Cricket Balls

[janduscframe]

In a patent for a baseball in 1875,the applicant stated something to the effect" for 'base' or 'cricket' balls as they are called in manufacturing " .Did cricket players and baseball players use the exact same ball in the 1870's or was he speaking in just general terms for any kind of ball? If the same ball was used, when was there a noticable difference between the two?

I'm back to edit, it was the Giblin patent that I stumbled upon while looking for something else. Then I found a reference to him at the following site.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780060838317&displayonly=CHP&z=y

[bluezebra]

Crickets have balls?

Bob

[janduscframe]

Only the brave ones:dance

[sandlot]

In a patent for a baseball in 1875,the applicant stated something to the effect" for 'base' or 'cricket' balls as they are called in manufacturing." Did cricket players and baseball players use the exact same ball in the 1870's or was he speaking in just general terms for any kind of ball? If the same ball was used, when was there a noticable difference between the two?I don't know the answer, but I can say that as the first international cricket game played was between teams from the US and Canada (apparently by the 1840s teams from Canada and the US played frequently), it would be logical that they would use whatever was at hand and suited the bill. Equally, someone looking to patent a ball would probably not have segregated the two games but have viewed them as a single market. For amateur games, most folks probably wouldn't have cared much as long as you could play with it.

[janduscframe]

I was sort of leaning that way too,Sandlot..

[TonyK]

You might want to check out an old sporting goods catalog or guide from the 1870's to see what each of the balls looked like? Cricket adopted a formal standard size to their ball in 1884. Who knows what the balls looked like eight or nine years earlier.

The present day cricket ball is made from a thicker leather, and the cover does not have the tennis ball pattern like a baseball has.

[hubkittel]

i pretty certain that by 1870 there were distinct balls for both cricket and baseball. in an 1862 catalogue there are balls being offered specificly for cricket, new york baseball, and massachusetts baseball. the nabbp had their own specifications by 1860 as to what was an "official" baseball, although those specifications changed over the next decade. if i had to guess, i would say that there were actual baseballs made specificly for baseball (as oppossed to any other bat and ball game) by the early 1850's.