George Duke wrote on Tue, Sep 2, 2008 07:50 PM EDT:
''The Nine'' is mostly the nine Greek Muses. Is Byron referring to Baseball below with ''the Nines'' in 1824? No,
though Baseball originated in mediaeval Europe as game with bats and ball,
and New England Puritans played evolving ''baseball'' in 17th Century.
Neither are they the Nine standard wickets of Croquet in most popular form, which established during mid-19th Century too. Byron's 'Don Juan' Canto 14:12, immediately after lines about Playing Cards, drinking, and reading: ''I think that were I certain of success, That no defeat can drive me from the Nine. This feeling 'tis not easy to express, And yet 'tis not affected, I opine. In play, there are two pleasures for your choosing -- The one is winning, and the other losing.'' Golf possibly. Golf got Nine Holes in 1764 when St. Andrews dropped two short holes from 11, making 9 standard(played twice). In Scotland since 12th Century, name Golf comes from Dutch ''kolf,'' Bat or Club. Golf may have been Lord George Byron's outdoor sport referred to as winning or losing, but he means the 9 Greek Muses. The coincidental(?) so many Sports ''nines''(9's) -- Golf, Baseball, Croquet -- came into being all around the same time. Whereas Franklin
played Chess against The Turk at Paris in 1783, there is no evidence Ben
Franklin tried a round of Golf.