Chronology: 1861 - 1865
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The chronology from 1861 to 1870 (316 entries)
1861.1 Chadwick Wants to Start Richmond VA Team, but the Civil War Intervenes
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Bill Hicklin notes (email of Feb 4, 2016) that "Chadwick visited his wife's family frequently and was disappointed that, as of the verge of the Civil War, there appeared to be no base ball clubs there at all."
See discussion (by Chadwick?) of forming a bbc in Richmond, to play at the Fair Grounds, in New York Clipper, March 30, 1861. [ba]
Sources:
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Ken Burns, Baseball: An Illustrated History [Knopf, 1994], p.12, no ref given.
Schiff, Millen, and Kirsch also cite Chadwick's attempt, but do not give a clear date, or a source.
Comment:
Tom Gilbert, 10/5/2020, notes "Henry Chadwick had close Richmond connections. His wife was from a wealthy and prominent Virginia family and he himself traveled to Richmond and was involved in early attempts to found a NYC- style baseball club there. Antebellum New Yorkers vacationed in Virginia in the 1850s and baseball clubs played there even before the famous Excelsiors tours."
To be more exact, Chadwick's wife was the daughter of Alexander Botts, or a prominent VA family, though Alexander and his family had moved to NYC. Her uncle was Congressman John Minor Botts, her first cousin was Confederate Colonel Lawson Botts, and her mother was a Randolph, one of Virginia's First Families (FFVs). [ba]
For more on Richmond base ball, see 1859.73
Query:
Is there a primary source for this claim?
Yes, NYC 3-30-61. [ba]
Year
1861
1861.2 Stoolball Played, in Co-ed Form
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"Stoolball was played at Chailey [Sussex] in 1861. Major Lionel King . . . first saw stoolball in the early 'sixties, while still a very small boy. He watched a game in a field belonging to Eastfield Lodge, Hassocks [Sussex], and both men and maidens were playing"
Sources:
Russell-Goggs, in "Stoolball in Sussex," The Sussex County Magazine, volume 2, no. 7 (July 1928), page 322. Note: Russell-Goggs does not give a source for this report.
Year
1861
1861.4 Henry Chadwick Links Base Ball to Rounders - But It's More "Scientific"
Game:
"The game of base ball is, as our readers are for the most part aware, an American game exclusively, as now played, although a game somewhat similar has been played in England for many years, called 'rounders,' but which is played more after the style of the Massachusetts game. New York, however, justly lays claim to being the originators of what is termed the American Game, which has been so improved in all its essential points by them, and it scientific points so added to, that it does not stand second to either [rounders or the Mass game?] in its innate excellencies, or interesting phrases, to any national game in any country in the world, and is every way adapted to the tastes of all who love athletic exercises in the country."
Sources:
Chadwick article in The New York Clipper (October 26, 1861).
Comment:
This is an excerpt from a Hoboken game account.
In 1871 Chadwick identified Two-Old-Cat as the parent of American base ball. See 1871.20
Query:
"interesting phrases"?
Year
1861
1861.5 15,000 Watch Ice Base Ball in Bkn: Atlantic 37, Charter Oak 26.
Game:
Age of Players:
"[A] novel game of base ball was played on the skating-pond in the Eighth Ward, between the Atlantic and Charter Oak Base Ball Clubs. Ten members of each Club were selected for the match, and the game was played on skates, the prize being a silver ball. The Atlantic ten won the ball, making 37 runs to 27 by their opponents. Some 15,000 people witnessed the game."
Sources:
"Base Ball on Skates," Philadelphia Inquirer (February 6, 1861).
This bit was also reprinted in the pro-Confederacy Columbus OH paper The Crisis (February 14, 1861).
Coverage of the game, including the box score, appeared in The Spirit of the Times (Feb. 9), the New York Sunday Mercury (Feb. 10), and the New York Clipper (Feb. 16).
Year
1861
1861.6 The Clipper Looks Back on the 1861 Season
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
Some general points:
The War: "[D]espite the interruptions and drawbacks occasioned by the great rebellion [it] has been really a very interesting year in the annals of the game, far more than was expected . . . ; but the game has too strong a foothold in popularity to be frowned out of favor by lowering brows of 'grim-faced war,' and if any proof was needed that our national game is a fixed institution of the country, it would be found in the fact that it has flourished through such a year of adverse circumstances as those that have marked the season of 1861."
HolidayPlay: "On the 4th of July, all the club grounds were fully occupied, that day, like Thanksgiving, being a ball playing day."
Juiced Ball? On July 23, it was Eagles 32, Eckfords 23, marking the Eckfords' first loss since 1858. "The feature of the contest was the unusual number of home runs that were made on both sides, the Eckfords scoring no less than 11, of which Josh Snyder alone made four, and the Eagles getting five." 3000 to 4000 fans watched this early slugfest.
Sources:
The Clipper (date omitted in scrapbook clipping) printed a long review of the 1861 season. It appeared in the issues of Jan. 11, Jan. 18, and Jan. 25, 1862.
Year
1861
1861.7 Ontario Lads to Try the New York Game, May Forego "Canadian Game"
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
The year-old Young Canadian Base Ball Club [Woodstock, ON] met in Spring 1861, elected officers, reported themselves "flourishing" with forty members, and basked in the memory of a 6-0 1860 season. "At the last meeting of the club it was resolved that they should practice the New York game for one month, and if at the end of that time they liked it better than the Canadian game, they would adopt it altogether."
See also #1820s.19, #1838.4, #1856.18, and #1860.29 above.
Sources:
The New York Clipper (date omitted in scrapbook clipping; from context it was about May 1861). Note- not found in May issues
Year
1861
1861.8 Vermont Club Forms
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
A club formed in Chester, VT.
Sources:
The New York Clipper, April 20, 1861
Year
1861
1861.9 Buckeye BBC Forms in Cincinnati OH
Game:
Age of Players:
"The Buckeye Base Ball Club is the first institution of the kind organized in Cincinnati."
Sources:
The New York Clipper, April 20, 1861
Query:
does this imply that this club was the first in town to play the New York game?
Year
1861
1861.10 Atlantic 52, Mutual 27, 6 Innings: Reporter is Wowed by 26-Run 3rd
Game:
Age of Players:
Going into the 3rd inning, the Brooklyn club trailed 8-7. Three outs later, the Atlantic led 33-8. Ball game! The article put it this way: "The Atlantics have always had a reputation for superior batting; but never have they before displayed, nor, in fact, had there ever been witnessed on any field, in all our base ball experience - which covers a period of ten years - such a grand exhibition of splendid batting. . . . Altogether, the game exhibited the tallest batting, and more of it, than has ever before been witnessed." He goes on to chronicle every at-bat of the Atlantic's thumping third. As for the crowd: "The best of order was preserved on the ground by an extensive police force, and everything passed off well."
Sources:
"A Grand Exhibition," New York Sunday Mercury (October 20, 1861).
The full article and box score of the 10/26/1861 game is found at http://www.covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/favorite%207.html
Year
1861
1861.11 Meeting of National Association is Subdued
Game:
Age of Players:
Meeting in late 1861, the National Association of Base Ball Players undertook no large issues, perhaps in light of what a reporter called "the disturbed state of the country." Sixty-one clubs attended, one-third less strength that in 1860.
Sources:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 12, 1861, page 11.
Meeting summaries also appeared in the New York Sunday Mercury (Dec. 15), Wilkes' Spirit of the Times (Dec. 21), and the New York Clipper (Dec. 21)
Year
1861
1861.12 Modern Base Ball Comes to Sanford ME
Game:
"The national game of base-ball was introduced in 1861."
Sources:
Edwin Emery, The History of Sanford Maine (Fall River MA, 1901), page 383.
Comment:
Sanford ME is about 30 miles N of Portsmouth NH, near the NH border.
Year
1861
1861.13 Modern Game Comes to the Eastern OH Town
Game:
"The Portage County Democrat reported in its April 10, 1861 edition, 'The young men of Ravenna have organized a base ball club . . . .' But again, their games were intra club affairs."
Sources:
John Husman, "Ohio's First Baseball Game," Presented at the SABR Convention, July 16, 2004, page 5.
Comment:
Ravenna OH is about 35 miles SE of Cleveland in eastern Ohio.
Year
1861
1861.14 "Silver Ball" Match Features Brooklyn and New York All-Stars, Attracts Up To 15,000
Game:
Age of Players:
Harry Wright played 3B for New York, and atop the Brooklyn lineup were Dickie Pearce and Jim Creighton. The major NYC area clubs contributed leading players to this game, the first since 1858 to pit all-stars from New York and Brooklyn. New York held a 4-2 lead through 4 innings, but a 7-run fifth ["considerable muffy fielding took place by the New Yorkers"] propelled Brooklyn to a 18-6 win, and the silver ball was put in the hands of the Atlantic club, as its players had scored the most runs. Crowd estimates of 12,000 to 15,000 were printed. The game was played at the Gotham club grounds in Hoboken on October 21.
Comment:
Sponsored by the New York Clipper, the game's organizer, Clipper base ball editor Henry Chadwick, was roundly criticized for favoritism toward Brooklyn and sloppy organization by the New York Atlas and the New York Sunday Mercury in their issues of Oct. 27, 1861
Year
1861
1861.15 First Sunday in the Army: "Ball-playing, Wrestling, and Some Card-Playing"
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
In early May 1861, the new 13th Illinois Regiment assembled in East St. Louis IL. Writing of the first Sabbath in the camp, the veterans later said "There was drill: so the notion of the leaders ran. A better view obtains now. There was ball-playing and wrestling and some card-playing, but that [just the card-playing?] was generally regarded as out of order."
Sources:
Military History and Reminiscences of the Thirteenth Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry (Woman's Temperance Publishing, Chicago, 1892), page 10. PBall file: CW-122.
Comment:
This may be the first recorded instance of ballplaying by Civil War soldiers.
Query:
The place is more probably Camp Dement, in Dixon, IL [ba]
Year
1861
1861.16 NY Regiment Plays "Favorite Game" After Dress Parade in Elmira NY
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"After [the camp's dress] parade, which generally lasted about an hour, the camp was alive with fun and frolic . . . leap-frog, double-duck, foot and base-ball or sparring, wrestling, and racing, shared their attention."
A visitor to the camp wrote the next day, "I was not surprised . . . to see how extensively the amusements which had been practiced in their leisure hours in the city [Buffalo?], were continued in camp. Boxing with gloves, ball-playing, running and jumping, were among these. The ball clubs were well represented here, and the exercise of their favorite game is carried on spiritedly by the Buffalo boys." [page 43.] PBall file: CW-123.
Sources:
J. Harrison Mills, Chronicles of the Twenty-First Regiment, New York Volunteers (21st Veteran Assn., Buffalo, 1887), page 42.
Comment:
The newly-formed regiment, evidently raised in the Buffalo area, was at camp in Elmira in May 1861 in this recollection, and would deploy to Washington in June.
Duplicate of 1861.34?
Year
1861
1861.17 American Guard [71st NY Regt] 42, Nationals BB Club 13
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"The National Base Ball Club requests the pleasure of your company on their grounds at the intersection of Maryland Avenue and 6th Street, East, on Tuesday, July 2d [1861], at twelve o'clock, to witness a match game with the 71st Regiment Base Ball Club"
Sources:
71st Regiment Veterans Association, "History of the 71st Regiment, N.G., N.Y.," (Eastman, New York, 1919), pages 157, 232, and 236-237. Accessed 5/30/2009 via Google Books search "71st regiment baseball." PBall file: CW-3.
Comment:
The 71st had the duty to protect the Nation's Capital against rebel incursions, and fielded a picked nine to play a National BBC nine. After three innings, they led 12-2, and coasted to victory. A familiar name for the 71st was 3b Van Cott, and for the Nationals French played 3b. The regimental history later reported that the game "was witnessed by a large number of spectators." The Philadelphia Inquirer announced the contest on July 1 under the headline "The New York Seventy-First Despairing of Work, Going to Play Ball." Note: Frank Ceresi reports [19CBB posting of 2/28/2009] that the French collection of the Washington Historical Society includes a handwritten scoresheet for the match, which describes a 41-13 Army victory.
The two sides played again a year later. On August 7, 1862, the Nationals won a rematch, 28-13. The regimental history says that "the game was played on the parade ground; the result was not as satisfactory to the boys as the year before. There was quite a concourse of spectators on the occasion, including a number of ladies . . . . At the close the players were refreshed with sandwiches and lager." On June 25th, 1862, and the regiment's company K took on the rest of the regiment and lost 33-11.
Year
1861
1861.18 Confederate Base Ball Players Finds Field "Too Boggy" in VA
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"Confederate troops played townball as well as more modern versions of the game in their army camps. In November 1861 the Charleston Mercury of South Carolina reported that Confederate troops were stuck in soggy camps near Centreville, Fairfax County, [northern] Virginia. Heavy rains created miserably wet conditions so that 'even the base ball players find the green sward in front of the camp, too boggy for their accustomed sport.'" Centreville is adjacent to Manassas/Bull Run. 40,000 Confederate troops under Gen. Johnson had winter quarters there [the town's population had been 220] in 1861/62.
Sources:
Charleston Mercury, November 4, 1861, page. 4, column 5. Mentioned without citation in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), page 39. PBall file: CW-6
Year
1861
1861.19 Second NJ Regiment Forms BB Club in Virginia Camp
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] A six-inning game of base ball was played at Camp Seminary on Saturday November 16, 1861. The 2nd NJ challenged the 1st NJ and prevailed. A member of the 2nd NJ sent a short report and box to the Newark newspaper.
[B] Members of the 2nd New Jersey regiment formed the Excelsior club, evidently named for the Newark Excelsior [confirm existence?] in late November 1861. A report of an intramural game between Golder's side and Collins' side appeared in a Newark paper. The game, won 33-20 by the Golder contingent, lasted 6 innings and took four hours to play. The correspondent concludes: "The day passed off pleasantly all around, and I think every one of us enjoyed ourselves duely [sic?]. We all hope to be at home one year hence to dine with those who love us. God grant it!"
Sources:
[A] "A Game of Ball in the Camp," Newark Daily Advertiser, November 20 1861. PBall file: CW7.
[B] Newark Daily Advertiser, 12/4/1861. PBall file: CW8.
Comment:
Camp Seminary was located near Fairfax Seminary in Alexandria VA, near Washington DC.
One may infer that the 2nd NJ remained at winter quarters in Alexandria VA at this time, providing protection to Washington.
Year
1861
1861.20 Confederate Soldier's Diary Reports on Town Ball Playing, 1861-1863
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
December 1861 (Texas?): "There is nothing unusual transpiring in Camp. The boys are passing the time playing Town-Ball."
January 1862 (Texas?): "All rocking along finely, Boys playing Town-Ball"
March 1863 (USA prison camp, IL?): The Rebels have at last found something to employ both mind and body; as the parade ground has dried up considerably in the past few days, Town Ball is in full blast, and it is a blessing for the men."
March 1863 (USA prison camp, IL?): "Raining this morning, which will interfere with ball playing, but the manufacture of rings 'goes bravely on,' and I might say receives a fresh impetus by the failure of the 'Town-ball' business."
Sources:
W. W. Heartsill, Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army: A Journal Kept by W. W. Heartsill: Day-by-Day, of the W. P. Lane (Texas) Rangers, from April 19th 1861 to May 20th 1865. Submitted by Jeff Kittel, 5/12/09. Available online at The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries Database, at http://solomon.cwld.alexanderstreet.com/. PBall file: CW10.
Comment:
Heartsill joined Lane's Texas Rangers early in the War at age 21. He was taken prisoner in Arkansas in early 1862, and exchanged for Union prisoners in April 1863. He then joined Bragg's Army in Tennessee, and was assigned to a unit put in charge of a Texas prison camp of Union soldiers. There are no references to ballplaying after 1863.
Query:
manufacture of rings?
POWs commonly fashioned hair or bone rings to while away the time [ba].
Year
1861
1861.22 Ad Biz
Tags:
Location:
Game:
"(advertisement) JOHN C. WHITING, 87 FULTON STREET, N. Y., manufacturer of BASE BALLS and Wholesale and Retail Dealer in everything appertaining to BASE BALL and CRICKET. Agent for Chicester's Improved SELF-FASTENING BASES, and the PATENT CONCAVE PLATES for Ball Shoes, which are free from all the danger, and answer all the purposes, of spikes."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury, Dec. 8, 1861
Comment:
With thousands in the Greater New York City area playing the game, providers of playing grounds, playing manuals, and equipment sprang up.
Year
1861
1861.23 War Sinks Silver Balls
Tags:
Location:
Game:
[A] "CONTESTS FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP.-- Additional interest will be imparted to the ensuing base ball season by the playing of a series of contests between the senior, as well as between the junior clubs, for a silver champion ball (and)...will initiate a new system of general rivalry, which will, we hope, be attended with the happiest results to the further progress and popularity of the game of base ball.
[B] "We learn from Daniel Manson, chairman pro tem. of the Junior National Association, that the Committee on Championship have resolved to postpone the proposed match games for the championship...Among the reasons...is the fact that quite a number of the more advanced players, from the clubs selected for the championship, have enlisted for the war."
[C] The senior-club silver ball competition, offered not by the national association but by the Continental BBC, a non-contender, was also not held due to the war. In 1862, with the war then appearing to be of indefinite duration, the Continental offered it as a prize to the winner of the informal championship matches, with those games played as a benefit for the families of soldiers.
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, April 7, 1861
[B] New York Sunday Mercury, May 12, 1861
Year
1861
1861.37 Modern Base Ball Played Widely At Outset of War
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] After having doubled in scope in bother 1857 and 1858, the game was played in all of America's largest 12 cities in 1858. It was played in the top 21 cities exceeding 42,000 population, and in about one-half of the largest 100 US cities (the smallest of which had a population of 9,500) before the Civil War started in April 1861. Twenty-seven of the thirty-four States had seen the game by then.
[B] Expansion slowed considerably during the war years, but have have aboiut 150 accounts of playing in war camps during the fighting..
Sources:
[A] See Larry McCray, "Recent Ideas about the Spread of Base Ball after 1854" (draft), October 2012. Data from the Protoball Games Tabulation (version 1.0) compiled by Craig Waff.
[B] For about 150 accounts of ballplaying by soldiers during the War, go to the Civil War Camps Chronology.
Year
1861
1861.39 WAR!
Tags:
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] "BASE BALL. The excitement incident to the new and warlike attitude of our national affairs also monopolized the attention of everybody during the past week; and out-door sports, like everything else, were for the time forgotten."
[B] "BASE BALL'. For the time being, base ball is almost entirely laid aside. Not one of the senior clubs has yet mustered sufficient numbers on the regular play-days to have a game...Several of the clubs have, we understand, resolved to postpone regular field exercise until after the Fourth of July."
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, April 21, 1861
[B] New York Sunday Mercury, April 28, 1861
Year
1861
1861.40 Shortstops to Soldiers
Tags:
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] "BASE BALL...So many of the best players, belonging to the first nines of the more prominent base ball clubs, have enlisted and gone with different regiments to the seat of war, that there will be some difficulty in getting up any matches of special interest this season."
[B] "BASE BALL...Hundreds of the best base all players in the States are now withing or on their way to Washington, ready to prove to the world, that while in times of peace they are enthusiastic devotees of the National Game, they are no less ready, in time of war, to make any sacrifice..."
[C] "CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WAR.-- The Star and Exercise Clubs, of Brooklyn, have together contributed nearly forty volunteers for the war. Good boys!"
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, April 28, 1861
[B] New York Sunday Mercury, May 5, 1861
[C] New York Sunday Mercury, May 26, 1861
Year
1861
1861.41 Base Ball A Silver Lining
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] "The first base ball match of the season came off yesterday...It was thought that cannon balls would supersede base balls this season-- that our meetings and delightful measures would be exchanged for the pride, pomp, and circumstances of glorious war, but even in their ashes live our wonted fires, and though faint and few, we are fearless still. The event of yesterday is therefore generally regarded as a promising sign of the times."
[B] "THE HOBOKEN BASE BALL CLUBS.-- The ball grounds at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, begin to wear a very lively look...Several important matches are nearly arranged...The return of the Seventh, National Guard, added a reinforcement of some forty members to our prominent base ball clubs."
Sources:
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 6, 1861
[B] Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, June 16, 1861
Year
1861
1861.45 Shrunken NABBP Meeting Does Little
Tags:
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"BASE BALL. Annual Meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players....The attendance of delegates was not so large as we had hope to see..the delegates of thirty-one clubs answered to their names...The Committee on Rules...reported that they had no changes in the Rules to recommend...only one proposition had been submitted to them (discussion of a proposition to change the rule for deciding the outcome of a game called by darkness was tabled; a resolution to donate the Association's surplus funds to war relief was also tabled, as the funds were small...the existing rebellion, which has enlisted amny base-ball players in the service of the country, has had a tendency to temporarily disorganize many of the base ball clubs."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury, Dec. 15, 1861
Comment:
Three clubs were admitted to the Association; of 80 existing members, nine were expelled due to non-payment of dues for two years, and 27 more listed who had not paid for 1861.
Year
1861
1861.46 37th Illinois plays in camp in Springfield
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Wilder's History of the 37th Illinois, p. 30: "The officers and men of the [Waukegan] company were reported as playing baseball amidst beautiful weather."
This book cites a letter home by a soldier to the Waukegan Weekly Gazette, May 7, 1861. The unit was in camp near Springfield.
Waukegan had baseball as early as 1859.
Sources:
Waukegan Weekly Gazette, May 7, 1861
Year
1861
1861.48 Too Cold for Baseball in Confederate Camp
Location:
Age of Players:
The Rome (GA) Tri-Weekly Courier, Dec. 3, 1861 prints a Nov. 24, 1861 letter from a soldier in the 8th GA Infantry: "Up to a week ago ball playing was quite in vogue, but it is now a little too cold for this kind of recreation..."
The letter is datelined camp of the 8th GA, near Centreville [near Manassas, VA]. The letter writer was probably Moses Dwinnell (1825-87), an officer in the 8th who had been prewar editor of the Rome Courier.
Sources:
The Rome (GA) Tri-Weekly Courier, Dec. 3, 1861
Year
1861
1861.49 Playing Ball in Racine Camp
Location:
Age of Players:
The Monroe (WI) Sentinel, Oct. 23, 1861 reports that at Camp Utley, in Racine, the volunteers "have until two o'clock to rest, which time is generally occupied in playing ball, jumping, throwing dumb bells, running foot races, and wrestling."
The letter appears to have been written by a member of the La Crosse Artillery.
Sources:
The Monroe (WI) Sentinel, Oct. 23, 1861
Year
1861
1861.50 Baseball at Benton Barracks
Location:
Age of Players:
The Marshall (IL) Flag of Our Union, Oct. 25, 1861 prints a Oct. 21 letter from a soldier ("G. Shaw") at Benton Barracks, St. Louis in which he says: "Here can be enacted, among the young men, all of the scenes of their school days. Some are engaged in playing ball, some racing, some jumping, and not infrequently some playing leap frog."
