Semantic search
1865.11 Atlantic Ball Committee Issues Fanciful Invitation
"Base Ball. THE ATLANTIC CLUB BALL.-- The members of the Atlantic Club give their fifth soiree dansante, on Thursday Evening, January 10th, on which occasion they should have a delightful time, at Gothic Hall Adams st. The Atlantics are Pacific-ally inclined, and bent on Union with their Athletic brethren of several ball clubs. Their motto is Excelsior as players, and the Star of their destiny is Victory. Their Enterprise leads to Mutual efforts to excel, and patriotically they desire to see the Eagle resume its Empire over the whole land. Though they have never met the Knickerbocker or Gotham on the field they hope to do so next season, when they intend showing them how Active they are in the fly game. Resolute in achieving the laurels of the championship, that being the Keystone of their temple of fame, they fought bravely for the lead, and when the last game was ended their cry was Eureka. Their old friends of the Eckford, it is to be hoped, will meet them at the Gothic Hall on this festive occasion, for it is to be a fraternal gathering of representatives from all the clubs, from Ontario lake to Nassau island, and from Camden to Utica.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 6, 1865
Fanciful, but containing a reminder that the Atlantic were the champion club of 1864, and apparently forgetful of the Club's matches with the Gotham in 1857 and 1858, which ended with the Gotham's ending of the series.
1865.12 "Professional" Players? Yes. Playing For Money? No
[A] "THE MUTUAL CLUB AND THEIR GROUNDS. The Mutual Club...have rented the enitre ground (at the Elysian Fields)...their object being to afford equal opportunities for both the 'professional' and amateur players of the club to enjoy practice to their hearts' content."
[B] "PLAYING BASEBALL FOR MONEY.-- ...We trust never to see our national pastime brought down to the level of contests in the prize ring of pugilism. The honor of incasing the ball as the only trophy of victory in a match is sufficient without bringing pecuniary rewards into the game as incentives for extra efforts. When the time arrives for money to be made the object in playing ball, then good-bye to friendly contests and the rule of gentlemanly ball-players..."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, May 7, 1865
[B] New York Sunday Mercury, July 30, 1865
1865.13 Elysian? Yes. Sacred? No.
"The old (Elysian Field baseball) grounds have lately been greatly improved. Trees have been cut down, rocks have been taken up, hollows filled up and hills levelled, and in fact everything has been done to make the field one of the finest ball grounds in the country. Permanent seats are to be placed on the boundary line set apart for spectators, and henceforth no difficulty will be experienced in keeping the crowd from interfering with the players around the catcher's and first and third base player's positions."
New York Clipper, May 13, 1865
1865.14 Baseball For The Wounded
"The Satterlees are returned wounded veteran soldiers, stationed, temporarily, at the West Philadelphia Hospital. Great difficulty is experienced in obtaining a 'practiced nine,' from the fact of players being constantly returned to duty with their regiments. The Club, with more propriety, might be called the 'Impromptu'."
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 26, 1865
1865.16 Boom in Base Ball Travel
"Base Ball Clubs.-- The city (Philadelphia) will be visited by a number of ball clubs during fall...the Athletics themselves will visit Baltimore, Washington, Altoona, Princeton, and Salem...The clubs who will visit this city are mainly of New York. They will include the Mutuals, Eckfords, Actives, Unions, Empires, Eagles, Gothams, Excelsiors, Knickerbockers, Eurekas, hudson Rivers, Newark of Newark, Lowell of Boston, Enterprise and Pastimes of Baltimore, Mountain Club of Altoona, Alleghany of Pittsburg, Nassau of Princeton, &c."
Philadelphia National American, reprinted in the New York Evening Post, July 17, 1865
1865.18 Atlantic Get Championship Flag
"FLAG PRESENTATION. Just as the game (Empire vs. Atlantic) commenced, a member of the Atlantic club, on behalf of Miss Emma Jean Boerum, presented to the Atlantic Base Ball Club a streamer 150 feet long. The Empire Club run it up their flag staff and it will henceforth wave as an emblem of championship until some club shall take it away. Such gifts are held in high esteem by the Atlantic boys, coming from the fair sex and so unexpectedly."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 22, 1865
1865.19 The "Slide Game" Protested
"You will appreciate my motive in calling the attention of first-class players of the game of Base-Ball, to a notorious custom practiced by players of the present day...The system of which I disapprove...is, that on the field we notice the 'slide game,' or when a player in an effort to gain his base will throw himself on the ground, feet foremost, sliding for fully a distance of twenty feet. It is not only the unmanliness of such a proceeding, but the danger encountered by a basekeeper from his opponent dashing at the base, feet first, convincing you that in the attempt to 'put him out' half a dozen steel spikes may enter your hands or body, hence the necessity of abolishing such an unfair practice, benefiting only the party in play, and angering or humiliating the base players. It is almost impossible to put a player out who is determined to enforce this manner of avoiding the ball, unless you are willing to risk the severe injury of your hands. It is not only an improper play, but destroys the spirit of the game."
Anonymous reader communication in the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 24, 1865
1865.20 Eagle Eyes Height and Weight
"The following table will give the champion nine, their age and weight...
Name Age Weight
Pearce,c 28 145 pounds
Pratt, p 21 140 "
Start, 1st b 23 160 "
Crane, 2d b 20 180 "
C. J. Smith, 3d b 29 150 "
Galvin, ss 23 160 "
Chapman, l f 22 155 "
P. O'Brien, c f 39 150 "
Sid. Smith, r f 23 135 "
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 24, 1865
First appearance of players' physical information, a staple of newspaper articles for many years.
1865.21 Fitz Credited With Originating Tournaments
“To the untiring exertions of Col. (Thomas) Fitzgerald, the worthy President of the Athletic, is due the inauguration of the ‘tournament’, which has awakened such a wide-spread interest in all parts of the country...”
Philadelphia Illustrated New Age, Nov. 1, 1865
Few and far between in prior years, festivals or tournaments mushroomed in 1865, for example:
Portland, ME—at July 4 celebration. Open to all teams in ME, considered for state championship. 4 teams entered, knockout competition. 2 games at a time in the morning, championship game in the afternoon. 9 innings. Cash prizes for 1st and 2nd. Portland Daily Evening Advertiser coverage on July 6 indicated that the only out-of-town team was subject to “expressions of strong sympathy against them.”
Altoona, PA- per a reprint in Fitzgerald's City Item (Philadelphia) on 7/22, Altoona Tribune was promoting a baseball carnival—Athletics, Mountain Club of Altoona, and Alleghany Club of Pittsburg
Wash DC- Games on 8/28 between the Nationals and Athletics, 8/29 between the Nationals and the Atlantic of Brooklyn, “a festival such has never before been offered in Washington”. Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 8/28
Wash DC- Oct. 9-11 tourney had the Excelsior of Brooklyn, the Nationals, and the Enterprise of Baltimore. Round robin, one game per day. Wilkes Spirit of the Times, 10/21
Wilkes Spirit of the Times on Oct. 21 printed a letter from Chicago describing problems encountered at a tourney in Rockford, IL. 5 teams, two days, two games each day.
1865.23 NABBP Meeting Sets Attendance Record
[A] "The ninth annual convention...proved to be most numerously attended...ever held...over ninety clubs were present."
[B] "...forty-eight clubs from New York State; fourteen from Pennsylvania; thirteen from New Jersey; four from Connecticut; four from Washington, D. C.; two from Massachusetts; and one each from Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maine, making a grand total of 91 clubs represented..."
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1865
[B] New York Clipper, December 23, 1865
1865.24 Change Pitchers
"Their nine [the Stars], however, needs two pitchers on it, no nine being
complete without a change pitcher."
New York Clipper, June 10, 1865
Earliest comment on need for more than one pitcher on a club. From a 19cbb post by Robert Schaefer, Nov. 9, 2003
1865.25 Three Mutuals Banned for "Heaving" Game to Eckfords for $100
"On September 27, 1865, gambler Kane McLoughlin paid $100 collectively to three [Mutual] players to heave, in the favored term of the period, a game the following day to the Eckfords. . . . in the fifth inning the Mutuals amazingly allowed eleven runs to score through [what the NYTimes described as] 'over-pitched balls, wild throws, passed balls, and failures to stop them in the field.' "
The Mutuals obtained confessions and banned catcher Bill Wamsley and two others. John Thorn cites this as base ball's first game-fixing incident.
John Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden (Simon and Schuster, 2011), page 127. The book includes [pp. 128-129] the written confession of the youngest plotter, Tom Devyr, whom the Mutuals reinstated the following year.
See also Philip Dixon, "The First Fixed Game-- Eckfords vs. Mutuals", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp.46-48.
1865.27 First Organized Base Ball Game in NC?
The New York Clipper, April 29, 1865 gives the box score of a game played near Goldsboro, NC on April 5th, between the drum corps and the privates of the 102nd NY Infantry, Sherman's Army, that had recently marched into NC.
Other than play at Salisbury POW camp, this might be the first organized base ball game ever played in the state.
The New York Clipper, April 29, 1865
1865.28 Union Guards at Elmira Prison Play Baseball with Confederate POWs
Baseball play was part of the Elmira POW Camp throughout the war.
The Chemung Union played against some Elmira POWs in 1865, according to James E. Hare, "Elmira," p. 75.
Janowski, "The Elmira Prison Camp" p. 360 says that in 1864 "The teams of the different [Confederate] states used to play baseball for the edification of the guards," quoting a soldier who was in the 54th NY guarding the POWs.
Horrigan, "Elmira: Death Camp of the North" says that on 9-3-64 two guards regiments, the 54th and 56th NY Infantry, played baseball against each other outside the camp.
James E. Hare, "Elmira," p. 75
1865.29 Ballplaying at Appomattox surrender?
There's long been a story that when Robert E. Lee's Confederate army surrendered at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, the Union victors played baseball games with the Confederate POWs. According to Pat Schroeder, who works for the NPS at Appomattox, that is not true--the Union and Confederate soldiers did indeed play baseball that week, but they played in their own camps, not against each other.
1865.43 First baseball in North Carolina?
While stationed at Morehead City, the 159th and 176th New York played baseball games on March 28 and April 11, 1865.
1865.44 Baseballs don't survive one inning
The Story of a Cannoneer under Stonewall Jackson by Edward a. Moore
1866.2 Early African American Club in Philly Plays Initial Game Agains Albany Visitors
"On October 3, 1866, at the Wharton Street grounds, the Pythians played and lost a match against the Bachelor Club of Albany, 70-15. This game is the only known regular match for he Pythian in their inaugural year."
"In spite of their enthusiasm for playing ball, the Pythian initially had trouble competing out of their neighborhood. Apparently, there was a turf boundary, and the Irish tried to keep the blacks of the inner-city wards from venturing south of Bainbridge Street . . . the 'dead line,' and any movement beyond 'meant contention.'"
For this game, however, a large crowd accompanied the club to the playing ground, and the game proceeded.
Jerrold Casway, "Philadelphia's Pythians: The "Colored" Team of 1866-1871," National Pastime (SABR, 1995), page 121. Jerry's source is the Sunday Dispatch, October 7, 1866.
1866.3 Five-Home Run game
Lipman Pike hit 5 home runs for the Athletic BBC of Philadelphia on July 16, 1866, a feat never equaled.
Jerrold Casway, "Lipman Pike's Home Run Record-- Athletic vs. Danville", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 49-50.
1866.4 Admission charged for Atlantic - Athletic championship matches
The Atlantic of Brooklyn and the Athletic of Philadelphia played two of three scheduled matches for the championship of 1866; admission was charged for both games.
Eric Miklich, "Money Ball-- Atlantics vs. Athletics", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 51-52.
1866.5 Modern Game Compared to Traditional Town Ball in IL
"Base Ball resembles our old-fashioned favorite game of Town Ball sufficiently to naturalize it very quickly. It is governed by somewhat elaborate rules, but the practice is quite simple. Nine persons on a side, including the Captains, play it. Four bases are placed ninety feet apart, in the figure of a diamond. The Batsman, Ball Pitcher, and one Catcher, take the same position as in Town Ball. Of the outside, besides the Pitcher and Catcher, one is posted at each base, one near the Pitcher, called the “Short Stop,â€â€”whose duty is the same as the others in the field—to stop the ball. The Innings take the bat in rotation, as in Town Ball,—and are called by the Scorer. The ball is pitched, not thrown to them—a distance of fifty feet. The Batsman is permitted to strike at three “fair†balls, without danger of being put out by a catch, but hit or miss, must run at the third “fair†ball. He may "tip" or hit a foul.
The full article, with commentary from finder Richard Hershberger, is found below in the Supplemental Text section.
Illinois State Journal, May 10, 1866.
() Any idea why this morsel hadn't turned up before 2014?
() By 1860, the modern game seems well-established in Chicago -- was it still unfamiliar elsewhere in IL as late as 1866?
() The writer seems unfamiliar with the modern force-out rule; wasn't that introduced prior in base ball prior to 1866?
() Is it possible that the absence of a comment about the modern no-plugging rule means that local town ball already used a no-plugging rule?
() Many throwback articles mention that the new ball is harder than traditional balls. Could local town ball have already employed hard balls?
1866.7 Finally, Substitutes Make the Box Score
The box score of a game between the Richmond and Ashby Clubs of Richmond, VA, on September 4, 1866, and reported in the Richmond Daily Dispatch of September 5 is the first known to have listed substitutes. Both were injury replacements, the only circumstance for which substitutes were then permitted.
