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Evolution or Revolution? A Rule-By-Rule Analysis of the 1845 Knickerbocker Rules
Digger
Jeffrey Kittel
Article Date
2013-04-05 00:00:00
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1845-Knick-Rules.pdf
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) Summary The rules of baseball set down by the Knickerbocker Club of New York in 1845 represent an evolutionary moment in the development of the modern game of baseball rather than a revolutionary invention of a new game... While both the 1845 rules and the Knickerbocker Club are historically significant, both are merely parts of the evolutionary development of modern baseball rather than the starting point of that development... ---- In the ongoing quest, during the late 19th and most of the 20th century, to discover the singular moment at which point baseball was invented, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York was in an enviable historical position... First, they left us a set of playing rules which are largely accepted as the foundation of modern baseball... Not being Abner Doubleday was significant to early historians and researchers who first looked into the origins of baseball in the United States in a serious, scholarly manner... Any serious historian who took a look at the baseball creation myth provided by the Mills Commission in 1905 immediately dismissed it as the nonsense that it was... 3 However, a story must begin somewhere and, if baseball wasn’t invented by Doubleday, as the Mills Commission insisted, the questions surrounding the origins of the game still remained unanswered... The idea of the Knickerbockers as the originators of the modern game of baseball is substantially more rational and evidenced-based than the Doubleday myth, especially given the fact that the Knickerbocker Club actually played a form of baseball... It was claimed that the Knickerbockers were the first baseball club... 1) 3 For a scholarly debunking of the Doubleday myth, see Henderson, Ball, Bat and Bishop; Block, Baseball Before We Knew It; or Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden... 3 some form of baseball... 5 It was claimed that the Knickerbockers were the first to codify the game of baseball but, based upon the testimony of William Wheaton, we know that this is not true... This work fell to my hands…”6 We now know for a fact that the Knickerbockers were not the first baseball club, that they were not the first club that had a formal, organized structure and they were not the first club to set the rules of baseball down in writing... Given the testimony of Wheaton, we could also argue that the Knickerbockers were not even the first club to play the New York-style of baseball that gave birth to the modern game... Yet they are still one of the most significant clubs in the history of baseball for the simple fact that it is their rules that have survived... While there were earlier, pre-modern baseball clubs and earlier, pre-modern sets of rules, it is the Knickerbocker Rules of 1845 that have been handed down to us... William Ryczek, in Baseball’s First Inning, writes that the Knickerbocker Rules represent 4 Thorn, John; “1843... 4 the “only documented, unbroken line between baseball as played in its current form and any prior version of the sport…”7 So the argument that the Knickerbocker Club represents the spring from which modern baseball flowed forth and that they should be credited with originating the modern game rests on their 1845 rules and there is no doubt that these rules are significant... In the seminal Baseball: The Early Years, the Knickerbockers are described as having “blazed a path others were to follow”8 and Peter Morris has written that the club “unified all the multiple strands” of early American baseball “into a single ‘regulation game... But were these rules the original invention of the Knickerbocker Club or did they have antecedents in earlier forms of American baseball games? In order to determine if the Knickerbocker Rules of 1845 were a revolutionary step forward in the development of the modern game or simply an evolutionary milestone in the long history of American baseball, it is necessary to take a closer look at the rules themselves... 7 Ryczek, William; Baseball’s First Inning; pp 40-41... 8 Seymour, Harold; Baseball: The Early Years; p 16... The first thing that should be noted is that not all of the rules deal with baseball as it is played on the field... 11 We could write another piece on the information that the Knickerbockers fail to provide us but we note that they failed to record fundamental baseball rules such as how a run is scored or in what direction the 7 game the Knickerbockers were playing was reasonably well-known... It was not necessary for the Knickerbockers to explain to people how to play baseball because it was already an established and popular game... However, modern baseball historians such as David Block, in Baseball Before We Knew It, and John Thorn, in Baseball in the Garden of Eden, have, in reviews of the Knickerbocker Rules, challenged this assertion... It's impossible to play a game of baseball based solely on information provided by the 1845 Knickerbocker Rules... Block wrote that “The four-base square or diamond configuration was almost certainly a known commodity to the young Knickerbockers, having already appeared in at least four descriptions of early baseball-related games published in America before 1845... They came directly or 12 Thorn, John; Baseball in the Garden of Eden; p 73... 