Sources:
The Marshall (IL) Flag of Our Union, Oct. 25, 1861
Year
1861
1861.51 Ball Playing competes with fencing in camp
Location:
Age of Players:
The Ogdensburg Advance, Aug. 23, 1861 picks up an Albany Journal item about life in camp: "The People's Ellsworth Regiment spends their leisure hours "in great part to athletic exercises--fencing, boxing, ball playing--while their evenings are passed in singing."
This unit was the 44th New York Infantry, which at this time was in camp near Albany, NY.
Sources:
The Ogdensburg Advance, Aug. 23, 1861
Year
1861
1861.52 Christmas Baseball in Camp
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Clipper, Jan. 11, 1862, headlined "Christmas in Camp," reports on a game on Christmas Day between the officers of the "1st Regiment, Excelsior Brigade" (70th NY Infantry) at Camp Farnum, Sandy Point, MD. Capt. Mitchell's nine defeated Lt. Dennson's 32-12. A greased pig chase followed.
Sources:
The New York Clipper, Jan. 11, 1862
Year
1861
1861.53 8th New York Intersquad game
Location:
Age of Players:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 29, 1861 prints a long letter from a soldier in the 8th NY, stationed at Arlington Heights, VA, who mentions that the Left and Right wings of the regiment played a game of baseball, the Left wing winning 26-12. Gives a box score.
See also New York Sunday Mercury, June 30, 1861.
Sources:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 29, 1861
Year
1861
1861.54 The "best players" of NYC and Brooklyn play in the army
Location:
Age of Players:
The DC National Republican, June 28, 1861 prints a June 25th letter from Camp Wool [in DC] saying that Steers' nine (Company E) played Baldwin's nine (Company D), the two nines containing some of the best players of NYC and Brooklyn. The Washington Evening Star, July 1, 1861 reports that this was between 2 companies of the 14th New York, camped near 7th Street Park, and that Co. D won 39-17.
See also the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 5, 1861, which calls the soldiers in Co. D "many old and almost professional players." The regiment's colonel umpired the game.
Sources:
The DC National Republican, June 28, 1861
Year
1861
1861.55 Base Ball at Camp Tippicanoe
Location:
The Indianapolis Daily Journal, June 7, 1861 quotes the Lafayette Journal about life of the soldiers at Camp Tippicanoe, near Lafayette. The soldiers belong to the 15th Indiana Volunteers.
"The boys are in the best spirits, and wehn off duty enjoy themselves in running foot races, playing ball, jumping, wrestling, and other healthful exercises..."
Sources:
The Indianapolis Daily Journal, June 7, 1861
Year
1861
1861.56 Soldiers play ball in Denver
Location:
Age of Players:
The Denver Daily Colorado Republican and Rocky Mountain Herald, Nov. 2, 1861: "We noticed yesterday the members of Capt Downing's company engaged in the exhilarating game of base-ball. This is excellent exercise for the muscle, besides being good amusement, and all our soldiers would receive benefits by indulging in his pleasant mode of training."
Downing's unit was company D, 1st Colorado Volunteers.
Sources:
The Denver Daily Colorado Republican and Rocky Mountain Herald, Nov. 2, 1861
Year
1861
1861.57 Wilson's Zouaves play base ball
Location:
Age of Players:
The St. Louis Missouri Democrat, May 21, 1861 prints a may 16 letter from the camp of Wilson's Zouaves, on Staten Island, NY: "We found a majority of the force engaged in exercise--some at base ball, some at leap frog--others running, boxing, exercise..."
Zouaves were dressed in the style of the North African light infantry of the French army--short red coats, baggy pants--very colorful.
Sources:
The St. Louis Missouri Democrat, May 21, 1861. New York Herald, May 16, 1861.
Year
1861
1861.58 13th Massachusetts looks forward to an "exciting game"
Location:
Age of Players:
The Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph, Nov. 23, 1861 prints a Nov. 15th letter from a soldier of the 13th MA, in Williamsport, MD: "We are to have a game of base ball on that day [Thanksgiving], between the right and left wings of the regiment, and it will be an exciting one. We also play frequently at foot-ball."
Sources:
The Cape Ann Light and Gloucester Telegraph, Nov. 23, 1861
Year
1861
1861.59 1st MA has plenty of exercise
Location:
Age of Players:
The Boston Traveler, Oct. 26, 1861 prints a letter from the 1st Massachusetts in Bladensburg, MD, denouncing newspaper reports of lack of exercise in the unit. "Six hours of every pleasant day are devoted to it [drill], sometimes at the double quick, and the hours between are filled up with bathing, base-ball, &c."
Sources:
The Boston Traveler, Oct. 26, 1861
Year
1861
1861.60 Base Ball Prevents Soldier Grumbling
Age of Players:
The Boston Christian Advocate, July 18, 1861 notes that army regulations urge commanders to "encourage useful occupation and manly exercises and diversions among their men, and to repress dissipation and immorality." After noting that the French and British armies encourage sports, the Advocate opines that "Baseball, cricket, ten pins, &c., wold save any amount of grumbling" by bored soldiers.
Sources:
The Boston Christian Advocate, July 18, 1861
Year
1861
1861.61 Army of the Potomac relaxes with base ball
Age of Players:
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861 lauds the Army of the Potomac's good conduct in camp: "A song, a light-hearted laugh, a group in ecstasies as two stout-hearted fellows roll, one over another, in a wrestling match, a foot race, or a party at base ball are the leading variations on the more formal duties of duty and drill..."
Sources:
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861
Year
1861
1861.62 Ohio Soldiers box and play ball
Location:
Age of Players:
The Cadiz (Ohio) Democratic Sentinel, May 25, 1861 reports on Ohio soldiers at Camp Dennison, east of Cincinnati: "Various are the sports devised by the soldiers to pass away their leisure hours: such as sparring, ball playing, singing, dancing, and almost every sport that could be thought of, or that ever was practiced..."
Sources:
The Cadiz (Ohio) Democratic Sentinel, May 25, 1861
Year
1861
1861.67 Base ball at Camp Vermont
Location:
Age of Players:
The Burlington Weekly Free Press, Dec. 19, 1861 prints a Dec. 6th letter from the 12th Vermont, at Camp Vermont, near Alexandria: After a game of foot ball on Thanksgiving, "many joined in games of base ball."
See also chronology 1862.39.
Sources:
The Burlington Weekly Free Press, Dec. 19, 1861
Year
1861
1861.71 Irish Soldiers play ball with Rebel shells
Location:
Age of Players:
The Cleveland Herald, Nov. 26, 1861, headlined "New One for Paddy" explains how Irish-American soldiers reacted to Confederate shelling: "One of the Massachusetts regiments had a game of base ball they day after the slaughter of Edwards' Ferry [the battle of BAlls Bluff], bu the Cleveland Hibernian Guard of the Eighth Ohio regiment, beat them at Romney... the Hibernian Guard actually stacked their arms and commenced playing ball with the six pounders that the enemy sent among them, tossing them about as cooly as if they were in the Cleveland Public Square."
Given the weight of the cannon balls, could this have been a rugby-like ball game?
Sources:
The Cleveland Herald, Nov. 26, 1861
Year
1861
1861.72 Secesh and Unionists fraternize on ball field
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861: "Fraternization--I had the pleasure of beholding an oasis of fraternization of members of the Excelsior Base Ball Club, of Brooklyn, N.Y., composed in part of officers and privates attached to the Thirteenth Regiment New York State Militia, stationed on Mount Clare, near the city, and the Excelsior Base Ball Club of Baltimore, which is composed of secessionists almost to a man..." They played a game, the Baltimore club winning 26-25.
Sources:
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861
Year
1861
1861.77 White House Secretaries watch Zouaves play ball
Location:
Age of Players:
"When John Hay and George Nicolay drove their rented buggy over to Camp Lincoln to say hello to their friend Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, they found him wearing his “blouzy red shirt” and enjoying that New York favorite: Base Ball. Most New York firefighters played the game, and among those involved was Ellsworth’s aide-de-camp, Captain John “Jack” Wildey.
Wildey played ball before he became a Fire Zouave. He played for the New York Mutuals, named for his own Mutual Hook and Ladder Company Number 1. The Mutuals were formed in 1857 and played amateur ball at the Hoboken Grounds, their home field. Many firefighters and city employees played in a variety of New York teams, but the Mutuals were reckoned the best. It was perfectly normal for a handmade ball, a bit larger and softer than today’s baseball, to be found in the knapsack of an 11th New York Fire Zouave."
Hay and Nicolai were Pres. Lincon's Secretaries, and Ellsworth was perhaps Lincoln's closest young friend. Hay later became Secretary of State.
Sources:
"Home Run Derby Star Captain "Jack" Wildey, The Emerging Civil War blog, July 16, 2018
Year
1861
1861.84 2nd Fire Zouaves Match
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 17, 1861 reports on a game between two nines of the 2nd Fire Zouaves, camped near Indian Head, MD. Company K's nine defeated Company I's 23-19.
The regiment was formally known as the 73rd NY Infantry.
Year
1861
1861.86 A Battalion of Base Ballists?
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 18, 1861 reports: "We are informed by a correspondent that several gentlemen well known in base ball circles, have a project under consideration for the formation of a battalion or regiment, exclusively of base ball players: and it is seriously contemplated to recommend a call fora special meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players, for the purpose of bringing the matter more immediately before representatives of all the clubs." The Mercury notes that many ball players are already in the army, so the idea may not be practical, but that if only 5 men from each club joined, "better material for soldiers... cannot be found."
Year
1861
1861.90 Fort Wayne soldiers play town ball
Game:
Age of Players:
A letter to the Fort Wayne Daily Times, May 16, 1861, states that Fort Wayne soldiers are playing town ball at Camp Morton.
Sources:
Fort Wayne Daily Times, May 16, 1861
Year
1861
1861.91 Baseball at Fortress Monroe
Game:
"Mornings a portion of the Braintree company, Fourth Regiment, may be seen playing base ball, and a mighty smart game they play, it would do you good to see them."
Sources:
Letter from Fortress Monroe, April 30, 1861, printed in the Boston Daily Advertiser, May 5, 1861
Year
1861
1861.94 Officers of US Chasseurs Play Base Ball
Game:
Age of Players:
The 1st US Chasseurs (65th NY Infantry) while stationed in Camp Cochrane, DC had a game on Xmas day between the field and line officers. It ended in a 29-29 tie. The NYSM gives a box score. The two nines were called the "Old Bachelors" and the "Old Maids."
Sources:
Styple, "Writing and Fighting..." p. 59 (from NYSM Dec. 29,1861)
Year
1861
1862.1 Brooklyn Games Organized as Benefits for Sick and Wounded Soldiers
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Three games were announced in June 1862 for which net proceeds would be used for sick and wounded Union soldiers. The Eckfords and the Atlantics would play for a silver ball donated by the Continental Club. William Cammeyer provided the enclosed Union grounds without charge. Admission fees of 10 cents were projected to raise $6000 for soldiers' relief. The Eckford won the Silver Ball by winning two of three games.
Sources:
"Relief for the Sick and Wounded," Brooklyn Eagle, June 21, 1862, page 2.
Craig Waff, "The 'Silver Ball' Game-- Eckfords vs. Atlantics at the Union Grounds", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 39-42
Year
1862
1862.2 The Death of Jim Creighton at 21
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
Excelsior star pitcher James Creighton, 21 years old, suffered some sort of injury during the middle innings of a game against the Union of Morrisania on October 14, 1862, and died four days later of a "strangulated intestine" associated with a hernia. (Other accounts cite a ruptured bladder - ouch.) One legend was that Creighton suffered the injury in the process of "hitting out a home run." Excelsior officials attributed the death to a cricket injury incurred in a prior cricket match.
Creighton was perhaps base ball's first superstar.
Sources:
R. M. Gorman and D. Weeks, Death at the Ballpark (McFarland, 2009), pages 63-64.
Richard Bogovich, "The Martyrdom of Jim Creighton-- Excelsiors of Brooklyn vs. Unions", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 43-46
See Tom Gilbert's 3/4/2021 blog at https://howbaseballhappened.com/blog/how-baseball-killed-its-first-star-player. Tom's How Baseball Happened (Godine, 2020) carries Creighton's base ball career at p. 185ff, and his death is discussed on pp. 212-215.
Warning:
Tom Gilbert, 3/5/2021-- "Creighton’s hernia did not “rupture”— it led to a strangulated intestine which became infected; the infection killed him. We know this because both Brooklyn Health Dept records and Green-Wood Cemetery records state the cause of death as “strangulated intestine.”
Comment:
Tom Shieber, Hall of Fame curator who has studied Creighton extensively, believes the injury was an inguinal hernia which ruptured. In an article published on December 7, 1862, the New York Sunday Mercury recounts a conversation with Creighton before the Union game in which he states that he had injured himself in a recent cricket match. It is assumed that he received the hernia in the cricket match and that it ruptured during the Union game.
Year
1862
1862.3 US Cricket Enters Steeper Decline
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] "The cricket season last year was a very dull one, this clubs in this locality [Brooklyn] playing but a few matches, and those of no importance." The recent delline:
[B] "For several years, cricketers had been talking of forming as association similar to that set up by the baseball fraternity. Despite several meetings, they had not done so. At the annual convention of 1862, the Clipper noted the meager attendance and proclaimed the gathering 'a mere farce.' It despaired of cricket ever becoming popular unless it was made more American in nature. The disappointing convention was the last the cricketer would hold."
Sources:
[A] Brooklyn Eagle, April 25, 1862. Contributed by Bill Ryczek, December 29, 2009.
[B] William Ryczek, Baseball's First Inning (McFarland, 2009), page 105. The Clipper quoted is the May 24, 1862 issue.
See also Beth Hise, "American Cricket in the 1860s: Decade of Decline or New Start?," Base Ball Journal, Volume 5, number 1 (Special Issue on Origins), pages 143-148.
Year
1862
1862.4 State Championship Base Ball Game in PA
Game:
Age of Players:
"Base Ball Match. - A grand base ball match will take place at the St. George's Cricket Ground, near Camac's Wood, for the championship of Pennsylvania, between the 'Olympic' and 'Athletic' Clubs, on next Saturday."
The New York Sunday Mercury reported on Oct. 12 that the Olympic won, 19-18, and that it was the first of a best two-of-three match.
Sources:
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 1862. Accessed via subscription search May 20, 2009.
Query:
On what authority did it convey championship status?
Year
1862
1862.5 Brooklynites and Philadelphians Play Series of Games
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Various assortments of leading players from Brooklyn and Philadelphia vied in both cities in 1862. Philadelphia sent an all-star assortment north in June, where it lost to Newark and to select nines in Brooklyn's eastern and western districts, but beat an aggregation of Hoboken players. Two select Brooklyn nines headed south and played two all-Philly sides in early July.
At the end of August, the Mutual club traveled to Philadelphia, winning 2 of 3 against Phila clubs. In October, the Eckford traveled to Philadelphia for a week of play against individual local clubs, and also played an "amalgamated nine" of locals, winning all games played.
Sources:
Sources: various, including overviews at "Philadelphia vs. Brooklyn," Wilkes Spirit, July 12, 1862, and "Base Ball Match," Philadelphia Inquirer, October 22, 1862.
Year
1862
1862.6 Harvard Seeks Base Ball Rivals, Settles on Brown
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Age of Players:
"Base-Ball, the second in importance of [Harvard] University sports, is even younger than Rowing [which still prevailed]. It originated apparently, in the old game of rounders. Up to 1862 there were two varieties of base-ball - the New York and the Massachusetts game. In the autumn of 1862 George A. Flagg and Frank Wright organized the Base Ball Club of the Class of '66, adopting the New York rules; and in the following spring the city of Cambridge granted use of the Common for practice. A challenge was sent to several colleges: Yale replied that they had no club, but hoped soon to have one; but a game was arranged with Brown sophomores, and played at Providence [RI] June 27, 1863. The result was Harvard's first victory."
Sources:
D. Hamilton Hurd, compiler, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (J. W. Lewis, Philadelphia, 1890), page 137. Accessed 2/18/10 via Google Books search <"flagg and frank" hurd>.
Frank Wright wrote another version in James Lovett, Old Boston Boys and the Games They Played (Riverside Press, 1907). Accessed in Google Books.
Warning:
This was not Harvard's introduction to the New York game. See entry 1858.51.
Comment:
Flagg and Wright reportedly had played avidly at Phillips Exeter Academy. See entry #1858c.57 above.
Year
1862
1862.7 "Massachusetts Balls" on Sale in Rochester NY
Tags:
An advertisement in a Rochester paper offered "New York Regulation Size Ball, Massachusetts Balls, Children's Rubber and Fancy Balls, Wholesale and Retail."
Sources:
Rochester[NY] Union and Advertiser, April 28, 1862. Posted to the 19CBB listserve by Priscilla Astifan on May 14, 2005.
Comment:
We know that an "old-fashioned base ball" was being played in Central New York prior to the Civil War: see #1858.48 and #1860.45 above.
Year
1862
1862.8 Earliest Base Ball in Colorado Territory
Game:
Age of Players:
"The first baseball games in Colorado Territory occurred in March 1862, when the Base Ball (two words back then) Club was formed. The first recorded contest happened on April 26, 1862."
Sources:
Rocky Mountain News, March 13 and April 29, 1862. Cited in Brian Werner, "Baseball in Colorado Territory," in Thomas L. Altherr, Above the Fruited Plain: Baseball in the Rocky Mountain West (SABR Convention Publication, July 2003), page 71.
Comment:
Werner identifies the game as the New York game.
Richard Hershberger, email of 1/19/2009, writes that on April 29 the Denver [CO] Daily Evening News reported on intramural game played by the Denver Base Ball Club, a likely reference to the games cited by Werner. He also notes that a March 12 issue of the Evening News referred to a "game played yesterday [that] went off well, considering that there were but two or three persons engaged who had ever played the game before, according to the New York rules, and it will take but a few more meetings to enable them to become proficient."
Jim Wohlenhaus, email of 2/24/2014, reports his own attempts to pin down Colorado's earliest games -- see the Supplemental Text, below. Jim's summary:
"The first recorded game was March 11, 1862 and not March 15. I do not believe the March 15 scheduled game ever was played.
"The Club was formally established on Mar 15, 1862. I am not sure if the first three games were played on April 26, or earlier. A comment in Protoball entry #1862.8 states these games were “intramural”. I would hazard a guess they were indeed, probably the first nine vs. the second nine. Since this was the only Club around, this was probably the only way to have competition. As an aside, I have found no mention of another Club until 1864 in Colorado Territory when two Clubs formed and challenged each other. Then baseball really started to take off in that year."
Year
1862
1862.9 First Admission Fees for Baseball?
Game:
Age of Players:
May 15, 1862: "The Union Baseball Grounds at March Avenue and Rutledge Street in Brooklyn is opened, the first enclosed ball field to charge an admission fee."
Sources:
James Charlton, The Baseball Chronology (Macmillan, 1991), page 15.
Regarding the opening of the Union Grounds, see:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 12 and May 16, 1862; New York Clipper, Feb. 22, 1862; New York Sunday Mercury May 11 and May 18, 1862,
Warning:
Caveats: Admission was charged in 1858 for the Brooklyn-New York games at the Fashion Race Course, Queens, which was enclosed but not a 'ball field'.
Before the Union Grounds, there were no ball field enclosed for the purpose of charging admission.
Comment:
Admission had occasionally also been charged for "benefit" games for charities or to honor prominent players.
Year
1862
1862.10 PA Base Ball Moves Beyond Philadelphia
Game:
Age of Players:
"Base Ball Match. Harrisburg, August 21. - The first match game of base ball ever play in Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, cam off here yesterday, between the Mountain Club of Altoona, and the Keystone Club of Harrisburg. It resulted in a victory for the latter."
Sources:
PhiladelphiaInquirer, August 22, 1862. Accessed 5/20/2009 via subscription search.
Warning:
See 1860.38. Either the 1860 game in Allegheny was unknown, or not considered to have been played under National Association rules.
Comment:
Harrisburg PA is in central PA, about 90 miles W of Philadelphia.
Year
1862
1862.11 Banned in Boston's Public Garden: "Games of Ball, Foot-ball"
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Location:
Game:
"Sect. 10. No person or persons shall, without the consent of the mayor or board of aldermen, engage in games of ball, foot-ball, or other athletic sports, upon the public garden."
Sources:
Ordinance and Rules and Order of the City of Boston (Mudge and Son, Boston, 1869), page 132. Accessed 2/18/10 via Google Book search ("ball, foot-ball" ordinances 1869).
Comment:
A note identifies this section as having been written in 1862, along with one that prohibits shaking carpets on public lands, including streets, lanes, alleys, etc.
Year
1862
1862.12 Reverend Beecher: Base-Ball is Best Form of Exercise
Tags:
Game:
Notables:
Henry Ward Beecher
"It is well, therefore, that so many muscular games are coming into vogue. Base-ball and cricket are comparatively inexpensive, and open to all, and one can hardly conceive of better exercise."
Sources:
Henry W. Beecher, Eyes and Ears (Sampson Low, London, 1862), age 191. Accessed 2/18/10 via Google Books search ("vogue baseball" beecher).
Comment:
Beecher is here lauding exercise that is both vigorous and inexpensive.
Year
1862
1862.13 Government Survey: Athletic Games Forestall Woes of Soldiers Gambling
Age of Players:
After examining nearly 200 regiments, the Sanitary Commission [it resembled today's Red Cross] was reported to have found that "in forty-two regiments, systematic athletic recreations (foot ball, base ball, &c) were general. In one hundred and fifty-six, there were none. Where there were none, card playing and other indoor games took their place. This invited gambling abuses, it was inferred.
Sources:
"War Miscellanies. Interesting Army Statistics," Springfield [MA] Republican, January 25, 1862. Accessed via Genealogybank, 5/21/09. PBall file: CW13.
Query:
is it worth inspecting the report itself in search of further detail? It is not available online in May 2009.
Year
1862
1862.14 22nd MA beats 13th NY in the Massachusetts Game
Location:
Age of Players:
"Fast Day (at home) April 3, there was no drill, and twelve of our enlisted men challenged an equal number from the Thirteenth New York, to a game of base-ball, Massachusetts game. We beat the New-Yorkers, 34 to 10."
Sources:
J. L. Parker and R. G. Carter, History of the Twenty-Second Massachusetts Infantry (The Regimental Association, Boston, 1887), pages 79-80.
Comment:
Fast Day in MA was traditionally associated with ballplaying. The 22nd MA, organized in Lynnfield MA (about 15 miles N of Boston), was camped at Falmouth VA in April, as was the 13th NY. The 13th was from Rochester and would likely have known the old-fashioned game. PBall file: CW-126.
Year
1862
1862.15 NY and MA Regiments Play Two Games Near the Civil War Front
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Mr. Jewell, from the 13th NY Regiment's Company A, provided a generous [15 column-inches] account of two regulation NY-rules games played on April 15, 1862, near the Confederate lines at Yorktown VA. Sharing picket duties with members of the 22nd MA Regiment, Jewell says that "at about half-past 10 o'clock some one proposed a game of Base Ball. Sides were chosen and it commenced." [As scorer, Jewell's box scores did not mark the sides as a contest between regiments, and it may have involved mixed teams. He did note that the leadoff batter/catcher for the "Scott" side was a member of Boston's Trimountain Base Ball Club.] "It was decidedly 'cool' to play a game of Base Ball in sight of the enemy's breastworks." Between games the ball was re-covered with leather from a calf boot found on the ground. During the afternoon game, Union troops in the area were evidently sending artillery fire out toward the Rebs as they were building new fortifications in the distance. General McClelland's entourage is reported to have passed toward the front while the game was in progress. Jewell sent his account to the Rochester paper. The two games, each played to a full mine innings, were won by Scott's side, 13-9 and 14-12.
Sources:
Source: Rochester Union and Advertiser, April 24, 1862, page 2, column 2. PBall file: CW16.
Year
1862
1862.16 13th Massachusetts Plays Ball Near Officers, Dignitaries, Enemy Lines
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"In the afternoons, after battalion drill, the game of base-ball daily occupied the attention of the boys. On one of these occasions, General Hartsuff riding by, got off his horse and requested permission to catch behind the bat, informing us there was nothing he enjoyed so much. He gave it up after a few minutes and rode away, having made a very pleasant impression."
Davis also mentions a game of ball being played in April 1863 as large numbers of troops were awaiting a formal review by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton near the Potomac River, "to the no small amusement of the lookers-on" [page 198]. In November 1863, still in Virginia, Davis reports that while awaiting an order to attack a nearby Confederate force, "Time dragged along, and no movement was made. We were all tired of the inaction and the heavy strain on the mind from hours of expectation, and so we had a game of ball to pass away the time. Occasionally the ball would be batted over the crest of the hill in front, in range of the rebel skirmishers, necessitating some one going after it. It was a risky piece of business and required quick work, but it was got every time." [page 288.]
In March 1864, the 13th played the 104th NY and won 62-20. "As opportunities for indulging our love for this pastime were not very frequent, we got a deal of pleasure out of it." [page 309.] Later that month, the regiment celebrated the escape and return the colonel of the 16th Maine with base-ball, along with chasing greased pigs and a sack race. [Page 313.]
Sources:
Charles E. Davis, Jr., Three Years in the Army: The Story of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers (Estes and Lauriat, Boston MA, 1894), page 56. The full text was accessed on 6/1/09 on Google books via a search for "'Charles E. Davis' three". PBall file: CW20.
Also cited in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), page 41.
Comment:
The first entry is dated May 6, 1862, when the regiment was in the vicinity of Warrenton VA. There is no further detail on the version of base ball that was played.
Year
1862
1862.17 Ballplaying Frequently Played at Salisbury Prison in North Carolina
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Beginning in 1862, prisoners' diary accounts refer to a number of base ball games [by New York rules; Millen infers that games occurred "almost daily"] at Salisbury prison in NC. Charles Gray, a Union doctor who arrived at Salisbury in May 1862, reported ball playing "for those who like it and are able." RI soldier William Crossley in a May 21, 1862 diary entry described a "great game of baseball" between prisoners transferred from New Orleans and Tuscaloosa AL, which brought "as much enjoyment to the Rebs as to the Yanks, for they came in hundreds to see the sport..."
[A] In an unattributed and undated passage, Josephus Clarkson, a prisoner from Boston "recalled in his diary that one of the Union solders wandered over and picked up a pine branch that had dropped on the ground. Another soldier wrapped a stone in a couple of woolen socks and tied the bundle with a string. The soldiers started a baseball game of sorts, although there was much argument over whether to use Town Ball rules or play like New Yorkers. 'To put a man out by Town Ball rules you could plug him as he ran,' wrote Clarkson. 'Since many of the men were in a weakened condition, it was agreed to play the faster but less harsh New York rules, which intrigued our guards. The game of baseball had been played much in the South, but many of them [the guards] had never seen the sport devised by Mr. Cartwright. Eventually they found proper bats for us to play with and we fashioned a ball that was soft and a great bounders.'" According to Clarkson, a pitcher from Texas was banished from playing in a guards/captives game after "badly laming" several prisoners. "By and large," he said, "baseball was quite a popular pastime of troops on both sides, as a means of relaxing before and after battles."
[B] Otto Boetticher, a commercial artist before the war, was imprisoned at Salisbury for part of 1862 and drew a picture of a ball game in progress at the prison that was published in color in 1863. A fine reproduction appears in Ward and Burns.
[C] Adolphus Magnum, A visiting Confederate chaplain, noted in 1862 that "a number of the younger and less dignified [Union officers] ran like schoolboys to the playing ground and were soon joining In high glee in a game of ball."
[D] An extended account of ballplaying at Salisbury, along with the Boetticher drawing, are found in From Pastime to Passion. It draws heavily on Jim Sumner, "Baseball at Salisbury Prison Camp," Baseball History (Meckler, Westport CT, 1989). Similar but unattributed coverage is found in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), pp 43-45. PBall file: CW21.
[E] See also Giles W. Shurtleff account of prison life in the history of the Seventh Ohio, p. 324. Shurtleff had played while at Oberlin College. Shurtleff, one of the second basemen in this game, describes playing daily baseball games at Salisbury. He recalled one particular game in which his team held a late-inning, one-run lead. “A long fly ball was hit toward the Captain in right field,” Shurtleff said, “but in order to catch it and win the game, he was forced to cross the ‘deadline,’ the demarcation between the prison yard and escape. In that instant he had to decide if he would cross the line, with the very real risk of being shot, or let the ball drop harmlessly to the ground giving advantage to the other team. He opted to make the catch because he was fairly certain the guard on duty that day would not shoot. They won the game.”
See also The Congregationalist, May 4, 1864.
Sources:
[A] Wells Twombley, 200 Years of Sport in America (McGraw-Hill, 1976), page 71.
[B] Ward and Burns, Baseball Illustrated, at pages 10-11.
[C] Magnum.
[D] Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), pp.27-31.
[E] Patricia Millen, "The POW Game-- Captive Union Soldiers Play a Baseball Game at Salisbury, NC", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 36-38
William Crossley, "Extracts from My Diary" p. 43.
Warning:
It would be desirable to locate and inspect the Josephus Clarkson diary used in Twombley [A, above.]. Clarkson, described as a ship's chandler before the war, does not yield to Google or Genealogy bank as of 6/6/2009 or 4/3/2013. John Thorn's repeated searches have also come up empty. Particularly questionable is Clarkson's very early identification of Cartwright as an originator of the NY game.
Year
1862
1862.18 Impact of War Lessens in NYC
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[A] "BALL PLAYERS OFF TO THE WAR.-- But few of the fraternity, in comparison with the number who left in May, 1861, have gone off to the war this time in the militia regiments...All the clubs have their representatives in the several regiments...but the hegira of warlike ball-players is nothing near as great as in 1861, the necessity not being as pressing..."
[B] "Base Ball. The return of the 47th and 13th regiments has given quite an impetus to ball playing, and the vigor and energy that characterizes the ball player are again displaying themselves in the various clubs."
[C] "BASE BALL. THE BALTIC BASE BALL CLUB OF NEW YORK. It is really a pleasure to welcome the 'Old Baltics' again to the base ball field. At the commencement of the rebellion a great many of the most active and prominent members of this club, patriotically enlisted under and fought for the 'old flag;' this was the main cause of the club's temporary disbandment..."
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, June 1, 1862
[B] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sep. 9, 1862
[C] Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, Nov. 29, 1862
Comment:
In an editorial printed on Aug. 9, 1862 Fitzgerald's City Item, of Philadelphia listed arguments for continuing base ball during the war.
Year
1862
1862.19 The 39th Massachusetts Plays Ball
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
The regimental history of the 39th MA has two passing references to ballplaying. On Thanksgiving Day of 1862, "There was a release from the greater part of camp duties and the time thus secured was devoted to baseball, football and other diversions so easily devised by the American youth" [p. 50]. The regimental camp was in southern MD, within 15 miles of Washington. April 2, 1863 "was the regular New England Fast Day, and a holiday was proclaimed by the Colonel . . . . [T]here was no failure in taking part in the races, sparring-matches, and various games, of at least witnessing them. The baseball game was between the men of Sleeper's Battery and those selected from the 39th with the honors remaining with the Infantry, though the cannoneers were supposed to be particularly skillful in the throwing of balls." [page 64]. The regiment was now in Poolesville MD, about 30 miles NW of Washington.
Sources:
Alfred S. Roe, The Thirty-Ninth Regiment. Massachusetts Volunteers 1862-1865 (Regimental Veteran Association, Worcester, 1914). Accessed 6/3/09 on Google Books via "'thirty-ninth' roe" search. PBall file: CW-26.
Comment:
The regiment was drawn from the general Boston area.
Year
1862
1862.20 Wisconsin Man's Diary Included a Dozen References to Ballplaying
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Private Jenkin Jones sprinkled 12 references to ballplaying in his Civil War Diary. They range from December 1862 to February 1865. Most are very brief notes, like the "played ball in the afternoon" he recorded in Memphis in February 1863 [page 34]. The more revealing entries:
· Oxford, 12/62: "The delightful weather succeeded in enticing most of the boys form their well-worn decks and cribbage boards, bringing them out in ball playing, pitching quoits,etc. Tallied for an interesting game of base ball" [pp 19/20]
· Huntsville, 3/64: "Games daily in camp, ball, etc." [p. 184]
· Huntsville, 3/64: "Played ball all of the afternoon" [p.193]
· Fort Hall, 4/64: "[Col. Raum] examined our quarters and fortifications, after which he and the other officers turned in that had a game of wicket ball." [p.203]
· Etowah Bridge, 9/64: "a championship game of base-ball was played on the flat between the non-veterans and the veterans. The non-veterans came off victorious by 11 points in 61." [p. 251]
· Chattanooga, 2/65: "The 6th Badger boys have been playing ball with our neighbors, Buckeyes, this afternoon. We beat them three games of four.
Sources:
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary (Wisconsin History Commission, 1914). Accessed on Google Books 6/3/09 via "'wisconsin history commission' 'No. 8'" search. PBall file: CW-28.
Comment:
Jones was from Spring Green, WI, which is about 30 miles west of Madison and 110 miles west of Milwaukee WI. Jones later became a leading Unitarian minister and a pacifist.
Year
1862
1862.21 Michigan Colonel Plays Ball in Tennessee, Still Rebuffs Rebs
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
The 12th Michigan Regiment had the task in December 1862 of guarding a supply railroad in Tennessee. On December 24, a detachment under Col. Wm. Graves was surrounded by a large rebel force that approached under white flag, demanding surrender. Graves' account: "The officer asked, 'Who is in command?' I answered, 'I am;' whereupon he surveyed me from head to foot (I had been playing ball that morning, pants in boots, having a jacket without straps) . . . ." Graves refused, a two-hour fight ensued, and the rebels retreated.
Sources:
J. Robertson, compiler, Michigan in the War (W. S. George, Lansing MI, 1882), page 327. Accessed 6/4/09 on Google Books via ""michigan in the war" search. PBall file: CW-29.
Comment:
The regiment seems to have been drawn from the vicinity of Niles, MI, which is 10 miles north of South Bend IN and 60 miles east of Chicago.. The 1862 engagement occurred at Middleburg TN, which is at about the midpoint between Nashville and Memphis.
Year
1862
1862.22 Crowd of 40,000 Said to Watch Christmas Day Game on SC Coast
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"In Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Christmas Day in 1862, recalled Colonel A. G. Mills in 1923, his regiment, the 165th New York Infantry, Second Duryea's Zouaves, [engaged a?] picked nine from the other New York regiments in that vicinity.' Supposedly, the game was cheered on by a congregation of 40,000!" Mills eventually served as President of the National League and chair of the Mills Commission on the origins of baseball.
Sources:
Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), pp 21-22. Millen cites A. G. Mills, "The Evening World's Baseball Panorama." Mills Papers, Giamatti Center, Baseball HOF. The account also appears in A. Spalding, Americas' National Game (American Sports Publishing, 1911), pp 95.96. PBall file -- CW-30
Query:
Is this crowd estimate reasonable? Are other contemporary or reflective accounts available?
The crowd estimate is exaggerated. There weren't anywhere near 40,000 troops on the island at that time. [ba]
Year
1862
1862.23 Soldiers' Christmas in Virginia - Ballplaying "on Many a Hillside"
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
A correspondent near Fredericksburg VA told Philadelphia readers about "orders from head-quarters that Christmas day should be observed as a day or recreation. The men gladly availed themselves of this privilege, and on many a hill-side might be seen parties playing at ball, or busy at work dragging Christmas-trees to the quarters . . . ."
The article also reported that "Brown cricket jackets are now issued to the men instead of the brown blouses formerly issued. These jackets make a very comfortable garment . . . but they are very unmilitary-looking."
Sources:
"Christmas in the Army," Philadelphia Inquirer, December 29, 1862. Accessed via Genealogybank, 5/21/09. PBall file CW-31.
Query:
was a PA regiment involved?
Year
1862
1862.24 Ball Game Photographed at Fort Pulaski, Georgia
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
A ball game appears in the background of photographs of the 48th New York at Fort Pulaski. The Fort, near the Georgia coast, had been taken by the North in July 1862. The National Park Services dates its image to 1862.
Sources:
One shot appears in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, page 32, and another, apparently, at the NPS site http://www.nps.gov/fopu/historyculture/baseball.htm [accessed 6/6/09.] PBall file: CW-33.
Comment:
we welcome your interpretation of these photos.
The 48th NY was from NYC, and thus likely had members familiar with the game. [ba]
Year
1862
1862.25 Hitting Creighton: Patience Pays
Tags:
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"The question will naturally be asked, how came the Unions to score so well against Creighton's pitching? and the reply is, that they waited until they got a ball to suit them, Creighton delivering, on an average, 20 or 30 balls to each striker in four of the six innings played."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 2, 1862
Comment:
The report goes on to disclose the secrets of Creighton's success as a pitcher. The Union of Morrisania club had defeated Creighton and the Excelsior of South Brooklyn, 12-4.
Year
1862
1862.57 Games Between NY and MA Regiments Punctuated by Artillery
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Notables:
Union General George McClellan
Members of the Massachusetts 22nd Regiment and the NY 14th squared off for two matches on April 15, 1862, in the vicinity of active fire, and "in sight of the enemy’s breastworks mounted with heavy 64’s and 32’s." A discarded boot supplied material for a new cover for the game ball. Union General McClellan passed by while play was in progress.
Additional details are provided in the supplemental text, below.
Sources:
Rochester Union and Advertiser, April 24, 1862.
Comment:
Undoubtedly, Game played near Yorktown, VA
Query:
Year
1862
1862.60 Confederate POWs play baseball in New York City
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
May 9, 1862: "This morning we received balls and bats from New York and have organized a regular Base Ball Club. We have been playing considerable today and I feel quite fine in consequence."
"A Confederate Yankee: The Journal of Edward William Drummond,a Confederate Soldier from Maine" (Drummond and Roger S. Durham), p. 51.
Drummond, along with his Savannah "Chatham Artillery" unit, were captured at Fort Pulaski, outside Savanna, and taken to Governors Island POW camp in New York harbor. The next month he and his comrades play baseball almost daily.
Drummond was a Maine-born bookkeeper in Savannah at the start of the war. This entry suggests that his fellow townsmen were perfectly familiar with the game of base ball.
Sources:
"A Confederate Yankee: The Journal of Edward William Drummond,a Confederate Soldier from Maine" (Drummond and Roger S. Durham), p. 51.
Year
1862
1862.61 Confederate POWs in Indianapolis play base ball
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Confederate army POWs at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, played baseball in 1862, according to a letter from a POW, and a report by a Union general. See James R. Hall, "Den of Misery. Indiana's Civil War Prison" p. 39, 71.
Camp Morton was situated on the old state fairgrounds, and was used as a baseball field postwar.
The Century Magazine (1891, p. 763-64) has an article on Camp Morton which quotes a Union officers as saying the POWs enjoyed "ball playing" and has a plan of Camp Morton, which features a "base ball grounds."
Sources:
James R. Hall, "Den of Misery. Indiana's Civil War Prison" p. 39, 71.
Year
1862
1862.64 Winter Baseball in West Virginia
Location:
Age of Players:
The Gallipolis Journal, Jan. 8, 1863 reports that last month soldiers of the 91st Ohio amused themselves by playing ball in the camp at Fayetteville.
Sources:
The Gallipolis Journal, Jan. 8, 1863
Year
1862
1862.65 Base Ball at Fort Monroe on Christmas Eve
Location:
Age of Players:
The Semi Weekly Wisconsin of Milwaukee, Jan. 9th, 1863 reports that on Christmas Eve at Fort Monroe "I saw the soldiers playing at base ball..."
See also New York Herald, Jan. 5, 1863, headlined "Amusements of the Army"
Sources:
The Semi Weekly Wisconsin, Jan. 9th, 1863
Year
1862
1862.66 In camp near Rochester, New York
Location:
Age of Players:
The Brockport (NY) Republic, Oct. 2, 1862 prints a letter from Camp Fitz John Porter, Sept. 24, 1862, from a member of the 140th NY: "The boys are playing ball, writing to friends, and some are target shooting..."
The camp was at/near Rochester, NY.
Sources:
The Brockport (NY) Republic, Oct. 2, 1862
Year
1862
1862.67 Playing Ball near Yorktown
Location:
Age of Players:
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 30, 1862 prints an April 24 letter from a soldier in "camp near Yorktown" discussing the soldier's life there:
"While not on duty, they engage in almost every variety of exercise and amusement, playing ball, pitching quoits, and other athletic sports."
At this time the Army of the Potomac camped opposite the Confederate lines running south from Yorktown, VA.
Sources:
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 30, 1862
Year
1862
1862.68 Christmas Day on Hilton Head
Location:
Age of Players:
"The New South" a union army newspaper, Dec. 27, 1862 reports on a Dec. 25th game at Hilton Head between the Van Brunt and Frazer base ball clubs. James L. Frazer was colonel of the 47th NY and George B. Van Brunt was then major of the 47th. The 47th was raised in NYC and Brooklyn.
A Charles Van Brunt had headed an early New Jersey team.
Sources:
"The New South" Dec. 27, 1862
Year
1862
1862.70 Drummers defeat Fifers on Hilton Head
Location:
Age of Players:
The Manchester Daily Mirror, Dec. 20, 1862 reports that "Base ball is the favorite amusement at Hilton Head just at present" and notes a game among the 3rd New Hampshire Infantry in which Galvin's Drum Corps nine defeated Davis' Fifers nine 30-27.
Sources:
The Manchester Daily Mirror, Dec. 20, 1862
Year
1862
1862.71 Confederate Surgeon encourages ball-playing
Location:
Age of Players:
In his "Manual of Military Surgery" for CS surgeons, noted Dr. Julian Chisolm recommended that the army encourage "gymnastic exercises" to relieve the soldier's boredom:
'"`UNIQ--pre-00018903-QINU`"'Sources:
Chisolm book. See also Kirsch book, p. 31.
Year
1862
1862.74 Town Ball at Shiloh Battlefield
Location:
Game:
The Mattoon Gazette, April 17, 1862 prints a letter from a soldier in the 7th IL, datelined Pittsburgh Landing, March 31, 1862: "Down on the parade ground the old time-honored games of 'ball pin,' and 'town ball' have enlisted the attention of fifty or sixty soldiers..."
Pittsburgh Landing is where the April 1862 battle of Shiloh was fought.
Sources:
The Mattoon Gazette, April 17, 1862
Year
1862
1862.78 Baseball at Camp Cleveland
Location:
Age of Players:
Theodore Tracie's 1874 book, "Annals of the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Artillery" recalls soldier life in 1862 in Camp Cleveland (bounded by West 5th, Railway, West 7th and Marquardt) in what is now Tremont. Says that among other diversions, "Baseball games were played on the parade grounds."
Year
1862
1862.80 Union POWs seen playing ball in Macon
Location:
Age of Players:
Croom, "The War Outside My Window" contains the diary of Leroy Wiley Gresham of Macon. The May 6, 1862 entry (p. 133): "In the evening went downtown and saw the Yankee prisoners. Some were drilling, others cooking, some played ball."
There was a POW facility, Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon.
Sources:
Croom, "The War Outside My Window" p. 133
Year
1862
1862.85 76th NY plays baseball--or is it drive ball?
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Note: this entry was, in February 2022, merged in Chronology item 1862.104.
The 1862 letters of Lester Winslow, of the 76th NY, at the National Archives, feature stationary printed with the heading "Camp Doubleday" "76th New York" and show soldiers playing a bat-ball game. On this David Block writes:
"In the foreground of the illustration two soldiers face each other with bats, one striking a ball. Since no other players are involved, the only game that seems to correlate to the image is, in fact, drive ball. If not for Abner Doubleday's association, we would pay this little heed, but it is a matter of curiosity, if not amusement, to place baseball's legendary noninventor in such close proximity to a game involving a bat and ball." David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It (U Nebraska, 2005), page 198. See entry on Drive Ball.
Camp Doubleday, named for brigade commander General Abner Doubleday, was a fort protecting DC, near where Fort Stevens is/was.
Year
1862
1862.86 An interesting game of base ball in Oxford, MS
Location:
Age of Players:
Jenkins Lloyd Jones, "An Artilleryman's Civil War Diary": "Near Oxford, Friday, Dec. 19th... The delightful weather succeeded in enticing most of the boys from their well worn decks [of cards] and cribbage boards,bring them out in ball playing, pitching quoits, etc. Tallied for an interesting game of base ball."
Dec. 19, 1862, near Oxford, MS. Jones was a member of the 6th WI Battery.
Sources:
Jenkins Lloyd Jones, "An Artilleryman's Civil War Diary"
Warning:
Dup of 1862.20?
Year
1862
1862.87 Maryland Confederates Play Town Ball
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"Our only game out here is Town Ball and with the rest of the Maryland Boys we sometimes get up a game."
Diary of Edward Tilghman Paca, Oct. 26, 1862 entry, in Maryland Historical Magazine, 1994, p. 459.
Sources:
Maryland Historical Magazine, 1994, p. 459.
Year
1862
1862.94 Union Army Parolees Play baseball at Camp Douglas
Location:
Age of Players:
The New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 26, 1862 reports on a game of baseball at Camp Douglas, the Confederate POW camp in Chicago, on the 22nd. between two teams of Union army parolees from Companies A and F, 5th NY Artillery. The latter won 15-14, with "good pitching" shown on both sides. Se also same, Nov. 9, 1862.
