1858.58
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First Chicago Club Forms
Salience | Noteworthy |
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Location | |
City/State/Country: | Chicago, IL, US |
Modern Address | |
Game | Base Ball, Town BallBase Ball, Town Ball |
Immediacy of Report | |
Age of Players | AdultAdult |
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Notables | |
Text | [A] "A team called the Unions is said to have played in Chicago in 1856, but the earliest newspaper report of a game is found in the Chicago Daily Journal of August 17, 1858, which tells of a match game between the Unions and the Excelsiors to be playing on August 19. A few other games ere mentioned during the same year." [B] "Though baseball match games had been played in Illinois since the very early 1850's, the first Chicago Club, the Union, was not established until 1856." [C] "There seems to be some doubt as to when the first baseball club was organized at Chicago, but it has been stated that a club called the Unions played town ball there in 1856." [D] If these claims are discounted, modern base ball can dated in Chicago in 1858 when a convention of clubs takes place and the Knick rules are published. |
Sources | [A] Edwina Guilfoil, et. al., Baseball in Old Chicago (Federal Writers' Project of Works Project Administration, 1939), unpaginated page 4. [B] John R. Husman, "Ohio's First Baseball Game," Presented at the 34th SABR Convention, July 2004. [C] Alfred Spink, The National Game (Southern Illinois Press, 2000 -- first edition 1910), page 63. [D] "A Knickerbocker," Base Ball, Chicago Press and Tribune, July 9, 1858. |
Warning | None of these sources gives a reference to evidence of the 1856 formation of the Union Club, so we here rely on the documented reference to a planned 1858 game. |
Comment | Jeff Kittel (email of 3/9/2013) notes that there is an August 1857 Chicago Tribune article on a cricket club called the Union Club; perhaps later memories confused the cricket or town ball clubs with a modern-rules base ball club? Jeff also notes that "[A date of] late 1857/1858 fits the time frame for the spread of the game south and west of Chicago - into Western Iowa by 1858 and St. Louis by 1859, with hints that it's in central Illinois by 1859/60. That spread pattern also fits the economic/cultural spread model Edit with form to add a comment |
Query | Can we find any clear basis for the report of 1856 establishment? Edit with form to add a query |
Source Image | [[Image:|left|thumb]] |
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Submitted by | John Thorn, Jeffrey Kittel |
Submission Note | Emails of 4/9/2013 |
Has Supplemental Text |
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