This week we see how art imitates life, and in turn life imitates art. Kurt Vonnegut’s book The Sirens of Titan features the only sport played by the children of Mars: German Batball. As it turns out, there is a German sport which is a hybrid of baseball and kickball called Schlagball which is very similar to what Vonnegut wrote about. The main difference seems to be that in Vonnegut’s Batball no bat was used, whereas in modern Schlagball a thin 3cm bat is used. Schlagball is an ancient sport, and is still popular along the lower Rhine and North Sea Coastal Regions. (Protoball.org, 2016) If you’d like more information on Schlagball, please visit the links in our works cited for details on how to play.

Works Cited: 

Hicklin, W. C. “Modern Rules of Schlagball.” Protoball, 2016, protoball.org/Modern_rules_of_Schlagball.

LiaEeneMeeneMu, director. Hickory Köln Schlagball. YouTube, YouTube, 4 Sept. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjFK_77Hjlo.

Vonnegut, Kurt. The Sirens of Titan. Gollancz, 2004.

Wood, Robert.  “List of Fictional Sports.” Topend Sports Website, August 2015, https://www.topendsports.com/sport/fictional-sports.htm, Accessed 5/27/2021

If you have a suggestion you’d like us to share, please reach out to shelby@cclyme.org. 

Shelby Wood
Manager of Program Development
CommunityCare of Lyme
Shelby@cclyme.org
802-468-7776