Property:Warning

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<p> </p> <table class="stats"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p><span>Note:</span> Protoball is not familiar enough with 1860s humor to determine exactly how authentic this report is. Bare ball-shooting guns sound pretty iffy.  But 1867 was the start of Base Ball Fever, and we guess someone might have tried mounted forms of the game.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>  +
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<p><br/>On the 16th inst., the Union Club, of Richmond, a new organization, comprised of residents of Richmond, sent a challenge to the Richmond Club, the message sent being as follows:<br/>ROOMS UNION BASEBALL CLUB<br/>Richmond, Va., September 16, 1866</p><br/>SECRETARY OF THE RICHMOND BASEBALL CLUB:</p><br/>Sir:–Having been authorized, I hereby challenge the Richmond Club to a match-game of baseball, single game, to be played at any time between 5th and 20th of October, and according to the rules of the National Association. Please advise me of the action of the club as early as possible. Should the club think proper to decline the challenge, you will oblige me by stating plainly the reasons therefor.</p> <p><br/>Respectfully, J. F. Dooley,<br/>Corresponding Secretary of the Union Baseball Club.</p> <p><br/>The following was the gentlemanly(!) reply:</p> <p><br/>RICHMOND, September 22, 1866<br/>J. F. DOOLEY, SECRETARY UNION BASEBALL CLUB:<br/>SIR:–Your communication of the 21st [sic] instant is before me. I am instructed to state that the Richmond Baseball Club does not desire, and will not play the Union Club a single game. We are not or do we expect to be members of the National Baseball Convention. Our reason: We are Southerners. Hoping this may be satisfactory. I am,</p> <p><br/>J. V. BIDGOOD,<br/>Secretary Richmond Baseball Club</p>  +
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<p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">There is considerable uncertainty as to the dating of this item at c1836..</span></p> <p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">John Zinn further researched the players named in the 1871 account, and wrote on 7/28/2015:  "It feels to me that the author [whom John identifies as John W. Pangborn] is conflating a number of different things (his role, for example) into a club that played in the late 1830's. However even if he is off by 10 years, a club of some kind in the late 1840's would be something new and, as John [Thorn] suggests, important." John Zinn also reported 7/28/2015 that Bentley was 31 years old in 1836, and that Edge was 22; John W. Pangborn, the suspected 1871 author, was born in 1825 so was only 12 in 1837.</span></p> <p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Further commenting on the credibility of this 1871 account, Richard Hershberger [19cbb posting, 7/28/2015] adds: "<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Going from general trends of the day, the [1871 author's] use of the word "club" is very likely anachronistic.  Organized clubs playing baseball were extremely rare before the 1840s in New York and the 1850s everywhere else.  On the other hand, informal play was common, and local competition between loosely organized groups is well attested.  My guess is that this was some variant or other. As for plugging, its mention increases the credibility of the account.  Even as early as 1871, plugging was being forgotten in the haze of the past.  Old-timers describing the game of their youth therefore routinely mentioned plugging as a distinctive feature. So putting this together, this looks to me like a guy reminiscing about quasi-organized (at most) play of his youth, using the anachronistic vocabulary of a "club." </span><br/></span></p> <p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> </span></p>  
<p><span>Dating this item as "1840s" is speculative, and turns on the ages of the Freeman<em> </em> Arguments for an alternative dating are welcome.  </span></p>  +
<p><span>Richard Hershberger and others doubt the veracity of this story. He says [email of 1/30/2008] that one other account of that day says that Abe played hand-ball, and there is mention of this being the only athletic game that Abe was ever seen to indulge in. (But also see [[1830s.16]] on a younger Abe Lincoln and town ball in the 1830s).</span></p> <p><span>Source [2] above contains other accounts of the nomination story.  They support the idea that Lincoln "played ball" the day before the nomination, but it seems fairly clear that the game played was "fives," presumable a form of handball.  For a very helpful submission from Steve Gietschier on the content of <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Herndon's Informants,</span> see the Supplemental Text, below.</span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><span> </span></p>  +
<p><span>The limited availability of positions played in early game reports and summaries makes the establishment of Adams's claim to have been the first to play the shortstop position tenuous. A page in the Knick's Game Books from July 1850 show that in one practice game he played "F" for "Field" instead of his usual position of "behind" (catcher), and so may be when he first took the position. Otherwise, there is no inidication in a primary source that he played the position until 1855.</span></p>  +
<p><strong>Caution:</strong> The editor of <em>The Canadian Newcomers Magazine</em> informed us on 1/10/2008 that the Tendulkar piece "was strictly an entertainment piece rather than an academic piece." We take this to say that the verse is not authentic. Email from Dale Sproule, Publisher/Editor.</p>  +
<p><strong>Caution:</strong> The arrival of the New York style of play was still a year into the future.</p>  +
<p><strong>Caveat:</strong> "Stobbal" is usually used to denote a field game resembling field hockey or golf; thus, this account may not relate to stoolball <em>per se</em>.</p>  +
<p><strong>Caveat:</strong> Collins - and Wallace -believed that the proscribed game was shinny, and Altherr makes the same judgment - see Thomas L. Altherr, "Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games," <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Base Ball</span>, Volume 2, number 1 (Spring 2008), pages 35-36.</p>  +
<p><strong>Caveat:</strong> The Wikipedia entry is has incomplete citations and could not be verified.</p>  +
<p><strong>Caveat</strong>: Angus McFarland has not been able to verify this account as of November 2008.</p>  +