The box score was accessed through genealogybank.com
1866.8 Earned Runs Concept Advanced
"Taking a fair average of the Eureka pitching, by deducting the additional runs in the first inning from the four miscatches, and allowing the one run only which the Athletics first earned in that inning, we find a total of 17 runs in three innings charged to Ford’s pitching, to offset which there was but one miscatch, and but 16 runs charged to Faitoute in six innings, an average of over two to one in his favor. These figures tell the story. We refer to this matter in order to do justice to Faitoute; many laying the defeats sustained in the two matches mainly to his pitching, whereas the fault lay in the errors in the field and in the lack of skill displayed at the bat, the superior of play on the part of their adversaries of course having a great deal to do with the result."
New York Sunday Mercury, September 2, 1866, per 19cbb post by Richard Hershberger, Sep. 4, 2012
This is remarkably advanced analysis. It doesn't take the final step of calculating the earned run average per nine innings, but it is otherwise identical to the modern ERA stat. It then argues that the true abilities of the players are better shown through statistical analysis than by superficial judgments. Gentlemen, we have a sabermetrician here!
1866.11 California Clubs Hold Conventions, View Championship Games
"In 1866 . . . about a half dozen California baseball clubs sent representatives to first Pacific Base Ball Convention in san Francisco. This was primarily a San Francisco affair; only one team, the Live Oaks from Oakland, came from outside the city. This gathering of baseball tribes sought to standardize rules and organize a local championship."
A second SF convention was held the following year, and "twenty-five clubs from as far away as San Jose attended the meeting. One account claims that one hundred clubs" attended.
P. Zingg and M. Medeiros, Runs, Hits, and an Era: The Pacific Coast League, 1903-1958 (University of Illinois Press, Chicago, 1994), page 2. Cited in Kevin Nelson, The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball (California Historical Society Press, San Francisco, 2004), page 12.
Is there an indication of what standardization was needed, and whether rules were discussed or adopted that wee at variance with New York rules?
Can we determine what original sources Zingg and Medeiros used?
1866.12 Club Claims County Championship in MA
"ANAWAN BASE BALL CLUB - The Anawan Base Ball Club, of Mansfield, which was organized August 4, 1866, claims to be thus far the champion club of Bristol County. The following is the report of the matched games it has played this season - September 1, 1866, Norfolk, of Foxboro, 39, Anawan, 26; 8th, Rough and Ready, of South Walpole, 17, Anawan, 99; 15th, Taunton, of Taunton, 13, Anawan, 154; Oct. 13, Taunton, of Taunton, 23; Anawan, 30; 23d, Norfolk, of Foxboro, 14, Anawan, 52; 25th, Chemung, of Stoughton, 2nd 9, 27, Anawan, 2nd 9, 63; Chemung, of Stoughton, 1st 9, 24, Anawan, 1st 9, 45".
Taunton Union Gazette and Democrat November 1, 1866
Mansfield MA (1866 pop. about 2300) is about 25 miles SW of Boston and about 20 miles NE of Providence RI.
1866.13 First Team Name on Uniform Shirt
In 1866, Milwaukee's Cream City Club and the Union Club of Morrisania [Bronx] became the first to display a team's name on the uniform shirt.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1866-cream-city-milwaukee/
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1866-union-morrisania-ny/
For other unifomr firsts, go to http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
1866.14 First Uniform with Graphic Design
In 1866, the Live Oak Club of Cincinnati was the first to display a graphic design on the uniform shirt.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1866-live-oak-cincinnati/
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
Can we guess why this innovation came to Cincinnati and not, say, to New York?
1866.15 Vassar has First female Base ball club?
The Vassar Encyclopedia (online) cites a letter from a Vassar student in 1866 saying she'd joined one of the base ball clubs on the college. The encyclopedia suggest the club might have been the Laurels or the Abenakis. Several sources claim this is the first verified proof of a female base ball club.
The Vassar Encyclopedia
1866.17 Baseball Introduced to the Richmond Public as a Novelty From the North
BASE BALL--MORE MATCH GAMES--DESCRIPTION OF THE MODE OF PLAYING IT.
Two match games of base ball are to come off this afternoon. First. The second game between the Stonewall and the Richmond Junior Clubs, at the grounds of the former, on Church Hill, when both clubs will appear in full uniform, and undoubtedly attract a large attendance of spectators. The next game, the clubs being composed of adults will probably excel in interest, will be played between the Old Dominion and Richmond Clubs at the grounds of the Richmond Club, opposite Elba Park. This game will also attract many spectators, and it is quite probable that among them will be the elite and beauty of Shockoe Hill. We call especial attention to these games, from the fact that the exercise is healthy and inspiring; and we truly hope that our prediction of a large attendance on both grounds will not be thwarted by the result.
The game of base ball was imported here from the North since the close of the war, and though copied in the main from the English game of cricket, is undoubtedly of American origin. It is unquestionably one of the best means in vogue for cultivating the physical powers. And, moreover, it may be set down as a remedy for many of the evils resulting from the immoral associations which the boys and young men of our towns and cities are very apt to become connected with. These opinions have been endorsed by some of the most eminent clergymen in the country, who themselves have formed clubs for purposes of "moral and healthful recreation."
Having been requested to give a sketch of the manner in which base ball is played, we have procured from Messrs. Cole & Turner the rules of the game; and in giving it we comply more particularly from the fact that many of us, in our school-boy days, played a game called "cat," which some think superior to the game of "base." The game of base ball is played in the following manner:
[Here follow, slightly edited into prose form, the entirety of the contemporary NABBP rules essentially verbatim]
In concluding this somewhat elaborate article upon the subject of base ball, we may state that it is seriously in contemplation to form a club for the purpose of playing heavy base by the most weighty (avoirdupois) and influential men in Richmond. We have in our possession the names of the first nine, who have already agreed to become members, and we may at no distant day, or at least so soon as the organization is perfected, give a more particular description of the "Heavy Base Ball Club." Their first game will be looked forward to with much interest.
Richmond Daily Dispatch, 31 August 1866
"Baseball didn't take root in Richmond until 1866, and the pioneer appears to have been Alexander Babcock, a New Yorker who played for Atlantic of Brooklyn in the 1850s, but went south and fought for the Confederacy, settling in Richmond after the war. He founded the Richmond Club, probably the first there, and then the Pastimes, which was a sort of City All-Stars and touring team." -- Bill Hicklin, 10/5/2020
1867.1 New York and Philly Colored Clubs Hold Championship -- Philly Win Is Disputed
From the New York Sunday Mercury, October 6, 1867:
THE COLORED CHAMPIONSHIP – The contest for the championship of the colored clubs played on October 3, on Satellite grounds, Brooklyn, attracted the largest crowd of spectators seen in the grounds this season, half of whom were white people. The Philadelphians brought on a pretty rough crowd, one of them being arrested for insulting the reporters. They also refused to have a Brooklyn umpire, and insisted upon an incompetent fellow’s acting whose decisions led to disputes in every inning. The Excelsiors took the lead from the start, and in the sixth inning led by a score of 37 to 24. But in the seventh inning the Brooklyn party pulled up and were rapidly gaining ground, when the Philadelphians refused to play further on account of the darkness. A row then prevailed.
The following particulars, as far as the reporters could record the contest, the black members of the organization imitating their white brethren in betting and partisan rancor which resulted from it:
EXCELSIOR [Philadelphia]: Price, 3b; Scott, c; Francis, 2b; Clark, p; Glasgow, 1b; Irons, cf; Hutchinson, lf; Brister, rf; Bracy, ss.
UNIQUE [Brooklyn]: Morse, cf; Fairman, p; H. Mobley, c; Peterson, 1b; Anderson, 2b; Bowman, 3b; D. Mobley, ss; Farmer, lf; Bunce, rf.
Excelsior – 42 Unique – 37 (7 innings)
Umpire: Mr. Patterson of the Bachelor Club of Albany
Scorers: Messrs. Jewell (Unique) and Auter (Ecelsiors)
---
In the same edition:
A GRAND DISPLAY BY THE COLORED CLUBS
The baseball organization among the colored population of Brooklyn, are in a fever of excitement over the advent of the celebrated champion Excelsior Club of Philadelphia, which colored nine will visit Brooklyn on October 3 to play two grand matches with the Eastern and Western Districts, the games being announced to come off on the Satellite Grounds on October 3rd and 4th. These organizations are composed of very respectable colored people well-to-do in this world, and the several nines of the three clubs include many first-class players. The visitors will receive due attention from their colored brethren of Brooklyn: and we trust, for the good name of the fraternity, that none of the “white trash” who disgrace white clubs, by following and bawling for them will be allowed to mar the pleasure of their social colored gathering.
---
Sunday Mercury, September 29, 1867:
CONTEST BETWEEN COLORED CLUBS
Arrangements have been made between the Excelsiors, of Philadelphia, and two Brooklyn clubs, all colored, to play two games for the colored championship of the United States at Satellite grounds, on the 3rd and 4th of October. We are informed that the contending clubs play a first-class game, and from the novelty of such an event colored clubs playing on an inclosed (sic) ground will excite considerable interest and draw a large crowd.
---
New York Clipper, October 19, 1867
EXCELSIOR VS. UNIQUE
The Excelsior Club of Philadelphia and the Unique Club of Brooklyn, composed of American citizens of African (de)scent, played a game at the Satellite Ground, Williamsburgh, on Thursday, October 3d. The affair was decidedly unique, and afforded considerable merriment to several hundred of the “white trash” of this city and Brooklyn. The game was a “Comedy of Errors” from beginning to end, and the decisions of the umpire – a gentlemanly looking light-colored party from the Batchelor Club of Albany – excelled anything ever witnessed on the ball field. Disputes between the players occurred every few minutes and the game finally ended in a row. At 5 ½ o’clock, while the Brooklyn club was at the bat, with every prospect of winning the game, the Excelsiors, profiting by the examples set them by their white brothers, declared that it was too “dark” to continue the game, and the umpire called it and awarded the ball to the Philadelphians. Confusion worse confounded reigned supreme for full an hour after this decision, and the prospect seemed pretty fair at one time for a riot, but the police, who were present in large force, kept matters pretty quiet, and the crowd finally dispersed…
New York Sunday Mercury, September 29, 1867 and October 6, 1867
New York Clipper, October 19, 1867
A shorter account appeared in New York Sunday Dispatch, October 6, 1867
See also Irv Goldberg, "Put on Your Coats, Put on Your Coats, Thas All!," in Inventing Baseball: the 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 38-59.
Was the October 4th game played between these African American clubs?
Is this game properly thought of as a national championship?
1867.2 Colored Clubs Play in Philly: Frederick Douglass Attends a Game
Frederick Douglass
[A] "FRED. DOUGLAS [sic] SEES A COLORED GAME. – The announcement that the Pythian, of Philadelphia, would play the Alert, of Washington, D.C. (both colored organizations) on the 16th inst., attracted quite a concourse of spectators to the grounds of the Athletic, Seventeenth street and Columbus avenue, Philadelphia.
"The game progressed finely until the beginning of the fifth innings, when a heavy shower of rain set in, compelling the umpire, Mr. E. H. Hayhurst, of the Athletic, to call [the] game. The score stood at the end of the fourth innings: Alert 21; Pythian, 18. The batting and fielding of both clubs were very good. Mr. Frederick Douglas was present and viewed the game from the reporters’ stand. His son is a member of the Alert."
Note: From two weeks later:
[B] "COLORED BALL PLAYERS. At Philadelphia, on the 19th inst., the Pythians, of that city, played a match game with the Mutuals of Washington, with the following results: Pythians – 43; Mutuals – 44
Pythian: Cannon, p; Catto, 2b; Graham, lf; Hauley, c; Cavens, 1b; Burr, rf; Adkins, 3b; Morris, cf; Sparrow, ss.
Mutual: H. Smith, p; Brown, c; Harris, 1b; Parks, 2b; Crow, lf; Fisher, cf; Burley, 3b; A. Smith, rf; Whiggs, ss.
[A] New York Clipper, July 13, 1867.
[B] New York Clipper, July 27, 1867.
For more on one early African American club, the Pythian Club, see J. Casway, "Philadelphia's Pythians; The "Colored" Team of 1866-1871," National Pastime, (SABR, 1995), pp. 120-123.
1867.3 Upset Gives Western Clubs First win vs. the East
When the Forest City BBC of Rockford, IL, upset the touring National BBC of Washington, D.C., it marked the first win for a "western" club against a team from the east.
John Thorn, "The Most Important Game in Baseball History?-- Rockford vs. Washington", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 55-57
1867.4 Cummings' Curve Curtails Crimson's Clouting
Candy Cummings claimed that he first used his curve ball successfully (after numerous previous attempts) in a game against Harvard College on Oct. 7, 1867
Mark Pestana,"Candy Cummings Debuts the Curve-- Excelsiors vs. Harvard", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century SABR, (2013), pp. 60-61
Candy Cummings, "How I Pitched the First Curve", The Baseball Magazine, Aug. 1908. Cummings dated his first boyish attempts at a curve to the summer of 1863.
There are many issues with any individual claim to invention of the curve ball.
1867.5 Morrisania Club Takes 1867 Championship, 14-13
The Union Club of Morrisania won the 1867 Championship, winning its second game of the series, 14-13, over the Atlantic Club. Charlie Pabor is the winning pitcher. Akin at shortstop and Austin in center field make spectacular fielding plays.
Game played Oct. 10, 1867.
Gregory Christiano, Baseball in the Bronx, Before the Yankees (PublishAmerica, 2013), page 75. Original sources to be supplied.
Can we add something about the first game, and the sites of each game? A bit more about interim game scoring?
