Which sport was played first - Baseball or Rounders?
Question #135755. Asked by richie_007.
Last updated May 10 2014.
Originally posted May 10 2014 12:20 AM.
kingofmates
Answer has 3 votes
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kingofmates 14 year member
771 replies
Answer has 3 votes.
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The game of rounders has been played in England since Tudor times, with the earliest reference being in 1744 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it was called "base-ball" by John Newbery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders
Consensus once held that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (2005), by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other, and that the game's most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball and "tut-ball". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball