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Games played in school when I was a boy.
Three-cornered cat, black-man, bull pen, but the real name was "town ball". The bat was six-ten inches wide and one inch thick with a handle Two were chosen to pick sides from the crowd. One would take a chip of wood and spit on one side and one of the chosen would say "wet" or "dry". They would toss the chip in the air, and if "wet" was up the one taking that would have first choice. No one ever caught the ball. Instead of a pitcher he was known as the one "giving balls" We had no umpire in "town ball". If the one giving balls could not do so the ball could be hit he was replaced with another to give balls.
Cyprus Neal
Age 70
Marion, Indiana 1916
Three-cornered cat, black-man, bull pen, but the real name was "town ball". The bat was six-ten inches wide and one inch thick with a handle Two were chosen to pick sides from the crowd. One would take a chip of wood and spit on one side and one of the chosen would say "wet" or "dry". They would toss the chip in the air, and if "wet" was up the one taking that would have first choice. No one ever caught the ball. Instead of a pitcher he was known as the one "giving balls" We had no umpire in "town ball". If the one giving balls could not do so the ball could be hit he was replaced with another to give balls.
Cyprus Neal
Age 70
Marion, Indiana 1916