Property:Comment

This is a property of type Text.

Usage1698

FilterThe <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Property_page/Filter">search filter</a> allows the inclusion of <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Query_expressions">query expressions</a> such as <code>~</code> or <code>!</code>. The selected <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener" class="external text" href="https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Query_engine">query engine</a> might also support case insensitive matching or other short expressions like:<ul><li><code>in:</code> result should include the term, e.g. '<code>in:Foo</code>'</li></ul><ul><li><code>not:</code> result should to not include the term, e.g. '<code>not:Bar</code>'</li></ul>

Showing 100 pages using this property.

P

Plowboys Club of Downers Grove +

<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Of the Plow Boys--I can only find three images, all, later in life. Of the three, only Emerson Otis Stanley (1828-1912) can for certain be said to have played baseball with the Plow Boys. He was a farmer. The others are Jordan James Cole (1833-1901), later captain in the Union army and mayor of Downers Grove, and Theodore Smith Rogers (1831-1917), County Sheriff, who married Emerson Stanley's sister. The two images are from ancestry.com, the third, FindaGrave.</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I can only prove 4 games the Plow Boys played--1858 in Chicago, 1859 against Danby, 1867 against Fullersburg and 1870 against Naperville.</div> +

B

Base (Prisoner's Base) +

<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">See also [[1852.17]] -- A work by Charles Dickens titled "The Child's Story" (1852) in which Dickens writes: "They were active ... at cricket and all games of ball; the prisoners base, hare and hounds, follow up leader, and more sports than I can think of."</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">There's a reference to a game of "prison base" in The Chester (UK) Chronicle, June 23, 1815.</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> </div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">A description of Prisoner's base can be found in the Salisbury, NC The Old North State, Jan. 28, 1870.</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">See also Bancroft, "Games for the Playground" (1922) p. 156:</div> <div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> "PRISONER'S BASE Prisoner's Base is one of the most popular games for both boys and girls who are beginning to care for team organization, and is capital for adults. It gives opportunity for vigorous exercise for all of the players, for the use of much judgment, prowess, and daring, and for simple team or cooperative work. The game is found under many different forms. Several, which offer marked or typical differences, each possessing distinct playing values, are given here. These differences are in (i) the arrangement of the ground, and (2) the rules governing the players and game. The differences in the grounds may be classed as follows: — I. The entire playground divided in two divisions, one belonging to each party, each division having a small pen for prisoners at the rear. (Diagram I.) n. The main part of playground neutral territory, with home goals for the opposing parties at opposite ends, with prisons in, near, or attached to them. (Diagrams II, V.) III. The main part of playground neutral territory, with home goab for both parties at the same end, attached or separate, and prisons at the opposite end, either (i) on the same side of the ground as the home goal, or (a) on the enemy's side of the ground. (Diagrams III-IV.) The rules for play for the second and third types of ground are fundamentally the same, though differing in details, and they differ from those for Diagram I. The playing qualities of the games for the last three diagrams, however, are very distinct because of the different methods of the enemies* approach to each other (which make differences in the risk of **dares")» and because of the differing risks in rescuing prisoners and taking the enem3r's goal by entry. It has seemed best to make a selection of the typical forms, and leave the feader of games free to choose his own. The first form is the simplest for beginners and younger players, and makes a good introduction to the game for such players." [ba]</div>

1

1845.30 +

<div dir="ltr">I'm not sure that the combination of homemade whiskey and Billy Ray playing the bagpipes would be such a good idea, particularly not with rifles lying about. -- Richard Hershberger</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">Especially if the sheep had the rifles -- Protoball Functionary</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">As of December 2020, Protoball has no base ball is known in Madison before 1860. </div> +

1785.3 +

<div>-- "While mentions of stool ball in literature go back centuries, this is the earliest “serious” contest of the game I’m aware of. It’s especially interesting because the competitors were men. Of course, we have no idea what form of the game they were playing, but presumably it more closely resembled the structured form that women began playing in the 19th century as opposed to the milkmaid version of centuries past." </div> <div> </div> <div> <div>-- "Sittingbourn lies between London and Canterbury. The Swan is a pub that still operates, near Sittingbourn. Homestall Lane appears to be the dividing line between the Sittingbourne area and a second area to the east centered on the town of Boughten-under-Blean. Use of the term 'county' is a bit puzzling as it is obvious that this competition did not include participants representing the entire county of Kent."</div> <div> </div> <div>"The White Horse Inn, the venue for the return match, is also still in operation today. Despite the fact that both the Swan and the White Horse are more than 235 years old, neither is listed among the top ten oldest public houses in Kent. Both sit astride the ancient London-Canterbury Road along which traveled the pilgrims documented by Chaucer in Canterbury Tales. Indeed, the White Horse Inn was mentioned in one of the tales (according to the inn's website.)"</div> <div> </div> <div>-- "A guinea from 1785 is worth roughly $100 today." [So the stakes amounted to $15,000 in today's dollars?]</div> <div> </div> <div>-- "I should have more important things than this to occupy me on a rainy [San Francisco] Sunday afternoon, but apparently not. Undoubtedly, we are scrutinizing this item more closely than it would ordinarily merit, but in Covid times I am happy for the distraction."</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div> </div> <div>from David Block, emails of 12/14-15/2020</div> </div> <div> </div> <div>===</div> <div> </div> <div>As of December 2020, Protoball's Chronology has over 65 references to stoolball prior to 1785, and 20 more from 1785 to 1860. Vey few of them cite male players, and fewer still cite male-only play or large stakes for winning.</div>

