The Massachusetts Game

The Massachusetts Game was a type of amateur club baseball popular in 19th century New England. It was an organized and codified version of local games called "base" or "round ball", and related to town ball and rounders. The Massachusetts Game is remembered as a rival of the New York Game of baseball, which was based on Knickerbocker Rules. In the end, however, it was the New York style of play which was adopted as the "National Game" and was the fore-runner of modern baseball.

The form of the Massachusetts Game best known today comes from a set of rules drawn up in 1858 by the Massachusetts Association of Base Ball Players at Dedham. [1]. Although it was recognizably a type of baseball, some features of the Massachusetts Game are very different from modern baseball:

Two "modern" features of the Massachusetts Game were not present in New York-style rules drawn up the same year by National Association of Base Ball Players [2].

The Massachusetts Game was more wide-open than modern "New York" baseball, with more scoring and, its proponents claimed, more excitement.

First base was only 30 feet away from the striker. There was a constant supply of baserunners, and much more action on the basepaths. The "soaking" rule was mitigated by the lightness of the ball, about 2-1/2 ounces compared to 5 ounces for a modern baseball. The runner could evade the fielders' throws by leaving the baseline.

The absence of foul territory allowed a skillful striker to literally "use the whole field" when he put the ball in play. One of a striker's greatest skills (writes David Block) was to tip the ball back over the catcher's head. The rules allowed 10 to 14 players on a side, to help cover the whole field. But put-outs were hard to come by, so the rule was "one out, all out" - a team's inning ended when one player was put out. Runs were plentiful. The rules declared the winner to be the first team to score 100 runs.

In an appreciation of the Massachusetts Game, sports historian John Thorn wrote in The Boston Globe of Sunday, July 10, 2005: "All that the Massachusetts Game had going for it was joy."

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