13 Block, David; Baseball Before We Knew It; p 81... John Thorn has noted that there are some who believe that this rule is unique in the respect that, for the first time, the conditions for victory in a baseball game were explicitly laid out... 20 While this may be true, in the sense that this is the oldest surviving record that notes the condition of victory, it seems unlikely that the Knickerbocker Club invented the idea of winning a baseball game by scoring more runs than your opponents... The idea of the run is at the heart of rule eight and the scoring of runs or the prevention of the scoring of runs is at the heart of baseball... It remains a mystery, though, why the club did not choose the word ‘run’ to identify a score in rule 8, 20 Thorn; Baseball in the Garden of Eden; p 73 11 even though that term appeared on their preprinted score sheets in 1845... ‘Run,’ like several other baseball terms, had been borrowed from cricket... 23 The idea of the run as a tally was something that, as Block noted, was common in cricket going back to the mid-eighteenth century and Henderson quotes a description of baseball from the 1744 edition of the Little Pretty PocketBook that is as good a description of scoring a run as any: The Ball once struck off, Away flies the Boy To the next destin’d Post, And then Home with Joy... 12 prevention is the essence of baseball and the Knickerbockers certainly did not invent that concept... They did not invent the idea of victory in a baseball game... 25 Block also specifically states that pitching “was evident in all known descriptions of early baseball before 1845... The introduction of the concept of foul territory into American baseball is often cited by historians as one of the unique contribution of the Knickerbocker Club to the game... ”31 But there is evidence that the idea of foul territory was not particularly radical, that the introduction of the concept into pre-modern, American baseball was not particularly revolutionary and that the use of foul territory in baseball predates the 1845 rules... In Baseball Before We Knew It, Block, himself, noted that foul territory was not an original idea, although he did state that the introduction of the idea into 28 Ibid... 14 baseball was innovative... As far as the idea that the Knickerbockers were the first to apply the concept to baseball, Clarke’s description of English base ball and the possibility that foul territory was used in an 1838 baseball game in Canada brings that into doubt... However, generally speaking, foul territory was not a feature of pre-modern, American baseball games prior to the Knickerbocker Rules and they should be given some credit for popularizing its use... It should also be noted that there is no known antecedent for the ninety degree foul territory set-up used in modern baseball and this may have been the unique contribution of the Knickerbockers, although, again, the idea of foul territory was not itself unique... The three-strikes/out rule appears to have been a well established rule in baseball games prior to 1845... Block states that “In the half century preceding the Knickerbocker rules of 1845, every published description of early baseball embraced some variant of the three-strikes rule as a fundamental tenet of play... 45 The three strikes/out rule was well established in baseball games prior to 1845 and it can in no way be seen as a unique contribution of the Knickerbocker Club... This was not only another well established baseball rule prior to 1845 but, as Block has noted, it “is, perhaps, the oldest in the game... [The rule] characterized all of baseball’s ancestors, including stool-ball, trap-ball, and most 40 Clarke, p 27... The elimination of soaking or plugging and the introduction of the tag-out and the force-out is commonly believed to be one of the Knickerbockers’ most unique and important contributions to baseball... Morris has written that the rule is revolutionary51 while Thorn has stated that “This rule forms the key distinction between the Knickerbocker game and other forms of base ball…”52 Rule thirteen, according to Block, was “the Knickerbockers’ single greatest contribution to the game of baseball,” and “a critical step in sculpting the balance and grace of the modern game... 52 Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden, p 75... William Wheaton, former Knickerbocker, when talking about the 1837 formation of the Gotham Club, stated that “The first step we took in making baseball was to abolish the rule of throwing the ball at the runner and ordered instead that it should be thrown to the baseman instead, who had to touch the runner before he reached the base... Given that baseball historians have universally agreed that rule thirteen is one of the Knickerbocker Club’s most unique and important contributions to the game and that the Wheaton article is the only known source that impeaches this position, it is important that Wheaton’s testimony be questioned... A prohibition against both fielder and batter’s interference is found in 18th century cricket rules56 and Block, who notes the possibility that this rule was first introduced into baseball by the Knickerbockers, believes, based upon his knowledge of early baseball, that it was an old rule... He writes that “the game was an activity for children or teenagers and was played with a soft ball on a field considerably smaller than in modern baseball... It is unknown how old this rule is or how prevalent its use was but, like the tag-out and the force-out, the crossout can be seen as a rule developed to eliminate an unpleasant aspect of pre-modern baseball... Rule 15: Three hands out, all out Along with the rules introducing foul territory and tag-outs/force outs, this rule, putting in place the three-out inning, helped define the modern game of baseball and Block notes that it was “a break from the most common [method of terminating a team’s at-bat... ]”58 The most common methods used in American baseball games were the one-out/all-out rule, whereby any out would end a team’s turn at-bat, and the all-out/all-out rule, whereby all members of a side got a turn at bat... 60 The possibility also exists that the three-out inning was also used in games of wicket played in Western New York and in baseball games played in Canada prior to 1845... ”62 He goes on to state that the rule was a common feature of early baseball games... 