1867.6 Batters' "Hits" First Appear in a Game Report
In the first issue of The Ball Players’ Chronicle, edited by Henry Chadwick, a game account of the “Championship of New England” between the Harvard College Club and the Lowell Club of Boston featured a box score that included a list of the number of “Bases Made on Hits” by each player. This was the first instance of player’s hit totals being tracked in a game.
The Ball Players' Chronicle (New York City, NY), 6 June 1867: p. 2.
Note: for a 1916 account of the history of the "hit," see the supplemental text below.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
Do we know if Hits were defined in about the way we would define them today?
1867.7 Nationals Inaugurate Western Tours
"...the Nationals (of Washington, DC)...were the first Eastern club to widely "tour." And so among their other accomplishments should be noted their popularizing of the "tour" which came to dominate the baseball seasons of 1868, 1869 and 1870, before the National Association began in 1871...these tours did much to help convince club owners and supporters that baseball could sustain a professional existence."
Greg Rhodes,19cbb post June 17, 2002
1867.8 Signs Go Back To At Least 1867
"Always have an understanding with your two sets of fielders in regard to private signals, so as to be able to call them in closer, or place them out further, or nearer the foul-ball lines, as occasion may require, without giving notice to your adversaries."
Haney's Book of Base Ball Reference, 1867
19cbb post by Peter Morris, Nov. 8, 2002
1867.9 Your Tax Dollars At Work/Play
"...a number of the players had clerkships in that department and in
fact a fairly frequently reprinted quotation calls the Second Auditor's
office was "the birthplace of baseball in Washington."
19cbb post by David Ball, Dec. 16, 2002, quoting the Washington Star, 8/14/27 and Washington Evening Star, 10/1/33.
Creation of phantom jobs for ballplayers was a commonplace in baseball's amateur era.
1867.10 Mitts in Michigan
"We have noticed in all the matches played thus far
that the use of gloves by the players was to some
degree a customary practice, which we think, cannot be
too highly condemned, and are of the opinion that the
Custers would have shown a better score if there had
been less buckskin on their hands."
Detroit Free Press, 8/4/1867, reference in 19cbb post #2124, Aug. 4, 2003
1867.11 Playing the Old-Fashioned Game: 1867
a detailed account of a game of "old fashioned base ball" between "two select elevens who never played the modern game."
"In the old game, it will be remembered, there is a first base about a rod to the right and a little toward the front of where the batter stands; the second base is about twenty rods in front of him, in the centre of the field; the home base is about ten feet to the left of the batter. The person running must be put out by being hit with the ball when he is more than a pace from his pace, etc."
Paterson Daily Press of August 2, 1867
per a 19cbb post by John Zinn, Aug. 9, 2008, "This is only one of about a half dozen accounts of "old fashioned base ball" games in Paterson in 1867. The games typically lasted six innings with eleven on a side."
1867.12 Post-War Spread of Baseball Noted
"The Base Ball Mania
Since the cruel war was over, the patriotism of our nation's young
men has commenced to manifest itself in the shape of a general
mania--no, not mania, but passion--for the game of base ball, generally
denominated our "national game," with evident propriety, seeing that it
is much better and much more generally played in American than in other
countries. The popularity of base ball was greatly increased,
especially at the West, within the present season. In Wisconsin, where,
three years ago, there was scarcely a club playing anything like the
"regulation" game, there are now probably not less than a hundred
clubs, all in the "full tide of successful operation." Nearly every
country newspaper that we take up contains either an account of a match
between the club of Dodge's Corners and the invincible First Nine of
Smithville, or else a notice for the "Irrepressibles," the "Athletics,"
the "Badgers," or the "Gophers" to turn out for practice on Saturday
afternoon. An immense amount of proper healthy physical exercise if
thus afforded, and a fearful amount of muscle and dexterity developed.
And at the same time the youths who thus disport themselves can have
the satisfaction of realizing that they are practicing at our great
nation's own patriotic game. "
Milwaukee Sentinel, July 25, 1867, per 19cbb post by Dennis Pajot, Jan. 28, 2010
1867.13 Moneyball 1867
"Many will be surprised to learn that the Atlantics have vacated the scene of their greatest triumphs, and have located themselves on the Eckford grounds, or rather the Union ball grounds, in Williamsburgh, entirely out of the way of the residence of the majority of their members, and in opposition to the wishes of many of the best men in their club. It would appear from all accounts that the present ruler of the club, failing to make any advantageous arrangement with Weed & Decker for a greater share of the proceeds in match days than the players received last year, and finding Cammeyer of the Union grounds ready to offer good terms to secure the club, they availed themselves of the latter offer of sixty per cent of the receipts and closed with him at once. But this being against the rules of the association, they made out a new form of agreement and hired the grounds after paying forty per cent of the receipts taken in lieu of rent. They change will not benefit the club, and it is the worst precedent Cammeyer could have adopted as all clubs can now fully claim a share of the sale money."
New York Daily News, April 21, 1867, per 19cbb post by Richard Hershberger, Sep. 30, 2013
1867 would be a watershed year for baseball finances. At the beginning of the season ten cents was still the standard admission. Midway through the season some clubs would experiment with twenty-five cent admissions. It turned out that the public was willing to pay this, and this changed everything. At ten cents the receipts paid for expenses, but only the top draws like the Atlantics and the Athletics could turn a significant profit. At twenty-five cents this opened up a revenue stream to many more clubs, and the fraternity found itself awash with cash (at least compared to previously). A similar thing would happen a century or so later with television money. The effect in the 1860s was to lock in professionalism. By 1868 there were openly professional picked nine games being played, and the following year they dropped the pretense entirely.
1867.14 NABBP Draws Color Line
"...the report of the Nominating Committee, through the acting chairman, Mr. James W. Davis, was presented, the feature of it being the recommendation to exclude colored clubs from representation in the Association, the object being to keep out of the Convention the discussion of any subject having a political bearing, as this undoubtedly had.
The Ball Players’ Chronicle December 19, 1867
1867.15 First Uniform with Serif Letter on Shirt
The Pastime Club of Baltimore was the first to display a serif letter on its shirts, in 1867.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1867-pastime-baltimore/
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
1867.16 Baseball's Resemblance to English Rounders Discussed
"I have mentioned base-ball as one of our principal out-door games. We play cricket, but base-ball is to our lads what cricket is to yours. It is the English ball game “rounders,” but developed into something much more interesting and important. It is preferred to cricket, because the play is more varied and less formal; but nevertheless it has become a very formidable and solemn game." Sydney Morning Herald, April 11, 1867, quoting the London Spectator
[from “Yankee Pastimes” by “A Yankee”], Sydney Morning Herald April 11, 1867, quoting the London Spectator.
Finder Richard Hershberger also notes, 6/3/2016:
The distinction between baseball as a developed version of rounders and baseball as a development from rounders is subtle, but I think it is important. In the first, baseball/rounders is perceived as a family of closely related games, some more and some less developed. In the second, baseball is a single game defined by an official set of rules, descended but distinct from rounders. The former emphasizes the similarities, the latter the differences. This is a necessary precursor to the later claim that baseball is completely unrelated to rounders.
This is a late example of the formula that baseball and rounders are the same game, albeit baseball a more developed form. You can find such statements in the 1850s, but by 1867 the more typical version was that baseball developed from rounders. Here is English commentary on the [1874] American baseball tourists:
"Baseball is an American modification, and, of course, an improvement of the old English game of rounders..." New York Sunday Mercury, August 16, 1874, quoting the London Post of August 1, 1874
Is Protoball correct in thinking that the unnamed American's quote had appeared in an earlier "Yankee Pastimes" column in the London Spectator, and was then cited in the Sydney (Australia?) Morning Herald of April 11, 1867?
1867.21 Wisconsin's First State Base Ball Tourney Lists $1500 in Prizes
"FIRST ANNUAL STATE BASE BALL TOURNAMENT OF WISCONSIN, $1500 IN PRIZES TO BE AWARDED. There will be a State Base Ball Tournament at Beloit, Wis. commencing Tuesday, 30 September, 1867. Under the auspices of the Wisconsin Association of Base Ball Players.
"The following are the prizes to be awarded. . . ."
"A New Baseball Discovery," John Thorn, June 17, 2013, posted at https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/a-new-baseball-discovery-a1d8f579388.
(John found the 7-foot broadside for the tournament at the Beloit Historical Society, and posted it in a short article about the experience.)
Top first class prize -- $100 cash and $100 Gold Mounted Bat
Junior prizes (under age 18), "Pony Clubs" (under age 15)
Prizes for top out-of-state club, plus several "special" prizes: best pitcher, best catcher, most homers, best runner, best thrower.
From John Pregler: "The Beloit Free Press published the following complete list of the prizes awarded at the Beloit Base Ball Tournament:
Senior Clubs - First Class: 1st prize, Cream City of Milwaukee; 2nd prize: Whitewater of Whitewater; 3rd prize: Badgers of Beloit.
Second Class: 1st, Capital City Jr. of Madison; 2nd: Delavan of Delavan; 3rd, Eagle of Beloit.
Juniors: 1st, Badger Jr of Beloit; 2nd, Excelsior Jr of Janesville.
Pony: Rock River Jr of Beloit
Outside the State - Seniors: 1st, Phoenix of Belvidere, IL; 2nd, Mutual of Chicago" - Janesville Gazette, Sept. 19, 1867
[A] Is "Pony Club" a common term for teen clubs?
---
[B] Wasn't $1500 a tidy sum in 1867?
-- from John Thorn, 9/22/20: "$1500 was a hefty prize: $27,783.73 in 2019 dollars (via Consumer Price Index adjustment)."
1867.22 Eureka! A Press Credential
"The plan introduced by the Eureka Club of having tickets for the regular reporters of the press, none other to occupy seats near the scorer, should be adopted by all our clubs and public ground proprietors."
New York Sunday Mercury, June 23, 1867
As of March 2021, this appears to be the earliest reference to a right -- in the form of special tickets -- to exclusive seating being bestowed to reporters.
Peter Morris discusses press coverage arrangements in Morris, A Game of Inches (Ivan Dee, 2006), section 14.5.3, pp 403 ff. He cites two Henry Chadwick sources of press areas in June and August 1867 at the Brooklyn Union Grounds and then the Capitoline and Irvington grounds.
Are earlier cases known?
Is it known whether these press accommodations were normally granted by a ball club, like the Eureka, or by the owner of the ballfield?
1867.23 Celebrity Spectators
Robert E. Lee
The following is the result of a game of base ball played by the Beechenbrook and Arlington Base Ball clubs, on the Institute ground, at Lexington, Virginia, May 4th. The game was witnessed by General R. E. Lee, Custis Lee, General Smith, and a very large concourse of people. After its termination the winners were presented with a handsome set of flags by the Misses Lee, daughters of the General.
Louisville Daily Courier, Louisville, KY, May 27, 1867.
Custis Lee, General Lee's son, had served on Lee's staff during the war. General Smith was superintendent at VMI. The flags referred to were probably foul-line flags used to mark the foul lines on fields not enclosed.
1867.24 A Cool Treat for Kansas Fans
"Quite a number of ladies and gentlemen were present to witness the exercises, but they were compelled to seek the shade, owing to the extreme heat. An ice cream saloon was erected, and its refreshments were able to keep the audience cool."
Fort Scott Weekly Monitor, July 31, 1867
Richard Hershberger, 5/4/2021: "New one to me, and I haven't got anything earlier."
As of 5/9/2021, Protoball shows:
[] an 1859 mention of ice cream at Rockford IL at https://protoball.org/Ballgame_in_Rockford_in_June_1859
[] an 1867 reference to ice cream at in IL https://protoball.org/Little_Vermillion_Club_of_LaSalle
We wonder what ice cream was like in 1859 and 1867, before cold storage was common.
Has anyone written about the evolution of comestibles for fans in the Origins Era?
1867.27 Union Club Offers Season Tickets in Washington Paper
"The Union Base Ball Club, of Lansingburg, New York, will arrive here today and play a match game with the Nationals, near the State Department, on Wednesday afternoon. Season tickets may be had at Cronin's, or at James Nolan's at No. 372 Pennsylvania Avenue, near Sixth Street. The price of a single admission ticket for a gentleman and ladies is fixed at twenty-five cents."
Daily Morning Chronicle, September 3, 1867.
From Bob Tholkes, 11/2/2021: "First reference I've seen in '67 for sale of season tickets...seller not named, though likely the Nationals. Innovation?"
Note: Peter Morris' fine A Game of Inches: The Story Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball (Ivan R. Dee, 2006), section 15.1.1, notes that the White Stockings charged $10 for a season ticket in 1870. Like the 1867 Washington offering, the Forest Cities of Cleveland in 1871 noted that a $10 season ticket would admit both a gentleman and lady, but the club also sold season tickets for individual entrants at $6.
Is earlier use of season tickets known?
1868.1 Elizabeth Cady Stanton describes Female Baseball Game in Peterboro, NY
THE LAST SPORTING SENSATION
A FEMALE BASE BALL CLUB AT PETERBORO’ (sic, w/ apostrophe)
At Peterboro’, (sic, apostrophe) N. Y. the young ladies, jealous of the healthy sports enjoyed by the more muscular portion of mankind, have organized a base ball club, and have already arrived at a creditable degree of proficiency in play. There are about fifty members belonging to it, from which a playing nine has been chosen headed by Miss Nannie Miller, as captain. This nine have played several games outside the town and away from the gaze of the curious who would naturally crowd around such a beautiful display. Having thus perfected themselves, this nine lately played a public game in the town of Peterboro’ (sic, apostrophe), as may well be supposed, before a large and anxious multitude of spectators. The natures of the female playing nine are as follows, - Nannie Miller, catcher; Clara Mills, pitcher; Mary Manning, first base; Frank (sic) Richardson, second base; Bertha Powell, third base; Jennie Hand, short stop; Hattie Ferris, left field; Maggie Marshall, right field; Mary Frothingham, centre field.
