Ernest Franklin: My dad would play this game, and I guess my grandpa did too. It’s been handed down for generations. The last year I played was in 1929, which was also the last year I went barefoot to school. I was a sophomore in high school then. You’d have at least eight players: four on a side. The game was played with a ball made of yarn, and we always got our mother to sew around it to keep it from unraveling. If the ball was too light, sometimes we’d wrap the yarn around a core like a piece of wood to give it extra weight.
The object of the game is to get all the men out on one team by hitting each one of them with the ball. One team of four players mans the bases, and the other players get in the center or in the bullpen. One man on base throws the ball diagonally across the field to another base to get the ball into play. Then it is thrown around the bases. At any point, a man on base can catch the ball and try to hit a man in the center with it. The man in the center tries to dodge it. If the man who throws it misses, he is out of the game. If he hits the man he was throwing at, that man picks up the ball as quickly as possible and tries to hit one of the basemen, who by this time have scattered and are running in all directions. Though the basemen are allowed to run away, a man in the center cannot leave the bullpen unless the ball bounces or rolls out. Then he can leave the bullpen to retrieve the ball, but he has to throw it at one of the fleeing basemen from this point. He can’t run with the ball. If the man in the center misses the baseman he is throwing at, he is out. If he hits the baseman, that man is out, and the thrower can stay in the bullpen for the next round.
When a baseman is out leaving three men on base, those men can move from base to base at will. When there are two men left on base, those two, at the beginning of each round, meet together out to one side, and one conceals the ball so that the players in the center don’t know which baseman has it. They return to their bases, each one acting like he has the ball, and each moving from base to base to keep the players in the center confused until the ball is actually thrown at a man in the center beginning the round.
When there is only one man left on base, he can move along the baselines at will and throw at any time at a man in the center. The game ends when all the players on one team are out. Then those who were in the bullpen take the bases, those who were on the bases move to the bullpen, and a new game begins.
—Foxfire 6
A lot of you mentioned dodge ball yesterday. The game I shared today might have been the precursor to our modern game. I’ve never played bullpen and haven’t played dodge ball since I was a kid.
On our last church camping trip a big group of people played dodge ball. They had a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching the game. I especially liked the age range of the players—from three years old to early thirties.
Last night’s video: Meet My Gen Z Friend.
Tipper
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