batterup

In 1905, The Mills Commission was empaneled by Albert Spalding, a sporting goods tycoon, and determined Abner Doubleday was the founder of the game of baseball in Cooperstown, New York. Even Major League Baseball has abandoned this myth. The MLB video is thorough and interesting viewing but the video can't be embedded, only linked. The video reviews the facts supporting the myth and rejects the myth.

Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is staking their claim as the birthplace of American baseball based upon their discovery of an ordinance banning the sport in 1791 due to the occurrence of broken window panes. Now, that's the baseball we know and love.

Massachusetts had barely finished burning their witches at the Salem witch trials when they tried to control their baseball hooligans over "a pane of glass"; not to be confused with "a pain in the ..." but just as ornery a problem, no doubt.

Wikipedia provides an extensive resource article and references regarding the disputed origins of baseball in America. The first written reference to Base-Ball was in 1744 from a woodcut in England.

Rounders is the child's game claimed to be the source of modern baseball.

The bat and ball game has been in play in Ireland since Before Christ, that's B.C. folks and it is called hurling. If it involves sport, a game or a simple dalliance, you can be sure that it was invented in Ireland.

Ireland's legendary heroes were playing the bat and ball sport of hurling since prehistoric times. In the legendary story The Cattle Raid on Cooley ,the hero Cúchulainn  is playing the game of hurling. Fionn Mac Cumhail and his Fianna warriors are also legendary hurlers.

The Major League Baseball video concession that the game of Rounders is the probable root or origin of modern baseball describes the game as English. The next question was not asked and answered by that video.  The next question that they failed to ask is: "Where did the game of Rounders have its origin? The answer would clearly be hurling. The bat and ball game that is the origin of all bat and ball games and sports is Irish Hurling.

Where in the world did baseball begin? Who came up with the idea of swinging a bat to strike and propel a ball? It was probably just a few children who invented the game while they were bored to tears. Stickball became a poor kid's version of baseball after the game was invented. All that was needed was a broomstick, a rubber ball from the dime store and an urban brick wall on which to chalk a 'strike zone'.

Children are innovative and resourceful when it comes to playtime. They can convert a refrigerator box into a clubhouse; a pile of snow into an igloo; a stick into a sword, a rifle or even a baseball bat. We can be certain that children invented the bat and ball games. We have children to thank for all our modern bat and ball games; baseball, cricket, rounders and especially, Irish Hurling.These bat and ball games closely resemble each other in that the ball is struck by a bat and the ball is fielded with a catch.

Hurling requires the most skill and endurance because the ball must be caught with one hand while running. Baseball is the same as that, you say. There are fantastic leaps and catches in baseball -the best fielders earn the "Golden Glove" award. This is certainly true, and great athleticism is required and achieved; and the technology of the baseball glove or 'mit' has been perfected over the past century.

Now, imagine trying to catch a long fly ball without a glove - in your bare hand (while carrying your bat in the other hand). That's hurling!

Every player carries his own bat throughout the entire game; and every player swings his bat at the ball whenever he can catch the ball with one bare hand while it is in midair. If the ball is on the ground, it must be struck with the bat, or the ball must be lifted from the ground with the bat which is called a "hurley". The ball is called a 'sliotar".

The Irish have played this game for more than two thousand years in prehistoric times; before the British Empire; before Christ; before the Roman Empire. Hurling is the subject of myth and legend in Ireland; and continues to thrive as a modern sport today.

Tennis, table tennis (ping-pong), badminton, squash, racquet ball, paddle ball, ice and field hockey, polo, golf, croquet, snooker, pool, and billiards are all games and sports which involve a bat that propels a ball. "Different strokes for different folks", is the old adage. More recently, there are 'switch-hitters' who can bat from both sides of home plate; left-handed and right-handed batters. There are those who "swing both ways". I think that the etiology of that phrase relates to a gate on a white picket fence, but don't hold me to that.

The rules were simple at first. " I'll throw this rock at your head and you try to block it with that big stick". This is a primitive game invented in the neolithic age, in County Sligo, Ireland. It was first called Rockbat. "If you miss, the rock will make your head bleed-won't that be cool!". "Hey Paddy, that rock is too sharp and ye may put me eye out", Mick complained. "Arah, you're dead right Mick, we'd get a thrashin' for that, so we would, so I'll just throw these nice soft, round stones from the stream". "Ye're fekkin brilliant Paddy, I'da never thought of the soft stones on me own. Not so fast, Paddy, I want a turn to t'row the soft stones, as well."

"Have it your way, then. Once you get hit in the head three times, then you will be 'knocked-out' and it will be your turn to throw the stones at me - isn't that fair", reasoned Paddy. "Fairplay to ye", agreed Mick.

Thus, the hurling of the stones began and Rockbat was invented, before Christ was ever born. Though the stone age persisted for centuries more on the island to the east, this was the dawn of civilization in Ireland. The game and the rules of the game were all that was needed-and, of course, the soft stones from the stream. The rules were set in stone, so to speak.