This constitutes the Senior Nine, and on the occasion of their first exhibition they played the Junior Nine of the same club. Their dress consists of short blue and white tunics, reaching to the knees, straw caps, jauntily trimmed, white stockings and stout gaiter shoes, the whole forming a combination that is at once most easy and exceedingly beautiful. As the two nines came upon the ground it would be hard to tell which one of them had the greatest number of friends present, for loud and continuous cheers and clapping pf hands marked the entrance of either one.
Without loss of time Mrs. J. S. Smith was chosen umpire, and Miss Martin and Mrs. Benning as scorers. The penny was flipped to see who should first go to bat, and the Juniors won it. Hattie Harding took up the bat and the remainder of the nine stood ready to follow suit. But alas! Hattie was caught out on a fly, and before her friends had time to make a single score they were sent to the field. From the moment the Seniors went to bat they had things their own way. Notwithstanding the best efforts of the Juniors they would either foul out or knock the ball high, and innings after innings were given up without a run to mark their stay at bat.
Bertha Powell gave six runs by outrageous muffs in the third and fourth innings. With this exception, however, the Senior nine acquitted themselves well, and nearly every member showed some particular points of fine play. But the Juniors were sadly beaten and have much to learn yet, especially in the choice of balls to strike at. Mary Sterns played at second base very well, and we shall not be surprised to see her one of the Senior playing nine next year.
At the conclusion of the game a number of gentlemen invited both nine to sit down to a fine repast, after discussing which they enjoyed some good singing and participated in a little speech-making, wherein the beautiful sporting belles were complimented and extolled.
The score below tells the story of the game, - [box score]
Seniors: Miller, c; Mills p, Manning, 1b; Richardson 2b; Powell, 3b; Hand, ss; Ferris lf; Marshall, rf; Frothingham, cf. Total runs – 27
Juniors: Clark, c; Hare, p; Colwell (?), 1b; Sterns, 2b; Dyer, 3b; Lains (?), ss; Pratt, lf; Galluria, rf; Frothingham, cf. Total runs – 5
[no other information, article ends here]
New York Clipper, August 29, 1868
NOTE: DEB SHATTUCK HAS SUPPLEMENTAL DATA ON THIS EVENT AND WILL BE AMENDING THIS ENTRY ACCORDINGLY IN DECEMBER 2013.
Peterboro, NY - if that was the site of the game, is about 25 miles E of Syracuse, and, not that you asked, about 50 miles NW of Cooperstown.
Did this club form at a ladies' school, a secondary school, a finishing school? What was the age of the players?
1868.2 "Hits Per Game" Added to Standard Batting Stats
A seasonal analysis of the “Club Averages” for the Cincinnati Club in the 1868 season was included in the December 5, 1868 issue of the New York Clipper. “Average to game of bases on hits” is included for the first time for each player, in addition to “Average runs to game,” “Average outs to game,” and “Average runs to outs.” Each of these averages was represented in decimal form for the first time in the Clipper.
New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 5 December 1868: p. 275.
.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1868.3 IL Club Supplies Public Bulletin Board for Trip Updates
"The Occidentals have wisely provided a bulletin board, to be established at the corner of Fourth and Hampshire, on which will be posted telegrams announcing the progress of the game. The score at the close of the third, sixth and ninth innings will be telegraphed."
Quincy Whig, July 27, 1868.
This advisory was given in a two-paragraph item saying that on the next day the local Occidental club would travel to Monmouth (IL?) to play the Clippers.
1868.4 Henry Chadwick's Cholera Scare May Have Doomed American Chronicle of Sports and Pastimes
Henry Chadwick
From Richard Hershberger:
In the summer of 1867, Chadwick begins publication of the Ballplayer's Chronicle, later renamed the American Chronicle of Sports and Pastimes. It runs for about one year, the final issue being July 23, 1868, then halts publication without notice or explanation. The obvious explanation is that it was losing money, the baseball community not yet able to support such a publication until 1883 when The Sporting Life is founded. I have always taken this at face value as the explanation, but I just came across this in the Brooklyn Eagle of July 29, 1868, in the "Personal and Sundries" column:
"We regret to learn of the serious illness of Mr. Chadwick, the well-known base ball writer. He is at his place in South Durham, confined to his bed with an acute attack of choler morbus. We trust that he won't be "out" for many a year."
This would explain the abruptness of the affair. Presumably if it were making money some interim editor could have been arranged, so I'm not suggesting that the illness was the sole, or even primary, cause. But it explains some of the timing of events. The New England Base Ballist began publication at the beginning of August. About two months later, Chadwick appears as its New York correspondent, having recovered from the cholera.
-- Richard Hershberger
Brooklyn Eagle, July 29,1868
Protoball would welcome additional details.
1868c.5 The Manufactured "Figure 8" Base Ball Appears?
"I inclose a clipping relating to base ball. I am the inventor of the base ball cover referred to. Fifty-five years ago, when a boy of ten years, my mother gave me yarn enough, of her own spinning, for a ball. Next thing was leather for a cover. I was a poor boy and couldn't buy. An old shoemaker gave me two small pieces, and said perhaps I could piece them up. My efforts resulted in the exact shape now in universal use. About twenty years ago I showed to a nephew of mine the cover of my boyhood. He was working for Harwood, the great ball maker, of Natick, Mass. Harwood adopted this cover at once, as it takes much leather and has but one seams [seam?], instead of five or six. Well, I didn't reap the fortunate [fortune?], as I didn't get it patented, but no matter, I've “got there all the same.” (The Sporting Life November 14, 1888)
Letter to The Sporting Life from C.H. Jackson, West Brookfield, MA, November 4, 1888 -- printed November 14, 1888.
Richard Hershberger notes, 9/12/2017:
"My opinion has been that this is unsubstantiated, but plausible. I want to focus here on the bit about the writer's nephew working for Harwood. I just made the connection with this description of baseball manufacture, from four years earlier:
'On the upper floor of the establishment sat several men with baskets of dampened chamois and buckskin clippings at their sides. Before each workman stood a stout piece of joist, in the end of which was inserted a mold, hemispherical in shape, in which the balls are formed. Taking a handful of cuttings from the basket, the workman pressed them together in his hands and then worked about the mass a few yards of strong woollen yarn. Placing the embryo ball in the mold, he pounded it into shape with a heavy flat mallet, and then wound on more yarn and gave the ball another pounding. After testing its weight on a pair of scales and its diameter with a tape measure he threw the ball into a basket and began another. When the newly-made balls are thoroughly dried they are carried to the sewing-room on the floor below, where they are to receive their covers. Forty young women sat at tables sewing on the covers of horse-hide. Grasping a ball firmly in her left hand, with her right hand one of the young women thrust a three-cornered needle through the thick pieces of the cover and drew them firmly together. A smart girl can cover two or three dozen of the best and eight dozen of the cheaper grades of balls in a day. The wages earned weekly range from $7 to $9. The balls are afterward taken to the packing-room, where the seams are smoothed down and the proper stamps are put on. The best balls are made entirely of yarn and India-rubber. “My brother was one of the pioneers in this business,” said the manufacturer. “He was the inventor of the two-piece cover now in general use throughout the country. If my brother had only patented his invention the members of our family would not be wearing diamonds instead of bits of white glass in our shirt fronts. Ball-covers are made, almost without exception, of horse-hide, which costs $3 a side. We used to obtain our supply from John Cart, a leather dealer in the Swamp for nearly thirty-five years. We are obliged to go to Philadelphia now, there being no merchant here who keeps horse-hide leather. The capacity of our factory when we get our new molding machines in working order will be about 15,000 daily, each machine being expected to turn out 1,200 balls daily.' (St. Louis Post-Dispatch June 14, 1884, quoting the New York Tribune)
"It is the second paragraph that jumped out at me. Was C. H. Jackson's nephew working for Harwood because that was his father's business? It seems plausible. The Post-Dispatch piece doesn't identify the manufacturer, or even the city. I have been unable to find the Tribune original. If anyone else can, this might shed some light on the question. Or confuse it further."
1868.9 American Baseball introduced to England?
Henry Chadwick
"Base Ball in England--Our national game, we are glad to learn, has taken a start in England, some American students at one of the schools having introduced it as one of their pastimes. That it will ultimately be played in England, we have no doubt, the short time it requires being a principle recommendation, especially in view of the fact that, now that such large scores are being made in leading cricket matches, the length of such contests has become tediously objectionable. Mr. Chadwick has recently received an order from the noted publishing house of Routledge & Sons to write them a book on base ball for the English market, and that firm will issue one in London in July next."
Routledge did come out the next year with "Every Boy's Book: A Complete Encyclopædia of Sports," which had a section on baseball.
The American Chronicle, May 28, 1868
Is this the first instance of American, as opposed to English, baseball in England?
1869.1 "The Best Played Game on Record"
Due to the fine standard of play and the unusually low score (4-2), the Cincinnati Red Stockings' win over the Mutual in Brooklyn on June 15, 1869 in Brooklyn was hailed as the best game ever played.
Greg Rhodes, "A Cunning Play Saves the Streak-- Cincinnati Red Stockings at Mutuals", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 63-64.
1869.2 The Only Blemish
On Aug. 26, 1869, the "Haymakers", the Union BBC of Lansingburgh, NY, held the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings to what was officially declared a tie by refusing to continue the match after a decision by the umpire went against them.
Greg Rhodes, "Unbeaten but Tied-- Cincinnati vs. Unions", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 65-67
1869.3 Inter-Racial Game in Philadelphia
The game between the Olympic and Pythian Clubs of Philadelphia on Sep. 3, 1869, has been cited in 2013 is the first known inter-racial game.
Jerrold Casway, "Inter-racial Baseball-- the Pythians vs. the Olympics", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 68-70.
In March 2019 we learned of an earlier inter-racial game game in Ohio: see 1869.14.
These may be the first inter-racial games involving African-Americans. But there was an inter-racial game involving a Polynesian team in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1867. See 1867.17, see Honolulu in Pre-pro baseball, and see the Our Game blog article.
1869.5 Hits Elevated to Prominent Status in Box Scores
In the September 19, 1867 issue of The Ball Players’ Chronicle, hits are placed side-by-side with runs and outs for the first time in a series of box scores throughout the periodical. They are abbreviated with the letter “B” for the number of at-bats in a game for which “bases are made on hits."
The Ball Players' Chronicle (New York City, NY), 19 September 1867.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1869.6 Slugging Stat Arrives in Early Form
“Average total bases on hits to a game” first appears in the New York Clipper on December 4, 1869. It would continue to be used in 1870 and 1871 before falling out of favor. Slugging average—total bases on hits per at-bat—would be adopted by the National League in 1923 as one of two averages, along with batting average, tracked by the official statistician.
New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 4 December 1869: p. 277.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1869.7 Cincinnati Club Forms as First All-Professional Nine
George Wright, Harry Wright
"In the fall of 1868, a group of Cincinnati businessmen and lawyers, serving as directors of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club, agreed to a concept so commonplace today that it is difficult to imagine how risky it seemed at the time. The club would recruit the best players it could find, from around the country (and), pay all the players a salary..."
Rhodes, Greg & Erardi, John, The First Boys of Summer. Road West Publishing Co., 1994, p.4
1869.8 Largest Margin of Victory
"The most lopsided game of the nineteenth century that I'm aware of
came on June 8, 1869, when the Niagaras of Buffalos beat the Columbias of
Buffalo 209-10."
Peter Morris, 19cbb post 2/10/2002
The game lasted a reported three hours.
1869.9 Playing the pre-New York Rules Game- 1869
"The game played was the old-time "stinging" one, and no better opportunity to note the many and great changes that have been made, during the past score years, in the manner of playing Base Ball, could have been obtained than was thus offered.
The revolution has certainly been complete. Instead of the nicely rounded ash, miniature bread shovels and exaggerated exercise clubs were used as bats: and wooden stakes, standing some fifteen inches high, served as bases. The principal qualification of the pitcher was to send in balls which could be struck, while fouls were ignored and "tick and catch" was the decision instead of "foul,out.'"
Newark Evening Courier,May 25, 1869
description of the annual game of the "old Knickerbocker Club",with a box score showing 19 players on each side. Per 19cbb post by John Zinn, Aug. 8, 2008
1869.10 In Reconstruction SC, Riot Follows a Ball Game
In July 1869, a party of over 100 people, including a base ball club and a colored brass band, traveled south from Savannah to Charleston SC to play the Carolina Base Ball Club.
Savannah triumphed, 35-17, before a large, mixed-race crowd, which spilled onto the playing field after the game and before a throwing contest was to be held. Police and bayonet-wielding troops were summoned; a melee ensued, and in the process the Savannah band kept playing "Dixie."
Three weeks later, the Savannah Club returned. It won again, 57-36. And again there was violence, but it was limited this time.
Richard Hershberger, The Baseball Riot of 1869, Ordinary Times, February 4 2016. See http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/2016/02/04/the-baseball-race-riot-of-1869/. Richard's own sources are listed at the end of his article.
Richard contemplates whether to call this a base ball riot. "There clearly is an argument that baseball is incidental to the riot." The story shows where sports history and cultural history overlap.
For more on the Savannah club, see http://protoball.org/Savannah_Base_Ball_Club.