Parolees were army prisoners who were at home, awaiting exchange for enemy POWs.
Year
1862
1862.99 First ball playing in Wyoming
Location:
Age of Players:
The 1862 Journal of Jane Holbrook Gould, in Annals of Iowa, 3rd series v. 37, relates the experience of emigrants on the Lander Trail. Her July 20th entry, when the group was camped at the Green River crossing of the Lander Trail (near modern Big Piney, WY): "Toward night the men played ball and appeared to enjoy it very much. It seemed like old times."
Unfortunately, the Journal doesn't make clear what kind of "ball" was played.
Year
1862
1862.100 Mormon soldiers play ball in Wyoming
Age of Players:
Fisher, "Utah and the Civil War" p. 52 quotes the diary of Dr. Harvey C. Hullinger, of Lot Smith's company of Utah volunteers, sent to guard the immigrant trails: "Friday, June 6, 1862... It rained this afternoon, and the men played ball."
The company was then camped at/near Independence Rock, a site on the Pioneer Trail that is today a historic site.
Is this the first baseball in Wyoming?
Sources:
Fisher, "Utah and the Civil War" p. 52
Year
1862
1862.102 First Inter-City AA Game?
Tags:
Age of Players:
The following appeared in the Newark Daily Advertiser on September 30, 1862:
"Considerable excitement was created among the "colored" boys of this city yesterday by a base ball match between the Hamilton Club of this city and the Henson Club of Jamaica, Long Island, both composed of the descendants of Ham. The match was played on the grounds on Railroad Avenue, [near today's Penn. Station], in the presence of a goodly number of the "gentler sex," and resulted in favor of the Hensons."
Curious if anyone knows of intercity games between black clubs prior to September 1862 and any thoughts on what claim this game might have as an earliest known. [John Zinn]
Sources:
Newark Daily Advertiser on September 30, 1862
Query:
Curious if anyone knows of intercity games between black clubs prior to September 1862 and any thoughts on what claim this game might have as an earliest known. [John Zinn]
Year
1862
1862.105 Base Ball, Old Cat played in camp
The Woodstock (IL) Sentinel, Jan. 21, 1863 prints a Dec. 20, 1862 letter from William E. Smith of the 124th Illinois Infantry, in camp 12 miles north of Oxford, MS. He writes that the soldiers are amusing themselves playing "base ball, one, two, three 'old cat'"
Sources:
The Woodstock (IL) Sentinel, Jan. 21, 1863
Comment:
Other soldiers near Oxford also played. See 1862.86.
Year
1862
1862.106 Confederate Prisoners Play Bull Pen at Fort Warren
Age of Players:
Confederate prisoners played "bull pen" at the Fort Warren POW camp in Boston Harbor. See McGavock Diary, p. 626 (May 14, 1862)
They played "foot ball" on May 17, 23, June 28th, 1862. No details of this "foot ball" game are given. The game probably resembled "Boston Code football", a sort of rugby precursor of what we know as modern football. The first "foot ball" club organized in the US was the Oneida Foot Ball Club of Boston, formed in 1862.
Sources:
Gower and Allen, "Pen and Sword" (McGavock Diary), p. 626 (May 14, 1862)
Year
1862
1862.107 Army Commander Watches Baseball game
Game:
Age of Players:
Near Yorktown in April 1862, the 22nd MA played the 13th NY. Said one soldier of the 22nd, "I never enjoyed a game of ball better in my life..."
The army was in front of Yorktown at the time.
Army commander General George McClellan, and Corps commanders Heintzleman and Porter, rode by and witnessed the game.
Sources:
Cambridge Chronicle, May 3, 1862
Year
1862
1862.108 President Lincoln to Umpire a Game?
Age of Players:
In a long article about ballplayers joining the army, titled "The Base Ball Fraternity--How it will be Affected by the Volunteers Leaving" it notes "The Potomac Club occupies the Reservation Grounds, near the White House, and, as an umpire is a prominent personage in a contest, the 'boys' should select 'Old Abe' and they are sure to get justice done them. In his youth, among the rail splitters, doubtless he has often played 'one old cat' if not base ball."
Sources:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 31, 1862
Year
1862
1862.109 Kershaw's SC Brigade Plays Base Ball and Snow Balling
Game:
Age of Players:
While in camp near Fredericksburg in the winter of 1862-63, the soldiers of Kershaw's SC Brigade amused themselves by playing base ball and having snow ball fights.
Sources:
Dickert, "Kershaw's Brigade" p. 205
Year
1862
1862.110 Scots Soldiers Play Base-Ball and Cricket
Game:
Age of Players:
In the Spring of 1862, while in camp in Beaufort, SC, the 79th NY Infantry, a Scottish-American unit known as the Highlanders, played "Base Ball and Cricket" to "occupy some of our leisure moments."
Sources:
Todd, "The Seventy-Ninth..."
Year
1862
1862.111 Soldiers play Round Town Ball in camp
Age of Players:
Prokopowicz, "All for the Regiment" p. 85 quotes a Feb. 7, 1862 diary entry from a soldier in Co. C, 17th Ohio saying the soldiers play RTB in their spare time.
This unit was in camp near Mill Springs, KY at the time.
Sources: Prokopowicz, "All for the Regiment" p. 85
Comment: Oldest reference found so far to the name "round town ball."
Year
1862
1862.112 Twenty-First CT plays baseball in camp
Game:
Age of Players:
In Oct. 1862, while in camp near Lovettsville, the Twenty-First Connecticut "boys enjoyed a game of baseball.."
Sources:
"The Story of the Twenty-First Regiment" p. 52
Year
1862
1862.113 A Different View of Alexander Cartwright
Game:
Notables:
Alexander Cartwright
Although honored with a plaque at Cooperstown as a key figure in the evolution of base ball, Cartwright's reputation after settling in Hawaii proved a bit speckled: An 1862 source view of Cartwright: "Has probably a better capacity for pulling wool over shipmasters' eyes than any other man in the community. . . . Is very vindictive, and does not scruple at anything where there is money to be made. Is generally disliked, and by many considered a dangerous man to confide in. . . . Is fond of display, courts popularity, and has a weakness for females."
Sources:
The Honolulu Merchants' Looking-Glass: To See Themselves As as Others See Them. (18 pages, 1862.)
Comment:
The treatise arrived by ship from San Francisco on New Year's Day, 1863, and soon caused a stir throughout the city. It begins with a brief preface revealing the author's intent allow his neighbors "to see themselves as others see them, so that 'in all their underhanded dealing, they may hesitate.'
For more on Cartwright's life, see Protoball friend Monica Nucciarone, Alexander Cartwright: The Life Behind the Baseball Legend (University of Nebraska Press, 2009). Monica's final chapter, "CONCLUSION: Alexander Cartwright, Father of Modern Baseball*", includes this generalization: "So, why isn't Cartwright's baseball legacy more clearly documented? . . . I feel Alexander Cartwright deserves to be honored as one of baseball's 'pioneers.' Yet to call him the sole 'Father of Modern Baseball' is more than a stretch."
Monica reports on the 1862 treatise on page 70. (Thanks to Tom Shieber for locating it.)
Query:
Is there further evidence on the suggestion that evidence for Cartwright's base ball leadership was lost in a fire after his death?
Year
1862
1862.114 Some interesting games of ball
Game:
Age of Players:
Well we are still in camp at the same place and are very comfortable, within hearing of occasional cannonading at Island No. 10 last night and this morning. We hear a good deal of thunder out that way. Well, the boys are getting up a game of ball and yelling for me and recon I must go.
Saturday, 29th. I left off writing the above the other day to play ball and somehow have not finished this letter yet. By the way, we have some interesting games of ball down here in “Dixie,” to pass away these beginning to be long, warm days.
Asa Mulford, 11th Ohio Battery, New Madrid Mo, March 25, 1862
Sources:
Shared and Spared
Year
1862
1862.115 Parolees play baseball at Camp Douglas
Game:
Age of Players:
Richard C. Hulse, Co. F, 5th New York Heavy Artillery
Camp Douglas, Oct. 20, 25, 1862:
We are to have a baseball match between our company and Company A that was taken prisoners with us. They are making great preparations about it.
We had a game of baseball between our two companies and our company came off boss.
Sources: (Spared and Shared 23)
Warning:
Comment:
Query:
Year
1862
1862.116 Union occupiers play in Lexington MO
Age of Players:
Robert P. Goodman of the 7th MO Infantry (Union) recalls at at this time, stationed in Lexington, "... sometimes we got up a game of ball in which nearly the whole regiment participated."
Sources: Goodman book, State HS of MO
Year
1862
1862.117 Georgia soldiers play town and base ball in NC
Age of Players:
The diary of a solder in the 3rd Georgia Infantry, in camp at Elizabeth City, NC,
says they played town ball of March 19, 1862, and base ball the next two days.
Year
1862
1862.118 Ball Playing at Shiloh
Age of Players:
Lucius W. Barber of the 15th IL Infantry kept a wartime diary. His diary entries says some soldiers were "engaging in a game of ball:" the day prior to the battle of Shiloh. Ball playing mentioned 2-20-63 and 1-20-1864 in Memphis, TN.
Sources:
Barber diary, NIU
Year
1862
1863.1 Ballplaying Peaks in the Civil War Camps
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] "[In April 1863] the Third Corps and the Sixth Corps baseball teams met near White Oak Church, Virginia, to play for the championship of the Army of the Potomac."
[B] "Ballplaying in the Civil War Camps increased rapidly during the War, reaching a peak of 82 known games in April 1863 -- while the troops still remained in their winter camps. Base ball was by a large margin the game of choice among soldiers, but wicket, cricket, and the Massachusetts game were occasionally played. Play was much more common in the winter camps than near the battle fronts."
[C] Note: In August 2013 Civil War scholar Bruce Allardice added this context to the recollected Army-wide "championship game":
"The pitcher for the winning team was Lt. James Alexander Linen (1840-1918) of the 26th NJ, formerly of the Newark Eureka BBC. Linen later headed the bank, hence the mention in the book. In 1865 Linen organized the Wyoming BBC of Scranton, which changed its name to the Scranton BBC the next year. The 26th NJ was a Newark outfit, and a contemporary Newark newspaper says that many members of the prewar Eurekas and Adriatics of that town had joined the 26th. The 26th was in the Sixth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, stationed at/near White Oak Church near Fredericksburg, VA. April 1863, the army was in camp. The book says Linen played against Charlie Walker a former catcher of the Newark Adriatics who was now catcher for the "Third Corps" club.
"With all that being said, in my opinion the clubs that played this game weren't 'corps' clubs, but rather regimental and/or brigade clubs that by their play against other regiments/brigades claimed the Third and Sixth Corps championships.
"Steinke's "Scranton", page 44, has a line drawing and long article on Linen which mentions this game. See also the "New York Clipper" website, which has a photo of Linen."
Sources:
[A] History. The First National Bank of Scranton, PA (Scranton, 1906), page 37. This is, at this time (2011), the only known reference to championship games in the warring armies.
As described in Patricia Millen, On the Battlefield, the New York Game Takes Hold, 1861-1865, Base Ball Journal, Volume 5, number 1 (Special Issue on Origins), pages 149-152.
[B] Larry McCray, Ballplaying in Civil War Camps.
[C] Bruce Allardice, email to Protoball of August, 2013.
[D] (((add Steinke ref and Clipper url here?)))
Warning:
Note Civil War historian Bruce Allardice's caveat, above: "In my opinion the clubs that played weren't 'corps' clubs, but rather regimental or brigade clubs that by their play other regiments/brigades claimed the Third and Sixth Corps championships."
Query:
Is it possible that a collection of trophy balls, at the Hall of Fame or elsewhere, would provide more evidence of the prevalence of base ball in the Civil War?
Year
1863
1863.29 Print of artillerymen playing ball
Game:
Age of Players:
While the 11th New Jersey base ball match took place prior to Gettysburg, the third reference involved a game played several months after the battle, not long before Abraham Lincoln gave his historic speech at the new Gettysburg National Cemetery. Playing in the match were members of Battery B of the 1st New Jersey artillery, more popularly known as Clark's battery which served with distinction on both the second and third days at Gettysburg. The base ball connection came to my attention when my friend, Joe Bilby sent me a picture of a print of Clark's battery in camp at Brandy Wine Station, Virginia in November of 1863. The print shows members of the battery engaged in various camp activities including a group in the lower right hand corner playing base ball. Joe cautioned me that the picture was not in the public domain so I set out try to locate the original. My search took me to the Baseball Hall of Fame library which only has a copy and so couldn't give permission to use it. The library also passed on a link to an recent sale of a copy on eBay for about $425. (John Zinn)
Warning:
Comment: Brandy Station, VA
Year
1863
1863.56 Have Fast Ball Will Travel
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] THE ATHLETIC CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA.--...Pratt, the well-known pitcher of the club...has been desirous for some time past of belonging to one of our leading clubs here; and during the visit of the Athletics to New York, Pratt being offered a good situation here, accepted it, and at once had his name proposed as a member of the Atlantic Club...Of course, he will henceforth be their pitcher...His accession to the Atlantic nine will strengthen them in what they have considered their weak point...We presume that the Atlantics will not play their match with the Eckfords until they can get Pratt in their nine..."
[B] "THE ATHLETIC CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA.-- A great change has suddenly occurred in the formation of the first nine of the Athletic club of Philadelphia. Pratt, their able pitcher, resigned from the club the day of his arrival in Philadelphia, the reason he assigned being that he had been offered a good situation in New York, and had joined the Atlantic club of Brooklyn, and henceforth he was to be the pitcher of that noted club, an honor no doubt that he was exceeding ambitious of obtaining."
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, July 12, 1863
[B] New York Clipper, July 18, 1863
Comment:
Tom Pratt was age 19.
Year
1863
1863.62 The Times Calls a Spade a Spade-- Base Ball is Obliterating Cricket
Tags:
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
...cricket has been almost obliterated by base ball, which, but ten years since, was in its infancy...The main cause of this is, that a few cricketers...play pretty much all the matches for the few Clubs that exist only in name; while Bass Ball Clubs play their matches with their bona fide members, and consequently their medium players always have a prospect before them of being chosen to play..."
Sources:
New York Times, Sep. 25, 1863
Year
1863
1863.63 NABBP Curbs Swift Pitching, Swats Fly Rule Again
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
The (NABBP) meeting of December 9 (1863) adopted all recommendations made by the Rules Committee. Though the suggestion of counting wild pitches as runs was not approved, three measures were taken to curb fast, wild pitching: a back line was added to the pitcher’s position, ending the practice of taking a run-up to increase speed, as in cricket; pitchers were required to have both feet on the ground at the time of delivery; and, finally, walks...:
"Should a pitcher repeatedly fail to deliver fair balls to the striker, for the apparent purpose of delaying the game, or for any other cause, the umpire after warning him, shall call one ball, and if the pitcher persists in such action, two and three balls, and when three balls have been called, the striker shall be entitled to his first base, and should any base be occupied at that time each player occupying them shall be entitled to one base.
The exception to the meeting’s unanimous acceptance of the Rules Committee’s action concerned the fly game, which, as with all previous attempts, was rejected, by a vote of 25 to 22.
Sources:
Robert Tholkes, "A Permanent American Institution: The Base Ball Season of 1863", in Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Vol.7 (2013), pp. 143-153
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 10, 1863
Year
1863
1863.65 Ravaged By War
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The Sunday Mercury, in its summary of the (NABBP) meeting on December 13, 1863, first noted that the disappointing attendance (28 clubs, compared to 32 in 1862)...The convention’s action in dropping 29 clubs, one more than attended the meeting, from the rolls because of inactivity in 1862 and 1863 indicated the scope of the war’s impact...In addition to diminished activity in New York City, Brooklyn, Boston, and Philadelphia, the widespread formation of clubs and beginning of match play in the west and in some southern states before the war came to a halt in most locales. The contributors to Base Ball Pioneers 1850-1870 (Morris et al, eds.,2012) found interclub play on a regular basis continuing in 1863 only in upstate New York and in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, including its inauguration that year at the University of Michigan. Other places, such as Baltimore, Washington, D. C., Altoona and Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, Chicago and Freeport, Illinois, St. Louis, and perhaps San Francisco) retained single clubs that relied on rare intercity visits for interclub competition. In a far greater number of locales, from Minnesota to Louisiana and from Maine to Augusta and Macon, Georgia, organized play apparently ceased.
Sources:
Robert Tholkes, "A Permanent American Institution: The Base Ball Season of 1863", in Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Vol. 7 (2013), pp. 143-153
Year
1863
1863.66 They didn't know the rules!
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The members of the Chicago Light Artillery (Taylor's Battery) played baseball at the army's base at Young's Point, LA (across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg), in April of 1863. According to soldier Israel P. Rumsey, the soldiers broke out their balls and bats and "played Base Ball according to the rule for the first time" even though nobody could agree on exactly what the rules were! Rumsey's diary is quoted in Bjorn Skaptasan, "The Chicago Light Artillery at Vicksburg," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn/Winter 2013, p. 422-462 at 438
Sources:
Bjorn Skaptasan, "The Chicago Light Artillery at Vicksburg," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn/Winter 2013, p. 422-462 at 438
Year
1863
1863.69 19th IL vs. 69th Ohio
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In May of 1863 the Turchin Boys of the 19th Illinois (Basil Turchin was colonel of the 19th) played a team from the 69th Ohio, on the drill ground just outside the Union army camp at Murfreesboro, TN.
This Turchin team played a wartime game in Chicago (see protoball entry).
Sources:
Cincinnati Inquirer, Feb. 25, 1879
Year
1863
1863.70 10th Vermont loves its Baseball
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Age of Players:
The Vermont Watchman, April 3, 1863, prints a letter from the 10th Vermont Infantry Regiment, camped at Conrad's Ferry, MD, stating that now the ground is drying up from winter, "base ball has come into vogue."
Conrad's Ferry is now known as White's Ferry. It's on the Potomac River.
Year
1863
1863.71 Ball Playing a "Favorite Amusement"
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Age of Players:
The Middletown (NY) Whig Press, April 8, 1863 prints a letter from a soldier in the "Tenth Legion" (56th NY) datelined St. Helena Island [near Port Royal], March 21, 1863: "Ball playing is a favorite amusement with them. They, however, are tired of inactivity, and long for a chance to meet the foe."
Sources:
The Middletown (NY) Whig Press, April 8, 1863
Year
1863
1863.72 Soldiers confront idleness with ball playing
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Age of Players:
The Akron "Summit County Beacon," Sept. 10, 1863 prints a letter from "The Encampment of Camp Cuyahoga" (in Cleveland) saying that on the 25th "the day was spent in idleness and ball playing" because needed quartermaster supplies had not yet arrived.
Sources:
The Akron "Summit County Beacon," Sept. 10, 1863
Year
1863
1863.73 CT soldiers indulging in ball playing and swimming
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Age of Players:
The Hartford Courant, Feb. 24, 1863 prints a letter about CT soldiers in Newport News, VA: "The soldiers are delighted with the position--were indulging in ball playing and swimming."
Sources:
The Hartford Courant, Feb. 24, 1863
Year
1863
1863.74 No fear of breaking windows
Location:
Age of Players:
The Elyria Independent Democrat, March 15, 1863 prints a letter, dated Feb. 15th, from Corporal H. J. Hart of the 8th Ohio, in camp near Falmouth VA: "While I write this Monday morning, the boys are having a game of ball nearby. We play ball near the house without fear of breaking windows."
Sources:
The Elyria Independent Democrat, March 15, 1863
Year
1863
1863.75 Ohio soldiers play at Lexington, KY
Location:
Age of Players:
The Summit County Beacon, March 26, 1863 prints a letter from a soldier in the 104th Ohio, datelined Lexington, March 15th: "The 19th Battery Boys have enjoyed themselves hugely this past week, playing ball. The 104th has also participated in the game and take hold of it as gayly as they were wont to do upon the old school house green in days of yore."
Sources:
The Summit County Beacon, March 26, 1863
Year
1863
1863.76 Hawkeyes beat Suckers in Corinth, MS
Location:
Age of Players:
The New Albany (IN) Daily Ledger April 4, 1863, reprints a letter from a soldier in Corinth, MS, dated March 29, 1863, saying that yesterday a base ball team from the 2nd Iowa defeated a team from the 52nd IL 100 to 77. The letter-write avers that "'Base Ball' does a good service in killing off the 'blues.'"
See also the Davenport (IA) Daily Gazette, April 18, 1863.
Sources:
The New Albany (IN) Daily Ledger April 4, 1863
Year
1863
1863.77 New York Regiments play in camp near Falmouth
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Age of Players:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 2, 1863, headlined "Base ball in camp," reports that on April 19th, the 1st Long Island Volunteers (67th NY) played the 62nd New York. See also The New York Sunday Mercury, April 26, 1863.
At this time the 2 units were part of the VI Corps, stationed near Falmouth, VA.
Sources:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 2, 1863
Year
1863
1863.78 Base Ball relives the monotony
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Age of Players:
The Madison State Journal, June 4, 1863 prints a Wisconsin soldier's letter from Columbus, KY dated May 31, 1863: "There have been no guerrilla raids or threatened attacks to relieve the monotony of camp and garrison life: but the foot race and the game of base ball have been substituted..."
Sources:
The Madison State Journal, June 4, 1863
Year
1863
1863.79 Thousands of soldiers playing ball
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Age of Players:
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 1863, reports on the camps of the Army of the Potomac, opposite Fredericksburg, VA: "...in camp the man are out by thousands playing ball, pitching horseshoe quoits, running foot races and indulging in other athletic sports."
The camps were near Falmouth.
Sources:
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 1863
Year
1863
1863.80 New Years Day on Hilton Head
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"The New South" Jan. 3, 1863 reports a game on New Years Day among Major Van Brunt's provost guard. He was major of the 47th New York.
Sources:
"The New South" Jan. 3, 1863
Year
1863
1863.81 Base Ball a "common game of amusement"
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Age of Players:
The Canton (Ohio) Repository, July 1, 1863 prints a letter from Dr. Lewis Slusser, June 18, 1863, stationed near Murfreesboro, TN with the Army of the Cumberland: "The leisure time of our men is variously employed. Cricket, base ball, pitching horse shoes, cards, chess and checker are the most common games of amusement."
Sources:
The Canton (Ohio) Repository, July 1, 1863
Year
1863
1863.82 Base ball in camp part of Muscular Christianity
Age of Players:
The Augusta Maine Gospel Banner, May 2, 1863 praises muscular Christianity in the army: "Added to their faithfulness in military duties, their occasional participation in the manly sports of base ball, foot ball, wrestling and leaping helps them in their growth to the stature of health, strength and cheerfulness."
