Baseball
in the Garden of Eden
The
Secret History of the Early Game
John Thorn
Columbia College, 1831
The game played in New York—always called baseball and never
rounders or town ball—had been documented in the city under that name as early
as 1823, when the playing of a match was staged to draw patrons to a saloon
known as Jones’ Retreat, at what is today roughly Broadway and 8th Street. The
New York game may also have been played as “bace” in 1805 by two clubs linked
with Columbia College, and probably was played earlier than that.
