On May 13, 1858, 10 baseball clubs convened in Dedham to standardize the rules of a variant of
baseball known as the Massachusetts Game. In this version, the striker, or batter, ran around a square with
60-foot-long basepaths (shown above) until he held to his base or was struck by a fielder's throw, a practice
known as ''soaking.'' Victory normally came after a team scored 100 runs or the lease ran out on the field
(which happened at the 1860 championship game in Worcester that was called off after four days).
But not everyone wanted to play ball. At the Dedham conclave, Boston's Tri-Mountain Base Ball Club
announced that they would have to withdraw from the association since they preferred to play by the
recently codified ''New York rules,'' which outlawed ''soaking'' (among other changes) and is the antecedent
of the game played today. By 1865, most of the country was playing Gotham-style ball.
Ode to Joy
In 1867, Henry von Gudera dedicated
his ''Base Ball Quadrille'' to the
Tri-Mountain Base Ball Club of Boston.
The Ball once struck off,
Away flies the Boy
To the next destin'd Post,
And then Home with Joy.
Thus Britons for Lucre
Fly over the Main;
But, with Pleasure transported,
Return back again.
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(Photo Courtesy of the Bostonian Society)
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