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THE (NEW) OLD BALLGAME

In the spring, a young man's fancy might turn to love, but a baseball fan's attention tends to head instead toward the ground-ball out (and there's no sex there, slugger). Baseball is meant for summer sun and dusty diamonds, but to every fan falls a little rain delay.

September 2, 1983
BILL KNIGHT

THE (NEW) OLD BALLGAME

FEATURES

BILL KNIGHT

In the spring, a young man's fancy might turn to love, but a baseball fan's attention tends to head instead toward the ground-ball out (and there's no sex there, slugger).

Baseball is meant for summer sun and dusty diamonds, but to every fan falls a little rain delay. Indoor alternatives had to be found. Once these small-scale variations on the sport arose, it was only natural that gamers stormed the game rooms of America and took command of baseball's new ballgames.

While jocks itched for outdoor pursuits, underdeveloped types perfected many types of "baseball" contests to befuddle and otherwise intimidate creeps with biceps. During the reign of the Roman Empire, dice were invented os another version of the then-popular "Gaul-bali/' During the Dark Ages [before movable type and the Designated Hitter rule), feudal wars were waged with Crusades trading cards (anyone out there got a Lancelot rookie card from 997 A.D.?). And in the New World, countless explorations of the Old West were enlivened with 19th Century renditions of baseball board games ("Hey—let's have the Aztecs take on the Donner wagon train in a best-of-five series!").

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