S

Shinty +

<div>Shinty (aka Shinney) was played in the US prewar. Cf. the Lancaster (PA) Daily Evening Express, Feb. 2, 1860; Boston Evening Transcript, Oct. 26, 1857; New York Herald, Sept. 10, 1839 (shinty played in the Scottish games, at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken); Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Nov. 15, 1848 (boys playing shinty in the streets); NY Tribune, Nov. 25, 1859 (Caledonian Society in Hoboken); Newport Mercury, Aug. 19, 1865 (in Providence). </div> <div>In 1589 the playing of golf, carrick, and shinty, was forbidden in the Blackfriars Yards, Glasgow, 'Sunday or week-day.' (Browning's History of Golf) As was hurling. A Hurling Club was established in Buffalo in 1860. See the Buffalo Courier, June 11, 1860. Also Brooklyn. See the ad for the new Brooklyn Hurling Club, in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 31, 1860, and same Aug. 18, 1858 for a hurling match. Also in Philadelphia by 1860. See Scharf, "Philadelphia" p. 801; Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 1860. Chronologies 1772.1 points out that Irish soldiers played Hurling in NYC in 1772, and that Hurling clubs were formed in San Francisco in 1853 (SF Daily Placer Times, May 16, 1853) and NYC in 1857 (NY Herald Dec. 26, 1857: Redmond, Irish sports in America).</div> <div>It appears the two games were similar, Shinty being the Scots version and Hurling the Irish. </div> <div>For more on Shinty see http://www.uscamanachd.org/documents/MacLennan_Shintysplace.pdf. For more on the Shinty-Ice Hockey connection, see Martel et al., "On the Origin of Hockey."[ba]</div> +

1

1850s.58 +

<h3 class="post-title entry-title">"The Summer of Old-Fashioned Base Ball</h3> <div class="post-header"> </div> <div id="post-body-6483199015792047003" class="post-body entry-content">While the truth about 19th century base ball is often hard to pin down, it is pretty much universally acknowledged that the New York game enjoyed major growth immediately after the Civil War. That was certainly the case throughout New Jersey where in 1860 [modern] base ball was pretty much limited to only a third of the state's 21 counties, but by 1870 every county had at least one base ball club. A similar pattern played out in the city of Paterson, but with a major difference that came at the height of the post war expansion. Initially, given the city's population and location, base ball got off to a slow start in Paterson as the first documented match (between a social and a militia organization) wasn't played until late 1857 and the first base ball clubs weren't mentioned in the media until 1860, far behind the experience of comparable [NJ]municipalities."</div> <div class="post-body entry-content"> </div> <div class="post-body entry-content">John Zinn, A Manly Game blog entry for October 2014, at URL cited above.</div> <div class="post-body entry-content"> </div> <div class="post-body entry-content">More observations for John's 1867 throwback game finds are found in Supplementary Text, below.</div> +

B

Baseball Discovered -- A one-hour Emmy-nominated Documentary on Baseball's Beginnings +

<h3 class="section__subheadline">"Description</h3> <div id="ember153" class="we-truncate we-truncate--multi-line we-truncate--interactive ember-view" data-test-description=""> <div id="ember155" class="we-clamp ember-view" data-clamp=""> 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." 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 [[<a title="Sam Marchiano and the 1755 Bray Diary Find" data-serp-pos="3">Sam Marchiano and the 1755 Bray Diary Find</a>]]. </div> </div> +

1

1836.13 +

Roswell Park was born at Lebanon, Conn., in 1807, graduated at West Point, and at Union College in 1831. He died July 16, 1869. Whether he was an errant wight is not yet known by Protoball. +

1856.38 +

Spink does not site a source for this item. Note: As of 2023, Protoball has 9 entries for town ball in Illinois prior to 1856, including claims that Abe Lincoln: see The following 1866 comparison of base ball and town ball from an Illinois source throws some light on town ball rules for that era: "Base Ball resembles our old-fashioned favorite game of Town Ball sufficiently to naturalize it very quickly. It is governed by somewhat elaborate rules, but the practice is quite simple. Nine persons on a side, including the Captains, play it. Four bases are placed ninety feet apart, in the figure of a diamond. The Batsman, Ball Pitcher, and one Catcher, take the same position as in Town Ball. Of the outside, besides the Pitcher and Catcher, one is posted at each base, one near the Pitcher, called the “Short Stop,”—whose duty is the same as the others in the field—to stop the ball. The Innings take the bat in rotation, as in Town Ball,—and are called by the Scorer. The ball is pitched, not thrown to them—a distance of fifty feet. The Batsman is permitted to strike at three “fair” balls, without danger of being put out by a catch, but hit or miss, must run at the third “fair” ball. He may “tip” or hit a foul ball as often as the Umpire may call foul, so he be not caught out flying, or on the first bound. When he runs, he must make the base before the ball reaches the point to which he runs, or he is out. And three men out, puts out the entire side. Those who are put out may continue to strike and run bases until the third man is out. "The Bases form a diamond, the angles of which are occupied by the Batsman and Catcher, and one of the outside at each angle. All putting out on the corners is by getting the ball there before the runner for the inside reaches the base, by catching the ball flying when a fair ball is struck, or by catching a foul ball after it is struck, either when flying or at first bound. A distinctive peculiarity of the game consists in the fact that when a ball is struck by the Batsman it must fly either on an exact angle, or inside of the angles formed by the base occupied by the Batsman, and the bases right and left of him. All balls deflecting from these angles are “foul.” "The above is merely a general view of the game. It is very easy to learn, and is capital sport, barring the cannon ball which the players are expected to catch in rather soft hands. Ladies will enjoy the game, and of course are expected as admiring spectators." Source Daily Illinois State Journal, May 1866: see https://protoball.org/Clipping:A_comparison_of_base_ball_and_town_ball, from the Hershberger Clippings Data Base.

