A Little Pretty Pocket Book

This tiny children’s book debunks the great myth that baseball was born in the United States. It is a reprint of John Newbery’s work, first published in England in 1744, but it marks the first American reference to baseball in print: “Base-Ball. The Ball once struck off, Away Flies the Boy, To the next destin’d Post, and then Home with Joy.” Note that the three posts represent bases.