Chronology:Pennsylvania

From Protoball
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
Chronologies
Scroll.png

Prominent Milestones

Misc BB Firsts
Add a Misc BB First

About the Chronology
Tom Altherr Dedication

Add a Chronology Entry
Open Queries
Open Numbers
Most Aged

1850s.18 Baseball's Beginnings at U Penn?

Tags:

College

Location:

Pennsylvania

Age of Players:

Youth

"Baseball was first played by Penn students before the Civil War when the University was still located at its Ninth Street campus. The game was probably played casually by students in the 1850s."

"Baseball is one of the oldest major sports at the University of Pennsylvania, behind only cricket and rowing. Fragmentary records of student life at Penn show that baseball was played on Penn’s Ninth Street campus at least as early as 1864, with both class and University teams in existence by 1867."

 

Comment:

This is not a reference to the "Penn Tigers" BBC, which appears to be a social club of adults.

Query:

Is there some way to discover the documentary basis for this report?

Decade
1850s
Item
1850s.18
Edit

1857.16 Early Use of the Term "Town Ball" in NY Clipper

Location:

Pennsylvania

Game:

Town Ball

Age of Players:

Adult

The article reported a "Game of Town Ball" in Germantown PA.

 

Sources:

New YorkClipper, September 19, 1857. 

Comment:

Information posted by David Block to 19CBB 11/1/2002. David writes that this is the earliest "town ball" game account he knows of.

Year
1857
Item
1857.16
Edit

1860.3 Split Doubleheader:Mass Game, NY Game

Location:

Pennsylvania

Game:

Base Ball

Age of Players:

Adult

"On Wednesday the 14th ult., the Athletics left Philadelphia...on a brief visit to the Mauch Chunk base ball boys...upon reaching (the play-ground, the Athletics were surprised to find the ground staked off for the 'Massachusetts game'...nothing loth, played the Mauch Chunk lads at their own game...At the conclusion of the game, the bases were arranged for the New York Game, at which four innings were played..."

Sources:

Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, Dec. 8, 1860.

Year
1860
Item
1860.3
Edit

1860.38 Base Ball in Pittsburgh PA

Location:

Pennsylvania

Game:

Base Ball

Age of Players:

Adult

"Base Ball in Alleghany. - A match game of base ball was played between the Fort Pitt and Keystone Clubs on the West Common, Alleghany, Pa., on the 26th inst."  

Sources:

New York Clipper, Aug. 11, 1860

Comment:

Box score provided; it is consistent with the National Association rules. Assuming that "Alleghany" is an alternative spelling for "Allegheny," this game occurred in a town absorbed into Pittsburgh PA in 1907.

Year
1860
Item
1860.38
Edit

1865.4 On Last Day of Service, PA Soldiers Play Ball

Location:

Pennsylvania

Age of Players:

Adult

[Thursday May 4, 1865] “Not much to do in camp. Most of us playing ball.”

Civil War Diary of Dr. William McKibbin, covering February to August 1865. Accessed via Genealogybank subscription 5/19/09. McKibbin wrote this entry in Carlisle PA. He mustered out of the service on the next day, and three days later “Ella and I married at 7:00 in the evening.”

Differences from Modern Baseball: 118
Year
1865
Item
1865.4
External
118
Edit