ABSTRACT
When the Northern European country Finland gained its independence in 1917, the nationalistic journalist Lauri Pihkala introduced a new and faster version of American baseball, which he called pesäpallo. The game gained first a stronghold in the Finnish Civil Guards and was then implemented in the schools, and by the end of the interwar, it had become a popular game even in the sport clubs. Despite never inspiring any interest abroad, the game has maintained its popularity also during the postwar period in certain semi-peripheral regions of Finland. Reasons for this include the strong local and later regional legacy of the game, the gradual modernization of its rules, and an emergent consumer culture.
