Baseball before we knew it : a search for the roots of the game / David Block ; with a foreword by Tim Wiles.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Uncertainty as to the paternity -- Rounders schmounders -- Abner and Albert, the missing link -- Was Abner Graves telling the truth? -- Rules of baseball : the prequel -- How slick were the Knicks? -- In the beginning -- Stools, clubs, stobs, and jugs -- Traps and cats -- It's starting to look familiar -- Baseball before we knew it -- Early baseball bibliography : roots of the game in pre-Civil War literature -- Appendix 1. Constitutions and by-laws -- Appendix 2. Some comments on sporting journals of the 1850s -- Appendix 3. "A place leavel [sic] enough to play ball" / by Thomas L. Altherr -- Appendix 4. The letters of Abner Graves -- Appendix 5. Dr. Adam E. Ford's letter to Sporting life -- Appendix 6. Battingball games / by Per Maigaard -- Appendix 7. Nine surviving descriptions of baseball-like games written and published before 1845.