David,
Believe what you may, but this is a softball board. And as much as you may want to believe the softball community is a spin-off of Abner Doubleday's game, rounders(English) or "town ball"(as it was known in Massachusetts) was be played much earlier (1700s) and was more of a kin to a softball game than baseball.
The following is from World Book Encyclopedia:
Quote:
History
Baseball began in the United States in the mid-1800's. Historical evidence indicates that Americans developed the game from an old English sport called rounders. In spite of this evidence, many people believe that Abner Doubleday of the United States invented baseball.
Early development
Rounders. People in England played rounders as early as the 1600's. Rounders, like baseball, involved hitting a ball with a bat and advancing around bases. Although rounders resembled baseball, there were many differences between the two games. Perhaps the main difference was the way in which fielders put out base runners. Fielders threw the ball at runners. If the ball hit a runner who was off base, the runner was out. This practice was called soaking or plugging runners.
From rounders to baseball. American colonists in New England played rounders as early as the 1700's. They called the game by several names, including town ball, the Massachusetts game, and—sometimes—base ball. Rules for the game appeared in books from time to time. Even so, people generally played the game according to their local customs. The number of players on a side, the number of bases and distance between them, and other rules varied from place to place.
Americans gradually changed the game into baseball. The earliest known published reference to organized baseball appeared in the July 13, 1825, edition of the Delhi (New York) Gazette.
One of the key points in the development of baseball took place when players replaced the practice of soaking runners with the present practice of tagging them. Historians believe players in New York City probably made the change in the 1830's or 1840's.
The Abner Doubleday Theory. In spite of evidence showing that baseball developed from rounders, many people believe that Abner Doubleday invented the game in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. Doubleday later became a general in the U.S. Army. He died in 1893.
The Doubleday Theory arose from a dispute over the origin of baseball in the early 1900's. A commission was appointed to settle the question of the game's origin. Many people told the commission that baseball developed from rounders. But the commission's report, published in 1908, credited Doubleday with inventing the game. It based its conclusion on a letter from Abner Graves, who had been a boyhood friend of Doubleday's. Graves said he had been present when Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown in 1839.
Historians now believe that Doubleday had little, if anything, to do with baseball. They also point out that the game described by Graves included the practice of soaking runners. Thus, it was not essentially different from rounders.
Alexander Cartwright, a New York City sportsman, is called the father of organized baseball. In 1845, he started a club whose only purpose was playing baseball. Called the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York, it was the first organization of its kind. Cartwright wrote a set of baseball rules when he organized the club. These rules, together with rules added in 1848 and 1854, did much to make baseball the game it is today.
The 1845 rules set the distance between the bases at 90 feet (27.4 meters), and provided for nine players on a side. They contain the first known mention of the need to tag runners rather than soaking them. The 1848 addition included the present-day rule of tagging first base to put a batter out on a ground ball. The force out rule was added in 1854.
Rule changes. Although Cartwright's rules and today's rules are alike in many ways, there are also many differences between the two. Following are some of the original rules and the dates when they were changed.
Length of game. Cartwright provided that the first team to have 21 or more runs at the end of an inning won the game. The present rule in which the team with the most runs after nine innings wins was adopted in 1857.
Pitching. At first, the pitcher stood 45 feet (13.7 meters) from home plate and had to throw the ball underhanded. The pitching distance was increased to 50 feet (15.2 meters) in 1881 and to the present 60 feet 6 inches (18.4 meters) in 1893. The rule that allows the pitcher to throw overhanded was adopted in 1884.
Fly-outs. Originally, a batter was out if a fielder caught the ball either on the fly or on the first bounce. An 1864 rule change provided that fair balls caught on the bounce were not outs. An 1883 rule change provided that foul balls caught on the bounce were not outs.
Strikes and balls. In early baseball, batters only made strikes by swinging and missing. Called strikes became part of the game in 1868. The National League adopted the foul strike rule in 1901, and the American League in 1903. There was no such thing as a walk in early baseball. An 1879 rule change provided that a batter walked after nine balls. The present four-ball rule was introduced in 1889 after several changes.
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Sorry I took a page from Joel's
How to cut and paste, but this was through an AOL service and not everyone would have access to that.
Now, the most likely reason that softball insists on the ball being CAUGHT is probably to create a definitive point alleviating some of the umpire's judgment as to what was an intentional drop and what wasn't.
If you allowed every umpire to make their calls based on what they determined to be fair, there would be no consistency to the manner in which a game is called. It's already bad enough that the umpire is going to determine what was a CAUGHT ball without the envocation of personal opinions. It is not a stretch AT ALL to believe that there would be umpires seeing what they considered a routing humpback ball and automatically ruling the BR out regardless of how the defender(s) handled the batted ball. I know it is not a stretch because I have witnessed this attitude more than a few times and not just at a local level.
Thanks,