61 Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden, p 78... Block states that this rule “has no precedent among any of the earlier descriptions of baseball and related games... 73 Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden, p 77 25 pitching rules the Gothams put in place were designed to “give some work to the fielders,” in contrast to other bat and ball games were “the players might stand around all afternoon without getting a chance to stretch their legs... But it is always a good idea to put our beliefs to the test and learn what we actually know about a given subject as compared to what we believe we know... They were one of the most important pioneer clubs in baseball history and their rules helped shape the modern form of the game... The Knickerbocker Club was not the first baseball club and they were not the first baseball club to write down a set of playing rules... None of that is particularly groundbreaking news and most contemporary baseball historians know that to be true... They are credited with the revolutionary introduction of foul-territory, of tag-outs and force outs, and of the three-out inning into the American game of baseball... For the most part, they are a collection of known baseball rules that had been around for decades, if not centuries... What the 1845 rules represent is the consolidation of evolutionary trends in American baseball... There were variants of American baseball being played at the same time that contained each of these elements but none, except for the New York game, that contained all of them... The baseball players of New York were creating a unique version of baseball out of the evolutionary strands of games like trap ball, stool ball, schlagball, kit-cat, oina, English base ball and countless American baseball variants... The significance of the Knickerbocker 27 Rules of 1845 is that they provide us with a unique snapshot of the evolutionary development of baseball
Chronology
1830c.9 Indoor Batsman Reappears in Publication
1830
Text
My Father [New York, Mahlon Day], per David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, page 193. The picture from Good Examples (#1823.3, above) is included without accompanying test.
1864.47 "Union" Games Started 1864 Season
1864
Tags
Location
Greater New York City
City
Brooklyn
State
NY
Country
United States
Coordinates
40.6781784 -73.9441579
Game
Base Ball
Age Of Players
Adult
Immediacy Of Report
Contemporary
Text
[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.”
Â
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.
Submitted By
Bob Tholkes
Submission Note
5/13/2014
Clippings
Clipping:A baseball battalion is proposed
A BASE BALL BATTALION.–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 for a special meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players, for the purpose of bringing this matter more immediately before representatives of all the clubs. There are now eighty clubs belonging to the Association; and there are upwards of a hundred others located throughout this State, which it is thought would gladly join in such a movement. An average of five men from each club would form a regiment; and better material for soldiers than could be gathered together could not be found.
Of course, the whole idea is as yet mere suggestion. From the fact that a large number of base ball players have already been carried off to the war in different regiments, we do not know that the project under consideration is practicable. We have no doubt, however, that hundreds would flock to the standard of such an organization, if it were put in proper hands. In order to test the matter, we are wiling to receive answers and suggestions from officers of different clubs, for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of the project prior to any decided movement being made. Let us hear what would be the chances for a Base Ball Battalion.
Source
New York Sunday Mercury
Date
1861-08-18 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:Flying the American flag
[Active of New York vs. Camden 8/11/1865] The hour of three having arrived, the star-spangled banner was run to the top of the staff, and the game commenced... Unidentified newspaper in Athletics scrapbook, Baseball Hall of Fame
estranged clubs
The Atlantic and Empire Clubs ended play in 1856 with some dispute or other that ought to have been forgotten by the next season, but it was not forgotten, on the contrary the difficulty was remembered and enlarged upon by parties connected with both organizations, the ultimate result being an estrangement that lasted for seven years. This year, through the agency of those valued members of club the peacemakers—a class far too few in numbers for the best interests of the game—these clubs have come together again and now rate each as friends. Singular to relate the Atlantic and Eagle Clubs after being organized nearly nine years only played their first game together this season, the result being the accession of another club to the list of friendly organizations each can pride themselves on being countenanced by. … What are the obstacles to a friendly, manly, gentlemanly encounter between the Atlantic and Eckford clubs to test the question between their superiority as players for the season of 1864?