Sources:
The Augusta Maine Gospel Banner, May 2, 1863
Year
1863
1863.83 Bay Staters play ball in NC
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Age of Players:
The Boston Traveler, March 4, 1863 prints a letter from Camp Stevenson, NC, datelined 2-27-63: "the boys enjoy their spare time to a great extent, in base ball, foot ball and other healthy amusements; great rivalry has commenced between the companies as to their respective merits in base ball, and friendly games for the superiority are constantly taking place." The 44th and 25th MA are to play tomorrow, and "great interest is manifested by both regiments as to the result."
This game is mentioned in the wartime diary of John J,. Wyeth of the 44th MA, who may be the writer of the above letter.
Camp Stevenson was at New Bern, NC.
Sources:
The Boston Traveler, March 4, 1863
Year
1863
1863.84 1st MA versus 16th MA
Location:
The Boston Post, April 30, 1863 prints a letter from Camp Falmouth, dated April 26: "The men of the 1st Mass. and 16th Mass. having played a match game of base ball, and the 1st being worsted, the officers of the 1st Mass. challenged the officers of the 16th Mass. to play a game; the challenge was accepted; the game came off yesterday, and resulted in favor of the 16th, they winning in thirteen innings." The teams had 12 a side.
This appears to be the same set of games mentioned in John Hildreth Atkins (ed.), "1863 Civil War Diary" [of Corporal John A. Irving]: "April 22. No drill today. A base ball match between the 16th Mass. The 16th Mass. won the game."...
April 25: "No duty today. The officers played a match game of baseball."
Sources:
The Boston Post, April 30, 1863
Year
1863
1863.85 New England rules game in camp
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The Boston Traveler, June 2, 1863, prints a letter from Camp Gore, VA, March 22, 1863: "About the middle of the month, eleven men from our regiment played a match game of base ball, according to the rules of the New England Association of Base Ball Players, with eleven members of the 18th Mass. regiment." The 5 hour match was won by the 18th by "three tallies."
Camp Gore was at Falmouth.
Sources:
The Boston Traveler, June 2, 1863
Year
1863
1863.86 Draftees Play Ball on Rikers Island
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The Boston Herald, Sept. 8, 1863 notes that at the Riker's Island, NY camp for draftees, "Fishing, base-ball, quoits, and other healthful amusements, are among their daily engagements."
Riker's Island is near Manhattan.
Sources:
The Boston Herald, Sept. 8, 1863
Year
1863
1863.87 The Colonel umpired the game
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Age of Players:
The Worcester National Aegis, March 30, 1863: "The Thirty-Fourth regiment, now encamped on Upton's Hill [outside of DC]... had a spirited and exciting game of base ball on Saturday." Putnam's nine beat Chickering's, 50-31. Colonel Lincoln umpired in this 5-hour game.
See also Lincoln, "34th Massachusetts"
Sources:
The Worcester National Aegis, March 30, 1863
Year
1863
1863.88 Vermont soldiers play base and foot ball
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Age of Players:
The Montpelier Green Mountain Freeman, April 20, 1863 prints a letter from the 13th VT volunteers, datelined Fairfax County, April 14: "The boys of late have been indulging in games of ball--base and foot ball having occupied their spare moments."
Sources:
The Montpelier Green Mountain Freeman, April 20, 1863
Year
1863
1863.90 Union soldiers watch Confederates play ball
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John G. B. Adams of the 19th MA recalled that in early 1863, when the regiment was stationed opposite Fredericksburg, Unions soldiers watched the Confederates playing ball games cross the river. "We would sit on the bank and watch their games, and the distance was so short we could understand every movement and would applaud good plays."
Cited in Kirsch, "Baseball in Blue and Gray," which uses Adams' history of the regiment as source. See 1863.17 for the citation of the Adams book.
Sources:
Kirsch, "Baseball in Blue and Gray,"
Year
1863
1863.91 Confederate soldiers play ball near Fredericksburg
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The Augusta Constitutionalist, Feb. 8, 1863, reprints a column by "Personne," the Charleston Courier's war correspondent, Jan. 29, 1863, under the heading "Interesting Letter from Virginia." "The amusements of the army are rational and generous. Ball playing is a common game when the weather is pleasant..."
The letter was from Lee's army, then in camp near Fredericksburg, and mentions Jenkins' SC brigade. This confirms Union reports at this time of seeing Lee's soldiers playing ball.
Sources:
The Augusta Constitutionalist, Feb. 8, 1863
Year
1863
1863.92 Alabama soldiers play ball near Fredericksburg
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Age of Players:
The Greensboro (AL) Beacon, March 287, 1863, prints a letter from the 5th Alabama, camped near Fredericksburg, March 8, 1863: "Since coming off picket the only amusement in camp is ball playing, which serves to while away the lonely hours."
Sources:
The Greensboro (AL) Beacon, March 287, 1863
Year
1863
1863.93 Rebel POWs at Fort McHenry
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The New Haven Daily Palladium, Sept. 24, 1863 writes of "Rebel" POWs at Fort McHenry, site of the Star Spangled Banner: they "have the run of the fine parade ground, amuse themselves with ball play and other exercises."
The "ball play" included baseball. See Elias, "The Empire Strikes Out" p. 9.
Sources:
The New Haven Daily Palladium, Sept. 24, 1863
Year
1863
1863.96 Union soldiers play ball in California
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The San Francisco Daily Bulletin, April 27, 1863 reports on the 1st California Cavalry camp near Stockton: "We drill four times a day, and in the interim devote our time to reading, playing ball, or fishing in various sloughs."
Sources:
The San Francisco Daily Bulletin, April 27, 1863
Year
1863
1863.99 Confederate government clerks should play ball
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The Richmond Examiner, Dec. 5, 1863, castigates lazy Confederate government clerks who just lounge around eyeing the ladies: "If nothing better offers, the organization of a base ball, cricket, or quoit club, with a play ground in the square, would do [to make the clerks less lazy]."
Sources:
The Richmond Examiner, Dec. 5, 1863
Year
1863
1863.101 Rebel POWs play town ball at Camp Butler
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The diary of William W. Heartsill, Confederate soldier (published under the title "1491 Days...") says that in March 1863, while in Camp Butler POW Camp near Springfield, IL, the prisoners played "town-ball."
Sources:
Heartsill book
Year
1863
1863.102 117th IL plays town ball near Memphis
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Age of Players:
Gerlings's "One Hundred Seventeenth Illinois" p. 105: "May 18. Some of us played "town-ball" on the drill grounds. Col. Moore and Lt. Kerr being the leaders of the two sides." Same May 19, 20.
Col. Risdon Moore's 117th IL was stationed at Fort Pickering, Memphis in May 1863.
Sources:
Gerlings's "One Hundred Seventeenth Illinois" p. 105
Year
1863
1863.103 Arkansas soldiers play "Old Fashioned Town Ball"
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Notables:
General Abe Buford
Willis, Arkansas Confederates, p. 406, refers to Arkansas Confederates playing town ball, citing J. P. Cannon, "Inside of Rebeldom" p. 98 [Nov. 1863 in camp at Canton, MS]: "One of the most popular schemes invented to have fun and to pass the time was a game called 'old fashioned town ball,' which is the ancestor of today's baseball. Even Gen. Buford took great interest in the game, although his 300 pounds of flesh and fat (mostly fat)... prevented any participation more than a mere spectator."
Confederate Gen. Abraham Buford was an overweight and fun-loving brigade commander.
Sources:
J. P. Cannon, "Inside of Rebeldom" p. 98
Year
1863
1863.104 Grant's Men Play Town-Ball in the Swamps
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Woodworth, "Nothing But Victory: The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1865" p. 299 writes that Grant's army , in camp at Lake Providence opposite Vicksburg, "had time to play 'town ball' in their off-duty hours."
Woodworth cites the diary of Abram J. Vanauken, Feb. 3, 7, 12, 13, 1863, at the Illinois State Historical Library.
Sources:
Woodworth, "Nothing But Victory: The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1865" p. 299
Year
1863
1863.106 1st Delaware Plays Ball and Horseshoes
Location:
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The Library of Virginia's online index to manuscripts lists the letter of Thomas D. G. Smith, March 31, 1863, which "mentions playing ball and horseshoes." The index lists the game as in Stafford County.
At this time the 1st was stationed near Falmouth, Stafford County, VA.
Year
1863
1863.117 Future President notes ballplaying in camp
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Notables:
Rutherford B. Hayes
"Conspicuous Gallantry: Civil War Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes" contains a April 22, 1863 letter from Camp White in which Hayes' notes that "Drilling, boating, ball-playing and the like make the time pass pleasantly."
Camp White was near Charleston, WV. Hayes had played ball while in college.
Sources:
"Conspicuous Gallantry: Civil War Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes"
Year
1863
1863.118 36th Illinois loses to 24th Wisconsin by 50
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A favorite amusement all through our Murfreesboro stay was
base ball, and many an hour was spent at Camp Schaffer in this absorbing game. Sometimes the fun was varied by a contest with some other regiment, and though the 36th were very skillful, they sometimes met their match, as one record very candidly says : "In the afternoon eight boys of the 24th Wisconsin played ball against eight of ours and beat us (!) by fifty a very interesting
game."Sources:
Bennett and Haigh, "36th Illinois" p. 425
Year
1863
1863.120 A bully game of base ball
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"Had a bully game of base ball. Received letters from home."
Livermore, "My Story of the War" p. 379, quoting from the Chicago Mercantile Battery, at the siege of Vicksburg.
Sources:
Livermore, "My Story of the War" p. 379
Year
1863
1863.136 Gen. Grant enjoys watching ball game
Age of Players:
The National Tribune, Aug. 29, 1895, prints a letter from C. W. Colby of the 97th Illinois, who writes that in April of 1863 his unit was detailed to guard Gen. Grant's headquarters at Milliken's Bend. "Every evening we had a game of ball on the lawn in front of headquarters, and the General would sit on the porch, enjoying the sport as much as we did."
Sources:
The National Tribune, Aug. 29, 1895
Year
1863
1863.137 72nd NY Plays Baseball in Camp
The 1863 diary of Henry Squire, 72nd New York Infantry and includes entries from January through July. Early entries detail camp life, war news, and in particular, playing baseball and boxing, an inspection by Lincoln, and camp rumors (from March 'Gen. Lee [was] dead and [Stonewall] Jackson had been wounded'). Entries during the first part of May talk about Squire's experiences while at Libby Prison in Richmond. He was captured at Chancellorsville May 3rd and paroled May 13.
The unit was near Falmouth, VA at the time.
Sources:
From Squire Diary, Civil War Diaries website.
Year
1863
1863.138 48th NY Infantry plays on Thanksgiving
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The 48th was a Brooklyn unit, and its baseball games often made the newspapers.
The one side ran short players, so some drummer boys were "drafted" to fill out the one nine.
Sources:
Brooklyn Times Union, Dec. 18, 1863
Year
1863
1863.139 Soildiers play "Baste ball" in Virginia
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The Richmond (IN) Palladium, May 8, 1863, prints a letter from a soldier in the 19th Indiana, datelined April 20 in camp near Belle Plaine, which says his regiment and the 7th Indiana "have many a game at baste-ball--that has been our chief amusement..."
Belle Plaine is near Fredericksburg, where Hooker's Army of the Potomac was camped. The game played might be a mis-spelling of "base ball."
Sources:
The Richmond (IN) Palladium, May 8, 1863
Year
1863
1863.140 An exciting game of base ball
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"April 11 [1863].—An exciting game of “base-ball;” was played to-day near our camp, between boys of the Fourteenth Brooklyn and the Harris Light. The contest resulted in a drawn game, so that neither could claim the victory. "
These were cavalry regiments in camp near Falmouth, VA
Sources:
Glazier, "Three Years in the Federal Cavalry" (187) p. 165
Year
1863
1863.141 Drill, baseball and glee clubs
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In his famous memoir, "Recollections of a Private", Warren Lee Goss of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry recalls that in 1863, "Drill, baseball, glee clubs, besides the inevitable and never forgotten or omitted 'bluff' occupied our time [in camp]."
Sources:
Goss, "Recollections of a Private" p. 174.
Year
1863
1863.142 200 army baseball games are seen
Age of Players:
Lawrence W. Fielding, "War and Trifles: Sport in the Shadow of Civil War Army Life" Journal of Sports History 4:151 at 157, writes that a Massachusetts soldier reported "seeing over 200 games of base ball going on at one time."
A search of the cited sources doesn't reveal more on the source for this. It was probably referring to the Army of the Potomac's encampment near Fredericksburg VA in the Spring of 1863.
Sources:
Lawrence W. Fielding, "War and Trifles: Sport in the Shadow of Civil War Army Life" Journal of Sports History 4:151
Year
1863
1863.143 Soldiers Play cricket in Virginia
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Age of Players:
On April 27, 1863, at their camp at White Oak Church, near Falmouth, the soldiers of Neal's and Russell's Brigade played a game of cricket against each other.
Sources:
New York Clipper, May 9, 1863
Year
1863
1863c.144 Lawrence MA soldiers play cricket near D.C.
Game:
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The soldiers of the 14th Massachusetts (1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery) who played cricket at Fort DeKalb during the war came home and formed the Lawrence Cricket Club.
Fort DeKalb was in Arlington, part of the DC defenses. The date is uncertain. The fort was so named 1861-63.
Sources:
Cole, "Immigrant City: Lawrence, Massachusetts," p. 140
Circa
1863
1863.145 Games of Foot and Base ball between drills
Age of Players:
The diary entries and letter of David Ritchie note several instances of base ball. p. 4 (in camp in Albany, NY, 1861): drill periods were "interspersed with games of foot and baseball and other amusements" p. 109, 111 (Jan. 1863, at/near Fortress Monroe): "played game baseball against Lt. Mink. Beat him." (is this a references to and old cat/fungo type game?) 1-20-63 played a game of baseball p. 156 (April 1864, near Orange, Va): "Played baseball at Capt. Reynolds' in afternoon." and on the 23rd, “witnessed game of ball between 7th Independent NY Battery] and Battery L. Latter beaten 13 to 6. Officers played in afternoon.” And another is recorded on the 30th.
Sources:
Ritchie, "Four Years in the First New York Light Artillery" pp 4, 109, 111, 156
Year
1863
1863.146 27th MA Plays Baseball Under Enemy Fire
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The soldiers of the 27th Massachusetts Infantry, during the March-April 1863 siege of Washington, NC, engaged "in base ball and kindred sports, and that in full view of the enemy and under fire of their guns."
Sources: Derby, "Bearing Arms in the 27th Massachusetts" p. 176.
Warning:
Query:
Year
1863
1863.148 126th NY has "a good game of base ball"
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Age of Players:
Friday, March 27, 1863—This morning the 126th [New York] went on picket and the line was extended further about a mile. We had a good game of baseball in the afternoon.
Saturday, April 4, 1863—Today has been wash day. No drilling. In the afternoon had a game of ball.
1863 diary of Henry Cole, 126th NY Infantry. From near Centerville, VA.
Sources:
Shared and Spared
Year
1863
1863.149 Soldiers play the "New York game"
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1863 DIARY OF EDWIN ELLIOT RICHARDSON, CO. A, 46TH MASSACHUSETTS
New Bern
Saturday, Feb. 21st 1863. We drill all day long. Had a dress parade at night. There was a matched game of Ball played between our regiment and the 25th [Mass.] I did not learn which regiment played the best.
Monday, March 23rd 1863. A nice fair day. I played a game of Ball.
Friday, 27th 1863. Had a company drill. In [p.m.] played New York game. It is hard work to play that game. Had dress parade.
Saturday, 28th 1863. Played the New York game all day. There was not ay drill for a wonder. No dress parade.
Sources: Spared and Shared 23
Year
1863
1863.151 Alabama soldiers play bull-pen, cat and town ball
Game:
Age of Players:
February 14, 1863, was wash day for the soldiers, so there was no drilling, only some fine games of “Bull-Pen”, “Cat”, and “Stick-it-to-him”. The men pitched in like schoolboys and had a very enjoyable time. The exercise was so beneficial and so pleasant on a mild, bright, and beautiful day, after being kept housed up in their tents by wet and cold weather. Two days later, there were games of “Bull-Pen”, “Cat”, and “Town-Ball," going on all day except when drilling.
Sources: Diary of Samuel Pickens, 5th Alabama Infantry
Year
1863
1863.152 13th NY plays 4th NY in Suffolk
Age of Players:
"Old games" recalled: the 13th NY played the 4th NY July 19, 1863 in Suffolk VA. The 13th also had a "right wing/left wing" and an officers game around this time.
Sources: The Ball Players Chronicle, Nov. 28, 1867
Year
1863
1863.154 Excelsior Brigade plays base ball in camp
Game:
The New York Clipper, June 20, 1863 reports on a game played June 1st in camp, near Falmouth, between the 1st and 4th regiments, Excelsior Brigade, won by the 4th, 18-11.
The Excelsior Brigade was a New York/Brooklyn unit. The regiments were the 70th and 74th New York Infantry.
Sources: The New York Clipper, June 20, 1863
Year
1863
1863.155 51st Illinois Plays Ball and Quoits
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Age of Players:
Edward Burns, 51st Illinois Infantry, diary in camp at Murfreesboro, March 28, 1863: "The boys enjoy themselves playing ball, pitching quoits,,,, and so forth."
Sources: Burns diary, from 51st IL website
Year
1863
1863.156 Soldier Play in KY
Game:
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According to a soldier of the 21st MA stationed at Mt. Sterling, on June 3, 1863, "A Grand Match Game of Base-Ball was played outside of town on the Ticktown Pike." June 12th saw another "grand match game of base-ball..."
Sources:
George Hitchcock diary, p. 90, 92
Year
1863
1864.35 Government Promotes Base Ball
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"GOVERNMENT BALL GROUNDS.-- The game of base ball has lately received such an indorement (sic) at the hands of the U. S. government as will go far toward giving it permanency as the national game of ball in America. Not only have base ball matches been encouraged by the military authorities, at the various army stations, as a means of recreation, as a means of recreation and exercise for the soldiers, in hours of relaxation from active service...but the naval authorities have recently made arrangements by which our sailors can similarly enjoy a pleasurable sport and healthy exercise at the same time. A large space of ground, lately recovered from the swamp lands adjoining the Navy yard, has been prepared as a ball ground, and during the summer the sailors and marines on board the several vessels at the depot are to use it when off duty. ...Ball players are being made by the hundred in our army. The few members of clubs who happen to get into the different regiments that have emanated from the Metropolis have inoculated the whole service with the love of the game, and during last year, for the first time, we believe, that base ball matches took place in every State in the Union-- or out of it, as the case may be--this side of the Mississippi."
Sources:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 30, 1864
Year
1864
1864.37 Buzz For Fly Game Begins
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Year
1864
1864.38 Base Ball On The Rebound
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[A] "THE SEASON OF 1864...The prospects for a successful season for 1864 are more favorable than those of any season since 1861..."
[B] "THE OPENING PLAY OF THE SEASON. NOT since 1861 has there been a season that has opened more auspiciously for the welfare of the game than the present one; and the prospects are that we shall have one of the most enjoyable series of matches of any year since base ball was inaugurated as our national game of ball."
[C] 'THE JUNIOR FRATERNITY.-- Not a week passes that some new junior organization does not spring into existence..."
[D] "MATCHES FOR SEPTEMBER.-- ...We are glad to note the fact that not even in the palmy days of 1860, when every vacant lot or available space for playing ball was occupied by junior clubs, have these young players been so numerous as this season."
[E] "THE SEASON OF 1864.-- Taking into consideration the existence of civil war in the country, the ball-playing season of 1864 has been the most successful and advantageous to the interests of our national game known in the annals of baseball...We are glad also to record the fact, that among the marked features of the past season none has been more promising for the permanence of the game than the great increase of junior players and clubs."
Sources:
[A] New York Clipper, April 16, 1864
[B] New York Clipper, May 14, 1864
[C] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 22, 1864
[D] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sep. 9, 1864
[E] New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 13, 1864
Year
1864
1864.40 Signals for Throwing to Base
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"THE SIXTH RULE OF THE GAME...all pitchers should follow the example of the Excelsior players in 1860. The pitcher and catcher of the Excelsiors had regular signals whereby the pitcher knew when to throw to the bases. This is the only right plan to pursue in playing this point of the game."
Sources:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 13, 1864
Year
1864
1864.41 Legal Pitching Deliveries
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"Base Ball in Albany...The Mutual Club had a fine time in Utica...although the Utica nine had a pitcher who "bowled" the ball to the bat, he being a cricketer...by the way, bowling is fair, provided full pitched balls be sent in, as it is neither a jerk nor a throw, and what is neither one nor the other is fair pitching, according to the rules."
Sources:
Brooklyn Daily eagle, Sept. 2, 1864
Year
1864
1864.42 Is THIS How Bunting Started?
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"EXCELSIOR VS. ENTERPRISE.-- The "muffins" of these clubs played their return game yesterday on the Excelsior grounds...The feature of the play was the batting of Prof. Bassler of the Enterprise team...Being an original of the first water, he adopted an original theory in reference to batting, which we are obliged to confess is not of the most striking character. His idea is not a bad one though, it being to hit the ball slightly so as to have it drop near the home base, therefore necessitating the employment of considerable skill on the part of the pitcher to get at the ball, pick it up and throw it accurately to first base."
Sources:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 16, 1864
Year
1864
1864.43 Like It or Lump It, Gents
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[A] "ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.-- ...If any club is dissatisfied with our reports of their games, let them personally inform us of the fact; not go to our employers to revenge any fancied injury or trying to injure us. The base ball clubs must either take our reports as we give them, in our endeavor to do impartial justice to all, or they will not have a line of notice emanating from our pen...the next time the club our correspondent refers to see their name written by us in any paper with which we are connected, it will be when they behave to us like other clubs...we do not harbor ill will towards a solitary member of the Atlantic club...but there is a principle involved...it being the right of a reporter of base ball matches to fairly criticise the actions of players..."
[B] "ATLANTIC VS. GOTHAM.-- ...Our reporter will give a full account of the proceedings, as the satisfactory explanations made to him by the Secretary of the Club on Friday, have, as far as he is concerned, entirely restored the friendly relations which had previously been interrupted."
Sources:
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 29, 1864
[B] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 17, 1864
Year
1864
1864.44 Canadian Baseball Association Forms
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"BASE-BALL IN CANADA. A meeting of delegates appointed to form a Base-Ball Association in Canada was held in the town of Woodstock on Monday evening, 15th August, 1864."
Sources:
Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, Sept. 10, 1864
Comment:
Four clubs, all in Ontario, were represented-- the Young Canadian Club (Woodstock); Maple Leaf Club (Hamilton); Barton Club (Barton); and Victoria Club (Ingersoll)
Year
1864
1864.45 Playing for Prizes
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"ECKFORD vs. MUTUAL-- AN INTERESTING GAME. -- These clubs played their return match together on the Union ballgrounds, Brooklyn, on Monday last...considerable interest being taken in the match, from the fact that it was the last of the season in which the Mutual first-nine would be engaged, and also that the Mutuals had offered a series of prizes to their players, amounting to one hundred dollars, as an incentive to extra exertions."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 16, 1864
Year
1864
1864.47 "Union" Games Started 1864 Season
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[A] "...These practice games are simply nothing more or less than substitutes for the useless and uninteresting ordinarily played on practice days by our first-class clubs. It has been suggested, time and again...that they devote one day in a week...to practicing their men together as a whole against the field; but as yet, not a solitary club has ever practiced their best players together in this way...It is this neglect on the part of or clubs, to improve the character of the practice games on their club grounds, that has led to the arrangement of these Union Practice Games.”
