Here is the BBC report on the discovery of a 1791 Pittsfield Massachusetts by-law banning the playing of baseball within 80 yards of the new meeting house. Reading, as I am now, a book of articles on the Red Sox collected over the 100 years of the franchise, it is interesting to note that in 1903 references to the founding of baseball are entirely to Hoboken, NY in the 1840s. The Baseball Hall of Fame is based in Cooperstown, NY due to a later reference to the first game being played there in 1939.

As the article explains (and as is the case with hockey) there is mucho debate-o as to the date of the first playing of these games. Hoboken is 28 miles west of Cooperstown while Pittsfield is 120 miles east.