D

Donkey Baseball +

"Several entrepreneurs set up businesses that toured the country in the 1930s, with a truckload of trained donkeys, staging games for a fee. Service clubs, churches and civic groups would hire the companies and offer the public a chance to see local notables attempt to play baseball mounted on the quadrupeds. The profits from the show would go to their charitable and civic projects. "Typically, the game would be a contest between the members of a service club or a church group against a sports team or another civic group. Invariably, the players were well known in the community, and often some of its leaders. The public found great amusement in watching the players’ inept attempts to guide the donkeys. They were often tossed head over heels to the ground, or otherwise outsmarted by their stubborn mounts." Steven Thorning, Donkey Baseball Was Popular it the mid-20th Century, November 26, 2010; accessed 10/24/2020 via a search for <thorning donkey baseball>. The May 2019 Bossier (Louisiana?) site above adds that, based on a 1934 news article, fielders were allowed to dismount to retrieve hit balls, as long that they held on to the beast's reins. +

1

1871.4 +

While "hits per at-bat" has become the modern form of batting average, and was the only average calculated by the official statistician beginning in the inaugural season of the National League in 1876, the definition of a "time at bat" has varied over time. To Dobson, a time at bat included any time a batter made an "out, a run, or is left on his base." However, walks were excluded from the calculation of at-bats beginning in 1877, with a temporary reappearance in 1887 when they were counted the same as hits. Times hit by the pitcher were excluded beginning in 1887, sacrifice bunts in 1894, times reached on catcher's interference in 1907, and sacrifice flies in 1908 (though, they went in and out of the rules multiple times over the next few decades and weren't firmly excluded until 1954). Consequently, based on Dobson's calculation, walks would have counted as an at-bat but not as a hit, so a negative result for the batter. This was the case in the first year of the National League as well, but was "fixed" by the second year. A fielder's choice would have been recorded as an at-bat and not a hit under Dobson's system, as it is today. For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a>

D

Dysodias Club of Eugene +

Eugene OR (1870 population 861) is about 120 miles S of Portland. One report said that the matches were played in the town square. +

1

1805.8 +

Protoball notes, circa 2010 The writer, Benjamin Silliman, thus implies that an American [or at least Connecticut] analog to trap ball was played, using fungo-style batting [trap ball was not usually a running game, so the American game may have been a simple form of fungo]. His second comparison is consistent with our understanding or how English cricket and American wicket were played in about 1800. However, it seems odd that he would refer to "our cricket" and not "our wicket" It is possible that a form of cricket - using, presumably, the smaller ball - was played in the US that retained the older long, low wickets known in 1700 English cricket. Note that if the US wicket was only 3 or 4 inches high, a rolling ball would most likely dislodge the bail. From David Block, 2/12/2014: "This reference raises some questions, which may not be answerable. Was he implying that striking a ball, fungo-style, was the general method of ball-play in New England, or was he only making a more narrow comparison to how a self-serve type of ball game was played at home. If the latter, might this have been 'bat-ball'?" "It appears that the author was previously unaware of English cricket. What he refers to as "our cricket" is obviously wicket. This was an educated man, but it was also apparently his first trip overseas. My first reaction was to be very surprised at his apparent ignorance of English cricket, but it may well be that things that seem like obvious knowledge to us today may not have been so in the America of two hundred years ago."

I

In Nashua in April 1847 +

"Fast. This time-hallowed, if not time-honored occasion, was observed in the usual way. The ministers preached to pews exhibiting a beggarly emptiness, upon the sins of the nation -- a frightful subject enough, heaven knows. The b-hoys smoked cigars, kicked football, played round ball, long ball, and old cat, and went generally into the outward observances peculiar to the occasion. [Nashua (NH) Telegraph]." from the Boston Courier, April 14, 1847. Stephen Katz observes: "The "fast" referred to was probably Thanksgiving, celebrated on April 13, 1847." +

L

London Dictionary Defines "Baseball" in 1768 +

"A Society of Gentlemen" was the same rubric used by the authors of the first Encyclopedia Britannica, also published in 1768. This Dictionary was apparently intended to be a companion work by those men, or perhaps a copycat work by imitators (the Britannica was essentially Scottish and first printed in Edinburgh), though evidently an unsuccessful one.- Bill Hicklin +

I

In West Chester Circa 1827 +

"A boy named Plaff was killed at West Chester, Pa., by being hit under the ear by a ball-club." +

E

Evansville Townball +

"And it is a fact known to very few, that away back in the early history of Evansville, ball was the most popular game. But it was then called town ball. On every Saturday at 12 o'clock the great majority of the wholesale and retail houses closed their doors and the merchants would go to a large vacant common which now is filled up by Chandler Avenue, Blackford Avenue and Mulberry street, there to engage in a game of town ball. Among the best players of that time were John Wymond, who for many years was in the paper business here, William E. Hollingsworth, Thomas J. Hollingsworth, Edward E. Law, Dr. I. Haas, the late Wiley Little, Samuel E. Gilbert, Henry Dodge, Billy Caldwell, Billy Baker, John S. Hopkins and a number of others who were the leading men of Evansville in those days. The players used a large rubber ball, solid and almost the same size as the league ball now in use. To catch the ball on the bounce or after it had hit the ground the first time, was considered perfectly fair. This would be a joke at present. There was only one base or home plate where the batter stood. There was only one batter of course and no catcher and the game was simply like batting flies for practice at any league park, with this exception. Whenever the fielder (and they were all fielders except the man who stood at the bat,) caught the ball either before it struck the ground or before it struck the ground the second time, he marched in, took his place at the bat and tossing up his own ball (for there were no pitchers), knocked it as far as he could. The great point of skill was in knocking the ball so that it would not bounce. In other words, in knocking grounders or in knocking it as far as he could, so that the fielders could not catch it on the bounce from where they were stationed. I remember that my father, the late Samuel E. Gilbert, took a great interest in the game and would as soon have missed the Sunday morning choir as he could his Saturday afternoon ball game and he imagined that he was a great catcher, but one day he got directly under a high fly which slipped through his hands and struck him exactly on the bridge of the nose and for two weeks he had about the worst pair of black eyes ever seen in the city of Evansville. This club played for several years and even after base ball had gotten a start some of these old timers imagined that the new game would be equally as simple as the old one. So on a certain afternoon a lot of the old merchants, all of whom had been town ball players, challenged the clerks for a game. This was pie for the clerks, but the old timers did not know it. We all went to the park and I suppose through having a relative in the game, I was selected as pitcher and used nothing but a plain drop ball, but there was not one of those old timers who hit any closer than about one foot from it, and they actually had the nerve to order me from the plate on the grounds that I was not playing fair. When their turn came to pitch, what we did to those straight balls was good and plenty. I do not remember the score, but I do remember that that was the last time the old timers ever challenged any of the younger generation. They seemed to realize that things had changed since their day. It was in the '50s that Charlie Wentz a dashing young college graduate from the east, came here and was appointed agent of the Adams Express Company, which was then in Chandler block where the barber shop now is. He was the first one to introduce the regular game of base ball in this city and was assisted by the late Emerson B. Morgan, also an eastern man, and George Bartlett, the young member of the firm of John H. Bartlett & Co., who were in the dry goods business here. This was in the year 1866. I do not remember just where they first played but it was on the open grounds and a huge back stop of boards was put up just behind the catcher. The game at that time was new, even in the east and the rules far different from what they are at the present. The pitcher had a great deal better show as did the batter and such scores as two to one or even 10 to 5 were unheard of. They generally ran between the 20's and the 50’s." Gilbert, History of Evansville pp 106-108