1869.11 First Club to Wear Checked/Plaid Stockings
The National Club of Washington DC was the first to use checked or plaid stockings on their uniforms.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1869-national-washington-dc
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
1869.12 Pastimes Adopt First Striped Stockings for Uniforms
The Pastime Club of Baltimore was, in 1869, the first to wear striped stockings on their uniforms.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1869-pastime-baltimore/
For more uniform firsts see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/
1869.13 George Wright Joins the All-Professional Cincinnati Club
In late February 1869, the Sunday Mercury reported that prominent player George Wright had joined the Cincinnati base ball club as its highest-paid player.
The 22-year-old, already counted among the most proficient players in the game; playing for New York's Union club in 1868, he had averaged four runs (and over seven hits) per game, and Henry Chadwick cited him as the best "general player" in base ball.
George Wright was only 22 years old in 1869, but had already had a variety of base ball experiences. Born into a prominent family of athletes (his father was a NYC club pro, and his older brother Harry played cricket and base ball, and was the player-manager of the famous Cincinnati championship club).
Wright's business was base ball. "Arranged employment and waived club dues had been considered acceptable evasions of the NABBP rule forbidding compensation since its adoption in 1859," and at age 19 he played on his brother Harry's Gotham Club in 1863 and 1864. His subsequent migrations:
Age 16-17 (1863-4) -- He played in the outfield of the Gotham Club in New York in 1863 and was the club's catcher for most of 1864.
Age 18 (1865) -- He caught for the Olympic Club of Philadelphia, and also subbed for that city's Keystone Club on its NYC visit. Chadwick would later name him the best catcher in the game.
Age 19 (1866) -- He started the year with the Gotham Club, and then decided to move to the first-tier Union Club of Morrisania, which compiled a better record than the year's unofficial champions, the Atlantic Club, and he became its shortstop.
Age 20 (1867) He moved to Washington and the National Base Ball Club, nominally serving with seven teammates as clerks in the Treasury Department. The National Club won 25 of its first 30 games, and undertook a tour to the West, including two games against his brother Harry's Cincinnati club.
Age 21 (1868) He played for the Union Club in NYC. The club won 39 of its 45 games, and undertook a 20-game tour of the west, including Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati club folded after its 1870 season, and George Wright joined his brother's Boston Red Stockings outfit in the new National Association for 1871 through 1875, where it won four of five league championships. He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1937.
Robert Tholkes, "The Young and the Restless: George Wright 1865-1868." Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2016, pp. 95-101.
Bob Tholkes' thorough 2016 paper [cited above] throws welcome light on the nature of elite base ball in period immediately following the Civil War, a period also associated with the rise of "Base Ball Fever" during which local clubs, representing individual companies, affinity groups, etc., formed clubs, some of which playing at sunrise [as early as five o'clock AM], prior to the work day.
1869.15 Teams Hassle Over Choice of Game Ball -- The Redstockings Liked the Less-elastic Variety
"Over a quarter of an hour’s time was wasted in a dispute as to what ball should be played with, the Athletics insisting that a lively elastic Ross ball should be used, whilst the Cincinnatis claimed that as they were the challenging party, they had the right o furnish the ball, and therefore proposed to use a ball made expressly for them, of a non-elastic nature, by which they hoped to equalize any advantage that the Athletics might possess over them in batting. The dispute was finally decided by the Cincinnatis agreeing to play with the ball furnished by the Athletics, as it always has been the custom for the club on whose ground a match is played to furnish the ball."
The game was Cincinnati vs. Athletic 6/21/1869.
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, June 27, 1869
Richard Hershberger explains (email to Protoball, 12/17/2021): "The elasticity of balls varied wildly in this era. Typically clubs that were better hitters than fielders preferred more elastic, i.e. lively, balls, while clubs that were better fielders preferred less elastic, i.e. dead, balls. This was a frequent source of dispute before games. The problem was eventually solved when the National League adopted an official league ball for all championship games."
==
Colleague and ballmaker Corky Gaskell adds, (email of 12/20/2021): "George Ellard made the base balls for the Cincinnati club. I am not 100% sure when he started doing that, but if my memory serves me right, he was making them during the 1869 season, and it wasn't uncommon for them to want that less lively ball to help their defense do its thing."
==
On 12/21/21, ballmaker Gaskell replied to a prior Protoball query for #1869.15: "Was the official NABBP ball relatively elastic or relatively inelastic, compared to the range in available base balls? Were cricket balls, which had very similar dimensions and weights, more or less elastic than base balls in the years prior to the pro leagues? Prior to the NL, was the convention that the home club furnished the ball?"
Corky's Answer: "'Official' base balls came later. . . not so much in the late 60s or early 70s.
1870.1 The Streak Ends -- Reds Fall to Atlantic, 8-7, in 11 Innings
On June 14, 1870, The Atlantic of Brooklyn broke the Cincinnati Red Stockings' 81-game winning streak, beating them 8-7 in 11 innings.
Greg Rhodes, "The Atlantic Storm-- Cincinnati Red Stockings vs. Atlantics", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 71-73.
See also George Bulkley. "The Day the Reds Lost," at https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-day-the-reds-lost-eb6bd8dd54a9, reproduced from SABR's National Pastime, 1983.
The Bulkley article reports that the Atlantics had lost three times in 1870, and local oddmakers gave 5-1 pregame odds for the Reds . . . lengthened to 10-1 after the Reds forged a 3-0 lead after three innings.
The Atlantic club tied the game in the eighth, and threatened in the ninth, until shortstop George Wright pulled the still-legal trap play that he turned into a double play. There ensued a dispute over whether the Atlantic could claim a tie by vacating the premises, one that was decided by Henry Chadwick in favor of the Reds playing their first-ever tenth inning.
In the 11th, Atlantic catcher Bob Ferguson decided to bat left-handed to avoid hitting to SS Wright, and got on base, scoring the winning run on a throwing error by Cincinnati 1B Charley Gould.
1870.2 "Chicagoed"
The 19th-century baseball slang for being held scoreless originated when the Mutuals BBC traveled to Chicago and humiliated the White Stockings, 9-0, on July 23, 1870.
Richard Bogovich and Mark Pestana, "The First 'Chicago' Game-- New York vs. Chicago", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 74-76
1870.3 "Homer" Ump Robs Mutuals
The Mutuals, named champions for 1870 in the East, were denied enthronement as national champions when, with the Mutuals leading in the ninth inning of the decisive game in Chicago on Nov. 1, 1870, a local umpire refused to call strikes on White Stocking batters.
Bob Tiemann, "The Birth of the NA-- Mutuals vs. Chicago" in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 77-78
Tiemann suggests that the incident was an incentive for the formation over the winter of 1870-71 of the National Association, with the first championship based on total wins over the course of the season.
1870.4 Union Club of Morrisania Disbands
"November 1870 -- Morrisania Unions Disband -- players scatter to different clubs. Pabos, Bass and Allison went to Forest City, Cleveland; Gedney, Holdsworth, Shelley, and Martin to Brooklyn to play for the Eckfords, now a professional club; Birdsall will play right field for Boston; Higham to the Mutuals; Simmons and Pinkham to the Chicago White Stockings; Bearman to the Fort Wayne Kekiongas."
(For more on the breakup of the Union Club, see Supplemental Text, below.)
Gregory Christiano, Baseball in the Bronx, Before the Yankees (PublishAmerica, 2013), page 77. Original sources to be supplied.
Can we add any indication of why the club disbanded?
1870.5 Cincinnati Club Introduces 50-cent Admission Fee
In 1870, the Cincinnati Club began charging an admission fee of 50 cents.
The Atlantic Club declined to impose this fee, and as a result the Red Stockings bypassed them in their first tour of eastern clubs that year.
In time, this price appears to have become the standard for matches between all-professional clubs.
Sources?
We are uncertain that the fifty-sent admission was uniformly required in the National Association.
1870.6 Dead Ball Adopted
On November 30, 1870, the National Association of Base Ball Players reduced the amount of rubber permitted in base balls to one ounce, effectively inaugurating a "dead" ball. Balls had previously contained as much as 2 1/2 ounces.
Peter Morris, A Game of Inches, 2005, p.37
Critics of the game had long insisted that low-scoring games were indicated play of higher quality.
1870c.7 First Catcher's Glove? About 1870, Perhaps
"Re: a claimed antedating of catcher's gloves
"Another early primary source glove reference is to Cincinnati Red Stocking catcher Doug Allison wearing gloves in 1870: 'Allison caught today in a pair of buckskin mittens to protect his hands.' Cincinnati Commercial June 29, 1870
"For several yearly editions starting in 1872, the DeWitt Guide had the following advice: "The catcher will find it advantageous when facing swift pitching to wear tough leather gloves with the fingers cut off near the joint and they will prevent him having his hands split and puffed up."
"The earliest advertisement I’ve found for “catchers’ gloves” being sold commercially is 1875.
"There are many secondary source references to gloves being used in the early 1870s by Allison, White, Nat Hicks, Fergy Malone, and others. I agree that gloves were somewhat common and not considered shameful in the early 1870s. The shaming started in the late 1880s and 1890s when the infielders and outfielders starting using very large gloves (originally meant for catchers) which were often derided as “oven mitts” or “boxing gloves.”
Cincinnati Commercial, June 29, 1870.
In the 1880s we find a claim that catchers' gloves had been known in the 1860s:
"An exchange says that 'Jim White, the third baseman of the Detroit club, was the first man who ever used gloves while catching behind the bat.' This is a mistake. Delavarge, the catcher of the old Knickerbockers, an amateur club of Albany, used gloves when playing behind the bat in the sixties." The Sporting News July 5, 1885.
But in a 9/21/16 19CBB posting, Bob Tholkes wrote:
"I've read several Knick of Albany game accounts in which Delavarge played without running into any mention of gloves. If he wore them, it would have been to protect an injured hand (he was a blacksmith, if memory serves), and not routinely."
And then David Arcidiacono offered the 1870 Allison item listed above.
1870.12 Chadwick Ponders Red Stockings' Decline: Lack of Onfield Harmony?
"THE REDSTOCKINGS AND THEIR RECENT DEFEATS -- Everybody in this vicinity is making the inquiry, 'What is the matter with the Reds?' Their recent defeats at Chicago and Rockford have surprised their friends here. . . [B]oth at Chicago and Rockford last week they were badly whipped. Something must be wrong. It is not the lack of skill or generalship that is the cause. We rather suspect that there is that same lack of harmony and acting in concert . . . which marked the play of the first Chicago nine. . . . In the game at Rockford on October 15, the Red Stockings received the worst defeat they have sustained since they first donned the red hose."
New York Sunday Mercury, October 23, 1870.
1870.13 November News: Will the Atlantic Club Stay Strong?
"The Atlantics will be divided up among the leading professional nines for 1871. Ferguson and Start are to go to Chicago, Chapman and Hall southwest, and others will help with the Mutuals and Haymakers. The Atlantics, it is said, will then return to an amateur footing for 1871."
New York Sunday Mercury November 13, 1870.
http://www.brooklynatlantics.org/history.php, (accessed 11/13/2020).
"Is the Atlantic Club about to be gutted? Spoiler: Yes. With no reserve system or multi-year contracts, every offseason was a potential cage match. The Atlantics historically have been successful at doing unto others, but this year they will be done unto. Indeed, it will be so thorough that they will sit 1871 out, as a professional club. They will return to the professional ranks in 1872, but will never really recover. The predicted destinations aren't quite right. Ferguson and Start will go to the Mutuals. The vague bit about Hall going "southwest" is right.
"The Olympics of Washington will make a run for it. Mostly this will involve the old Red Stocking players Harry Wright doesn't take with him to Boston. Taking George Hall from the Atlantics will be part of this. It won't work. The Olympics will go 15-15: the very definition of mediocre. Chapman will stick with the Atlantics initially, them jump to the Eckfords. So it goes."
from Richard Hershberger, 150 Years Ago Today, 11/13/2020 Facebook Posting.
In June 1870, the Atlantics had broken the famous winning streak of the visiting Cincinnati Red Stockings, 8-7. In 1872 the club was to become professional again, and join the National Association. The Atlantic website cited above shows a later Atlantic lineage to the Brooklyn Dodgers, formed in 1911.
"Strictly speaking the social club spun off from the baseball club December 16, 1865, the two operating in tandem until the baseball side disbanded. The Hall of Fame library has the program from the club's centennial celebration in 1965. The club later was a bit confused about the connection with the baseball side. It knew it had one, but it always dated itself from 1865." -- Richard Hershberger, email of 11/13/2020.
1870.14 Boston, Other Towns Eye "First-Class Professional Nines" Like the Red Stockings
[Beyond the Cincinnati-Chicago base ball rivalry] "The pecuniary success attendant upon of the Red Stocking Club -- the best managed club in the country -- has tempted other cities to try the professional nine experiment. The Boston Journal says that for some time past, gentlemen interested in the game of base ball have been considering the subject of securing for Boston a professional base ball nine who should do honor to the city. It seems to be one of the few notions in which Boston is lacking. The success of the Union Grounds as a pecuniary investment has shown that the thing is perfectly safe and feasible. . . . It is proposed to petition the next Legislature for a special charter as a base-ball club, with a capital stock of not less than $10,000, in shares of $100 each."
"Indianapolis is raising a first-class professional nine under competent management. Cleveland will again have a professional nine;: Troy, ditto, and an opposition tot he Athletics is organizing in Philadelphia. St. Louis, too is in the market, and also New Orleans.
Brooklyn Eagle, November 17, 1870.
Richard Hershberger, "150 years ago in baseball" [FB posting, 11/17/2020:
"Rumors about new professional clubs for next season. Here we see an intermediate stage, combining the assumption that the Cincinnati Club will keep on doing what it does, along with early rumors of a new club on Boston. The Union Grounds mentioned here is not the one in Cincinnati or the one in Brooklyn, but the one in Boston, so named because it originated as a joint project of several local clubs. Its pecuniary success is in part due to the visits of the Cincinnati Club. The Boston baseball establishment has been paying attention. More developments will soon arise.
