In 1990, University of Houston English professor Earl Dachslager wrote to the New York Times “to settle once and for all the debate over the first references in print to the game of baseball.” He had found 11 in Shakespeare:

• “And so I shall catch the fly” (Henry V, Act V, Scene ii).
• “I’ll catch it ere it come to ground” (Macbeth, III, v).
• “A hit, a very palpable hit” (Hamlet, V, ii).
• “You may go walk” (The Taming of the Shrew, II, i).
• “Strike!” (Richard III, I, iv).
• “For this relief much thanks” (Hamlet, I, i).
• “You have scarce time to steal” (Henry VIII, III, ii).
• “O hateful error” (Julius Caesar, V, i).
• “Run, run, O run!” (King Lear, V, iii).
• “My arm is sore” (Antony and Cleopatra, II, v).
• “I have no joy in this contract” (Romeo and Juliet, II, ii).

“I trust that the question of who first wrote about baseball is now finally settled.”