Wordorigins.org

When examining the origins of a word one must be careful to distinguish between the word and the thing itself. The origin of the word is often quite different from the origin of the thing that it represents. Such is the case with baseball. In this case the word is much older than the game we today know by that name.

The first recorded use of baseball is from 1744, appearing in John Newbery’s A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, which was one of the first children’s books ever published. The book, originally published in London but reprinted several times in the United States, contains the following poem:

B is for
Base-ball
The Ball once struck off,
Away flies the Boy
To the next destin’d Post,
And then Home with Joy

The game described in Newberry’s book bears little resemblance to the modern game of baseball other than the use of a ball and bases. Judging from the picture that accompanies the poem, they didn’t even use a bat, instead striking the pitched ball with the hand. But despite the differences, this game of English baseball is clearly the progenitor of the modern game.