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Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

topic posted Sun, June 13, 2004 - 7:39 PM by  James 		Share/Save/Bookmark
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I'm studying an interesting fact, interesting to me at least. Please answer the follwing:

1) Do you know what Cabbage Ball is? Please do not elaborate, only answer with a 'yes' or 'no'.


2) What part of New Orleans are you from


Thanks and you may now exit :-)
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James
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  • James
    James
    offline 4

    Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

    Mon, June 14, 2004 - 7:27 PM
    Thanks everyone for furthering my education.

    Yeah, a couple days ago I google'd "cabbage ball", I can't now remember why, and all results kept turning up references to New Orleans. This has since led me to a grand theory of what I like to call "A Grand Theory" about the localization of cabbage ball.

    'Cabbage-Ball' is, for those whom didn't know, like soft-ball but the ball is bigger -about the size of an average head of cabbage.

    It is played with *no* gloves -I'd like to see size of the gloves if they were used!

    Now, I'm on a quest and a mission to learn the history of and spread cabbage ball to rest of the world.

    Here's a few things I've learned so far:

    -It seems to have been invented in New Orleans. The only people that seem to even have heard of it either live in New Orleans or grew up in New Orleans or have deep roots planted in New Orleans.

    -It seems to be connected to Catholic schools and institutions.

    -Maybe the cabbage part creates a bias but I'm beginning to think the game is particular to a Catholic Irish origin. I grew up in the Irish Channel where cabbage balls seemed to be a part of everyone's arsenal of sports equipment.

    Well, that's where we stand with "The History of Cabbage Ball".

    Over and out!
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    • nath...
      nathalie
      offline 25

      Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

      Mon, June 14, 2004 - 7:39 PM
      i also remember it being refered to as "indoor ball" although i never recall playing it indoors. but i do remember having to hunt for "special" cabbage ball bats when i was a kid, as there were some regulations regarding the specs. maybe we just needed fatter bats for the big balls? i'm sorry my memory is a little hazy, but i was only 7 or 8 at the time.
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      • Dave
        Dave
        offline 14

        Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

        Tue, June 15, 2004 - 6:19 AM
        yeah, i learned it as cabbage ball, then someone called it indoor ball, and we did actually play it indoors a couple times.

        and also 'yeah' to the catholic origins -- i played at a catholic elementary school, high school, and a cyo league... and none of my public school friends had every played it. weird.
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    • nath...
      nathalie
      offline 25

      Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

      Wed, June 16, 2004 - 4:32 PM
      "Cabbage ball was played by boys and girls on cement fields because Catholic School Athletic League teams didn't have enough room or grassy areas for real baseball or softball."


      according to: www.walkerpub.com/radio_mem...ail33.html
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      • James
        James
        offline 4

        Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

        Wed, June 16, 2004 - 5:16 PM
        Nice work Natalie! You get a star!

        I queried a local baseball freak about cabbage ball and he didn't know too much about it. He did, however, hit me with another uniquely New Orleans fact. According to my friend, New Orleans is the only city where softball, in general, is served with an over-hand pitch.

        Can anyone verify this?

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      • .
        .
        offline 39

        Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

        Wed, June 16, 2004 - 8:36 PM
        I never saw cabbage ball being played on a cement field though
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        • Unsu...
           

          Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

          Thu, June 17, 2004 - 8:00 AM
          at st patrick's playground there is a coed cabbage ball league on monday nights..perhaps we should form a tribe team. lol

          apparently the guys in chicago feel they invented this game, it's called chicago 16 inch softball. when they first built the big park where it is played up there the fields were too small and so they had to design a ball in order to play on the smaller fields. up there if you play what we refer to down here as softball (gloves and a smaller ball) it is frowned upon and not considered real softball
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          • nath...
            nathalie
            offline 25

            Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

            Thu, June 17, 2004 - 3:14 PM
            iinnnteresting.
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            • nath...
              nathalie
              offline 25

              Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

              Thu, June 17, 2004 - 3:42 PM
              "Few people know that the game of softball was invented in Chicago. The most popular version today is the 12-inch game, which is the staple of high school, college and Olympic competition. But here and practically nowhere else, it was the 16-inch game, played without gloves, that caught the imagination of the city, and remains the game of choice for tradition-conscious Chicagoans. On the latest installment of WTTW11’s Emmy-award-winning Chicago Stories series, premiering Thursday, April 3 at 8:00pm on WTTW11, host John Callaway presents some memorable Softball Stories, featuring some fascinating Chicago players.