1

1860.62 +

"Athletic" proved to be the most durable club name in baseball. +

M

Maple Leaf Club of Hamilton v Barton and Flamborough on 18 October 1865 +

"Barton ad Flamborough" = The clubs of Barton and West Flamborough? +

S

Southern Club of Bluefields +

"Before baseball became popular among Nicaraguans, the British, who occupied the Atlantic Coast, introduced cricket. However, a businessman from the U.S. named Albert Addlesburg who lived in Bluefields in the 1880s became fed up with local sports authorities and convinced two cricket teams to switch to baseball instead. The two baseball teams had their first game in 1887, and the first official games took place in Managua in 1891." http://cultureboxes.unm.edu/countries/Nicaragua/resources/Culture-Box-of-Nicaragua.pdf +

H

Hero Club of Brooklyn E.D. +

"Brooklyn E.D." was an old name for Williamsburg and Greenpoint, annexed by Brooklyn in 1854. The older Brooklyn was called the Western District. +

E

East New York and Prospect Park ballgrounds +

"East New York" is an alternate name for the town of New Lots, on Long Island, which was annexed by Brooklyn in 1886. [ba] +

G

Giftball +

"Gift is a German word for "poison." Thus it is conceivable that the German game derived from the French game of Balle Empoisonee. One can speculate that players were put out when a ball touched them. +

1

1800c.11 +

"It seems to me that sky-ball was a trapball-type game." -- Tom Altherr, 2.19.2021 A gable is an end-wall of a structure. Tom suggests that the first game reported may have been barn ball. +

-

-1000s.1 +

"More recent art from elsewhere in China shows polo-like games being played on horseback with sticks" evidence for ball games in Eurasia from ca. 3000-year-old Yanghai tombs in the Turfan depression of Northwest China Patrick Wertmanna,⁎, "'We cannot determine based on current evidence that these balls can be linked with polo,' says Jeffrey Blomster, an archeologist at George Washington University . . . 'the fact that all three are nearly the same size suggests a similar use for all three.'" For comments on the game played with these balls see Supplemental Text, below. [] For information on balls found from even earlier times, in Egyptian tombs from 2600 BCE, see [[-2600c.1]] <h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading" lang="en"> </h1> +

I

In Jacksonboro on 17 February 1782 +

"Old Jacksonborough" is about 19 miles west of Charleston in Colleton County. +

R

Rock City Base Ball Club of Nashville +

"Rock City" was a nickname for Nashville in the 19th century. See the book "Nashville, Tennessee: The Rock City of the Great and Growing South," published around 1900. http://books.google.com/books?id=nCptNQEACAAJ There was also a separate Rock City club located in Culleoka, TN at a later period. +

E

Eckford Club of Brooklyn +

"The Eckfords disbanded as a base ball club in November of 1872 but remained a club until 1965." -- Eric Miklich (email of 11/13/2020). +

Eckford Club of Brooklyn v Eckford Club of Brooklyn on 28 May 1861 +

"The Field" side was allowed 11 players and were given six outs each inning. Future impact player, Al Reach played second for "The Field" and his brother, Bob, played centerfield. "The Field" side hit four home runs (one each by the Reach brothers) to the "First Nine's" one. Note that Henry Chadwick is listed as a member or the Atlantic of Brooklyn Club. +

B

Bergen Social Club of Brooklyn v Union Club of Lansingburgh on 2 October 1865 +

"The Green" is described in The Sporting News as "north of 12th street and near 3rd avenue" +

J

Julien Base Ball Club of Dubuque +

"The Julien Base Ball Club disbanded and a new club formed called the "Excelsior."" - Dubuque Daily Herald, Apr. 21, 1867 +

1

1846.13 +

"The Thistle," Aug. 4, 1807, p. 4, notes the following: "our forefathers used to play, under trees, the game of Mall and Ball, the same game that the learned Students of Harvard call Bat and Ball." Mall and Ball seems to be a variant name for the game Pall Mall, a precursor of croquet. So is Harvard "bat and ball" croquet, rather than a baseball-like game? [ba] +

T

THE INDIAN SPORTS +

"The Tuscaroras allege that unfair means were used by the Senecas in putting on fresh men at the end of every game, which with the Tuscarorasis not an ancient custom." +

1

1858.50 +

"The quoits part seems to have dropped out of usage pretty quickly, and they changed their name to the Winona BBC the following year. The Winonas disbanded in 1864, bequeathing their trophies to the Keystones." +