"As for the other predictions, they are a mixed bag. Cleveland and Troy will indeed have professional clubs next season, but the other proposals won't pan out, or at least not right away."
Do we know more about the fate of the Union Grounds and Boston sports?
1870.15 Chadwick Explains Rule Shifts on Called Strikes, Deliberate Flubs Afield
[Two of nine newly proposed rules after the 1870 season:]
"Sec. 4. The striker shall be privileged to call for either a 'high' or 'low' ball. . . . The ball shall be considered a high ball if pitched between the height of waist and the shoulder of the striker; and it shall be considered a low ball if pitched between the knee and he waist. . . ."
"Sec 9. The the bal be even momentarily held by a player while in the act of catching it, and he wilfully [sic] drops it in order to make a double play, if should be regarded as a fair catch."
New York Clipper, November 26, 1870 (attributed to Henry Chadwick.)
1870.16 Red Stocking Leader Explains Background for Club Decision to Exit Pro Base Ball Scene
Aaron Champion
Aaron Champion, past club President, in a December 1870 speech touching on the costs of excellence after the club decided not to support a pro club after 1870:
" . . . we have tried it [to fund a nine via outside subscription], and have failed most beautifully. The season 1868 we had a professional nine, and succeeded in getting in debt with it. The season of 1869 we engaged a professional nine. . . . [in November 1868] we found that the Cincinnati Club was $17,000 in debt. . . . 1869 went by. We had the best nine in the country -- the leading club. They had played fifty-seven games, and did not lose a single game. We were out of money, and were still in debt."
"How Cincinnati Supports Base Ball," Cincinnati Gazette, December 8, 1870. From Richard Hershberger, "150 Years ago in Base Ball, FB posting, 12/7/2020.
1871.1 Base Ball Reaches River Town of Nauvoo IL
It is reported that Charles W. Welter and E. H. Reimbold introduced base ball to Nauvoo in 1871, having had played the game previously in New Orleans and St. Louis. The Nauvoo club later played in tournaments against Carthage, Dallas, and Fort Madison.
Nauvoo IL (2010 pop. about 1100) is about 100 miles E of Peoria on the Mississippi River. and is about 175 miles NW of St. Louis MO.
Glenn Cuerden, Nauvoo.(Arcadia, 2006), page 88. The original source of this information is not given.
We recall a claim that the Mormons, who bought and renamed the town in 1839, had played a baserunning ballgame there much earlier. [Confirmation needed.]
Are Carthage and Dallas and Ft. Madison nearby towns?
1871.2 Battery Sought for African American Club in St. Louis
"To Colored Professionals -- A good catcher and good left hand pitcher are wanted for the Brown Stockings, of St. Louis. A good salary will be given for the season. Address Douglass (sic) Smith, 109 North Street, St. Louis."
New York Clipper, April 8, 1871.
1871.3 Coup d'grace for the Amateur Era
"In March 1871, ten members of the National Association met in New York for the purpose of forming a new group...This act essentially killed the National Association."
Marshall Wright, The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857-1870, p.328
1871.4 National Association Urged to Adopt Modern Batting Average
In a letter published in the New York Clipper on March 11, 1871, H. A. Dobson, a correspondent for the periodical, wrote to Nick E. Young, the Secretary of the Olympic Club in Washington D.C., and future president of the National League. Young would be attending the Secretaries’ Meeting of the newly formed National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, and Dobson urged him to consider a “new and accurate method of making out batting averages.”
“According to a man’s chances, so should his record be. Every time he goes to the bat he either has an out, a run, or is left on his base. If he does not go out he makes his base, either by his own merit or by an error of some fielder. Now his merit column is found in ‘times first base on clean hits,’ and his average is found by dividing his total ‘times first base on clean hits’ by his total number of times he went to the bat. Then what is true of one player is true of all…In this way, and in no other, can the average of players be compared.”
Dobson included a calculation, for theoretical players, of hits per at-bat at the end of the letter; the first published calculation of the modern form of batting average.
Dobson, H.A. “The Professional Club Secretaries’ Meeting.” New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 11 March 1871: p. 888.
While "hits per at-bat" has become the modern form of batting average, and was the only average calculated by the official statistician beginning in the inaugural season of the National League in 1876, the definition of a "time at bat" has varied over time. To Dobson, a time at bat included any time a batter made an "out, a run, or is left on his base." However, walks were excluded from the calculation of at-bats beginning in 1877, with a temporary reappearance in 1887 when they were counted the same as hits. Times hit by the pitcher were excluded beginning in 1887, sacrifice bunts in 1894, times reached on catcher's interference in 1907, and sacrifice flies in 1908 (though, they went in and out of the rules multiple times over the next few decades and weren't firmly excluded until 1954).
Consequently, based on Dobson's calculation, walks would have counted as an at-bat but not as a hit, so a negative result for the batter. This was the case in the first year of the National League as well, but was "fixed" by the second year. A fielder's choice would have been recorded as an at-bat and not a hit under Dobson's system, as it is today.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1871.5 Base Ball Attendance Practices at the Dawn of the Pro Era
As the Professional Era took shape, 50-cent admission fees were common, if not standard, in the new league.
(Add data on typical crowd sizes?) (On typical bathroom facilities?) (On available food and drink availability and prices?) (On other now-forgotten practices?)
Debate on admission fees persisted for the AA and the NL was to persist into the 1880s.
Admission gave attendees access to standing room. A seat in the grandstand was (always? sometimes?) extra, and within 2 or three years grandstand seats were being sold for one dollar.
Sources?
1871.6 Boston Club Puts City Name on Uniform
In 1871 the Boston club put the word "Boston" on the team shirt, the first club to do so.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1871-boston/
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
1871.7 Brimmed Uniform Caps Introduced
Several clubs began wearing hats with brims in 1871. 15 examples are shown in the source link below.
1871.9 State-wide Base Ball Association for California?
"The Pacific Base-Ball Convention held an adjourned meeting last night . . . on Merchant street, Col. Harry Linden presided. . . .
"Messrs Gorman, Cashman, Linden were appointed a Committee to procure an elegant champion bat, regardless of cost, for future contests among Base-Ball Companies."
"It being suggested that the Constitution and By-laws needed revision, Messrs Hooks, Glascock and Calvert were appointed a Committee for that Purpose. . . .
Standing Committees for Judiciary, Credentials, Finance, Rules and Regulations, and Printing were named.
San Francisco Examiner, February 4, 1871
Richard Hershberger, 2/4/2021:
150 years ago in baseball: the Pacific baseball convention. This is much like the state conventions we see at this time, but more of an independent affair. California was still, even with the trans-continental railroad, the far end of beyond, so the baseball institutions tended to develop in parallel with but independent of those to the east. The Pacific convention was more of a free-standing affair than the state associations in the east, which mostly existed to appoint delegates to the national convention. It also seems comfortable with the idea of a formal championship, though I question empowering a committee to purchase the trophy bat "regardless of cost."
Was the is first ever meeting of this group?
Did it intend to represent base ball throughout California?
Had other states established state-wide base ball associations by 1871?
1871.10 Player Salaries Bump Up: Well-funded Mutuals Deplete the Atlantics
"The Mutuals will now have a nine in field of old Atlantic players, with but one exception."
"(The Mutuals) engaged Dick Pearse, who signed papers on the 3rd . . . at $2000, we believe. . . . Now all (of the Atlantic's fate) is left in the hands of the only veteran of the nine, viz: John Chapman."
Brooklyn Eagle, February 6, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, 2/6/2021"
1871.11 Pros' Leading Averages Reported In Buffalo Newspaper
" BASE BALL. The Best Averages -- Names of Leading Players -- "
"All the leading professional clubs of the country have published their averages, and below we give the names of the players who occupy first, second, and third positions in the averages of first-base hits . . . ."
[For the Atlantic (Brooklyn), the Athletic (Philadelphia), Chicago, Cincinnati, Haymakers (Troy), Forest City (Cleveland) and other clubs, leading hitters' batting success per game was reflected in this format:]
"CINCINNATI
George Wright 4.27
Waterman 3.87
McVey 3.63"
Buffalo Commercial, February 6, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, 2/8/2021 (FB posting):
"150 years ago in baseball: batting averages. The idea of batting averages was borrowed from cricket, and at this point is not at all new to baseball. The details, however, have not yet taken their modern form.
Have charts like this appeared before? Have writers been referring to such averages in plumbing the relative merits of batsmen?
Did each club send its data to interested news outlets?
1871.12 Pro Clubs to Meet in March, National Association Starts Its Fade
"The appointed meeting of the Secretaries of the professional clubs, announced to take place in New York on the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day, has been changed into a convention of the professionals, and the meeting will settle not only the dates of all the matches for the season, but also the championship question. The best thing they can do is to organize an association of professional clubs at once. . . .
"Mr. Chadwick resigned all connection to the National Association last October. . . . To the Excelsior club in this city [Brooklyn] is due the credit of inaugurating the movement for an amateur association . . . ."
Brooklyn Eagle, February 28, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, 2/28/2021: This column "tacitly acknowledges that the old National Association is dead. Or perhaps it is a nail in the coffin to make sure it stays that way. The National Association met last December just as it had for years. It adopted rules revisions, elected officers, and so on. From a procedural perspective, it is chugging along as always. But it is in fact dead. The corpse will twitch a little bit, but there will never be any discussion of holding the convention next December."
"The discussion of the upcoming meeting of March 17 is portentous. It was originally called by Nick Young, secretary of the Olympics of Washington, so the professional clubs could coordinate their schedules. The idea wasn't to set up a detailed schedule, but so that a club going to, for example, Chicago could be confident that the Chicago Club wasn't in Boston at the time. The secretary of the Chicago Club has suggested upgrading the meeting to also set up a formal championship system for the professionals."
From 150 Years Ago in baseball FB posting
Did the March 17 date hold up? Was it held in NYC?
Was St. Patrick's Day an extra special day in the 1870s?
Was Chadwick's departure a matter of controversy? Why?
1871.13 The Beginning of Base Ball Trivia?
"Sports and Pastimes. Base Ball Matters. . . . The Athletics made twenty-five clean home runs in a game with the Nationals, of Jersey City, New Jersey, on the 30th of September 1865."
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, March 12, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, FB Posting '150 Years Ago', 3/21/2021:
"[B]aseball history trivia! Baseball had ample history by this time to support the endeavor. For those scoring at home, the final outcome of the game was Athletics 114, Nationals 2. But it wasn't as close as that makes it look."
Asked if such newspaper features were common, Richard replied, 3/12/2021: "This one is pretty typical. The big New York papers in earlier years had often had rules-related questions, but these were drying up by the 1870s."
Was this one of the first known uses of past base ball feats as fun trivia in base ball reportage?
1871.14 Rival Assn of Amateur Players Forms: Includes Clubs from NY, Philly, Baltimore, Boston.
"THE CONVENTION OF AMATEUR CLUBS IN BROOKLYN
A NATIONAL SSSOCIATION OF AMATEUR BASE BALL PLAYERS IS ESTABLISHED
CLUBS FROM NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE AND BOSTON REPRESENTED
"Thursday, March 18, 1871 was an eventful day in the brief annals of the National game . . . there was a re-union of the amateur class of the fraternity . . ."
Participating clubs included Knickerbocker, Eagle, Gotham. Excelsior, Star, Olympic, Equity, Pastime and Harvard clubs."
New York Clipper, March 25, 1871
from Richard Hershberger, "150 Years Ago Today", 3/18/2021:
"[T]he formation of the National Association of Amateur Base Ball Players. This is the long-talked-about splinter organization, spinning off from the old National Association, which is deemed to be thoroughly infested with professionalism cooties.
Spoiler alert: We won't be talking about the new NAABBP very much down the road. It will stumble along for several years, but will be essentially irrelevant the whole while. Why not? It isn't as if amateur baseball will ever go away. Professional baseball has never accounted for more than a tiny fraction of all baseball played. It just attracts nearly all the attention."
Note: for Richard's full commentary, see Supplemental Text, below.
Was this new NAABP destined to tinker with the rules of play?
1871.15 White Stockings Choose New Orleans for Extended Preseason Play
"The White Stockings, of Chicago, arrived here yesterday on the mid-day train, and will remain here for four or five weeks. Their first game will be with the Lone Stars, at the Base Ball Park, next Sunday."
New Orleans Republican, March 22, 1871
Richard Hershberger, FB Posting, 3/21/2021:
"150 years ago in baseball: Spring Training. The Chicago White Stockings arrive today in New Orleans. The season began much later than it does nowadays. Spring Training today is entering the home stretch, while just starting in 1871. It also was far less consistent. Few clubs made trips to the South at this point. It will be decades before that is universal. These things were pretty much done on the fly, with the financial prospects weighing heavily in the decision whether to make a trip or just train at home."
The White Stockings stayed in New Orleans until April 17th, making their stay 4 weeks. See New Orleans Times-Democrat, April 17, 1871. [ba]
1871.16 Professionals Edge Away from NABBP; Modern Standings Begin to Take Shape
"BASE BALL BOTHER. National Professional Association. The Championship Question Settled.
"A convention of delegates from the professional base ball clubs of the country was held at #840 Broadway last evening. At the time that the call for the convention was sent out its objects were stated to be the settlement of the manner of achieving the title of champion club of the country, and the arrangement of the routes of the club tours during the season. But the action of the amateur clubs in withdrawing from the National Association see 1871.14 . . . caused the scope of the Convention's duties to be enlarged, and . . . made necessary the reorganization of the National Association on a professional basis."
