Phaseball was a team sport with a ball, where batting was permitted for players. During the High Republic Era, Jon Wittick, a human, played for the phaseball team of an academy he attended around 231 BBY.
In that year, while serving as a Galactic Republic counselor on the prison ship Restitution, Wittick used a blaster rifle to swat away a scav droid during an attack on the ship. After the prisoner Sal Krost—who was secretly Lourna Dee, the Nihil Tempest Runner—commented on the strength of the hit, the counselor revealed his past as a phaseball player for his academy's team. When Dee inquired if he had used a blaster rifle in the sport, Wittick responded that there was a first for everything.
The High Republic: Tempest Runner, a 2021 audio drama by Cavan Scott released as part of Phase I of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia project, introduced phaseball into current Star Wars canon. The correct spelling of the sport was later verified in 2022 with the release of the audio drama's script. The sport was first mentioned in the Star Wars Legends continuity in Star Wars: The Old Republic, a 2011 video game created by BioWare.