Earliest Known Ancestral Baseball Image in Card Form—circa 1830

While the origins of the national pastime have taken on mythical proportions, history tells us that as long as there has been a child throwing a ball toward another child swinging a stick, there has always been a game akin to baseball. Historians have even traced loosely defined bat and ball games to ancient civilizations. Through continuous research and the discovery of new information, several popular myths regarding the evolution of baseball—most notably the “Doubleday” theory, have been debunked. The game has evolved over many decades, if not centuries, and that its roots lie, in a variety of bat and ball games, most originating in England and brought to this country by the colonists. Among these were trap ball, old cat, stool ball, wicket, goal ball, and others, all employing different variations on the basic bat-and-ball theme. Over time, these early games evolved into those still being played today, such as rounders, cricket, and, of course, the American game of baseball. During the time period that our nation was literally taking form, there are references to youngsters playing “town ball” on village greens throughout the northeastern United States. In 1791, the town of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, banned the playing of wicket, cricket, batball, and baseball within eighty yards of their new town meeting hall, whose windows were apparently vulnerable to longballs from the very first generation of American sluggers. 



Against that backdrop, here is the earliest known card of a bat and ball game, and the only example known. Included within a set of children’s educational game cards typical of those popular in the early part of the nineteenth century, it pictures three boys engaged in a game that is clearly an antecedent and close cousin to the sport that has evolved into baseball. The cards in the series measure 2 1/8" by 2 5/8" and each of the group of seventeen offered here features a different rhyming riddle. The bat and ball game shown here is akin to other known woodcut images depicting primitive baseball-like scenes dating from the period 1815-1830, most of them also showing an oddly-shaped end to the bat typical of the time before there was such a thing as a commercially manufactured bat. Significantly, the few other such known images all originated in books or pamphlets. The image presented here is the only example known to exist on a card.



This card is a fascinating documentation of baseball in its earliest evolutionary phase. Although there are a few photographs, tickets, and trade cards of ballplayers and teams from the 1860’s, this card pre-dates those examples by several decades. An accompanying forensic examination of the paper and chemicals used to make the cards confirms the approximate period of manufacture. The overall condition of the group is good, with the feature card grading between good and very good condition.

Note: Special thanks to Frank Ceresi for his contributions to this writing.