Source
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Date
1864-08-16 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:Proposed addition of the right short ten-men rule
On Saturday next, the first of a series of prize-games will take place on the Capitoline Grounds, the object of which is to test by experiment the advantage of adding a “right short-stop” to the game. The batting in baseball is rapidly overcoming the pitching and fielding in the game, as the increased averages last season conclusively show; an average of three runs to a match being the best average in 1863, while last year an average of five was reached. New York Sunday Mercury May 20, 1866
A series of games will be commenced, on the Capitoline grounds, on Saturday next, for the purpose of testing the utility of putting a new man in the field as “right short-stop.” The batting is so evidently getting the better of the fielding, that many think an additional man needed in the position mentioned. Brooklyn Eagle May 21, 1866
One of the quickest and best-played games witnessed on the Capitoline grounds for a long time past, was that played yesterday on the Enterprise ground, on the occasion of the first of the series of prizes arranged to test the merits of a right short-fielder in the game. New York Sunday Mercury May 27, 1866 [Also in the same issue, a match between the Knickerbocker and Excelsior with ten on a side.]
Source
New York Sunday Mercury
Date
1866-05-20 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:Charging extra for a premium game: differing opinions
The Atlantic and Red Stockings match is off for the present. The cause assigned by the Atlantic managers is the extra charge for admission made by the Red Stockings. In view of the fact that the grounds could scarcely hold the crowd at twenty-five cents admission, we think the increased fee a politic arrangement. The Unions and Mutuals do not object to it, and we do not see why the Atlantics should. New York Sunday Mercury May 29, 1870
If professional ball-players have any fancy for self-destruction, they cannot more certainly attain their object than by following the course they at present seem inclined to pursue. Base-ball, although styled the National Game, does not possess such inherent attractions as to induce the public to submit to any imposition which it may please a professional club to enforce. We are induced to make these remarks in consequence of the “Red Stocking” having declined to play the Atlantics or any other club here, unless they charged fifty cent admission fee to the ground on the day of the match. Fifty cents do not constitute a very large sum of money, but there are thousands who are regular supporters of the game, and whose quarters are very acceptable on ordinary occasions, to whom the extra “quarter” will make a material difference, when there are four or five games to be witness, and who are therefore to be “left out in the cold” because the “Red Stockings” won’t exhibit at less that fifty cents a head. We highly applaud the resolution of the Atlantic Club, in the present instance, not to accede to the request of the Cincinnati nine: and although there are some persons who wish to insinuate that they have done so for fear of losing the championship, they can afford to treat such opinions as they deserve. The Red Stockings are, no doubt, very fine players, but we don’t know that they are so much better than the players in this little village and the neighboring hamlet of Brooklyn; and when our two crack clubs, the Atlantic and Mutual, meet to struggle for the championship, they are quite content to play with the admission fee restricted to twenty-five cents.
This attempt, therefore, to put the screw on, will, we believe, be resented by the public at large, not only by stopping away from these fifty cent shows, but from the twenty-five cent ones also. Our citizens don’t like to be told that their company is good enough upon ordinary match days, but when a grand field day is to come off, they must stand aside and allow their wealthier neighbors, alone, to enjoy the treat. When the Red Stockings have departed “to seek fresh fields and pastures new,” to whom do the professional clubs and ground owners look for support but to the “quarter dollar” paying public. It is not wise, therefore, to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, and those clubs which have submitted to the dictation of the Western men may find, when too late, they that have practically killed their goose. We trust, therefore, the Atlantic Club will not be induced to rescind their present resolution, and we feel assured they will meet with the cordial approbation and support of the public. An exceedingly fair proposition was made by the Atlantic to the Red Stockings, in respect to the lowness of the charge for admission. They said if the Red Stockings thought that a sufficient sum would not be realized by the twenty-five cent admission fee, they, the Atlantics, would take all the proceeds here, and when they went to Cincinnati to play the return game, on or before the 1 st of October, the Red Stocking might charge what admission fee they thought proper, to their ground, and take the entire proceeds, but this proposition they declined. New York Dispatch May 29, 1870 [The game was in fact played 6/14/70 with fifty cents admission.]
