"that Catherine, whou had by nature nothing heroic about her, should prefer cricket, baseball, riding on horseback to books..."

This struck me when I first read it as baseball is not nowadays regarded as an English game - I presume it must have been fairly popular in JA's day and then died out here whilst flourishing in the Americas - Children (particularly girls) still play rounders which is pretty similar and I wonder if the "baseball" referred to would have been more like rounders than the modern game.

I have often wondered if there are earlier mentions of baseball in literature.