[B] “THE GRAND PRIZE-MATCH IN BROOKLYN. The prize-game of the series of Union practice-games inaugurated by Mr. Chadwick, which took place on Saturday, May 21st...proved to be a complete success in every respect, and one of the best-played and most interesting games seen for several seasons past...(it) afforded those present proof of the advantage of such a class of games...”
[C] “THE SECOND PRIZE-GAME IN BROOKLYN.—...the Atlantics refused to play according to the rules of these series of games...They also seemed to regard the match as one on which their standing as a playing-club was concerned, rather than...one of a series of games designed to test the merits of the flygame.”
[D] "The Eckford was defeated by the field at the so-called prize game, and the Atlantic won the game with the field. The prize game, so far as it interferes with the rules of the Convention, should be frowned down by all clubs, as it was repudiated by the Atlantic and Enterprise clubs.”
Sources:
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 21, 1864
[B] Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, May 28, 1864
[C] New York Sunday Mercury, June 5, 1864
[D] New York Evening Express, June 13, 1864
Comment:
See Supplemental Text for further newspaper coverage.
Year
1864
1864.48 NABBP Hobbles Pitchers
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[A] “THE NEW RULES.—...’Section 5. Should the pitcher repeatedly fail to deliver to the striker fair balls, for the apparent purpose of delaying the game, or for any other cause, the umpire, after warning him, shall call one ball, and if the pitcher persists in such action, two and three balls; when three balls shall have been called, the striker shall be entitled to the first base, and should any base be occupied at that time, each player occupying them shall be entitled to one base. Section 6. The pitcher’s position shall be designated by two lines, four yards in length, drawn at right angles to a line from home to second base, having their centres upon that line at two fixed iron plates, placed at points fifteen and sixteen yards distant from the home-base, and for the striker...Section 7...whenever the pitcher draws back his hand, or moves with the apparent purpose or pretention to deliver the ball, he shall so deliver it, and must have neither foot in advance of the line of his position or off the ground at the time of delivering the ball; and if he fails in either of these particulars then it shall be declared a balk.’”
[B]
—“THE NEW RULES—adopted by the last Convention, promise to work out a desirable reform. The Pitcher can no longer push a game into the dark, by the old style of baby-play, but is ‘compelled’ to deliver balls to the Striker, or else a base is given. And then again, instead of taking a wide range, in which to swing a bill and move the feet, he must keep within his circumscribed limit, and deliver a fair ball.”
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, March 27, 1864
[B] New York Evening Express, April 22, 1864
Comment:
For various reasons, umpires enforced the new rules only inconsistently. See Supplemental Text.
Year
1864
1864.50 Dime for Admission, Two Dimes for Carriages
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"THE REGULATIONS OF THE CAPITOLINE BALL GROUNDS...Rule 1st,-- The admission to the Ball ground shall be as follows: for a single person ten cents, for a carriage twenty cents, its occupants of course being charged additional."
Sources:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 16, 1864
Comment:
The Capitoline Grounds were just opening, and were the second closed grounds; see 1862.9 for the Union Grounds, also in Brooklyn.
Year
1864
1864.53 General Hooker's Players "Pretty Badly Beat", 70-11
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A: The match game of base ball between the staff, and orderlies of Gen. Hooker, and thirteen players from our regiment came off this forenoon, the result was in favor of our regiment, the innings stood seventy to eleven, pretty badly beat wasn't they. They will play another game this afternoon. Gen. Hooker ordered Col. Wood to postpone brigade drill, that they might play.
B:Nothing has been stirring for the last week except for ball playing and one brigade drill. We play ball about all the time now. We, or some of the officers, have received a challenge from Gen'l Hooker's staff and escort to play a match. Fourteen players have been selected to play against them, amongst whom is ELE< the letter writer>. Four of them are commissioned officers, the rest enlisted men. We have also had a challenge from the one hundred and thirty.sixth New York, bit I don't know if it will be played or not.
C: Major Lawrence with a skillful nine selected from Hooker's body guard, challenged the [33rd MA] regiment to match them in a manly game of base ball, and his nine got worsted. The New York regiment threw down the glove with a like result. The champion Sharon [MA] boys knew a thing or two about base ball, which they had learned in contests with the laurelled Massapoags at home.
Sources:
A: Letter of April 13, 1864 by Lt. Thomas Howland. Obtained via Massachusetts Historical Society, August 2015.
B: Letter home by E. L. Edes, April 1864. For full letter, see Supplemental Text, below.
C: A. B. Underwood, Thirty-Third Mass. Infantry Regiment, 1862 - 1865 (A. Williams and Co., Boston, 1881, page 199. Search string: <kershaw had a smart>.
Comment:
It seems likely that these games were played under Mass game rules.
General Sherman's winter camp was outside Chattanooga, and his march into GA started in the beginning of May 1864.
Millen, Baseball and the Civil War" p. xiii cites the George Rolfe diary, 154th NY, for this game.
Query:
The Massapoag Club of Sharon MA fielded 10-14 players for its pre-war games, which were subject to Massachusetts rules. Why would the regimental history, 17 years later, refer to "nines"?
Year
1864
1864.54 Daily Eagle Sees Base Ball Now Played Throughout US North (East of the Mississippi)
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"Ball players are being made by the hundred in our army. The few members of clubs that happen to get into the different regiments that have emanated from the Metropolis have inoculated the whole service with a love of the game, and during last year, for the first time, we believe, base ball matches took place in every State in the Union-- or out of it, as the case may be-- this side of the Mississippi. Materials are now furnished to the various regiments that require them, and this by order of the Government, and this year, unless some very stirring work is done, games of ball will be played throughout the country, not only by civilians in the great cities, but by our soldiers in every camp, North, East, West, and South."
Sources:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 30, 1864
Comment:
In submitting this piece, Bob Tholkes writes: "In recent years the role of the Civil War in expanding baseball, once considered crucial, has suffered bombardment by several large-bore researchers. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle made the case for the influence of the war. If the crucial nature of the war's role is a myth, it is a myth reaching back to the beginning."
Year
1864
1864.55 Soldiers on leave play ball in Chicago
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The Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1864 reports that the Turchin Base Ball Club of the 19th Illinois Infantry will play a base ball game this afternoon at the Prairie Cricket grounds, West Madison St., Chicago. "All friends of the Nineteenth, and of this healthy and invigorating game, are expected to attend."
Basil Turchin was colonel and commander of the 19th. Some members of the 19th had played for the prewar Excelsiors of Chicago.
Sources:
The Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1864
Year
1864
1864c.56 Confederate Prisoners Play Ball in Chicago
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At Camp Douglas, a prisoner of war camp in Chicago, the Confederate army prisoners played "the old-fashioned game of ball--with a ball and bats--but no base ball" (because to the prisoner, base ball meant you had to dress up in uniforms).
Copley, "A Sketch of the Battle of Franklin...." p. 172. He was taken prisoner in late 1864, thus the ballplaying he witnessed occurred in late 1864 or early 1865.
There are mentions in other books of POWs playing base ball at Camp Douglas.
For example, the Chicago Tribune, March 25, 1862 reports that the Camp Douglas POWs played " a game of ball.... giving full play to the arms, legs and lungs." Same Oct. 19, 1863, June 9, 1862, reports that the prisoners are playing base ball and quoits. Confederate Veteran, Vol. 15, p. 234 prints the recollections of T. J. Moore, 3rd TN Infantry, who was a POW at Camp Douglas: "We were allowed to play town ball." Keller, The Story of Camp Douglas" p. 114 cites POW Curtis Burke as saying "The prisoners amuse themselves out of doors ... playing ball."
Sources:
Copley, "A Sketch of the Battle of Franklin...." p. 172
Circa
1864
1864.57 Union Army Parolees Play Baseball in Camp
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Cox, "Civil War Maryland" says Union army parolees played baseball in 1864 at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland.
"Parole" was a system of POW exchange whereby the soldier, after surrender, took an oath not to serve again until properly exchanged, and was then released. Union parolees went to the parole camp near Annapolis that the Federal government established, to wait (in friendly territory) until notified that they'd been exchanged for a Confederate parolee. So this is another example of Union army POWs playing baseball.
Sources:
Cox, "Civil War Maryland"
Year
1864
1864.59 Union POWs Play Town Ball
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The Savannah Republican, Dec. 2, 1864 prints an item from the Canton MS Citizen of Nov. 11, says that Union soldiers captured at Athens, AL, while on parole and en route to Memphis for exchange, "played quite spiritedly in a game of old fashioned town ball" while in Canton.
Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had captured the Union garrison at Athens shortly before this. "Parole" is a form of captivity where the POW gives his pledge not to escape, and will await a POW exchange.
Sources:
The Savannah Republican, Dec. 2, 1864
Year
1864
1864.60 Baseball "the favorite game of our soldiers"
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 19, 1864, under the heading "Base Ball in the Army" reported " In every army corps there are ball clubs formed, whose members take advantage of every opportunity to have a game together. Base ball has become the favorite game of our soldiers when not engaged in actual service."
Sources:
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 19, 1864
Comment:
The Union army consisted of approximately 20 corps at this time. At this time the Eagle constantly promoted baseball.
Year
1864
1864.61 Artillerists enjoying fine exercise
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The Sacramento Daily Union, April 25, 1864, prints a story from the New York Herald, March 17, 1864, from the Army of the Potomac camp near Culpeper Court House: "The artillery brigade attached to the First Army Corps are enjoying fine exercise at match games of base ball. The men of Battery L, from Rochester, Captain Reynolds, played a game yesterday with the employees of the Quartermaster, Captain Crittenden." The quartermasters lost badly.
See also 1864.89.
Sources:
The Sacramento Daily Union, April 25, 1864
Year
1864
1864.62 Louisiana Confederates play in Virginia
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The Richmond Examiner, April 2, 1864 mentions "a friendly match of base ball, played between Hayes' and Stafford's Second Brigade, of the same corps, which match was won by General Hayes' brigade."
Stafford and Hays' brigades were stationed with the Army of Northern Virginia's 2nd Corps, near Orange, VA at this time. They were both LA units, and contained many prewar baseball players from the New Orleans teams. The POWs at Johnson's Island who played baseball there were often from these units.
Sources:
The Richmond Examiner, April 2, 1864
Year
1864
1864.63 Entire Regiment Plays Sports
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The Boston Traveler, March 18, 1864, prints a letter from the 1st Massachusetts, dated Brandy Station, March 15, 1864: "Camp Sports. Base ball, foot ball, and various gymnastic exercises, are in full tide of popularity and successful daily prosecution now, and the entire regiment, officers and men, turn out to engage in them."
Sources:
The Boston Traveler, March 18, 1864
Year
1864
1864.64 Confederate POWs play baseball at Rock Island
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Confederate army prisoners at the Rock Island, Illinois POW Camp, played baseball there. See Ben McAdams, Rebels at Rock Island (2000), p. 68, citing the diary of J. W. Minnich, Private 6th Louisiana Infantry.
Sources:
Ben McAdams, Rebels at Rock Island (2000), p. 68
Year
1864
1864.65 Ball playing at Spotsylvania battlefield
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The Fayetteville Observer, May 30, 1864: From Lane's (NC) Brigade, datelined Spotsylvania, May 17: "We pass our leisure moments in watching the enemy's and our skirmishers popping away at each other; while a little further off we see some of them running around apparently plying ball."
Sources:
The Fayetteville Observer, May 30, 1864
Year
1864
1864.67 Confederate Major pitches Town Ball
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The 1934 History of Worth County, Georgia, p. 501: "About the middle of March, 1864, while quite a number of he men were engaged in a game of town ball some evening, Major Rylander acting as he often did as pitcher, orders came for the battalion to report as soon as possible at Orange Court House, Virginia, for duty.... The game of ball was abandoned."
John Emory Rylander was major of the 10th GA Battalion. The unit was stationed at/near Franklin, VA (near Suffolk) at the time.
Sources:
The 1934 History of Worth County, Georgia, p. 501
Year
1864
1864.73 Baseball near Petersburg
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In late 1864, the New York Times reported the game among the fortifications and camps along the Appomattox River, “Sometimes a few enterprising minds get up a baseball match, and they are as punctilious over ‘fair’ and ‘foul’ as the most ambitious club at home.”
Sources:
"The Army of the Potomac," New York Times, Oct. 30, 1864.
Year
1864
1864.75 12th Kansas plays ball in Fort Smith
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Private Henry A. Strong writes about camp entertainment in his journal on January 14th, 1864 in Fort Smith, AR:
"Ball playing is got to be a chief amusement. Well, anything to drive away the blues when a fellow is on short rations"
Courtesy Caleb Hardwick
A Rough Introduction to This Sunny Land: The Civil War Diary of Private Henry A. Strong, Co. K, Twelfth Kansas Infantry
Year
1864
1864.77 196th PA plays ball in Baltimore
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Morris et al., "Base Ball Pioneers," p. 255, quotes Griffith, "The Early History of Amateur Baseball" as saying in 1864 he watched soldiers of the 196th PA practice baseball in Baltimore. Among the soldiers practicing was Dick McBride, the well known pitcher. The 196th was a 100-days regiment that contained many Philadelphia area ballplayers.
Sources:
Morris et al., Base Ball Pioneers," p. 255
Year
1864
1864.78 55th IL Plays Baseball in Alabama
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"War Diary of Thaddeus H. Capron, 1861-1865", Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 12 (1919) 330-406, p. 378, March 10, 1864 entry: "We are still in camps, leading a monotonous life--Our principal pastime being games of baseball."
Capron's 55th IL was stationed near Larkinsville, AL at the time.
Sources:
"War Diary of Thaddeus H. Capron, 1861-1865", Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 12 (1919) 330-406, p. 378
Year
1864
1864.83 176th NY Plays 9th CT in LA
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The New York Sunday Mercury, March 20, 1864 reports that at Madisonville, LA the 176th NY played the 9th CT, both teams composed "exclusively of commissioned officers." The 176th won, 46-5.
Year
1864
1864.84 Artillerymen Play Artillerymen in VA
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The New York Sunday Mercury, March 20, 1864 reports a game played on the 15th at Rappahannock Station, VA between the 5th NY Battery and the 6th Regiment, NY Heavy Artillery. The latter won 23-16.
Sources:
See also Spirit of the Times, April 30, 1864
Year
1864
1864.90 Union POWs play base ball in Macon POW Camp
Age of Players:
Mattocks' "Unspoiled Heart" (a journal of the 17th Maine Infantry) p. 162 (7-6-64 entry): "Some of our officers amuse themselves hugely with cricket, base-ball, fencing, &c., ..."
Sources:
Mattocks' "Unspoiled Heart" (a journal of the 17th Maine Infantry) p. 162
Year
1864
1864.91 DC Cavalry play in camp
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"When not on duty, these men from Maine [of the 1st DC Cavalry] relaxed by playing cards, singing, drinking, wrestling, boxing, horse racing, target shooting, and baseball."
Citing contemporary sources, from March 1864 in DC. The cite is Mangrum's "Edwin M. Stanton's Special Military Units" (Thesis, U of North Texas, 1978), p. 270.
Sources:
The cite is Mangrum's "Edwin M. Stanton's Special Military Units" (Thesis, U of North Texas, 1978), p. 270.
Year
1864
1864.92 Baseball in Culpeper Camp
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The diary of Jacob Wallace Smiley, a Union sharpshooter with the 7th Company, 1st Battalion, New York Sharpshooters, in the Northern Virginia region. The majority of the entries detail his experiences in and around Culpepper from December 1863 to May 1864. He talks about camp life, drills, daily activities, letters from home, and playing baseball in camp. Smiley's last complete entry was on May 4, 1864, when the regiment moved from Culpepper toward Wilderness.
Sources:
Smiley diary, at Civil War Diaries web site
Year
1864
1864.93 Seventh Wisconsin Infantry plays baseball in Petersburg tranches
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The letters of Capt. Henry F. Young, 7th WI, include an 8-4-64 letter stating: "The men are beginning to Show their old life and animation last evening they had a game of ball."
This refers to baseball while in the Petersburg trenches. The letter appears on p. 251 with a lengthy annotation on 253n31, of the book "Dear Delia."
Sources:
Smith and Larson, eds., "Dear Delia," p. 251, 253.
Year
1864
1864.94 Wicket Match
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A match game of wicket in Waterbury Saturday between the club of that city and the East Hartford Club, resulting in the defeat of the latter.
Waterbury first inning 111
Waterbury second inning 147
East Hartford first inning 82
East Hartford second inning 43
The defeated party paid the suppers according to the agreement of the match
Sources:
October 1, 1864 Connecticut Courant
Year
1864
1864.96 140th NY Plays Baseball near Petersburg
Game:
The Rochester Union and Advertiser, Oct. 3, 1864 reports that the 140th NY Infantry lost to Battery L 19-12, in a game played on the Weldon Railroad.
The Weldon Railroad stretched south from Petersburg. The Union army encampments were a few miles south of the city.
Sources:
The Rochester Union and Advertiser, Oct. 3, 1864
Year
1864
1864.97 31st Iowa plays baseball in Alabama
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The officers of the 31st Iowa Infantry, stationed around Woodville, AL, played a game of base ball.
Sources:
Letter of April 28, 1864, datelined Woodville, AL, in the Albertson family papers, Georgia Historical Society.
Year
1864
1864.98 POWs form Wicket, Cricket and Baseball Clubs
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The soldiers imprisoned at Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon, GA, in 1864, formed "wicket, cricket and baseball" clubs.
Sources: Derby, "Bearing Arms in the 27th Massachusetts" p. 414.
Comment:
Query:
Year
1864
1864.99 33rd Massachusetts plays in camp
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= 1864: THE CIVIL WAR DIARY OF DUDLEY LANGLEY PAGE =
33rd MA, Lowell
Saturday, March 19, 1864—Warm. Fixed up things and then about 10 or 11 o’clock went went out to see the review of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division—a gay sight. But they won’t wear their white gloves much longer. I read a letter from Nellie Garland today. Col. Asmussen returned from Bridgeport this forenoon. Gilbreth and Palmer and a mess of them went out and had a game of ball this p.m.
Sources: THE CIVIL WAR DIARY OF DUDLEY LANGLEY PAGE, on Shared and Spared
Year
1864
1864.100 Prize baseball from Decatur?
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"Famous War-Time Baseball Will Be Shown at Banquet," reads the headline of the included news clipping from the February 18, 1911 edition of the Los Angeles Express, continuing on to state, "Members of Loyal Legion Will Fondle Old Sphere and Hear Story of the Part It Took in Army Sport During the Stirring Days of '64." The article's text tells the story best, so we shall excerpt passages below:
"Captain France was a member of the Seventeenth New York zouaves, who were attached to the Sixteenth corps under the command of N.S. Granger. There were a number of good ballplayers in the Seventeenth and when, in May '64, the corps was encamped at Decatur, Ala., the baseball enthusiasts conceived the plan of sending to Nashville, 130 miles north, for a ball and bat.
The plan was executed and many a hot game of baseball was played on the parade grounds. When the call for dress parade came and a game was in progress, it was customary for the man having the ball in his hand at the time to keep it until the next game was played.
In this manner the ball was carried on Sherman's march to the sea, through the Atlanta campaign, its siege and capture, then through the Carolinas campaign to Raleigh, Richmond and finally to Washington. At Washington, while the soldiers were waiting to be mustered out, the last game of ball was played. When it was over Lieutenant Barnett was walking off the field with Captain France. 'Here, France,' he called, and gave the ball an underhand toss into France's waiting hands."
The trail of the provenance picks up shortly after the printing of the newspaper article with an undated but clearly very old handwritten letter from Charles H. Pease, a Captain with the 17th New York Veteran Volunteers (Zouaves) who served with France. He writes:
"This ball was used by the Officers of the 17th N.Y. at Decatur, Ala in '62 during the ocupation (sic) by Federal troops and when the 17th received marching orders to go to the front at Atlanta Ga it was in possession of Capt. James S. France who kept it long after the war and finally gave it to my son Harry France Pease in 1915." Pease signs below. The close relationship between these former brothers in arms is apparent in the middle name of Pease's son.
The ball itself is crafted in the lemon peel style typical of the Civil War-era and bears vintage handwritten block-lettered text that reads, "Zouave B.B.C." and "Officers 17th N.Y.V.V.I." The ball is deeply toned but text remains bold and the structural integrity of the sphere is strong with no loose stitching or major defects to the leather. Also here is a modern printed transcript of many of Captain Pease's letters home from the war and a 2011 letter of appraisal from noted Civil War historian Will Gorges. The ball is consigned by the great-great grandson of Capt. Charles H. Pease, with his letter of provenance. Heritage Auctions, calling this ball the most thoroughly documented Civil War baseball
"Captain France was a member of the Seventeenth New York zouaves, who were attached to the Sixteenth corps under the command of N.S. Granger. There were a number of good ballplayers in the Seventeenth and when, in May '64, the corps was encamped at Decatur, Ala., the baseball enthusiasts conceived the plan of sending to Nashville, 130 miles north, for a ball and bat.
The plan was executed and many a hot game of baseball was played on the parade grounds. When the call for dress parade came and a game was in progress, it was customary for the man having the ball in his hand at the time to keep it until the next game was played.
In this manner the ball was carried on Sherman's march to the sea, through the Atlanta campaign, its siege and capture, then through the Carolinas campaign to Raleigh, Richmond and finally to Washington. At Washington, while the soldiers were waiting to be mustered out, the last game of ball was played. When it was over Lieutenant Barnett was walking off the field with Captain France. 'Here, France,' he called, and gave the ball an underhand toss into France's waiting hands."
The trail of the provenance picks up shortly after the printing of the newspaper article with an undated but clearly very old handwritten letter from Charles H. Pease, a Captain with the 17th New York Veteran Volunteers (Zouaves) who served with France. He writes:
"This ball was used by the Officers of the 17th N.Y. at Decatur, Ala in '62 during the ocupation (sic) by Federal troops and when the 17th received marching orders to go to the front at Atlanta Ga it was in possession of Capt. James S. France who kept it long after the war and finally gave it to my son Harry France Pease in 1915." Pease signs below. The close relationship between these former brothers in arms is apparent in the middle name of Pease's son.