[Cincinnati vs. Forest City of Cleveland 5/31/1870] Over 5,000 people paid the entrance fee of 50 cents to witness the match, and double that amount for seats on the grand-stand. New York Sunday Mercury June 5, 1870
We are led to these remarks with a view of calling the attention of the fraternity of the East to the true position the Cincinnati nine occupy in the baseball world, in order to offset an effort which has been made in one quarter to create a prejudice against the cincinnati Club because of their adoption of an increased tariff of admission fees to their matches. As a professional nine, the Red Stocking have just the same right to increase their admission fee from twenty-five cents to fifty as our professional clubs had to raise their gate money charge from ten cents to twenty-five. Not a word in demur at the increased tariff has been heard in other cities, and it would be a very small business for the wealthy metropolic of this country to inaugurate any opposition to it. In Philadelphia a dollar admission was charged on occasion of a meeting between the Atlantic and Athletic Clubs, and at that price four thousand people entered the inclosed grounds. The fact is, so great is the desire to witness the coming test games between the Red Stocking nine and our c rack clubs, that we have no ground large enough to hold the mass of people which would crowd the field at an admission fee of twenty-five cents; and rather than the stranger club should not have fair field to play on it would be better to charge even a dollar admission. New York Sunday Mercury June 12, 1870
Source
New York Sunday Mercury
Date
1870-05-29 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:Lobbying for the ten-men ten-inning rule
...an analysis of the play shows that sharp fielding is preventing runs has more to do with the success of a club than skillful batting in obtaining them. Given two nines of equal batting strength and fielding skill, and the best base-running ten will bear off the most trophies of victory, as a matter of course. But given a first-class batting ten, with one of only moderate skill as fielders and base-runners, and oppose these with a first-class fielding ten who are but comparatively weak batsmen, and the result will be that the best fielding ten will win in the long run. This rule experience shows to be correct. Besides this, the best fielding games are invariably the most attractive. ... it is games of this class which attract most, and which are really the most exciting and interesting. The main object, therefore, in making any important changes in the rules, should be to bring the game up to the highest fielding standard, for one thing, and to make the point of excellence that which most combines mental and physical ability as requisites in all the departments. It is these objects which have guided us for the past ten years in all the amendments we have introduced in the rules of the game, and this well-known fact has been the cause of our success in having our suggestions so fully endorsed by the fraternity as they have been.
The past season’s play has shown pretty plainly that something new would lead to a material increase of interest; and this it is which suggests the coming season as an appropriate time to test the experiment of the ten men and ten innings rules. Thus far, the batting in baseball has had the advantage over the fielding, and it is to bring them more on an equality that it is proposed to introduce the extra fielder. ...
Source
New York Clipper
Date
1873-12-20 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:The AA and the NL reserved men
[McKnight describing correspondence between him and Hulbert] The main feature of our correspondence, however, was this: In one of my letters explaining that we did not propose to engage any of their black-listed players, I had said we had no idea of engaging any players who had been expelled or black-listed for good reasons, which, I explained to him in a following letter, meant that if any players held by League Clubs under the five men reserve rule, but not yet signed, should sign with any of our Clubs, and be therefor expelled by the League, we would certainly not observe the expulsion. In that connection Mr. Hulbert writes, November 17th:
“Now, just so sure as your Association picks up one of the men we have disqualified, just so sure no League team will visit your grounds. This declaration is not a threat. Our laws are thoroughly well known throughout the world of base-ball.” Cincinnati Enquirer January 1, 1882
Early squabbling between the NL and AA; a plan for a baseball war
The Cincinnati Enquirer publishes an interview with Hurlburt, in which that worthy says: “The League does not recognize the existence of any association of Base Ball clubs excepting itself and the Alliance. If the Athletic club should expel Troy, I don't see what the League would have to do with it.” Here we have a showing of the League's hand. The Philadelphia Item January 1, 1882
In order to make sure of the position of the League in the Troy case, Manager Simmons, of the Athletic club, wrote to W. G. Thompson, President of the Detroit, concerning the engagement of John Troy, who has broken his engagement with the Athletics, and received the following reply:
Detroit, Mich., Dec. 22, 1881.