E

Eighty-Stampers Club of Rapid City +

"To combat against gambling and regulate the fair play of the game, Black Hills baseball clubs began to formally organize, providing bylaws for the club and written rules to govern the conduct of the players and the game. This was solidified on August 11, 1885, when the “Black Hills Base Ball League” was officially organized. League members included the Metropolitans of Deadwood, Eighty-Stamps of Rapid City, Athletes of Fort Meade, Belt Club of Central City and Terraville, Red Stockings of Spearfish, and the Sturgis Nine of Sturgis. The Black Hills Base Ball League was the first attempt at creating a regulated consortium of Black Hills teams, a precedent that would continue into the twentieth century." From "Baseball in the Mining Camps," city of Deadwood website. +

W

W.D.’s side v P.B.’s side on 24 November 1859 +

"W. D." may be Dr. William H. Doughty (1836-1905), whose brother Joshua played in the 1860 game, and whose son William (1856-1923) played on the Lightfoot with Woodrow Wilson postwar. [ba] +

I

Ionic Club of Hackensack +

"have been organized - barely one month" +

1

1858.70 +

"though no larger than a good-sized baseball" indicates that baseball sizes were not standardized. +

R

Rough and Ready Ball Club v Aristonican Ball Club on 29 October 1859undefined +

<div> "CRICKET MATCH – There will be a cricket match between the “Aristonican Ball Club,” of Roxbury, and the “Rough and Ready Ball club,” Brookline, Saturday, Oct. 29, commencing at 2-1/2 o’clock, on a triangular park, situated on Park street, Brookline. This will be the first match played by the “Aristonicans” since their organization." Source: Boston Post, October 18, 1859:4. Joanne Hulbert's 2/23 comment: "[T]here still exists a triangular shaped park on Park Street, in front of St. Mark’s Church. It conforms to the description stated above.) . . . I did notice that the “triangular park” mentioned still exists today. You can see it when you use Google Maps and put in Park Street, Brookline. Hmmm, wonder if there could be a vintage game played there today to commemorate the event?" </div> +

1

1747.1 +

"Rolling circle" had been drafted as "hoop," and thus does not connote ballplaying . Cricket writers have seen "flying ball" as a cricket reference, but one Gray scholar cites "Bentley's Print" as a basis for concluding that Gray was referring to trap ball in this line. Steel and Lyttelton note that this poem was first published in 1747. The phrase "urge the flying ball" is re-used in later writings, presumably to evoke cricket playing. +

1860.91 +

+

S

Sun and Planet +

+

1

1858.61 +

Jeff Kittel" -- "A spare box score shows the Ottawa Club winning a three-inning contest, 230 to 207. It appears to have been a game of wicket." +

1855.47 +

From leading NJ base ball researcher John Zinn, 1/10/2023 <div class="default-style">"For the moment, I'd recommend holding off on designating this or any other 1855 game as the first game New Jersey clubs played by New York rules. I believe the only things we know about the July game is there were nine on a side and the score was 31-10. If they were playing by New York rules the game should have ended when the Newark club reached 21, although it's possible they reached 31 in the top of an inning and so the game didn't end until the Oriental (later the Olympic Club) had their last at bat.</div> <div class="default-style"> </div> <div class="default-style">It seems pretty certain that in 1855 both the Newark and Jersey City clubs started out playing either a different "baseball" game or a hybrid of something they knew and the New York game. In the case of Jersey City, the early involvement of the New York clubs playing at Elysian Fields most likely got them on to the New York rules. How that happened in Newark is less certain, but by the end of the 1855 season, the teams from both cities were playing by the New York rules.</div> <div class="default-style"> </div> <div class="default-style">If these first New Jersey clubs started out playing by something other than New York rules, it suggests as far as New Jersey was concerned, Tom Gilbert's suggestion of New York/Brooklyn players moving someplace and taking the game with them doesn't apply. Otherwise, they would have started out playing by the New York rules.</div> <div class="default-style"> </div> <div class="default-style">In the relatively near future, I'll put sometime into applying some criteria to the limited information we have about the 1855 games and see if I can come up with a systematic approach to identifying the first game by New York rules. First, however, I want to spend a week or so intensely looking at whether I can find a feasible explanation or explanations as to how the New York game got from Manhattan to Newark."</div>

U

Union Club of Medway +

June 1858 -- "The Cause Was Rum" The game of ball played at Braggville last Saturday afternoon, between the Holliston and Medway boys, was the occasion for a great gathering of all the loafers from the neighboring towns, with a fair sprinkling of very respectable looking men. The fact of the matter was, as we understand, a row and fight. The cause was rum. A large quantity, it is said, was brought on to the ground and disposed of, and even sold at the hotel. We commend that establishment to the attention of the authorities in Holliston." Boston Herald, June 26, 1858,. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015. +

1

1824c.3 +

"Our Village" was published over time in four volumes beginning in 1824. The second volume, published in 1826, includes the short story “The Tenants of Beechgrove” which contains this baseball quote on page 28. A year later, 1827, the story appeared in the Ladies’ Pocket Magazine, Vol. I, page 157. -- David Block, 9/25/2020 +

1837.1 +

"Wheaton's 1837 Gotham rules may have resembled the Knickerbocker rules forged 8 years later. He said, in 1887, that "the code I then formulated is substantially that in use today" -- after a span of 5 decades. (In the meantime, however, the Knicks went back to using the bound rule.)" Note: Brown knows that the unsigned article was written by Wheaton from internal evidence, such as the opening of the article, in the voice of an unnamed reporter: “An old pioneer, formerly a well-known lawyer and politician, now living in Oakland, related the following interesting history of how it originated to an EXAMINER reporter: ‘In the thirties I lived at the corner of Rutgers street and East Broadway in New York. I was admitted to the bar in ’36, and was very fond of physical exercise….’” Wheaton wrote that the Gotham Club abandoned the bound rule . . . but if so, the Knickerbockers later re-instituted it, and it remained in effect until the 1860s. Wheaton also recalled that the Knickerbockers at some point changed the base-running rule, which had dictated that whenever a batter "struck out" [made an out, we assume, as strikeouts came later], base-runners left the field. Under a new interpretation, runners only came in after the third out was recorded. +

