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<p>Today I revived my subscription to genealogybank.com,which I had<br />let lapse last summer. Before diving into the serious business<br />of sucking up data, I ran some casual searched to see what was<br />new. It is amazing what you find when you look:</p> <p><br />RURAL SPORTS.--We can testify to a most superb game of old<br />fashioned base-ball at the Champs d'Elysses, at Hoboken, on<br />Friday of last week, and bear it in mind the more strongly from<br />the remaining stiffness from three hours play. While on the<br />ground, a party of the Knickerbocker Club arrived, and selected<br />another portion of the field for themselves. When they had<br />finished, the amateurs with whom we had taken a hand, challenged<br />the regulars to a match, and both parties stripped and went at it<br />till night drew the curtains and shut off the sport. At the<br />closing of the game the amateurs stood eleven and the<br />Knickerbocker four. On the glory of this result, the amateurs<br />challenged the regulars to a meeting on the same day this week,<br />for the cost of a chowder to be served up, upon the green between<br />them. When it is known that the editors of the American<br />Statesman and National Police Gazette played among the amateurs,<br />and particularly that Dr. Walters, the Coroner of the city kept<br />the game, the result will probably not produce surprise. <br />National Police Gazette June 9, 1849</p> <p><br />There is a lot to digest here. Just a couple of quick thoughts<br />for now:<br />The Knickerbockers couldn't catch a break! I'll have to look up<br />when they first managed to win a game.<br />I don't have ready access to the Knickerbocker score book. What<br />appears there for this day?<br />Is this the first appearance of George Wilkes in connection with<br />baseball?<br />Sadly, the genealogybank run of the Gazette is missing the June<br />16 issue. Is there another run out there?<br />You notice how early and how often baseball was characterized as<br />"old fashioned"? I would not take the use here as relating to<br />the rules used.<br />There was a baseball fad in New York in the mid-1840s. It had<br />died out by 1849, with the Knickerbockers the only unambiguously<br />recorded organized survivor. Here we have an informal late<br />survival.</p> <p><br />Richard Hershberger</p>
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