Mr. Lew Simmons—Sir: I am in receipt of your favor of the 18th inst., and would say that Mr. Troy has very correctly informed you that he had signed to play ball with the Detroit Base Ball Club, and I will add he will so play the forthcoming season. I do not know anything about your association, or about your claim that Mr. Troy had previously signed with you: if he has wronged you in any respect, of course, as you say, you can expel him, and have the courts open to you for redress. I request that in any proceedings you will take against him you will make this club a party to the proceeding. Very truly yours, W. G. Thompson.
This reply bears the impress of Hurlburt all over it, and was evidently dictated by this burly personage, who , in his mind, imagin3ed he owns the entire right of base ball playing in this country, and establishes beyond a doubt the League's policy, as foreshadowed in The Item, viz:
First—To ignore the American Association clubs, as such.
Second—Weaken its clubs by stealing players.
Third—To play such clubs only when there are no other clubs to play.
Fourth—To hold such clubs strictly accountable to rules that the League will not enforce on its own clubs.
In this connection it is our intention this week to show the weakness of the League's position on these points. As to the first, ignorance as to the existence of the American Association. In the eyes of the law the Association is in all intents and purpose a legal organization, amenable to and under the protection of the law. Players making contracts with any of its clubs can be enjoined from playing with other clubs, by the simple legal process of an injunction. It is an old legal maxim that no one can plead ignorance of the law as a defense.
Secondly, the weakening of association clubs by the stealing of its best players. This will prove a two edged sword in which the League is bound to get as much punishment as it gives. For trivial offenses, in fact to put it in a player light, as the League well understands it, to lessen the number of ball players and thereby increase salaries of favorites, a large number of excellent players have been prescribed and placed upon the black-list. All of these men are superior players, and if th4e League persists in its action, they will be engaged by the Association clubs and become greater attractions tha any of the players now in League clubs. When it comes to a test as to who will get the best by the stealing, the Association as a big advantage.
Thirdly, the playing of such clubs of the Association, only when there are no other clubs to play. The Association can squelch this at once by refusing to allow any of its clubs to play with the League unless all the clubs of the Association are placed on the same footing. Let it be a case of play all or none. The League clubs will have to make their expenses out of outside games, and it will have to bend or break in this connection.
Fourthly, violation of rules enforced on other clubs. If the League is weak in any respect, it is in the violation of its own rules. Instance after instance could be named, but it will suit our purpose sufficiently at this time to call attention to the fact that the Chicago Club is playing base ball in New Orleans every Sunday, and under the name of the Chicago Club—vide New Orleans papers. Puritanical, Pharisaical Hurlburt to the contrary, notwithstanding. The League may break the rules but the outside clubs must not. Let the American Association live up to its own rules and let the League take care of its own.
These are a few suggestions we offer to the Association, and by a firm stand on principle and for its rights, there can hardly be a question of its success. All honest lovers of the game will endorse it, leaving the League to the gamblers and the few men who follow its fortune as a means of a precarious livelihood. The Philadelphia Item January 1, 1882 [See also PCI 01/08/1882 for a long letter from Denny McKnight discussing the history of NL-AA relations.]
Hurlburt has answered in an indirect and very unsatisfactory manner, the open letter of President McKnight, of the American Association, in an interview with a reporter of the Chicago Times. Huirlburt complains because his letters to Mr. McKnight were published, and says that Troy's engagement by the Detroit club is legal because the Athletic club did not notify the League's Secretary of his engagement. This is entirely too thin, and Hurlburt would have made a better defense by not saying anything. The Philadelphia Item January 15, 1882
Source
Cincinnati Enquirer
Date
1882-01-01 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:A description of baseball cranks
“Cranks in base ball? Well, I should say so,” said Charles Mason of the Athletics. “Do you know, every season brings new ones to the surface. Our mail every day contains applications from players in country towns who are impressed with the idea that they possess some unusual ability, principally as pitchers; and to listen to some of the remarkable descriptions of 'curves' and 'shoots' that they claim as original, would make your head swim. Here is an application from a young man up the country who says that he has discovered a new curve that is impossible to hit, and that with it he can strike out the heaviest batsmen as fast as they come up to the plate. He would be a valuable man to secure if there was anything in his claim, but try him and he would be hit out of the 'box' in one inning.”
