The History of Rounders

 The origin of Rounders is still somewhat unknown. There is evidence that a version of the game was being played in the British Isles during the Tudor Age, which was roughly from 1485 – 1603. There are bat-and-ball sports played in other European countries that highly resemble Rounders, for example Lapta from Russia, and schlagball from Germany. The similarity of these games would suggest that there was a common ancestor that they are derived from, however it was postulated that versions of the game spread due to increases in writing (Guttenburg Press 1440) and literacy, which may have helped the spread the idea of playing bat and ball sports.

 The game was played by common folk in its infancy, with some evidence that Rounders came from a fertility rite of passage game called Stool Ball back from the 1300s. Milkmaids were said to play the game with their milk stools as the bat and the bases. Evidence of this game comes from the church, which forbade the ritual. Direct concrete documentation of the sport can be found from what is considered Britain’s first book published for children, called A Little Pretty Pocket-Book of 1745. The book contained a nursery rhyme and an illustration for a game called “Base ball,” which was probably Rounders. Several decades later, Jane Austin wrote Northanger Abbey, which featured a female character who played Rounders with her childhood friends. Four decades later, a book published in London for young boys called The Boys Own Book described a bat and ball game almost identical to Rounders, but the bases were arranged in a diamond. The book was published in Boston, Massachusetts soon afterwards. From this evidence alone, it would be logical to think that American baseball was inspired from Rounders.

 In 1903, a sports writer named Henry Chadwick, who had played Rounders when he was young boy in England, theorized that American baseball came from Rounders. At the time, this was met with adamant rejection, and it was stated that baseball was a truly an American original. A commission, heavily influenced by the National League of Professional Baseball, stated that Abner Doubleday invented American baseball. John Thorn, official historian for Major League Baseball, would say this statement is equivocally false, and there is a good chance Doubleday had never even heard of baseball. In fact, there were many versions of American baseball, dubbed after the city or state from which it was most popular. The New York version won out, which would be the basis for the rule set used today for baseball.

 In the United Kingdom, the sport found legitimacy when the Gaelic Athletic Association adopted it as an Irish sport in 1884. Rules and equipment were standardized, and other associations in Scotland and Liverpool picked up the game as well. Britain made the National Rounders Associated in 1943, with very similar rule sets to the GAA version. Rounders is still very popular in elementary school in the United Kingdom as a fun recess and PE game.

 Recently, my lower elementary students were studying the continent of Europe in class, and to integrate with their research, we learned how to play Rounders (after spending some weeks playing warm-up games). As the students finish up the year looking the U.S., then more specifically Chicago, we are going to play some early versions of American baseball (Philly ball, Massachusetts ball, etc.), then finish the year with Chicago’s very own 16-inch softball. By learning Rounders first, we are able to use its rules to scaffold the full understanding of baseball rules. For students who do not play tee ball or baseball outside of school, this made the sport accessible and fun for everyone.

If you would like a complete write-up of how we play Rounders, as well as the warm-up games used to practice skills like running bases and hitting, the lesson plan can be found in my TpT store.

Rounders

 Bibliography:

 College Sports Scholarships. (2001-2021). Information About Rounders. https://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/history-rounders.htm. Last retrieved May 5th, 2021.

 Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (1998). Rounders English Game. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. https://www.britannica.com/sports/rounders. Last retrieved May 5th, 2021.

 Fresh Air. (2011). The “Secret History” of Baseball’s Earliest Days. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2011/03/16/134570236/the-secret-history-of-baseballs-earliest-days. Last Retrieved May 5th, 2021.

 Uber Games. (2008-2021). History of Rounders. http://www.ubergames.co.uk/rounders-history.html#:~:text=It%20is%20believed%20that%20rounders,in%20the%2015th%20century. Retrieved May 5th, 2021.

 Wikipedia. (2021). Rounders. WikimediaFoundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rounders. Last retrieved May 5th, 2021.