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Indoor baseball -- History

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The Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939

On a cold and blustery day in November 1887, a group of Chicagoans were eagerly awaiting inside the Farragut Boat Club for the telegraphed results of the Harvard-Yale football game. George W. Hancock was one of their number, and while waiting he created a game that used a boxing glove for a ball and a broomstick for a bat. This game was known as indoor base ball, and it was the predecessor to the...

https://www.loc.gov/collections/spalding-base-ball-guides/ab...