The ball itself is crafted in the lemon peel style typical of the Civil War-era and bears vintage handwritten block-lettered text that reads, "Zouave B.B.C." and "Officers 17th N.Y.V.V.I." The ball is deeply toned but text remains bold and the structural integrity of the sphere is strong with no loose stitching or major defects to the leather. Also here is a modern printed transcript of many of Captain Pease's letters home from the war and a 2011 letter of appraisal from noted Civil War historian Will Gorges. The ball is consigned by the great-great grandson of Capt. Charles H. Pease, with his letter of provenance. Heritage Auctions, calling this ball the most thoroughly documented Civil War baseball
Year
1864
1864.101 Officers Play Baseball on Folly Island
Game:
Age of Players:
On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 1864, officers of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry played "a game of base ball" at their camp on Folly Island, near Charleston, SC.
Sources:
Lt Col. Charles Fox, in North and South Magazine, Feb. 2010.
Year
1864
1864.102 152nd NY plays "a game of ball"
Game:
Age of Players:
The diary of Peter Tallman, 152nd NY, while in camp near Stoney Mountain and Brandy Station, VA, records"
April 7, 1864: "Had a game of ball"
April 8, 1864: "we played ball"Sources: Spared and Shared website
Year
1864
1864.103 Cavalry Unit Challenges the 2nd Corps
Game:
Age of Players:
"A Challenge: Sir: The 'Harris Light Base Ball Club' will play any club in the 2d corps a game of base ball, to be governed by the rules of the American Base Ball Association, at any time and place the parties may agree upon. Address: W. B. Shafer, Lieut. Harris' Light Cavalry, 1st brigade, 2nd division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac." The Harris Light was the 2nd New York Cavalry. The challenge was accepted by a NJ regiment in the 6th Corps, with what outcome we don't know.
Sources:
Washington Chronicle, April 21, 1864.
Year
1864
1865.8 First Integrated (Adult) Club Takes the Field?
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
Luther B. Askin of Florence, MA (a hamlet of fewer than 1500 souls lying about 2 miles W of Northampton and about 90 miles W of Boston) is thought to be the first adult of African lineage to play on an integrated team in a standard match game. The first baseman is listed in box-scores of the first 13 matches played by the Florence Eagles Club in 1865.
Sources:
Brian Turner, "America's Earliest Integrated Team?" National Pastime,Number 22 (2002), pages 81-90.
Brian Turner (email to Protoball, 2/1/2014), has supplementary data on early integrated play, and he reports that the 1865 game evidently remains the earliest known case of integrated adult play in a standard game.
Comment:
Florence is recalled as one of the centers of Anti-Slavery activism in those times. The next earliest known instance of integration occurred in 1869 in Oberlin, OH, also a center of Anti-Slavery activism (see Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding Home, 1998, page 102). Further instances of early integration might be found in communities that held similar views.
Brian notes in 2014 that juvenile clubs were apparently less unlikely to engage in integrated play, even prior to the Civil War. The son of Frederick Douglass, for instance, is known to have played on a white junior club in Rochester NY in 1859. Luther Askin also played on such juvenile teams prior to the Civil War.
Query:
Have any earlier instances of integrated adult clubs arisen in recent years?
Year
1865
1865.10 New England Association Formed
Tags:
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
[A] "...the fact is, the Massachusetts and Maine players are so far removed from New York, that they cannot conveniently participate in the meetings of the National Association, and therefore they purpose setting up a duplicate institution...They will, of course, indorse the rules of the National Association...At a meeting lately held at the rooms of the Tri-Mountain Club, the following resolutions were adopted...Resolved, That the Tri-Mountain Base ball Club us its utmost influence and endeavors to secure the formation and organization of a New England Convention of National Baseball Players."
[B] "...A preliminary meeting of Delegates from those Clubs who propose joining the New England Convention of National Base Ball Players will be held on WEDNESDAY next, Oct. 25th, at 12 M., at the Hancock House, Court square, Boston...The following named Clubs have signified their intention of taking part...Tri-Mountain, of Boston, Fly-Away of East Boston, Harvard of Cambridge, Granite of Holliston, King Phillip of East Abingdon, Dictator of Newton, Continental of Newtonville."
[C] "N. E. CONVENTION OF BASE BALL CLUBS.-- A convention of delegates from the Dictator, Eureka, Electric, Fly-Away, Granite, Harvard, King Phillip, Lightfoot, Lowell, Orient, and Tri-Mountain Base Ball Clubs, was held at the Hancock House, yesterday...the association shall be called the New England Association of National Base Ball Clubs."
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, Feb. 19, 1865
[B] Boston Herald, Oct. 21, 1865
[C] Boston Herald, Nov. 9, 1865
Year
1865
1865.12 "Professional" Players? Yes. Playing For Money? No
Game:
Age of Players:
[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..."
Sources:
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, May 7, 1865
[B] New York Sunday Mercury, July 30, 1865
Year
1865
1865.13 Elysian? Yes. Sacred? No.
Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
New York Clipper, May 13, 1865
Year
1865
1865.15 Base Ball for the Haute Monde
Tags:
Age of Players:
"Base Ball. EXCELSIOR OF BROOKLYN VS. KNICKERBOCKER OF NEW YORK. The Excelsior Club of Brooklyn, which in 1860 was the model club of the United States, and which, socially speaking, has but few equals now, had a friendly game with their old competitors of the veteran Knickerbocker Club, the Nestors of base ball, yesterday, at Hoboken, and a most enjoyable meeting it was. On this interesting occasion the busy denizens of Wall street, Exchange place, &c., threw aside their speculative ideas for the time being, and ignoring oil and gold stocks seek the green turf, and with bats and balls chase dull care away in brilliant style."
Sources:
New York Herald, July 8, 1865
Year
1865
1865.16 Boom in Base Ball Travel
Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
Philadelphia National American, reprinted in the New York Evening Post, July 17, 1865
Year
1865
1865.17 Mass Game Survived the Civil War
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"BASE BALL. A very interesting game (Massachusetts) was played on the 17th, between the Warren Club of Roxbury and the Lightfoot Clup of Neponset, on the grounds of the latter."
Sources:
Boston Herald, June 21, 1865
Year
1865
1865.19 The "Slide Game" Protested
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
Anonymous reader communication in the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 24, 1865
Year
1865
1865.21 Fitz Credited With Originating Tournaments
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
“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...”
Sources:
Philadelphia Illustrated New Age, Nov. 1, 1865
Comment:
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.
Year
1865
1865.23 NABBP Meeting Sets Attendance Record
Game:
Age of Players:
[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..."
Sources:
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1865
[B] New York Clipper, December 23, 1865
Year
1865
1865.24 Change Pitchers
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"Their nine [the Stars], however, needs two pitchers on it, no nine being
complete without a change pitcher."
Sources:
New York Clipper, June 10, 1865
Comment:
Earliest comment on need for more than one pitcher on a club. From a 19cbb post by Robert Schaefer, Nov. 9, 2003
Year
1865
1865.25 Three Mutuals Banned for "Heaving" Game to Eckfords for $100
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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.
Sources:
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.
Year
1865
1865.26 Otis MA Bests Lee MA at Wicket, 236 - 232
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Game:
Age of Players:
Lee, August 21, 1865
"To the Editor of the Pittsfield Sun: --
"The long-talked-of match game of wicket ball between the Otis and Lee Clubs, took place on Saturday last, resulting in a victory for the former. The game was well-contests, booth sides manifesting extraordinary skill and zeal, and aside from the one-sided decisions of the Referee, nothing occurred to mar the harmony of the occasion. The following was the result:
"Lee. First Innings 78, Second Innings 80, Third Innings 74, Total 232.
"Otis. First Innings 73, Second Innings 79, Third Innings 84, Total 236.
"It appears that the Otis Club were allowed to furnish a Referee -- and they furnished one who was a resident of [nearby] Sandisfield. In the minor details, when called upon to decide a question, he was so manifestly unjust as to bring forth showers of hisses from the spectators.
"The Lee Club have again challenged the Otis Club to play a match game for $50 and the suppers. If the challenge is accepted, it is to be hoped that an impartial referee may be chosen, who will be acceptable to both Clubs."
Sources:
Pittsfield Sun, August 24, 1865, page 2.
Year
1865
1865.27 First Organized Base Ball Game in NC?
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
The New York Clipper, April 29, 1865
Year
1865
1865.28 Union Guards at Elmira Prison Play Baseball with Confederate POWs
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
James E. Hare, "Elmira," p. 75
Year
1865
1865.29 Ballplaying at Appomattox surrender?
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Year
1865
1865.31 Union soldiers play baseball with Confederates
Age of Players:
"A letter from the Army of the Potomac dated the 1st inst., says that for five hours after the truce was declared along our lines in front of the 9th Corps, thousands of our boys threw down their arms and engaged in ball playing with the rebel soldiers. The utmost good feeling prevailed..."
This "truce" appears to have been connected with the Hampton Roads Peace Conference, and probably occurred Jan. 29th, 1865.
If true, this would be perhaps the first verified instance of ball playing between the two sides, in a battlefield situation. The story was printed in many newspapers that month. However, no contemporary diary mentions this event.
Sources:
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 6, 1865
Year
1865
1865.32 133rd New York plays an amateur club
Age of Players:
The Washington Daily National Republican, May 19, 1865 reports on a game at Fort Meigs, near DC, where the 133rd New York lost to the National Club of DC 32-27. Gives a box score.
Fort Meigs was on the eastern edge of DC, in Maryland.
Sources:
The Washington Daily National Republican, May 19, 1865. The New York Sunday Mercury, May 21, 1865.
Year
1865
1865.34 Sherman's army plays base-ball in SC
Location:
Age of Players:
The Madison State Journal, Feb. 28, 1865 prints a letter from a soldier in the 22nd WI, dated Feb. 1, 1865, Robertsville, SC, which claims: "For the first time in an month, large numbers of men are engaged in the sports of school-boy days--the running leap, the wrestle and the base ball."
Sources:
The Madison State Journal, Feb. 28, 1865
Year
1865
1865.38 Ball Playing at Andersonville POW Camp
Age of Players:
The January 5, 1865 diary entry of W. H. Smith, a prisoner of war at Andersonville POW camp, says “Capt. Wirz gives me a pass to go to hospital. Have been down there all afternoon playing ball.”
Andersonville is in western Georgia. It is about 55 miles E of Columbus GA, which is on the Alabama border. It was the site of the most notorious and deadly camp for Union POWs.
Year
1865
1865.40 Soldiers Play Baseball while waiting to be mustered out
Age of Players:
The National Tribune, Aug. 23, 1906 prints an article about how, while in Alexandria waiting to be mustered out of service, soldiers of the 186th New York played a team from the 51st Pennsylvania. According to the article, the 186th won so decisively that the 51st would never play them again.
Records show that the 51st PA arrived in Alexandria May 25, 1865, and that the mustering out took place from July 16-27. The 186th was mustered out June 2, 1865. The game must have taken place in late May or early June.
Sources:
The National Tribune, Aug. 23, 1906
Year
1865
1865.41 Helath Benefits of Baseball to Soldiers
In 1865, a report of the U.S. Sanitary Commission titled "Rules for Preserving the Health of the Soldier" observed:
"27. When practicable, amusements, sports and gymnastic exercises should be favored amongst the men: such as running, leaping, wrestling, fencing, bayonet exercise, cricket, base-ball, foot-ball, quoits, &c. &c."
Sources:
U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1865 report
Comment:
This is an official acknowledgement by the US army (or at least the affiliated sanitary commission) of the health benefits of baseball
Year
1865
1865.42 Wicket Club Switches to Baseball
The Hartford Evening Post, Sept. 9, 1865, reports that the Eagle Wicket Club of Waterbury "prefers base ball and have been changed to the Monitors."
Sources:
The Hartford Evening Post, Sept. 9, 1865
Year
1865
1865.43 First baseball in North Carolina?
Game:
Age of Players:
While stationed at Morehead City, the 159th and 176th New York played baseball games on March 28 and April 11, 1865.
Year
1865
1865.44 Baseballs don't survive one inning
Game:
Age of Players:
The Story of a Cannoneer under Stonewall Jackson by Edward a. Moore.
Page 273-- "The greatest difficulty incurred in having a game of ball, was the procurement of a ball that would survive even one inning. One fair blow from the bat would sometimes scatter it into so many fragments that the batter would claim that there were not enough remains caught by any one fielder to put him out."
Sources:
The Story of a Cannoneer under Stonewall Jackson by Edward a. Moore
Year
1865
1866c.1 Umps Finally Begin to Call Strikes and Balls
Age of Players:
Association rules permitted umps to call strikes in 1858, and to call balls in 1864, and it's a little hard for us to imagine a game in which those features were missing. But when did they become common?
"The safe generalization is that balls and strikes were rarely called before 1866, gradually became more and more a routine part of the game, with the process reaching completion at some point in the professional era."
Having found and summarized over 25 newspaper articles from 1858 to 1872, Richard suggests three factors that delayed implementation of the key rules:
[1] Close calls were disputed, making umpiring uncongenial.
[2] Players didn't insist on called pitches, even though longer games resulted when umpires declined to make calls.
[3] Resistance to novelty, especially outside greater New York city.
Sources:
Richard Hershberger, "When Did Umpires
Start Calling Balls and Strikes?," available on Protoball at <url>. Page 5 of 7.
Circa
1866
1866.2 Early African American Club in Philly Plays Initial Game Agains Albany Visitors
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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.
Sources:
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.
Year
1866
1866.3 Five-Home Run game
Game:
Age of Players:
Lipman Pike hit 5 home runs for the Athletic BBC of Philadelphia on July 16, 1866, a feat never equaled.
Sources:
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.
Year
1866
1866.4 Admission charged for Atlantic - Athletic championship matches
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
Eric Miklich, "Money Ball-- Atlantics vs. Athletics", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 51-52.
Year
1866
1866.5 Modern Game Compared to Traditional Town Ball in IL
Tags:
"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.
Sources:
Illinois State Journal, May 10, 1866.
Query:
() 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?
Year
1866
1866.6 First Known Table-top Base Ball Game Appears
Game:
Age of Players:
John Thorn writes:
"Who is the Father of Fantasy Baseball? Most today will answer Dan Okrent or Glen Waggoner, but let me propose Francis C. Sebring, the inventor of the table game of Parlor Base-Ball. In the mid-1860s Sebring was the pitcher (clubs only needed one back then) for the Empire Base Ball Club of New York (and bowler for the Manhattan Cricket Club). At some time around the conclusion of the Civil War, this enterprising resident of Hoboken was riding the ferry to visit an ailing teammate in New York. The idea of making an indoor toy version of baseball came to him during this trip, and over the next year he designed his mechanical table game; sporting papers of 1867 carried ads for his “Parlor Base-Ball” and the December 8, 1866, issue of Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly carried a woodcut of young and old alike playing the game. A few weeks earlier, on November 24, Wilkes' Spirit of the Times had carried the first notice. (In a previous 2011 post I discussed other fantasy-baseball forerunners, from Chief Zimmer's game to Ethan Allen's: http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2011/10/17/fathers-of-fantasy-baseball/)
Sources:
Our Game posting, June 2, 2014; see -- http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2014/06/02/first-baseball-table-game/. An illustrated advertisement for Parlor Base-Ball had appeared in Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, December 8, 1866.
Comment:
The game had spring-loaded mechanisms for delivering a one-cent piece from a pitcher to a batter and by a batter into a field with cavities: "a pinball machine is not very different," John observes.
For a short history of table-top games, see
baseballgames.dreamhosters.com/BbHistory.htm
Query:
[] are there other reliable published sources of the evolution of table-top games, besides John's 2011 blog?
[] is anyone known to be attempting to reconstruct and play this game, or others?
[] can we determine what game events are given in the field of this apparatus?
Year
1866
1866.8 Earned Runs Concept Advanced
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury, September 2, 1866, per 19cbb post by Richard Hershberger, Sep. 4, 2012
Comment:
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!
Year
1866
1866.11 California Clubs Hold Conventions, View Championship Games
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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.
Sources:
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.
Comment:
Is there an indication of what standardization was needed, and whether rules were discussed or adopted that wee at variance with New York rules?
Query:
Can we determine what original sources Zingg and Medeiros used?
Year
1866
1866.15 Vassar has First female Base ball club?
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
The Vassar Encyclopedia
Year
1866
1866.17 Baseball Introduced to the Richmond Public as a Novelty From the North
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
Richmond Daily Dispatch, 31 August 1866
Comment:
"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
Year
1866
1866.18 Stoolball in Selmeston
Game:
"Another early game played in Selmeston, as well as other villages in East Sussex, was stoolball (sometimes called “cricket in the air” ). This game was first recorded being played in 1450, and gets a mention in The Two Noble Kinsmen, a play attributed to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. It is also referred to in Parish’s dictionary by the name of bittle-battle.
Stoolball was probably at its height from 1866 to 1887 when the Selmeston Harvest Bugs were often matched against other local teams such as the Firle Blues, the Glynde Butterflies and the Chailey Grasshoppers. It was revived during the First World War at the Royal Brighton Pavilion Military Hospital for the injured troops, as it was not as strenuous as the proper game of cricket. Stoolball is still being played today in East Sussex and, until very recently, was a feature of the annual Selmeston Flower Show."
Year
1866
1867.1 New York and Philly Colored Clubs Hold Championship -- Philly Win Is Disputed
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Age of Players:
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…
Sources:
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.
Comment:
Was the October 4th game played between these African American clubs?
Query:
Is this game properly thought of as a national championship?
Year
1867
1867.2 Colored Clubs Play in Philly: Frederick Douglass Attends a Game
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Age of Players:
Notables:
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.
Sources:
[A] New York Clipper, July 13, 1867.
[B] New York Clipper, July 27, 1867.
Comment:
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.
Year
1867
1867.3 Upset Gives Western Clubs First win vs. the East
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
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
Year
1867
1867.4 Cummings' Curve Curtails Crimson's Clouting
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Game:
Age of Players:
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
Sources:
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.
Warning:
There are many issues with any individual claim to invention of the curve ball.
Year
1867
1867.5 Morrisania Club Takes 1867 Championship, 14-13
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Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
Gregory Christiano, Baseball in the Bronx, Before the Yankees (PublishAmerica, 2013), page 75. Original sources to be supplied.
Query:
Can we add something about the first game, and the sites of each game? A bit more about interim game scoring?
Year
1867
1867.6 Batters' "Hits" First Appear in a Game Report
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Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
The Ball Players' Chronicle (New York City, NY), 6 June 1867: p. 2.
Comment:
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/
Query:
Do we know if Hits were defined in about the way we would define them today?
Year
1867
1867.7 Nationals Inaugurate Western Tours
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Game:
Age of Players:
"...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."
Sources:
Greg Rhodes,19cbb post June 17, 2002
Year
1867
1867.8 Signs Go Back To At Least 1867
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Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
Haney's Book of Base Ball Reference, 1867
Comment:
19cbb post by Peter Morris, Nov. 8, 2002
Year
1867
1867.10 Mitts in Michigan
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Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
Detroit Free Press, 8/4/1867, reference in 19cbb post #2124, Aug. 4, 2003
Year
1867
1867.12 Post-War Spread of Baseball Noted
Tags:
Game:
"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. "
Sources:
Milwaukee Sentinel, July 25, 1867, per 19cbb post by Dennis Pajot, Jan. 28, 2010
Year
1867
1867.13 Moneyball 1867
Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
New York Daily News, April 21, 1867, per 19cbb post by Richard Hershberger, Sep. 30, 2013
Comment:
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.
Year
1867
1867.14 NABBP Draws Color Line
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Game:
Age of Players:
"...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.
Sources:
The Ball Players’ Chronicle December 19, 1867
Year
1867
1867.15 First Uniform with Serif Letter on Shirt
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Game:
Age of Players:
The Pastime Club of Baltimore was the first to display a serif letter on its shirts, in 1867.
Sources:
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1867-pastime-baltimore/
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
Year
1867
1867.16 Baseball's Resemblance to English Rounders Discussed
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Game:
Age of Players:
"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
Sources:
[from “Yankee Pastimes” by “A Yankee”], Sydney Morning Herald April 11, 1867, quoting the London Spectator.
Comment:
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
Query:
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?
Year
1867
1867c.17 Some First Female teams and games in US cities
Tags:
The games and clubs entries in the "Pre-Pro Baseball Database" contain the following entries (and years) for female/women/girl/ladies teams and clubs (as of 7-10-2018):
1866--Vassar
1867--Pensacola, Portsmouth
1868--Nashville, Peterboro NY
1869--Evanston, IL
1870--Rockford, Cincinnati, Lancaster Ohio
1871--Elgin, IL
1874--Pittsfield, NH
1874--Prospect Hill School in Greenfield, MA (Indianapolis News, May 16, 1874)
1875--Springfield, IL
1876--Virginia, IL
1884--Glendive, MT
1895--Fox Lake, IL
1914--Nome, AK
Sources:
See Pre-Pro Baseball Database on this website
Circa
1867
1867.17 First Multi-Racial Baseball Team?
Game:
The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 31, 1867, ran a box score on what may be the first reported baseball match in Hawaii, between the Pacific and Pioneer Clubs.
The players for the Pacifics included three non-Anglo names: J. Nakookoo, 2b; J. Naone, ss; and G. Laanui, rf. The Pacifics won the game 11-9.
Now, baseball had been played at the famed Punahou School for years and that school included pupils from prominent Polynesian-Hawaiian and Anglo-Hawaiian families.
This might be the first club integrated with Asians. Florence, MA in 1865 had a black player on their club.
The same issue of the newspaper included a report on the formation of a "pure Hawaiian" (presumably Polynesian-Hawaiian) team:
A new base ball club will soon be organized, to be composed entirely of pure Hawaiians.... The Pioneers and Pacifics [the 2 existing clubs, which played in the game above] will have to look out for their laurels."
Sources:
The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 31, 1867
Year
1867
1867.18 First Inter-Racial Baseball Game?
Age of Players:
Between a Haole (white) team and a "native" (Polynesian) team, won by the latter 11-9. See
http://protoball.org/Pacific_Club_of_Honolulu_v_Pioneer_Club_of_Honolulu_on_24_August_1867 and sources cited therein.
Year
1867
1867.19 "Bat and Ball" featured in Chicago picnic
Game:
The Chicago Tribune, July 18, 1867 has an ad for the 6th annual St. George's Day picnic. Among the "old English sports" to be played at the picnic are cricket and "trap, bat and ball."
Sources:
The Chicago Tribune, July 18, 1867
Year
1867
1867.21 Wisconsin's First State Base Ball Tourney Lists $1500 in Prizes
Tags:
Game:
"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. . . ."
Sources:
"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.)
Comment:
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
Query:
[A] Is "Pony Club" a common term for teen clubs?
- - from John Thorn, 9/22/20: "The Clipper has citations for "pony team" from 1874 on, perhaps signifying junior team or just whippersnappers. Here, from Sept 8, 1888:"
BOSTON, Sept 2 . —Coming home with a record of seven victories in eight games is a far different thing from doing so after having won four games out of twenty. Add to this the fact that three straight victories were gained over New York on their own heath and that by what Boston fans look upon as a pony team, and it is little wonder that the warmest and most enthusiastic kind of a welcome was bestowed upon the Boston team on Thursday last and that cheer after cheer greeted the appearance of the nine and each man as he stepped to the bat.
