Ball, Bat and Bishop: THE ORIGIN OF BALL GAMES [Paperback]

Robert W Henderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2001

Step aside, Abner Doubleday! In this impeccably researched history, Robert W. Henderson uncovers the true origins not only of baseball but of a score of related sports involving hitting, catching, throwing, or kicking a ball. Henderson traces the origins of ball sports to religious rites in ancient Egypt, where the ball (perhaps a shrunken head) represented a fertility symbol and opposing teams engaged in mock combat signifying the struggle of good against evil. Centuries later, pagan fertility rites featuring the ball were adapted by the Christian church as rituals symbolic of Easter and the Resurrection. Court tennis was also firmly rooted in the church, the earliest players being the bishops, canons, and clerics who played it in their cloistered courtyards. Henderson overturns the popular belief that the game of racquets originated in the debtors' prison on Fleet Street in the early nineteenth century. He also notes that polo, the most ancient of games played with stick and ball, originated in Persia and migrated to China and India, where it was eventually embraced by English imperialists. Other sports discussed include football, lawn tennis, cricket, and golf. The most substantial portion of Henderson's study is devoted to the game of baseball. Providing copious evidence of early forms of baseball played in England and the United States before 1829, he offers a meticulous account of the legerdemain by which Abner Doubleday, the famous Civil War general, came to be identified as the inventor in 1839 of a game that was already at least two centuries old. The new foreword by Leonard Koppett affirms the significance of this classic work of sports history, which was the first to dismantle the Doubleday/Cooperstown myth.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Henderson is by all odds the world's foremost student and soundest historian of . . . games that are played with a ball. -- John Lardner, New York Times Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (April 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252069927
• ISBN-13: 978-0252069925
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,184,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great insights into baseball and the religious roots of the sport, December 15, 2010

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John Scott "John Scott" (Newark, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ball, Bat and Bishop: THE ORIGIN OF BALL GAMES (Paperback)

Very interesting, well-researched work into baseball, and the religious roots of the sport, from Egyptian times, when ball games were something directed by the priests, into the middle ages, when priests and bishops officiated ball games, and where there was religious significance to the sports. For a while, baseball dipped into the womb of secularism, where it incubated from rounders and similar activities in England and the U.S., to the underhand game of baseball (softball style).

However, as baseball progressed, the underhand was gradually replaced by the overhand, the sport took root in the United States in the Civil War. It was played by soldiers on both sides. Baseball and football took hold in the United States in the same time period. Professional leagues existed around the time of the civil war (baseball), and soon after it became known as the national pasttime.

The religious nature of baseball, while lost for a time, after superstars began to emerge, notably, Ty Cobb in the early 1900s, through the First World War, and then Babe Ruth in the 1920s, began to reemerge, with an almost religious fervor and devotion attached to the professional sport of baseball, and its teams.

The religious baseball of the 17th century and before, had again regained its religious qualities in the 20th century, which it retained until today. The Olympics also maintains its religiuos fervor, a carry over from its Grecian days, when it was truly a religious rite, combined with sport. Of all sports, the Olympics, professional baseball and the World Cup, retain their quasi-religious devotion.

This book is a link in detailing the historical facts surrounding baseball and is worthwhile reading for sports historians.