Here are a couple of news clippings that mention ball playing. The first is children’s poetry from the New Bedford Mecury 200 years ago this month. The second (not local but fun anyway) is commentary from the Cleveland Daily Herald in 1841 on the fun of playing ball.

 

New Bedford Mercury

 

May 13,1808

 

SELECTED POETRY.

 

CHILDHOOD.

 

CHILDHOOD! happiest stage of life,

Free from care and free from strife,

Free from memory’s ruthless reign,

Fraught with scenes of former pain;

Free from fancy’s cruel skill,

Fabricating future ill;

Time, when all that meets the view,

All can charm, for all is new;

How thy long-lost hours I mourn,

Never, never to return!

 

Then to toss the circling ball,

Caught rebounding from the wall;

Then the mimic ship to guide

Down the kennel’s dirty tide;

Then the hoop’s revolving pace

Through the dusty street to chase;

O what joy! – it once was mine,

Childhood, matchless boon of thine!

How thy long-lost hours I mourn,

Never, never to return!

 

 

Cleveland Daily Herald

 

April 15, 1841

 

Playing Ball, is among the very first of the ’sports’ of our early years. Who has not teased his grandmother for a ball, until the ‘old stockings’ have been transformed into one that would bound well? Who has not played ‘barn ball’ in his boyhood, ‘base’ in his youth, and ‘wicket’ in this manhood? – There is fun, and sport, and healthy exercise, in a game of ‘ball.’ We like it; for with it is associated recollections of our earlier days. And we trust we shall never be too old to feel and to ‘take delight’ in the amusements which interested us in our boyhood.

            If ‘Edith’ wishes to see ‘a great strike’ and ‘lots of fun,’ let her walk down Water Street some pleasant afternoon towards ‘set of sun’ and see the ‘Bachelors’ make the ball fly.