---
[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)."
Year
1867
1867.22 Eureka! A Press Credential
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury, June 23, 1867
Comment:
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.
Query:
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?
Year
1867
1867.25 The End for the Massachusetts Game?
Tags:
"The Massachusetts Base Ball Association, composed of clubs playing what is know [sic] as the Massachusetts game, has been broken up, and most of the clubs are now practicing the National game."
Sources:
Boston American Traveler, July 20, 1867.
Comment:
Bob Tholkes, 5/6/2021: "Didn't know there was a funeral announcement."
Richard Hershberger, 5/6/2021: "I don't know of any report of the association meeting or otherwise showing any sign of life after the war."
In a 5/9/2021 search, Protoball doesn't find one after 1866 either.
Note: Protoball has an 1868 clipping of a throwback game (28 innings, score 24-23) played by Mass rules. See https://protoball.org/Clipping:The_Mohawk_Club_reverts_to_amateur.
Query:
Might the New England Base Ballist, still alive in 1868, show more about the final passing on the game?
All in all, does the Mass Game differ in major ways from English Base Ball as we now understand it?
Year
1867
1867.27 Union Club Offers Season Tickets in Washington Paper
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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."
Sources:
Daily Morning Chronicle, September 3, 1867.
Comment:
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.
Query:
Is earlier use of season tickets known?
Year
1867
1867.28 First Detailed Set of Rules for Stoolball Appear
Tags:
Location:
Game:
"RULES OF STOOLBALL
1. The ball to be that usually known as best tennis, No. 3.
2. The [paddle-shaped] bat not to be more than 8 inches in diameter.
3. The wickets to be boards one foot square, mounted on a stake; the top of the wicket to be four feet nine inches from the ground. One of these wickets to be selected by the umpire as that to which the ball shall be bowled.
4. The wickets to be 16 yards apart, and the bowling crease to be eight yards from the striker's wicket.
5. The bowler shall bowl the ball, not throw it or jerk it, and when bowling the ball shall stand with at least one foot behind the crease.
6. The striker is out, if the ball when bowled hit the wicket.
7. Or, if the ball, having been hit, is caught in the hands of one of the opposite party.
8. Or, if while running, or preparing or pretending to run, the ball itself be thrown by one of the opposite party so as to hit the face of the wicket; or if any one of the opposite party with ball in hand touch the face of the wicket before the bat of either of the strikers touch the same.
9. Or, if the ball be struck and the striker willfully strike it again.
10. If the ball be hit by the striker, or pass the wicket so as to allow time for a run to be obtained, the strikers may obtain a run by running across from one wicket to the other.
11. If, in running, the runners have crossed each other, she who runs for the wicket whick is struck by the ball is out.
12. A striker being run out, the run which was attempted shall not be scored.
13. A ball being caught, so that the striker is out, no run shall be scored.
14. If "lost ball" be called, the striker shall be lowed three runs; but if more than three have been run before "lost ball" has been called, then the striker shall have all that have been run.
15. The umpires, one for each wicket, are the sole judges of fair or unfair play; and all disputes shall be settled by them, each at is own wicket; but n the case of any doubt on the part of an umpire, the other umpire may be by him requested to give an opinion, which opinion shall be decisive.
16. The umpires are not to order any striker out unless asked by one of the opposite party.
17. The umpires are not to give directions to either party when acting as umpires, but shall be strictly impartial.
N.B. The bat is in form similar to a battledore."
--
Note: These appear to be, other than Willughby's circa1672 of a non-running version of stoolball and and Strutt's 1801 general description, the first known full set of rules for stoolball, appearing over four centuries after the game's first known play.
Sources:
Andrew Lusted, Girls Just Wanted to Have Fun; Stoolball Reports to Local Newspapers 1747 to 1866, (Andrew Lusted, 2013), inside front cover.
These rules are attributed to William De St. Croix, 1819-1877.
See also Andrew Lusted, The Glynde Butterflies Stoolball Team, 1866-1887: England's first Female Sports Stars (Andrew Lusted, 2011).
Query:
As a set, do these rules resemble contemporary rules for cricket in the 1860s? Do they align with cricket rules in 1800?
Do we know what the ball was like? Presumably, tennis balls were hand-wound string in this era, and the ball may have resembled cricket balls and base balls for the era.
Year
1867
1867.29 Challenge to a game of Two Old Cat
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
Challenge to a game of two old cat issued.
Sources:
Lockport Journal Courier, July 20, 1867
Year
1867
1867.30 First Patented Baseball Object
"I believe this is the first patented baseball game or toy: Isaac P. Tice's "Toy Ball-Player" of 1867. “Base-Ball Table” was patented by William Buckley of New York on August 20, 1867 but this came along one month earlier."
Sources:
John Thorn, FB Posting, 11/21/2023
Warning:
7
Year
1867
1868.2 "Hits Per Game" Added to Standard Batting Stats
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 5 December 1868: p. 275.
.
Comment:
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/
Year
1868
1868c.5 The Manufactured "Figure 8" Base Ball Appears?
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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)
Sources:
Letter to The Sporting Life from C.H. Jackson, West Brookfield, MA, November 4, 1888 -- printed November 14, 1888.
Comment:
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."
Circa
1868
1868.6 "Ladies Base Ball and Croquet" club formed in Kalamazoo
Tags:
Location:
The Kalamazoo Telegraph, May 29, 1868 reports that local ladies have formed a "base ball and croquet club," have already practiced base ball, and hope to play the men at some future date.
Sources:
The Kalamazoo Telegraph, May 29, 1868
Year
1868
1869.1 "The Best Played Game on Record"
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
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.
Year
1869
1869.2 The Only Blemish
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
Greg Rhodes, "Unbeaten but Tied-- Cincinnati vs. Unions", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 65-67
Year
1869
1869.3 Inter-Racial Game in Philadelphia
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
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.
Comment:
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.
Year
1869
1869c.4 Diana Base Ball Club of Northwestern Female Seminary
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
In the fall of 1869, a number of newspapers reported on the existence of the Diana Female Base Ball Club at the "Northwestern Seminary" at Evanston. There has been some confusion in secondary sources about this team, with some scholars linking it to Northwestern University. This is incorrect. The Northwestern Female College (as it was known) was a separate institution from the University. The latter did not admit its first female student until Fall semester 1869. One female student could not have organized a baseball club. Further evidence that the Diana Base Ball Club was composed of younger girls, not college women, is the fact that a junior "pony club" of boys challenged them to a match game. (There is no evidence this game was ever played.) By way of further clarification, the Northwest Female College operated until 1871 when its trustees handed over responsibility for educating young women to the trustees of the newly-chartered Evanston College for Ladies. The original intent of the founders was to operate as the Women's Department of Northwestern University. This did not happen until 1874 when it became the Women's College of Northwestern University. Frances Willard, who would later gain international fame as head of the Women's Christian Temperance Union was a graduate of the Northwestern Female College and first president of the Evanston College for Ladies.
Sources:
Chicago Times (22 Oct 1869), p. 6. Quoted in: Robert Pruter, "Youth Baseball in Chicago, 1868-1890: Not Always Sandlot Ball," Journal of Sport History, 26.1 (Spring 1999): 1-28. Also, The National Chronicle (Boston) (30 Oct 1869), p. 259, “All Shapes and Sizes,” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier (8 Nov 1869), n.p., “The Playground: Our National Game,” Oliver Optic's Magazine: Our Boys and Girls (20 Nov. 1869): 639.
Circa
1869
1869.5 Hits Elevated to Prominent Status in Box Scores
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
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."
Sources:
The Ball Players' Chronicle (New York City, NY), 19 September 1867.
Comment:
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/
Year
1869
1869.6 Slugging Stat Arrives in Early Form
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
“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.
Sources:
New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 4 December 1869: p. 277.
Comment:
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/
Year
1869
1869.7 Cincinnati Club Forms as First All-Professional Nine
Game:
Age of Players:
Notables:
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..."
Sources:
Rhodes, Greg & Erardi, John, The First Boys of Summer. Road West Publishing Co., 1994, p.4
Year
1869
1869.11 First Club to Wear Checked/Plaid Stockings
Game:
The National Club of Washington DC was the first to use checked or plaid stockings on their uniforms.
Sources:
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1869-national-washington-dc
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
Year
1869
1869.12 Pastimes Adopt First Striped Stockings for Uniforms
Game:
Age of Players:
The Pastime Club of Baltimore was, in 1869, the first to wear striped stockings on their uniforms.
Sources:
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1869-pastime-baltimore/
For more uniform firsts see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/
Year
1869
1869.13 George Wright Joins the All-Professional Cincinnati Club
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
Robert Tholkes, "The Young and the Restless: George Wright 1865-1868." Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2016, pp. 95-101.
Comment:
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.
Year
1869
1869.14 First Known Inter-racial Game of Base-Ball
Age of Players:
"A very interesting game of base-ball was played on the Newtown Grounds on Saturday afternoon, August 7, between the Black Hawks (colored), of Africa, and the Alerts (white) of Plainville. . . . "
The account included a box score showing the Black Hawks as winners, 47-43.
Sources:
Cincinnati Enquirer, August 11, 1869.
Comment:
Newtown OH (1880 pop. about 400) is about 10 miles east of Cincinnati, and is across the Little Miami River from Plainville OH.
Previously the September 3, 1869 Pythians-Olympic match in Philadelphia was seen as the first game between a white and non-white club. See 1869.3
Year
1869
1869.15 Teams Hassle Over Choice of Game Ball -- The Redstockings Liked the Less-elastic Variety
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"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.
Sources:
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, June 27, 1869
Comment:
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.
From 1869 through 1872, the ball got slightly smaller, ranging 9 1/4" circ to 9 1/2" in 1869, to 9" to 9 1/4+ circ in 1872. The ball didn't get any lighter in weight, ranging 5 to 5 1/4 oz in all 4 years. The ball has not changed size or weight since 1872. A modern ball today has same dimensions. It just got harder with use of machines. In all 4 of those years, the materials specified are India rubber, yarn and a leather cover.
In 1869 it was specified that the "challenging club" would provide the ball. In 1870 through 1872, it was added that the "challenged club" would provide the ball in game 2, and if it were just a single game being played (vs match play) the ball would be provided by the "challenging club".
In 1871 they stipulated the rubber core would weigh 1 ounce. In 1872 they added not only the 1 ounce, but it would be vulcanized into a mould form. Other than that, there were no stipulations on elasticity. Ball makers were known for their type of ball and as long as it met the weight and size and materials guidance, it was a ball.
They did eventually require all match play base balls be stamped with the size, weight and manufacturer.
Cricket balls were 5 1/4 ounce and 9 inches.. very similar to where the base ball finally ended up in 1872. It was written that the larger base ball (from 1858 thru 1868) was probably cause for more injuries to the hands. Cricket was not known as much for hand injuries and they felt the size of that ball (smaller) was a safer ball. I don't think it is a coincidence that the 1872 ball ended up where it did in size and weight. I have not heard of the start of cricket games being delayed over ball elasticity, so would assume they were more consistent in their ball making."
Year
1869
1870.1 The Streak Ends -- Reds Fall to Atlantic, 8-7, in 11 Innings
Game:
Age of Players:
On June 14, 1870, The Atlantic of Brooklyn broke the Cincinnati Red Stockings' 81-game winning streak, beating them 8-7 in 11 innings.
Sources:
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.
Comment:
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.
Year
1870
1870.2 "Chicagoed"
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
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
Year
1870
1870.3 "Homer" Ump Robs Mutuals
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
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
Comment:
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.
Year
1870
1870.6 Dead Ball Adopted
Game:
Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
Peter Morris, A Game of Inches, 2005, p.37
Comment:
Critics of the game had long insisted that low-scoring games were indicated play of higher quality.
Year
1870
1870c.7 First Catcher's Glove? About 1870, Perhaps
Game:
Age of Players:
"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.”
Sources:
Cincinnati Commercial, June 29, 1870.
Comment:
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.
Year
1870
1870c.8 Base Ball Comes to Massachusetts Youth
Tags:
Age of Players:
"I well remember when baseball made its first appearance in our quiet little community."
[] Charles Sinnott writes that in early childhood "the little boys' ball game was either "Three-old-cats" or "Four-Old Cats," and describes both variations.
[] He recalls that "The game that bore the closest resemblance to our modern baseball was "roundstakes" or "rounders." In some communities it was know (sic) as "townball." He recalls this game as marked by the plugging of runners, use a soft ball, featuring stakes or stones as bases, compulsory running -- including for missed third strikes, an absence of foul territory, an absence of called strikes or balls, and teams of seven to ten players on a team. "It was originally an old English game much played in the colonies."
[] In describing the new game of base ball, he recalls adjustment to the harder ball ("it seemed to us like playing with a croquet ball"), gloves only worn by the catchers, an umpire who was hit in the eye by a foul tip, fingers "knocked out of joint" by the hard ball, a bloody nose from a missed fly ball, and "that we unanimously pronounced [base ball] superior to our fine old game of roundstakes."
SEE FULL CHAPTER TEXT AT "SUPPLEMENTAL TEXT," BELOW --
Sources:
Chapter 13, "The Coming of Baseball," in When Grandpa Was a Boy: Stories of My Boyhood As Told to My Children and Grandchildren, by Charles Peter Sinnott (four types pages; presumed unpublished; from the Maxwell Library Archives, Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater MA).
Comment:
Protoball does not know of other use of "roundstakes" as a predecessor game in the US.
Duxbury MA (1870 population about 2300) is about 35 miles south of Boston.
Sinnott died in 1943. On the date of his hundredth birthday, in August 1959, his family distributed 100 copies of his boyhood memoirs.
Query:
[] Is the date "1870c" reasonable for the item? Sinnott was born in 1859, and writes that he was in his teens when he first saw base ball. His old-cat games would have come in the mid-1860s.
[] It is presumed that Sinnott stayed in or near his birthplace, Duxbury MA, for the events he writes of. Is that reasonable?
Circa
1870
1870.9 Lively Ball Suspected in Mutual-Olympic Game
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"It was supposed that a lively ball was played with, on account of the heavy batting [Mutual had 31 hits and 29 runs]. Both the Olympic games of yesterday and Monday were played with a ball that contained but half an ounce of rubber; the yarn and covering bringing it up to regulation weight."
Sources:
New York Tribune, September 14, 1870.
For a concise account of rules on baseballs, see Chapter 17 ("The Ball and Bat"), in Richard Hershberger, Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball, (Rowan and Littlefield, 2019, pp 121-126.
Comment:
Richard Hershberger annotation, 9/14/2020: "Missing from [the formal rule on ball makeup] is any discussion of relative proportions of rubber and yarn. In other words, how much rubber? Rubber is denser than yarn, so the size and weight requirements imply a range of legal proportions between the two. Some clubs were rumored to get around this, having illegal balls made with extra rubber, balanced by cork. . . . There were learned discussions of the merits of lively and dead balls, and arguments before the game started over what ball to use. Also, the occasional surreptitious switch mid-game."
Ball Four points out [pp 124-125) that a limit of one ounce of rubber was defined for a regulation ball in 1871. In 1876, the new National League addressed the issue by requiring clubs to use a standard Spalding ball in its games, thus lessening suspicion the club that provides a game ball thereby gains competitive advantage.
Query:
Were the weights and/or circumferences of balls subject to impartial tests at or before games?
Year
1870
1870.10 Philly Paper Lists Betting Odds for US Championship Match in Brooklyn
Tags:
Game:
Age of Players:
"The Athletic Base Ball Club [of Philadelphia]has again been defeated, making the sixth thrashing [of 11-10] which they have received during the present season. This afternoon [September 15] they played on the Union Grounds, in Brooklyn, the deciding game for the championship of the United States, with the Mutual Club . . . . Bets were freely offered prior to the game of a hundred to fifty . . . but even at these heavy odds there were few takers." The crowd was reported as about three thousand persons.
Sources:
"Another Defeat," Philadelphia Inquirer, September 16, 1870. As reproduced on Richard Hershberger's Facebook posting, September 15, 2020
Comment:
"Note also how the betting line is featured prominently in the account. The baseball press routinely decried the influence of gambling on baseball, while carefully reporting the odds. Consistency was not a priority here.
"The crowd of three thousand seems a bit low. It is respectable for this era, but a really big game would draw a lot more. The Philadelphians claimed that that the A's held the championship, with this loss passing it to the Mutuals. No one outside Philadelphia really believed the A's held the championship, or more would have turned out today."
-- Richard Hershberger, 9/15/2020
Year
1870
1870.11 Chicago Switches to the Dead Ball, Starts Winning Again
Location:
Game:
Age of Players:
"Circumstances prevented any improvement in the organization of the [White Sox] nine until some weeks after their return from their disastrous [New York] tour; finally, however, the nine was re-organized . . . the muffin players' rubber ball was re-placed by a dead ball, and from the[n] . . .the Chicago club has been marked by a series of uninterrupted victories, the crowning triumph being the defeat of the strongest nine in the United States in two successive contests."
Sources:
New York Clipper October 29, 1870
Comment:
Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball, FB posting 10/29/2020:
Chadwick on the improvement of the Chicago Club. They wisely took his advice and switched from a lively to a dead ball. Success inevitably followed.
Much as I enjoy tweaking Chad for this sort of thing, in fairness it was pretty standard in this era. A newspaper would publish helpful advice to the local club. If the club did something that could plausibly be taken as consistent with the helpful advice, the paper would claim credit for the suggestion. Say what you will about modern sports talk radio, even those guys don't usually claim that the GM turns to them for trade ideas.
Does the claim about the deal ball make a lick of sense? It is classic Chad, but there is a kernel of truth. Good and poor fielding teams generally favored a dead or lively ball respectively, on the grounds that a dead ball gave the infielders a chance to show their stuff while a lively ball was more likely to get to the outfield. The Red Stockings revolution was mostly about improved fielding, so they favored a dead ball. As clubs' fielding caught up, they followed suit. The eventual consensus was a relatively dead ball, with later discussions being how live or not, within the range of a relatively dead ball. So as the White Stockings got their act together, it is entirely plausible that they moved to a dead ball. In other words, they didn't get getter because they switched to a dead ball; they switched to a dead ball because they got better. And certainly not because Chadwick convinced them.
Year
1870
1870.12 Chadwick Ponders Red Stockings' Decline: Lack of Onfield Harmony?
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"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."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury, October 23, 1870.
Comment:
Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball, posted October 23, 2020: "Chadwick considers the question of the Red Stockings' decline. How steep a decline this is in fact will be the topic for a post-season roundup. The season has a bit more to go yet, so this would be premature today. But it is certainly true that the Red Stockings are no longer dominant in the way they were in 1869.
"Chad, frankly, doesn't have a great answer. The "lack of harmony" stuff is boilerplate Chadwick, and he doesn't even pretend he has any factual basis for it. Beyond that he falls back on a parity argument. This isn't wrong, but doesn't explain what is different in 1870 from 1869. The rest of the baseball world was catching up, but he doesn't explain what exactly this means.
"The Red Stockings revolution was primarily about fielding. Their pitching and hitting were solid, but their fielding in 1869 was qualitatively better than anyone else's. This was about fielder positioning and where they went once the ball was in play, with an emphasis on backing up other players. And, to be blunt, it was about actually practicing. The New York/Philly baseball establishment had grown complacent. The clubs at the top saw no reason to change, since what they were doing obviously was working. That changed with the Red Stockings' June 1869 tour. That was a wake up call. By the end of the season the established teams were already better. It was June of 1870 when one finally beat the Red Stockings. Here in October, teams are beating them, well, not exactly regularly, but often enough. So it goes. Play in the field is in front of anyone who cares to look, so there aren't really any secrets in the long run."
Year
1870
1870.13 November News: Will the Atlantic Club Stay Strong?
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"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."
Sources:
New York Sunday Mercury November 13, 1870.
http://www.brooklynatlantics.org/history.php, (accessed 11/13/2020).
Comment:
"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.
Year
1870
1870.14 Boston, Other Towns Eye "First-Class Professional Nines" Like the Red Stockings
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[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.
Sources:
Brooklyn Eagle, November 17, 1870.
Comment:
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."
Query:
Do we know more about the fate of the Union Grounds and Boston sports?
Year
1870
1870.15 Chadwick Explains Rule Shifts on Called Strikes, Deliberate Flubs Afield
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[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."
Sources:
New York Clipper, November 26, 1870 (attributed to Henry Chadwick.)
Comment:
"The bit [#4] about high and low balls is an important refinement of an old idea. Called strikes had been around for a while by this time, but there was never total clarity about what was and was not a pitch that should be called a strike. Through the 1860s the batter could request a specific height for the pitch. If the delivery was both over the plate and within some vaguely defined distance to the specified height, there you go. In [early] 1870 they went complete the other direction, taking away the batter's right to request a height and declaring any pitch within some vaguely defined reach of the bat to be a good ball. This proved unsatisfactory and confusing. Here we see a move to a modernish definition of a strike zone, but with a throwback to the old right to request the height. This is codified as two distinct strike zones, the batter requesting which he wants. This may seem bizarre, but it stood until 1887.
"The other interesting proposal is that last one [#9], about the fielder momentarily holding the ball. This is a proto-infield fly rule. That will not take its modern form until a quarter century later, but the idea was floating around. This will not be adopted this year, but it will be a few years later. The problem was not any philosophical objection to the infielder dropping the ball to set up a double play, but that this made umpire decide whether the fielder caught the ball (putting the batter out) and then dropped it, or muffed the ball (for no out on the batter), leading to endless bickering. This objection still stands today, and is the best argument for the infield fly rule."
-- Richard Hershberger, "150 Years Ago Today," Facebook posting, 11/26/2020
Year
1870
1870.16 Red Stocking Leader Explains Background for Club Decision to Exit Pro Base Ball Scene
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Notables:
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."
Sources:
"How Cincinnati Supports Base Ball," Cincinnati Gazette, December 8, 1870. From Richard Hershberger, "150 Years ago in Base Ball, FB posting, 12/7/2020.
Comment:
"The Cincinnati Club holds a meeting. Recall that the Executive Committee recently announced that the club will not be fielding a professional team next season. This meeting is the membership's chance to second guess the committee. There is a moral there, about volunteering to be a club officers. Been there, done that.
"Here Champion backs up [Current President ]Bonte without reservation. We get a lot of inside information about the business of baseball in 1870." -- Richard Hershberger (From FB posting. 12/7/2020.)
Year
1870
1870.17 Wicket Losing Out to Baseball
The Hartford Courant, Sept. 3, 1870 reports that though baseball has just about "crowded out" the "old-fashioned" game of wicket, a wicket game will be played in Bristol between the married men and the single men.
Sources:
The Hartford Courant, Sept. 3, 1870
Year
1870