L

Langball +

[] Of all known baserunning games, langball may be the only one that uses strikers suspended above the ground. <div dir="ltr">[] "Volleyball was another YMCA innovation, making three sports (that I know of) with two of them still played today. Not too shabby, and a fine illustration of the influence of Muscular Christianity on sport."</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">--Richard Hershberger, 3/5/2021</div> +

W

Winthrop Club of Holliston +

Some Club Highlights June 1858 -- Scheduling Hurdles Thwart "Friendly Game" with Westboro Club Clip 1: "We have received several communications respecting base ball playing, from which it appears that the Eagle club of Westboro, voted June 18th to invite the Winthrop Club of Holliston, to go to Westboro and play a friendly game of Base Ball on the 26th of June." "In reply the Winthrops, June 21st, stated that it would not be convenient for them to go to Westboro, but invited the Eagles to Holliston to play a game on the same day. This is considered by the Eagles a declinaton of their challenge." Boston Herald, pg. 4, June 23, 1858. Provided by Joanne Hulbert 7/28/2015. Clip 2: "The President of the Eagle Base Ball Club of Westboro, says in reference to a former statement, that the Eagles did not challenge the Winthrop Club of Holliston, but extended to them an invitation to meet them at Westboro as the guests of the Eagle’s and pass a few hours in the pleasant recreation of a game of base ball on Saturday the 26th. If the Winthrops had been challenged, they would have had the choice of their ground." Boston Herald, pg. 4, June 25, 1858. Provided by Joanne Hulbert 7/28/2015. -- June 1858 -- "The Cause Was Rum" "The game of ball played at Braggville (a former postal village about 4 miles SW of Holliston) last Saturday afternoon, between the Holliston and Medway boys, was the occasion for a great gathering of all the loafers from the neighboring towns, with a fair sprinkling of very respectable looking men. The fact of the matter was, as we understand, a row and fight. The cause was rum. A large quantity, it is said, was brought on to the ground and disposed of, and even sold at the hotel. We commend that establishment to the attention of the authorities in Holliston." Boston Herald, June 26, 1858,. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015. -- July 1858 -- Winthrop Club Hosts Players On Local Clubs, Including the Olympic Club of Boston Clip 1: "The Winthrop Ball Club of Holliston, it is rumored, will have a visit on Monday the 5th from the Olympic Ball Club of Boston. There will be some playing, but no match game. The Olympians were the competitors of the Winthrops on the Boston Common some three weeks since, and how magnanimously the Olympians received their defeat, and how generously they treated the Winthrops as their guests; will not be forgotten by the members of the Holliston Club. We anticipate that both clubs will have a good time on Monday. Clip 2: "Since the above was in type, we learn that the Olympic does not visit Holliston as a club, but that members come in their individual capacity, and will mingle with the members of the Winthrop as personal friends. There will, probably, be some playing however." Boston Herald, July 3, 1858,. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015. -- July 1858 -- Celebrated Game With the Massapoag Club of Sharon MA Clip 1, Boston: "Base Ball. A Match Game. The Winthrop Ball Club of Holliston, have received and accepted a challenge from the Sharon Club to play a match game. It will come off this day commencing at 9 o’clock, A.M., at the ball ground of the Winthrop Club, and probably continue into the afternoon. “Mine Host” Francis of the Winthrop House will get up a good dinner for the occasion." Boston Herald, July 24, 1858. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015. Clip 2, Lowell: "MIDDLESEX AHEAD OF NORFOLK. The Holliston and Sharon base ball clubs, both of which have beaten the Boston club, played a game on Saturday to test the question of superiority. Holliston beat, making 100 runs to 69." Lowell Daily Citizen and News, page 2, Monday, July 26, 1858. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015. Clip 3, Dedham: "MATCH AT BASE BALL -- A great match of base ball was played on Saturday, at Holliston, in the presence of a large company of spectators between the Winthrop Club of Holliston, and the Massapoag Club of Sharon. The latter club won the first innings. The Winthrop Club, however, came off victorious, having scored 101 tallies against 61 by the Massapoag boys. The playing was very spirited, and the utmost good feeling prevailed throughout. There were 14 men on a side, and nearly all played remarkably well. J. W. Cutter, of the Winthrop Club, was hit in the eye, which delayed the playing somewhat. The referees were Messrs. A. H. Johnson, A. C. Daniels, and B. H. Hoyt. After the game, both Clubs had an excellent supper at the Winthrop House, Holliston, and lively speeches were made. " [[[section here won't load]]] Dedham Gazette, July 31, 1858. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015. Clip 4, Milford: "BASE BALL. – A match game was played on last Saturday between the Winthrop club of Holliston and the Massapoag Club of Sharon. The challenge came from the Sharon Club, which the Holliston boys accepted, at the risk of losing some of their laurels won in former contests. The Sharon boys had a fine reputation, and that deservedly as their playing evinced. But the Winthrops carried the day handsomely. The game commenced about 10 o’clock, fourteen on a side. At the close of the first two hours, when the playing was suspended, both clubs partook of a fine lunch, and enjoyed an intermission of some twenty minutes. In resuming the game both clubs entered with the firmest determination to beat, and they had the highest incitement to it, for it was estimated that not less than fifteen hundred spectators were present, as deeply interested as themselves. The game close between 3 and 4 o’clock, P.M. In reckoning the tallies the Massapoag numbered 61 – the Winthrops 101. The playing was very spirited, and gave general satisfaction to all parties. It was particularly pleasant to see that no hard feeling was engendered by the spirit of rivalry. The Winthrop boys wore their honors with a quiet magnanimity, and the Massapoags bore their defeat with a dignified grace worthy of all praise. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">In the following table the names of members from both clubs are given, and the result of the game exhibited in detail: – [[[box score goes here]]] The referees were Messrs. A.H. Johnson of the Massapoag, A.C. Daniels of the Winthrop, B.H. Hoyt of the Olympic, Boston. The tallymen were Messrs. Johnson of the Massapoag, J.M. Hawks and William R. Thayer of the Winthrop. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> At the close of the game, the members of both clubs, with invited guests, repaired to the Winthrop House, where they sat down to a bounteous repast prepared by Mr. Francis, its enterprising landlord. After supper, the President of the Winthrop club addressed the company in an elegant and appropriate speech, which he closed by introducing a fine sentiment, contributed by E.J. Cutler, A.M., as follows: The Massapoag Club of Sharon: – The rose of Sharon blooms today, No flower blossoms sweeter; But you will smell her sweetest scent, When you have gently beat her. The President of the Massapoag Club responded in a very pleasing and effective style. The remarks were greeted with much applause, and the utmost good feeling prevailed throughout. Several other speeches and sentiments were introduced and responded to during the exercises, and the whole affair wound up in good shape. Both clubs afterwards repaired to the ball ground and participated in a friendly game. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> The constable of the town deserve much credit for their efficiency in preserving general good order during the day, and the promptness with which they arrested several “outsiders,” who were foolish enough to become intoxicated. <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Milford Journal, July 31, 1858. Provided by Joanne Hulbert, 7/28/2015.

