focuses on Britain's role in writing the rulebooks for a long list of sports, says Austen mentioned baseball in the opening pages of "Northanger Abbey," which was written in 1797-98.

Norridge says that Austen referenced the sport while introducing her tomboy heroine Catherine Morland, writing: "It was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of 14, to books."

He argues in his book that the reference indicates British people were familiar with the sport prior to its supposed invention much later in the United States.

"There's no doubt it was being played in Britain in the late 18th century, and equally no doubt that it traveled to America," he writes.

PLAYBALLNOTTHEPLAYERBOYS

[cheeseface]

Pretty sure this is right. We have a game called rounders in the UK which is an older form of baseball.

It's a game girls play at school.

[mises]

And just as Americans thought that they would stop being harassed about nonsense while at the pub in Itaewon..

[Ya-ta Boy]

Back during the Cold War, the Ruskies kept up a steady stream of claims of how they had invented everything, most notably jazz in Odessa. Claims like these just make the claimant look silly.

[BS.Dos.]

[cheeseface]

Actually it was. Rounders is baseballs big brother. Like I said before, it's a girls game in the UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders

The earliest nationally formalised rules of play were devised by the GAA in Ireland in 1884. In 1889, associations were formed in Liverpool and Scotland. The NRA was not formed until 1943. Baseball (both the "New York game" and the now-defunct "Massachusetts game") as well as softball are likely to share the same historical roots as rounders (see origins of baseball) and bears a resemblance to the GAA version of the game. Rounders is linked to British Baseball, still played in Liverpool, Cardiff and Newport. Although rounders is assumed to be older than baseball, literary mentions of "base-ball" pre-date those of rounders. Rounders is now played from school-level to international.


Also see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_baseball

Americans played a version of the English game rounders in the early 1800s which they called "Town Ball".


Enjoy our girls game.

[OneWayTraffic]

Of course cricket developed from the same old village games. The sports have developed just a little since then making this rather academic.

Sports are rarely invented from whole cloth. The best games insead evolve, piece by piece, as do languages. Colonists played the same games in America that they'd played back home. Over time these diverged into baseball and cricket.

[Big_Bird]

Yeah, it is a girl's game. They used to make us play it at school. I bloody hated it. Hockey was much better.

[cheeseface]

[rusty1983]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oina

Romanian game played in the 1300s

[rusty1983]

[cheeseface]

[huffdaddy]

[Beeyee]

[cheeseface]