              As the program reveals, the game of softball was invented in Chicago on Thanksgiving day, 1887. Local alumni of Harvard and Yale were sitting around the Farragut Boat Club at 31st and Lake Park, taking in the results of the Harvard/Yale football game via ticker tape. When they got word of the Yale victory, one Yalie reportedly tossed a boxing glove in the air. A disappointed Harvard backer took a swing at the glove with a broomstick, and the next thing you know, they were playing “indoor baseball” -- soon to become known as softball. Various forms of the game spread across the country and around the world. "

              more here:
              www.wttw.com/pressroom/s...stories.html


              video available here:
              www.chicagotogo.org/vidvhschicga.html
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              • James
                James
                offline 4

                Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

                Thu, June 17, 2004 - 4:20 PM
                My post below was posted before I saw yours.

                The Harvard-Yale story sounds suspect.

                I've found this:

                "History. Softball was developed in 1887 by George W. Hancock of the Farragut Boat Club in Chicago. Hancock designed the game for indoor play with a 16 inch ball that had the seams turned out. In 1895, Lewis Rober of the Minneapolis Fire Department adapted the game for outdoors. He used a 12-inch ball that had a cover similar to that used in baseball. Rober's version is considered the forerunner of the present game of softball. In 1923, the National Recreation Association appointed a committee of recreation executives to study the variety of rules used in different parts of the United States so that they could be standardized. Many of the rules were later changed by a joint rules committee formed in 1933. The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the governing body of the sport in the U.S. and other countries. International softball competition is governed by the International Softball Federation, founded in 1952. The international federation now has more than 40 member countries."

                www.yorkpublic.org/yms/phys...tball.htm

                At any rate, it's beginning to sink in that maybe only the name is unique to New Orleans :-(

                I guess I can sleep now.
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          • James
            James
            offline 4

            Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

            Thu, June 17, 2004 - 4:07 PM
            Interesting indeed!

            O.k., I checked in with my research center (google.com) and Roland is telling the truth! There is indeed a "16-inch Softball" and it seems to be popular in Chicago.

            Uhmm, this puts a kink in my "Grand Theory About Cabbage Ball"! Thanks alot!

            Let me restate my thesis:

            Cabbageball, which was imported to Chicago . . .

            No, let's try:

            The great sport of Cabbageball, which is unique to New Orleans (*except for some other people that play it under a different name somewhere else . . .)

            We'll need to find a good PR person for this.

            Seriously, this shows us:

            1) There is a connection between Chicago and New Orleans as concerns the uniqueness of cabbageball/16 inch ball.

            2) It seems more and more like there is a Catholic-Irish connection.

            3) The sport was necessitated by a lack of space.

            I'll bet we could coincide the invention of cabbageball to when a large influx of Irish immigrants entered the USA.

            What about New York? Back to the research lab!

            BTW, let's hold off contacting PBS and THC for a little bit longer.
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    • Rachel
      Rachel
      offline 0

      Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

      Thu, May 24, 2007 - 11:17 AM
      I'd like to confirm this response despite the fact that it's 3 years old. I'm a NOLA native living in Kentucky and NO ONE has ever heard of cabbage ball. I grew up on the Lakefront and we definitely played cabbage ball all the time.

      I'd love to know if you've ever found anything else out.
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  • JPs ...
    JPs Mouse
    offline 0

    Re: Survey: What is Cabbage Ball?

    Wed, June 25, 2008 - 8:15 PM
    I know this is REALLY late, it just so happens that I was looking for information online so that I could tell a friend about the game I played over 10 years ago. Here is the history as I was given for Cabbage:

    1) It was played in the middle ages using the head of someone recently beheaded
    2) Normally played on rainy days (Its England, that happens alot)
    3) It had no real rules other than 2 teams and is played much like today's rugby or America's Football.

    ~JP's Mouse
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