1

1846.6 +

Note: Whitman's text also presented at John Thorn's Our Game at <a class="ydp55524770yiv9689899570moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/opening-day-e5f9021c5dda" rel="nofollow">https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/opening-day-e5f9021c5dda</a>. Note: Other connections between Whitman and base ball at at [[1845.31]], [[1855.9]], and [[1858.25]]. +

1825.2 +

Note: George Thompson has conducted research on the backgrounds of the listed players: personal communications, 11/3/2003. He found a range of players' ages from 19 to the mid-30's. It is held in PBall file #1825.2. +

1862.104 +

Camp Doubleday is described in an 1896 source as "just outside Brooklyn city limits." See: https://museum.dmna.ny.gov/unit-history/artillery/5th-heavy-artillery-regiment/prison-pens-south; Other sources locate it on Long Island, NY. A third source locates Camp Doubleday in Northwest Washington DC: https://www.northamericanforts.com/East/dc.html#NW So which location is depicted on this letterhead? [1] From John Thorn email, 2/5/2022; "Camp Doubleday appears to be in DC. It was also known as Fort Massachusetts. [SOURCE: HISTORY OF THE SEVENTY-SIXTH REGIMENT NEW YORK VOLUNTEERS; WHAT IT ENDURED AND ACCOMPLISHED ; CONTAINING DESCRIPTIONS OF ITS TWENTY -FIVE BATTLES ; ITS MARCHES ; ITS CAMP AND BIVOUAC SCENES ; WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF FIFTY - THREE OFFICERS, AND A COMPLETE RECORD OF THE ENLISTED MEN . BY A. P. SMITH, LATE FIRST LIEUTENANT AND Q. M. , SEVENTY- SIXTH N. Y. VOLS. ILLUSTRATED WITH FORTY -NINE ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD, BY J. P. DAVIS & SPEER, OF NEW YORK ; AND A LITHOGRAPH , BY L. N. ROSENTHAL, OF PHILADELPHIA . CORTLAND, N. Y. PRINTED FOR THE PUBLISHER. 1867]" [2] From Bruce Allardice email, 2/5/2022: <div dir="ltr">"The Camp Doubleday mentioned is the one near Washington DC. The 76th regiment was not stationed near Brooklyn in 1862, but was stationed in/near DC. It was in a brigade commanded by Abner Doubleday, hence the 'Camp Doubleday' designation."</div> --- David Block suggests the drawing (see below: game is shown near the image's center) shows Drive Ball, a fungo game. See Baseball Before We Knew It ,(2005), page 198. See also the sketchy Protoball Glossary entry on [[Drive Ball]]. -- One auction house in 2015 claimed "This is perhaps the very first piece of American stationery depicting Union soldiers playing baseball. Amazingly, this lithograph has it all by showing Union soldiers at play in Camp Doubleday which, of course, was named after the game's creator Abner Doubleday!" -- From John Thorn, 2/22/22: "Lithographer is Louis N. Rosenthal of Philadelphia. Born 1824." See <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;" href="https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A79709">https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A79709</a>

1870c.7 +

In the 1880s we find a claim that catchers' gloves had been known in the 1860s: "An exchange says that 'Jim White, the third baseman of the Detroit club, was the first man who ever used gloves while catching behind the bat.' This is a mistake. Delavarge, the catcher of the old Knickerbockers, an amateur club of Albany, used gloves when playing behind the bat in the sixties." The Sporting News July 5, 1885. But in a 9/21/16 19CBB posting, Bob Tholkes wrote: "I've read several Knick of Albany game accounts in which Delavarge played without running into any mention of gloves. If he wore them, it would have been to protect an injured hand (he was a blacksmith, if memory serves), and not routinely." And then David Arcidiacono offered the 1870 Allison item listed above. +

