Baseball before we knew it : a search for the roots of the game

Baseball, Block Convincingly Argues, Was Not A Product Of Rounders, And Its Essential Form Had Already Been Established By The Late 18th Century. Where, Then, Did Baseball Come From? In Search Of An Answer, Block, A Retired Systems Analyst And An Antiquarian Book Collector, Has Attacked Baseball's Literary Record With Methodical Zeal. The Result Is A Joyfully Discursive Romp Through The History Of Ball Sports And A Compelling New Theory Of The Game's Origins. Uncertainty As To The Paternity -- Rounders Schmounders -- Abner And Albert, The Missing Link -- Was Abner Graves Telling The Truth? -- Rules Of Baseball : The Prequel -- How Slick Were The Knicks? -- In The Beginning -- Stools, Clubs, Stobs, And Jugs -- Traps And Cats -- It's Starting To Look Familiar -- In Which The Mystery Is Unraveled -- Early Baseball Bibliography : Roots Of The Game In Precivil War Literature -- Appendix 1. Constitutions And By-laws -- Appendix 2. Some Comments On Sporting Journals Of The 1850s -- Appendix 3. A Place Leavel [sic] Enough To Play Ball By Thomas L. Altherr -- Appendix 4. The Letters Of Abner Graves -- Appendix 5. Dr. Adam E. Ford's Letter To Sporting Life -- Appendix 6. History Of Battingball Games By Per Maigaard -- Appendix 7. Nine Surviving Descriptions Of Baseball-like Games Written And Published Before 1845. David Block ; With A Foreword By Tim Wiles. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [287]-324) And Indexes. The age-old debate over baseball's ancestry has always been long on bluster and short on facts.