New York Herald, March 18, 1871
Richard Hershberger, FP posting of March 17, 2021:
"150 years ago today in baseball: The big day! Yesterday the amateurs met in Brooklyn and formed a new association. See 1871.14. Today we move across the East River, where the professionals form theirs. It wasn't originally supposed to be this way. The meeting was initially called simply to coordinate travel schedules. From there it expanded to arranging a championship system. With yesterday's event the meeting expanded yet further. The status of the old National Association of Base Ball Players is up in the air. Simpler for the professionals just to start fresh. . . . .
"Their championship system is quietly revolutionary. The old unofficial system followed the model of champion and challenger, like in boxing. The new system is not laid out explicitly here, but it is close to the modern system of every club playing a series against every other club.
This 'championship season' (which is what the official rules still call what the rest of us refer to as the 'regular season') is the great invention of the NAPBBP. This often is overlooked, as NAPBBP tends to carry the stench of failure today. So let us pause a moment and contemplate the glory that is the regular season.
...
Done? Excellent! This is not quite the regular season as we understand it today. It is a series of best-of-five series. If a club won the first three games of the series, there was no need to play the last two. This is why the win-loss records for 1871 are so scattered. Teams did not play the same number of games, but they weren't expected to. This will result in some wackiness in determining the championship. No spoilers! We will get to that in the Fall. Suffice it to say that for 1872 they will switch to every team playing the same number of games, at least in theory."
1871.17 Philadelphia Claims Best 1870 US Record -- Over the Red Stockings? Really?
"BASE BALL MATTERS: Answers to Correspondents:
[to] K. S. M. The Mutuals of New York city won the national championship last year, but the Athletics of this city had the best record. . . ."
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury April 9, 1871; See Hershberger commentary, below/.
Richard Hershberger, FB Posting, April 9. 2021:
"150 years ago in baseball: a bit of historical revisionism via homerism by the Philadelphia sporting press. Thank goodness that no longer plagues us! For the record, the 1870 Mutuals went 68-17-3 while the Athletics went 65-11-1. Presumably the claim to a better record was based on winning percentage, rather than absolute number of games won. This criterion was not at all established at the time. The problem with claiming the moral, if not nominal, championship this way is that the Cincinnati Club went 67-6-1. Those records include both professional and amateur games. Perhaps the writer was thinking of just professional games? The Athletics went 26-11-1, while the Cincinnatis went 27-6-1. So while there is an argument to be made that the A's had a better record than the Mutuals, this is not at all the same as the A's having the best record. So it goes."
Did the Mutuals themselves claim the best 1870 record, or just the NABBP Championship, or what?
1871.18 First Pro League Game Doesn't Feature Offense
"THE NATIONAL GAME -- The First Dose of 1871 -- A Whole Nest of Goose Eggs -- 000000000 -- Where Are We Now?"
(Cleveland newspaper headline for the 2-0 loss in Fort Wayne to the Kekionga Club by the visiting Forest City Club of Cleveland)
" . . . The play throughout was nearly perfect as could be imagined . . . the difficult pitching of [Cleveland's] Mathews kept our score down to a continual whitewash"
Cleveland Leader May 5, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, FB posting of 5/5/2021:
"This is remembered today as the first game of the first professional league. So it was, but this account only barely hints at this being a momentous occasion. This was the first game only by accident, earlier scheduled games being rained out. But more to the point, few thought of this game as the beginning. The season has been ramping up for several weeks now. Nowadays we think of those earlier games as mere spring training, preparing for the real season. At the time they thought of a game such as this as yet another game, but one that happened to be for the championship. [Note: "for the championship" then meant "in a regular season game."]
The most modern aspect of this account is that Bobby Mathews, the Kekionga pitcher, is given at least partial credit for the shut out. Earlier on, the fielding would have gotten all the credit."
1871.19 Chicago Club Expires A Month After Great Chicago Fire
"BASE BALL. The Last of the Chicago Club.
At a recent meeting of the stockholders of the Chicago Base Ball Club, where it was by resolution declared that the stock of that club is canceled and surrendered, and a committee was appointed to wind up all the affairs of the club, the following resolutions of thanks and acknowledgement were unanimously adopted. . . "
Chicago Tribune, November 26, 1871:
From Richard Hershberger, Facebook posting of 11/25/2021:
"150 years ago in baseball: Wrapping up the affairs of the Chicago Club. It was gutted by the Great Chicago Fire and stumbled through the close of the season. Continuing as the city was rebuilding clearly was not in the cards. Say what you will about Chicago businessmen, they do appreciate the formalities. Rather than simply walking away they shut it down properly. Here we have the formal dissolution.
This relates to the trivia question, what is the oldest baseball club still in existence? If we don't count colleges, and if we insist that the club still play baseball, then the candidates are the Braves (by way of Milwaukee) or the Cubs. The Braves were founded in 1871 as the Boston Base Ball Association. The Chicago Club we see shutting down here was a year older. If we can tie the modern Cubs to it, then that is our answer.
The problem is that we see here the original organization formally dissolving. We will next spring see the formation of the organization that will, in 1874, field the professional team that came to be known as the Cubs. The only facts available to argue for continuity between the two is that some individuals were stockholders of both. This is very weak tea. It certainly isn't the standard we apply to other clubs. If we did, it would remove the Cubs' claim, as this standard would also connect the Phillies to the original Athletics, who were founded in 1859. But this would be absurd special pleading. So sorry, Cubs. You aren't the oldest club. You are, however, the oldest still in your original city. That isn't as sexy a first, but it is not nothing."
The Great Chicago Fire occurred October 8-10, 1871. 17,000 structures were destroyed, and 300 people were killed.
1871.20 Chadwick Agrees: The Parent of Base Ball is Two-Old-Cat . . . Not English Rounders, After All?
Henry Chadwick
"We do not believe that cricket will ever be naturalized here, but that its rival is destined for evermore to be the national game. To those who would object to our explanation that it is fanciful, we can only say that we believe it violates none of the known laws of reasoning, and that it certainly answers the great end of accounting for the facts. To those other objectors, who would contend that our explanation supposes a gradual modification of the English into the American game, while it is a matter of common learning that the latter is of no foreign origin, but the lineal descent of that favorite of boyhood, 'Two-Old-Cat,' we would say that, fully agreeing with them as to the historical fact, we have always believed it to be so clear as not to need further evidence, and that for the purposes of this article the history of the matter is out of place. We have throughout spoken of cricket as changing' into base ball, not because we suppose these words represent the actual origin of the latter, but to bring more vividly before the mind the differences between the two. He would indeed be an unfaithful chronicler who should attempt to question the hoary antiquity of Two-Old-Cat, or the parental relation in which it stands to base ball."
Henry Chadwick, 1871 Base Ball Manual
Bill Hicklin, 3/9/2016:
"It's one of the commonplaces of the old origins debate that led to the Mills Commission that Henry Chadwick was foremost among those arguing that baseball evolved directly from rounders, and indeed he said so many times. In opposition stood those patriotic Americans such as Ward who claimed an indigenous heritage from the Old Cat games."
David Block, et al: Could Chadwick have believed that Two-Old-Cat was also the parent of British Rounders? The term was known over there before rounders was, no?
Page and pub site of the 1871 Manual?
1872.1 Forest City Club Lists Player Duties, Role of Team Captain, Etc.
"1. THE CAPTAIN. The captain of the club shall be elected by the board of directors and shall serve at their pleasure. . . .
3. No member of the club will be excused from practice or play unless upon a written certificate from Dr. N. B. Prentice . . .
6. No member of the club shall accept any gift of money to lose or assist in losing a game and violation of this rule and will subject the member to be expelled in disgrace. . . .
8. . . . No member will be allowed to use the uniform of another player without the permission of the owner.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 3/9/1872.
Richard Hershberger posted the following, 3/10/2022:
150 years ago in baseball: the Rules and Regulations adopted by the Forest City Club of Cleveland for its players. It rather jumps out that they felt it necessary to specify that players weren't allowed to throw games for money, with the penalty of being "expelled in disgrace."
But the topic for today's sermon is the role of the captain. This touches on a persistent modern misunderstanding of the early professional era. Look at the list of the captain's responsibilities and this looks similar to the modern field manager. Look up the 1872 Forest City club and you will find two "managers" listed: Scott Hastings, going 6-14 and Deacon White going 0-2. (The team was, it turns out, not good, and won't last the season.) They actually were the captains. The "manager" in this era was a different role. The details varied, but the manager typically was in charge of the business side of things: supervised the gate on game day, made travel arrangements on the road, and so on. Sometimes the manager was in charge of hiring and firing players, making him more like the modern general manager.
The captain always was a player. The manager usually was not, but there were a few exceptions such as Harry Wright. Here in 1872 not all teams had a full time manager, the officers running things directly. Later this summer when the Forest City team goes on a trip, a report identifies the "manager" for that trip, meaning the guy who will corral the players get them from city to city. Within a few years the job will have grown to a full time position, nearly always held by someone hired specifically for that job.
The problem is that the modern listings of managers are a mess for the 19th century. We have this modern concept of what is a "manager"--Earl Weaver or Billy Martin and so on--and we try to impose this model on the past. So some researcher reads a report with the captain doing stuff we expect of a modern manager, and lists that guy as the manager. Or a researcher sees some other guy called the "manager" and lists him. This eventually got distilled down to a standard list, with the two roles jumbled together in an incoherent mess. The moral is that if we want to understand what was going on, we have to set aside modern understandings of how these things work.
Do we know if there are interesting variants in other clubs' rules?
1872.2 Pro Players Disparaged in Newspapers As Worthless, Dissipated, Buyable
"The professional player, aside from his personal character, is not precisely a majestic object . . . . Not to put too fine a point upon it . . . is usually a worthless dissipated gladiator; not much above the professional pugilist in morality and respectability. . . . It is only necessary for the gambler who has large sums at stake to buy him, in order to make certain of winning his bets."
Base Ball: The Professional Player, Titusville (Pa.) Herald March 12, 1872. Ascribed to the the New York Times of March 8, 1872.
Richard Hershberger' FB commentary, 3/12/2022:
"150 years ago in baseball: A discussion of professional ball players. It is not complimentary. It would take decades for this attitude to disappear entirely. Note in particular the assumption that of course a professional will throw a game if you pay him enough."
Any idea who might have written this little barb at the NYT? Was it widely quoted in the US?
1872.4 Harry Wright Offers Game, Players, to Harvard
Letter from Harry Wright, of the second-year Boston pro league club, to a representative of the Harvard club, March 18, 1872:
". . . would it be agreeable to play . . . Saturday April 6th . . . upon our grounds . . .
We propose having our first game played on Fast Day, weather permitting
Harry Wright, Secy"
From the Spalding Collection at the New York Public Library
Asking, 3/18/2022:
Was it common for pro league clubs to play amateur clubs? (see BA response, above)
Did the game come off?
Asking, 3/19/2022:
Was the Boston club known as the Red Stockings in 1872?
Was the proposed game to amount to a pre-season warmup for the Boston pros?
1872.5 Chadwick Foresees Amateur Base Ball's "Revival"
Henry Chadwick
"AN AMATEUR REVIVAL -- Now that the distinction between the two classes of the fraternity is marked beyond the possibility of mistake, each class having its own National Association and its own special rules and laws, there being no longer any just cause for amateurs retiring from base ball playing for fear of being classified as professional or hired ball tosser; not that it necessarily follows that to be a professional ball player is to occupy a degrading position, but that the majority prefer, for business reasons, to be participating in the game for recreative reasons. No ball player can now be regarded as a professional unless he be attached to a club nine which either pays its players a regular salary or a share of gate receipts. This appears to be the boundary line between the two classes . . ."
Brooklyn Eagle April 5, 1872.
Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball (FB posting, 4/4/2022)
"Chadwick on amateur clubs. He is optimistic that amateur baseball will be more popular than ever, since the existence of separate amateur and professional associations ensures that no one will mistake an amateur player as being a professional.
There is a lot of classic Chad here. He hopes for an amateur "revival," and so reports that it will happen. He quietly passes over the detail that there were separate associations last year, too. He defines professionals as members of any club that "either pays its players regular salaries or pays them by a share of gate receipts." Then in the next paragraph he adds a class of "quasi amateur organizations" without explaining what these are. This is Chad in his ideologically-motivated hand-waving mode.
In reality there is no need for a revival. Amateur baseball was doing just fine. Chad is right that there were far more amateur teams than professional. The same is true today. It could hardly be otherwise. But notice the three specific clubs he identifies: the Knickerbockers, Gothams, and Excelsiors. These are the kind of amateur clubs he likes, on the old fraternal club model. This model is, in 1872, irrelevant. Those three clubs are dinosaurs. The amateur club of this era is nine guys, with perhaps one or two substitutes, organized for the purpose of playing--and beating!--other, similarly organized clubs. These clubs are amateur or semi-professional or professional precisely to the extent that they can persuade people to pay to watch them play. Chadwick's idea of how baseball should be organized is a thing of the past. He will figure this out eventually, but we need to give him time to process."
1872.6 Umpiring Evolves As A Profession: Certification, Bipartisan Pay
"Having pointed out the evil of indiscriminate selection of umpires, we will now suggest a remedy.
And this is the appointment of certain persons by the annual convention to act as umpires, and who will receive a certain sum -- say $10 and their traveling expenses -- for every game they umpire . . . .
The contending clubs can each pay a moiety of the expenses, and it will fall heavily n neither."
New York Sunday Dispatch, May 19, 1872.
From Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball, May 19, 2022.