“Do you ever give these applicants a trial?”
 “Occasionally, when their application is indorsed by some practical player. This trial of new players costs first-class clubs considerable money during a season. Last season, for instance, we heard of a catcher in Massachusetts, and being in need of such a player we sent for hi, giving him two hundred dollars advance. He caught two innings in an exhibition game and proved a monumental failure the same evening he left for home and that was the last we ever heard of him. Good managers, however, do not mind this, as occasionally a fine player is stumbled across.”
“What is the percentage of successes?”
“Very, very small. In no business or profession does the failures exceed the successes in such a degree as in base ball. I am an old professional, and practical in my views, and when we give a new player a trial I always insist on giving him every chance to show what there is in him. I can generally tell, however, if there is anything in ap layer by the manner in which he goes about his work.”
“Have you any experiments on this season's team?”
“Only one, a young pitcher, from the West, named Atkinson. I have never seen him play, but he comes to us very well spoken of by professionals, who have seen him. For his sake, as well as our own, I hope he will not be a disappointment. There is one great danger, however, in young players that score a success, and that is what we call having a 'big head,' that is, become too much swelled up over their importance. The best of them will get it, but a manager will in the end pretty effectively cure them of the malady.:
“Isn't there often a great deal of fun afforded the old professionals when they test an applicant?”
“Not on our grounds. We view it in the light of business. I am aware that some managers allow it, but we never do. Sometimes the funny fellows get the worst of it. This young man Atkinson is an illustration of this. He went down to Indianapolis last Summer and asked Dan O'Leary, who was running the Indianapolis club, to give him a trial as pitcher. Dan laughed at him, but Atkinson persisted. 'All right,' said Dan, 'If you insist I will make a fool of you this afternoon.' Dan took him out to the ground, and having no regular game, got up a scrub nine and made Atkinson pitcher, and put his own team against them. The result was a terrible beating for Dan's team, his men being unable to hit Atkinson, eighteen of them striking out. Dan wanted to sign Atkinson at once, but he refused to play under O'Leary at any salary, and finally signed with us. So you see it don't always do to be too funny.
Source
The Philadelphia Evening Item
Date
1884-03-22 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:Beer sales at the Polo Grounds
The Police Commissioners received yesterday a committee of music hall proprietors and Messrs. Day and Dillingham, of the Polo Ground, with regard to the intent of the police to prohibit concerts where liquor is sold and baseball playing unless under a theatrical license. The music hall men said they had decided to form a protective association to contest the police interpretation of the Eden Musee decision of the court of Appeals, but asked for a conference with the officials before beginning operations. Messrs. Day and Dillingham say a theatrical license would prevent the sale of been on the ball grounds.
The Commissioners replied that they were averse to giving any advice until they were advised by the Corporation counsel as to their course.
Later in the day Superintendent Murray said that Mr. Lacombe would apply early in the week for a test case inunction against the concert hall proprietors and the lessees of the Polo Ground. According to Superintendent Murray this course is approved by the concert hall men and the Polo Ground lessees.
Source
New York Herald
Date
1886-07-11 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:Keys to the press box
The Cincinnati club management will not permit anybody other than active members of the press to occupy the press quarters at the Cincinnati park the coming season. The quarters will be put under lock, and the base ball reporters will be furnished keys. They will also be requested not to take outsiders to the box with them. St. Louis Republic February 24, 1889
musings on the legal existence of the League
[writing in reference to the Umpire Decker case] In my way of thinking the League resembles one of the old-fashioned trades unions. These organizations had laws or understandings among themselves. They would agree one with another to carry out certain rules or requirements. Those who broke faith could in many cases not be made responsible to law, but the unions could blacklist them; that is, to a very great extent deprive them of their work. Of course this deprivation had to be skillfully managed. It could be done as follows: A man blacklisted by the unions would secure work at a union concern but the workmen there would refuse to work if he was continued on the premises. There is no law to make a man work where he does not desire, and sooner than have trouble the employers would wash their hands of the non-union men. The National Baseball League is identical to the union above quoted. Those who compose it, whatever it may be, have an understanding one with another that such and such rules and regulations will be carried out. Whoever violates these rules will be blacklisted, be he player or anybody else. The blacklist simply means that those who remain in harmony with the League and its rules refuse to work, that is play, with the blacklisted man or men. Certainly there is no civil law to force one club to play with another, or compel one man to play with or against another. This, then, is just how the League stands to-day. Its officials admit that many things connected with it which would not stand the test of law, but it is only fair to add that if it was carried on in strict accordance with civil law it would not be the League. However, it is to be hoped that before long we will learn definitely what the League is, both for legal and practical purposes. Pittsburgh Dispatch February 24, 1889
Source
St. Louis Republic
Date
1889-02-24 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clipping:Indoor baseball in Brooklyn 2
[reporting plans of the Thirteenth Regiment] The rules of the American Association, modified to suit the confines of the armory, have been adopted. The playing floor occupies a space 198 feet long and 125 feet wide. Wire screens will be sued to protect the chandeliers and gun racks. Rubber mats will be placed in position to indicate the pitcher's plate and home base and the bases, instead of the regulation distance, 30 yards apart, will be confined to 24 yards. The playing ball will be made out of a lawn tennis ball, covered with yarn, and it will be of regulation size and appearance, but will weight one ounce less.