Now it came to pass as the Stone Age persisted on the east island, that the Western People on the next island became industrious and innovative. God so loved the western rockbatters, he gave them bountiful hunting, fishing and grazing land and torrents of rain to keep their lakes and streams full and teaming with salmon and trout. Their dairy cows calved every spring and there was an abundance of milk, butter and cheese.They lived off the fat of the land. There was no hunger or sadness. They loved song, dance, storytelling and poetry. They were strong and healthy athletes who loved grog. When they drank grog, every man and clan claimed to be the best. Brawls, ballyhoos, wrestling, boxing, debate, argument, cussing and polemics were invented by them.

So the Western People invented individual team and athletic competition, to find and praise the "best". Ara, sure there was warfare all over the island which is competition of sorts. The problem with warfare was that you were always needing to replace your best players. They created the Hero Battle system where only the best warrior from each clan battled to the death and the remainder of the army just cheered and jeered. They were called the "fanatics", later shortened to "fans".

The fanatics were always disappointed that they could not do battle. They were side-lined. They were not in the action. Warfare was not fair or any fun any more. They were bored and played Rockbat to pass the time. One day, a bloody-headed rockbat player named Sam was at bat. He had found that Old Hickory made a very durable bat. Sure it could deflect stones away from his head but it was a nice hardwood that could smash them back in the direction of the hurler of the stone. When a stone was thrown hard, his old hickory could smash a soft stone to bits. he could also send back a long fly stone that would catch one of the fanatics in the head. The fanatics tried to catch the stones out in the fields. That is where the modern term "outfield" gets its name.

Some east islanders from a clan called Scotia were out fishing on the sea between the two islands. Storms forced them to shore on the western island. They saw the lads playing rockbat with old hickory sticks blocking the soft, round stones that were being pitched at their heads. Some were slamming them great distances out into the fields where the fanatics were trying to catch them, unsuccessfully (no mits; i.e., mitless, later to evolve to witless and nitwits) leaving most with bloody lumpy heads. The Scotians were mesmerized and enamored by the bloody fun and laughter. Many fanatics littered the fields. Many women and children were drawn to the carnage and thought the sport to be 'grand' but stood at a safe distance (later to become known as the "grandstands").

The Scotians were welcomed by the wonderful westerners and allowed to play 'til their heads were bent and their hearts' content. They brought the game of rockbat back to their eastern island where their stones were not so soft and round. The heads of the easterners didn't bleed as well as the heads of the westerners and rockbat was abandoned or modified into the eastern sports of cricket, croquet, polo, tennis and snooker. These were dubbed eastern sports or e-sports by their king. Rockbat was the root of all e-ball.

Competition among and between the tribes on the Western Island was fierce. Every boy and man played Rockbat each day once the hunting, fishing and farming was done. Everyone found their own old hickory and fashioned their own Rockbat, hewned and shaped by sharpened rocks. Slate was a favorite tool with which to craft a strong and shapely rockbat but would break regularly with the work. Old hickory was fashioned with a narrower handle to improve the handgrip and a broad face to deflect and propel the soft round stones. Sam fitted and lashed some slate to the broadface of his rockbat and invented the first axe. He took his rockbat axe to the forest and felled a sugar maple tree. Sweet sap drained from its rings as blood flows from a head struck by a soft round stone. The rockbats were so well wielded in defense that few stones struck few heads. The stone hurlers were hard at work and found that stones could be hurled faster and harder if they were cradled in sleeves of animal skin and the sling was invented.

Now the playing field was level once again. Soft round stones were hurled with greater sling accuracy and many found their mark. The rockbat men began to aim their deflection with greater accuracy back in the direction of those who wielded slings. These later became known as slingshots. The sling wielders needed their own rockbats at hand to defend against deflections.

One could barely load a soft round stone in a sling without needing to pick up the Rockbat to block a deflection. Sam, the local inventor of the Axe who had hewn the first sugar maple, opened a boutique bat company which he cleverly called "SamBat". He engineered a stronger bat made of maple and hewed them with the "slope of the grain" of the hard wood. Fewer bats would break this way. He made them shorter with a flatter face and called it a hurley.

He also invented a soft round stone which he called a "slither" made from dragon skin. Dragons were plentiful in the old days. They became extinct in Ireland because everyone wanted a "sliotar". They had used all of the soft round stones from the streams because everyone played "Rockbat".

No one used slings to throw "sliotars"(pronounced like slithers). Slithers were struck by hurleys and aimed at the each other's heads. A well-struck slither could still bloody a head. The maple hurley became the most popular bat on the western island and the old hickory stick became obsolete. Well, not actually, everyone still used old hickory for walking sticks and a smaller stick called a shileleagh which everyone used when they fought over barrels of home-made grog which they called Guinness back in the stone age. That's right, you guessed it, Sam invented the maple wood barrel with his axe and then he invented Guinness Grog so as to have something to put into the barrels.

They didn't have money in prehistoric times and so they saved the soft round stones from the streams so everyone could play "Rockbat". Since "SamBat" was making axes, barrels, bats, and dragon skin slithers he controlled most of the soft stone trade on the western island and had most of the soft round stones, as well. He started to lend stones to tribes of Rockbat players so the competition between the tribes could continue. Sam started the first "Rock Exchange" which he called a bank.

Sam became the first King of the western island and lived at Tara, near the first rock clock at Newgrange. It was also a calendar and all the "Bank Holidays" were written in stone for all times. The Irish still enjoy the primitive tradition of Bank Holiday Mondays.