Rules for the no-peekie version: Each player is dealt a hand of seven cards, all face down. Players may NOT look at these cards! Starting from the dealer's left, each player bets then turns over one card at a time until (s)he has the highest hand. Running out of cards results in a fold. If a four is turned over, the player receives another card, face down, from the dealer. Threes and nines are always wild.
In chapter one the tomboyish heroine Catherine Morland is described like this:
"it was not very wonderful that Catherine, who had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, base ball, riding on horseback, and running about the country at the age of fourteen, to books"
I'm sorry, this is all I can add. I know nothing about Babe Ruth and the World Series, or even Alexander Cartwright and "the day baseball was born". But I'm sure someone out there does.
Some of the earliest developed cultures, such as the Greeks and the Egyptians, had games including a ball and bat, as baseball does. These early civilizations used these sports for recreation, and for special ceremonies. These games stayed popular and were even further spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. During this time many more variations of the sport were developed, as well. But Europeans mainly thought that these bat and ball games were just for children. After Europeans brought bat and ball games, most notably "cricket" and "rounders", to American colonies in the 1600s, this idea started to change. Already by the early 1800s many of the games Europeans brought to North America were becoming widely popular. These games were especially in the famous baseball cities of today, such as New York and Boston. The most popular stick and ball game there at the time was the British game of cricket, which is still popular in countries such as England, India, and parts of Africa. However, the sport that looked the most like modern baseball was called "rounders". In rounders, players must hit a ball with a bat and run bases like in baseball. The only main differences between this sport and modern day baseball are the foul lines, some rulings on "outs" and the fact that in rounders you were able to peg a runner with the ball for an out, like in kickball. Rounders was sometimes called "o' cat", "town ball", and "base ball". This is obviously the sports ancestor that bears the most resemblance to baseball.
So the new baseball was created, and it was extremely popular through out most of the United States and Canada. The only problem was that it lacked regulation. Everybody played by different rulings. Some people left in old elements of rounders or even cricket. There could be no organization in a game where there is no regulation. So, in 1845, a base ball club called the Knickerbockers met and came up with a basic "baseball government" frame. The Knickerbockers established the number and distance of bases, the placement of foul lines, and the practice of tagging instead of pegging. This game became an instant hit. And the following American Civil War was actually good for baseball. The new sport was spread all about our great country.
By that time, baseball was ready to be called America's national pastime. Still, many different cultures have a little bit of credit to claim for it.
Nines are wild. Threes face down are wild. The first player to be dealt a three face up may pay some preset amount into the pot to make all face-up threes wild. If a player is dealt a four, they may pay a preset amount to be dealt another card face down. If a player is dealt a seven, they must fold. (This is insane, and probably a less common rule.)
Baseball is evil, because with so many wilds, unless you play a lot of baseball, it's easy to overestimate the value of your hand, especially when you're a little drunk tired. You think your straight flush is pretty hot, but you're not really paying attention to how much money you're putting in the pot, and then all of a sudden your friend is brandishing five queens and raking in the chips, and you realise that it's after two, and you have considerably less money than you started with.
Base"ball" (?), n.
1.
A game of ball, so called from the bases or bounds ( four in number) which designate the circuit which each player must endeavor to make after striking the ball.
2.
The ball used in this game.
© Webster 1913.
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