According to the rules a ball striking the ceiling or any other portion of the building, which is caught by a fielder shall be declared a fair catch and the batsman is out. The umpire's decision is final and there cannot be any appeal. …
The one obstacle to the success of the scheme seems to be in the fact that the games will be played by gaslight. Those directly interested, however, stated that a test game has already been played, and the only thing unfavorable discovered was the use of a regulation ball. New York Sun December 8, 1889
...The players will wear canvas shoes with rubber soles,and no substitute player will be permitted to play in the place of another player without having the regulation shoes.
…
The ball to be sued is to be known as the “National Guard League Ball.” It will weight about two ounces less than the League or Association ball, and will be furnished by the Gymnasium Association. The last ball in play will become the property of the winning club.
The bats will be regulation size, but will be made as light as possible. Championship games will consist of as many innings as can be played in one hour and thirty minutes.
Whenever a fair ball is knocked into the left field gallery the player will be entitled to two bases. A ball batted into the gallery at the extreme end of the armory is to be credited as a home run. New York Sun December 15, 1889
Source
New York Sun
Date
1889-12-08 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Day
Submitted By
Richard Hershberger
Origin
Initial Hershberger Clippings
Clubs
Garry Club of Winnipeg
Garry Club of Winnipeg
Club Name
Garry
Date
1874-01-01 00:00:00
Type Of Date
Year
Is No Later Than
1
First Newspaper Mention
1874-01-01 00:00:00
First Newspaper Mention Date Type
Year
Date Of Dissolution Type
Day
City
Winnipeg
State
Manitoba
Country
Canada
Coordinates
49.8997541 -97.1374937
Description
Canadian Encyclopedia, article on Baseball, says baseball came to Winnipeg in 1874. The Winnipeg Free Press, July 6, 1874: "Base Ball--The Selkirk Cricket Club will in a few days test the ability of the Garry Base Ball Club to play the game of the latter." This newspaper for 1874 contains various other mentions of this Garry BBC.
Winnipeg Manitoba (1871 pop. about 240; 1881 pop. about 8,000) is about 70 miles N of the US border. Fort Garry is now in downtown Winnipeg.
Has Source On Hand
0
Submitted By
Bruce Allardice
Entry Origin
Sabrpedia
Type
Club
Searches
Bibliography
Baseball Discovered -- A one-hour Emmy-nominated Documentary on Baseball's Beginnings
Year Of Publication
2010
Publisher
MLB.com
Url
https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/base-ball-discovered/id385353782
Game
Baseball, Stoolball, Rounders
Is In Main Bibliography
0
Country
United States, England
Coordinates
37.09024 -95.712891
Comment
"Description
test-bidi="">This award-winning documentary is an exploration into the generational theories about the beginnings of baseball both stateside and across the ocean. The film will bring fans of all ages closer to 'home' through a detailed look at the game's roots while also providing an unexpected, historical, and ground-breaking discovery along the way."
test-bidi="">David Block, prizewinning author of Baseball before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (U Nebraska Press, 2005), advised and participated in the filming of this one-hour MLB.com film. For a Protoball interview with the director, see Sam Marchiano and the 1755 Bray Diary Find">Sam Marchiano and the 1755 Bray Diary Find.
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