"The umpire question. Umpire selection in the early days was very informal. Sometimes arrangements would be made ahead of time, but even for important matches it was not unknown for the two captains to pick a guy out from the crowd. It would usually be someone they both knew, so it wasn't totally random, but if he had not shown up, they would have picked someone else.
Here in 1872 this system is wearing thin. This is the professional era and the stakes are higher. In today's excerpt, we see a radical suggestion: pay the guy. This will start happening soon. It will help, but won't solve the problem entirely. There still is the matter of finding someone both captains agree upon. The next decade or so will see endless overly elaborate schemes to come up with an equitable system. The underlying problem is that even once everyone agrees the umpire needs to be paid, no one wants to pay enough for this to be a full-time job. Employing part-timers means they are using local guys, with all this entails. The bickering will be endless. Or at least it will be until they finally bite the bullet and go with a full-time umpire corps employed by the league. That won't be until the 1880s. Here in 1872, the NA doesn't even have a league structure to run an umpire corps, much less the operating funds.
The article here suggests $10 per game. This won't be enough to persuade capable men to put up with grief for two hours. The going rate will settle in at $15. That is roughly equivalent to $300 to $400 in today's money."
What is a good general history of umpiring?
1872.7 Junior Championship for Philadelphia, Using Pro Rules
From published "Conditions of Entry" for the Junior Championship of 1872 in Philadelphia: A best-of-three knockout format, entry fee $1.00, using rules of the Professional Association, prize is a gold or silver ball.
Philadelphia City Item August 8, 1872:
Richard Hershberger commentary, 8/8/2022 FB posting:
"The City Item is sponsoring a championship among Philadelphia junior clubs. A few things jump out about this. First is that it is the second week of August and they are just now getting around to this. The second is that each team plays a best-of-three series with each other team, the third game played only if necessary. The NA has switched to every team playing a fixed number of games with every other team, but this system has not yet been internalized by the baseball community generally as How It Is Done. The games are explicitly to be played under the Professional Association rules. This is a bit odd, not only because these are amateur clubs, but because in 1872 the professional and amateur associations had the same playing rules. But using the professional rules is so important that it is stated twice, just to be sure. This is an early example of the amateur association's drive to irrelevance."
1872.9 Innovator Harry Wright's Custom on Called Strikes
"Harry Wright went to bat and waited, as is his custom, until the umpire, Mr. Hanna, reminded him of his duty by calling a strike."
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 20, 1872
Richard Hershberger, 8/19/2022:
150 years ago today in baseball: "Boston at Cleveland, winning 12-7. This is the last gasp of the Cleveland team, but what interests me is this tidbit about Harry Wright's batting strategy, not swinging until the umpire calls a strike. This will later become a common approach. This is the earliest mention of it I know, making Harry a forward thinker in yet another area of baseball."
For Richard's 2014 summary of the called rules, see
Wright even passed on meatballs down the middle? Is that smart?
1872.11 In Rare Extramural Game, Knickerbockers Fade, Lose 26-17 in Base Ball Game with Cricketers
"AMATEUR GAMES -- The Manhattan Cricket Club played baseball with the Knickerbockers on the 28th [August 1872] . . . . The game was close till the eight inning, when the cricketers got in a streak of batting and the Knicks had to field one short . . . "
New York Sunday Mercury, September 1, 1872.
Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago today in baseball:
The Manhattan Cricket Club beats the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club 26-17. To be absolutely clear, they were playing baseball. Cricket and baseball clubs playing one another in one or both games was an established practice in this era. Generally the baseball team won at baseball and the cricket team won at cricket. When a team won at the other's game it usually was a case of ridiculously great disparity of athleticism. Imagine a modern MLB team, given a reasonable time to learn the rudiments, playing a rec league amateur cricket team. Or, taking it the other direction, an India Premier League team playing an American rec league baseball team.
This provides the explanation for the Knickerbockers' loss: They were really, really Not Good. Indeed, they never had been, except for a few years in the mid-1850s when their greater experience sufficed to make them respectable. In their defense, they weren't trying to be good. They were trying to combine exercise and socializing. They were generally successful at this. But on the rare occasions they played an outside game, the results could be ugly.
[] Do we recognize any Knickerbocker players in this 1872 line-up?
[] Was it common to call the club "The Knicks" in 1872?
1872.12 NA Clubs Struggle to Meet Payroll
Baltimore American September 7, 1872.
Richard Hershberger, "150 Years Ago Today," 9/8/2022:
"The officers of the Baltimore Club are working to raise funds to carry the club over the coming winter. This speaks volumes. The Baltimores were a good team. At this point their record is 29-13-1, putting them in second place behind Boston. The quality of the product on the field is not their problem. Yet they aren't breaking even, and have to scramble to raise funds to stay afloat.
I have had two great realizations about the early business of baseball. It dawned on me years ago that the later 1870s makes sense only in light of the Panic of 1873 and the depression that followed. But that is in the future. My more recent realization is that even apart from the general economy, they did not yet have a viable business model. Competition for players inevitably drove salaries up beyond the break-even point. The scramble to raise funds we see here is the rule, not the exception. This is why the churn rate was so high. Investors got tired of being tapped for more cash. Two or three years was about the limit for most clubs.
The creation of "organized baseball" was all about controlling costs, by which I mostly mean player salaries. This will take a while for them to figure out. The great breakthrough will be the reserve system, but that won't come until the 1879/1880 offseason."
See also Steve Colbert comment, in Supplemental Text (Below).
1872.14 "Homer" Used to Reference A Home Run in Baltimore Paper
" . . . a 'homer' on a long hit to left field by Pike . . . "
Baltimore Gazette, 10/18/1872
Richard Hershberger, 10/18/2022 FB posting : 150 years ago in baseball: "a truly epic turning point in baseball history, the earliest known use of "homer . . . The game was played yesterday, Mutuals at Baltimore, tying 7-7 in eight inning." (The great Paul Dickson, author of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, commented-- "A remarkable find to be sure. Great work").
1872.15 Late-season Pro-league Proto-standings
1872 League records format.
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, October 27, 1872:
Richard Hershberger, "150 years ago in baseball, 10/282022. "The not-quite final standings. The championship season runs through the end of the month, so we are pretty close. This is the standard format in the day, and I quite like it. It takes some getting used to, but it provides information absent from the modern format."
Note: Peter Morris' A Game of Inches, 2012 Edition, p. 477, gives an overview of the evolution of the box score, starting the what is seen as the first, the New York Herald account of the game between the NYBBC and a club from Brooklyn, played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, in October 1845. He adds that Henry Chadwick with inventing it. "Chadwick is usually credited with being the inventor of the the box score. But the facts seem to suggest that, at most, Chadwick deserves credit, at most, with adding a few categories to it."
1872.16 British Base Ball Tour Is Planned
[American base ball players] "propose to travel throughout England, playing against each other, or to play against any nine that will appear against them. They will also play cricket . . . "
'Jackson's Oxford Journal', Oxfordshire, England, November 2, 1872:
Richard Hershberger, 11/2/2022: 150 years ago in baseball: "Talk of the Boston and Philadelphia teams visiting England. This idea has been floating around for several years now, only gradually coming together. It will eventually happen in 1874. We can take this item as early marketing, to get the idea out there."
Do we know more about Thomas "Tim" Hall's role in early Boston base ball?
Do we know why the named English gentlemen had come to the US beforehand?
Do we know the names of Boston and Philly players planning to go?
1872.17 Athletics Show Annual Expenses, Income for 1872
The Philly Athletics released their 1872 income/expenses for about $26,000.
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, November 17, 1872
Richard Hershberger, 11/17/2022, 150 years ago in baseball: "The Athletic Club's financial statement for 1872. Professional baseball had not yet reached the point where it hid its books and claimed poverty. Here in 1872 the books were treated as a public matter, and the poverty was entirely genuine. This is an "inside baseball" discussion, but worth examining.
If you just look at the bottom line, the club came out just barely ahead for the year. It looks even better when you see that they paid out $3000 to retire debt. (For a debt of $5141? Perhaps there was some negotiated forgiveness. We are not told.) But look at the top line: Dues from members. The Athletics were not a stock company, but a club of the old fraternal model, which sponsored a baseball team. What is in it for the dues-paying members? They aren't meeting twice a week in the summer to take their exercise together. Those days are long past. They are essentially a booster club. The team won the pennant last year, so people are eager to associate themselves with it, and to secure premium seating. Spoiler alert: Boston will get this year's pennant.
The real question is can a club field a successful professional team based on gate receipts? There are a few odds and ends of additional revenue, but they are tiny. The answer we see here is "no." Take out the member dues, and even if we also take out the debt payment, the result is in the red. The largest expense by far is player salaries. (Harry Painter, in case you were wondering, is the "superintendent," i.e. the groundskeeper.) The challenge will be to lower this expense line. Another spoiler: Things will get worse before they get better. Baseball of the 1870s will be strewn with financial failures." ---
His anyone systematically tracked player salaries in he early pro years?
A: Baseball reference lists 13 players as being on the Athletics in 1871. Three of these played only 1 game. The standard roster of 10 players were paid an average of $1,500 apiece, per the article saying the players were paid $15,000 and change. [ba]
1872.18 Boston Pro Club Faces Insolvency on Way to Becoming Longest-Lived
[A] Boston Headline, 12/5/1872"
"Crippled Financial Condition of the Boston Club Association ["a $4000 debt"] - A Meeting to Devise Measures -- Will the Champions be Sustained for Another Season?"
[B] "We see here where management is essentially passing the hat among the fans. This will come together in a unique solution. The organization running the team is the Boston Base Ball Association. The fans will be the Boston Base Ball Club ("club" reflecting its social nature), which will take over the block of outstanding BBBA stock, paying for the privilege. This will carry the Bostons over until better times. This is why the now-Atlanta Braves are the oldest team in baseball." -- Richard Hershberger
[A] Boston Herald, December 5, 1872:
[B] FB posting by Richard Hershberger, 12/5/2022
1872.19 Chadwick on the Evils of Betting
Henry Chadwick: "[S]uspicion is raised whenever either glaring errors or one-sided scores mark the playing of the game."
Brooklyn Eagle, December 20, 1872
Richard Hershberger, FB posting, 150 Years Ago Today in Base Ball, 12/20/2022
"Chadwick denounces pool selling. This is a system, borrowed from horse racing, to centralize bets and stake-holding, making it harder for someone to forget he made that losing bet. It was introduced last season to the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. How is that going?
There is a lot of classic Chadwickiana here, ascribing all evils to whatever is on his mind at the moment. The premise is that with the betting centralized, there is more temptation to pay players to throw games. The logic is not entirely clear. Setting this up would be the actions of individual gamblers. Why would they care how much money other people had rising on the game? Especially since the arrangement would have to be made ahead of time, while the pools were still being sold.
Chad's best point is toward the bottom, that suspicion is raised "whenever either glaring errors or one-sided scores mark the playing of the game." Fair enough, though not actually new. Such suspicions are characteristic of the era. It is plausible that sanctioned betting pools exacerbated the problem. It is important, however, in understanding this era that the perception of game throwing is a different problem from actual game throwing. The first was widespread. The second is harder to say, but proven cases are notably rare. "
1873.1 Atlantic Club Business Model is Vulnerable
While the writer thinks the Atlantic club is ready to make a run for the pennant, our Richard Hershberger notes that its business model, under which players are paid out of gate receipts, has a troubled future.
Brooklyn Eagle, January 13, 1873
1873.11 Outfield Duties Evolve -- Red Stockings Credited
The old style of playing the outfield, in which all that was required of a player was to catch the ball whenever it came near to his position, has been superseded. . . . Now, ' headwork' is considered essential. . . ."
New York Clipper, February 8, 1873
[] Is there a reason that the writer did not credit the Red Stockings as innovators here?
[] If the Red Stockings exhibited these types of innovations in swings to the East in 1868-1869, why are they noted only 4 or 5 years later in New York?
[] Why would RFers want to hug the right field foul line? Were hitters trying to looking for cheap hits by hitting soft liners just beyond first base?
A: Perhaps to better track down errant throws to 1st base? [ba]
[] What is our best source on Red Stocking innovations and how they spread?
1873.14 The Delayed Double Steal -- New or Familiar?
Richard Hershberger comments below on another report of a delayed double steal, this one by the Boston club. The Atlantics had evidently pulled one not long before.
New York Sun, June 11, 1873:
1874.2 Tennessee Visitor Lauds Local "Base-ball, Shinny, Baste Grounds"
"Chattanooga possesses some advantages that sister towns cannot boast of. For base-ball, shinny, baste grounds and shanty buildings, she can not be surpassed."
(Attributed to a visiting editor of the Cleveland Banner.)
Knoxville Press and Messenger, March 18, 1874, page 5
As of February 2017, data on early ballplaying in the Chattanooga area are sparse. They include five accounts of soldierly play during the Civil War and brief mentions of area base ball clubs after the war
Protoball believes "shinny" to be a game resembling field hockey and ice hockey, and not a baserunning game.
Protoball has only two other reports of the game of "baste" in a Princeton student's diary in 1786 and in a biography of Benjamin Harrison on his teenage activities in the Cincinnati area. A good guess is that baste was a variant spelling of "base," a base ball precursor.
The Cleveland Banner is a newspaper in Cleveland TN.
1875.1 Convention of "colored" clubs in New Orleans
The New Orleans Times, Aug. 8, 1875 reports that the Athletic BBC of that city calls of a convention of the "colored" cubs of that city to form a colored club association.
Prof. John Blassingame writes that there were 13 "colored" clubs in New Orleans in 1875.
The New Orleans Times, Aug. 8, 1875