1750s.2 +

Prisoner's base is not a ball game, and bull-pen is not a safe-haven game. +

1868c.5 +

Richard Hershberger notes, 9/12/2017: "My opinion has been that this is unsubstantiated, but plausible. I want to focus here on the bit about the writer's nephew working for Harwood. I just made the connection with this description of baseball manufacture, from four years earlier: 'On the upper floor of the establishment sat several men with baskets of dampened chamois and buckskin clippings at their sides. Before each workman stood a stout piece of joist, in the end of which was inserted a mold, hemispherical in shape, in which the balls are formed. Taking a handful of cuttings from the basket, the workman pressed them together in his hands and then worked about the mass a few yards of strong woollen yarn. Placing the embryo ball in the mold, he pounded it into shape with a heavy flat mallet, and then wound on more yarn and gave the ball another pounding. After testing its weight on a pair of scales and its diameter with a tape measure he threw the ball into a basket and began another. When the newly-made balls are thoroughly dried they are carried to the sewing-room on the floor below, where they are to receive their covers. Forty young women sat at tables sewing on the covers of horse-hide. Grasping a ball firmly in her left hand, with her right hand one of the young women thrust a three-cornered needle through the thick pieces of the cover and drew them firmly together. A smart girl can cover two or three dozen of the best and eight dozen of the cheaper grades of balls in a day. The wages earned weekly range from $7 to $9. The balls are afterward taken to the packing-room, where the seams are smoothed down and the proper stamps are put on. The best balls are made entirely of yarn and India-rubber. “My brother was one of the pioneers in this business,” said the manufacturer. “He was the inventor of the two-piece cover now in general use throughout the country. If my brother had only patented his invention the members of our family would not be wearing diamonds instead of bits of white glass in our shirt fronts. Ball-covers are made, almost without exception, of horse-hide, which costs $3 a side. We used to obtain our supply from John Cart, a leather dealer in the Swamp for nearly thirty-five years. We are obliged to go to Philadelphia now, there being no merchant here who keeps horse-hide leather. The capacity of our factory when we get our new molding machines in working order will be about 15,000 daily, each machine being expected to turn out 1,200 balls daily.' (St. Louis Post-Dispatch June 14, 1884, quoting the New York Tribune) "It is the second paragraph that jumped out at me. Was C. H. Jackson's nephew working for Harwood because that was his father's business? It seems plausible. The Post-Dispatch piece doesn't identify the manufacturer, or even the city. I have been unable to find the Tribune original. If anyone else can, this might shed some light on the question. Or confuse it further."

1872.5 +

Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball (FB posting, 4/4/2022) "Chadwick on amateur clubs. He is optimistic that amateur baseball will be more popular than ever, since the existence of separate amateur and professional associations ensures that no one will mistake an amateur player as being a professional. There is a lot of classic Chad here. He hopes for an amateur "revival," and so reports that it will happen. He quietly passes over the detail that there were separate associations last year, too. He defines professionals as members of any club that "either pays its players regular salaries or pays them by a share of gate receipts." Then in the next paragraph he adds a class of "quasi amateur organizations" without explaining what these are. This is Chad in his ideologically-motivated hand-waving mode. In reality there is no need for a revival. Amateur baseball was doing just fine. Chad is right that there were far more amateur teams than professional. The same is true today. It could hardly be otherwise. But notice the three specific clubs he identifies: the Knickerbockers, Gothams, and Excelsiors. These are the kind of amateur clubs he likes, on the old fraternal club model. This model is, in 1872, irrelevant. Those three clubs are dinosaurs. The amateur club of this era is nine guys, with perhaps one or two substitutes, organized for the purpose of playing--and beating!--other, similarly organized clubs. These clubs are amateur or semi-professional or professional precisely to the extent that they can persuade people to pay to watch them play. Chadwick's idea of how baseball should be organized is a thing of the past. He will figure this out eventually, but we need to give him time to process." +

1832.11 +

See [[1831.7]] for an earlier assembly involving the same two hosts. +

1802.3 +

Tom Altherr comments that while Mrs. Bascom disdained such activities on Sundays, she had "left valuable evidence of the seemingly commonplace status ball play had in her day in the South. Moreover, despite the ambiguity of her [May 9] diary entry, African Americans may have been playing ball, perhaps even with whites." +

T

The Union Hall Game of Ball +

Was this schoolyard game a significant step in the evolution toward modern base ball? We welcome input on the nature and place of the Union Hall game in the evolution of modern base ball. Protoball has seen many references to what amounts to foul territory in single wicket cricket, but all of them seem to simply disallow base-running when a hit ball goes past the batter. Was the use of foul ground for forward hits common in American ballplaying? +

1

1845.16 +

[] Richard Hershberger adds that one can not be sure that these were the same sides that played on October 21/25, noting that the Morning Post refers here just to New York "players", and not to the New York Club. [] See also [[1845.4]] for the October 21/25 games. [] John Thorn, 11/16/2022, points out that "Eight to the side was the norm in 1845, as Adams had not yet created the position of shortstop." [] In January 2023, a further question arose: Was this game played by modern rules? Could base ball's first known match game have been played in Brooklyn . . . . and on a cricket pitch? It was evidently played to 21 runs, and its eight players preceded the invention of a 9th, a shortstop. Bob Tholkes, to Protoball, 1/30/2023: "It’s a judgement. Wheaton, the writer of the Knick rules umpired the later two [1845 matches] so I’ve assumed they were played by them…don’t know that about the first game." +

R

Richmond Club of Richmond +

<table class="stats"> <tbody> <tr> <td> "Baseball didn't take root in Richmond until 1866, and the pioneer appears to have been Alexander Babcock, a New Yorker who played for Atlantic of Brooklyn in the 1850s, but went south and fought for the Confederacy, settling in Richmond after the war. He founded the Richmond Club, probably the first there, and then the Pastimes, which was a sort of City All-Stars and touring team." -- Bill Hicklin, 10/5/2020 </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> +

1

1855.5 +

Note: Seymour did not name the seven listed clubs; drat. As of mid-2013, Protoball lists a total of 30 clubs operating in the NYC area New York State: nine were in Brooklyn (Atlantic, Bedford, Columbia, Continental, Eckford, Excelsior, Harmony, Putnam, and Washington), five in Manhattan (Baltic, Eagle, Empire, Gotham, and Knickerbocker -- all but the Baltic playing one or more games at Hoboken), two (Atlantic of Jamaica, Astoria) in Queens, and two (Union, Young America) in Morrisania [Bronx]. See [[<a>http://protoball.org/Clubs_in_NY</a>]] In addition, twelve clubs are listed in New Jersey (Empire, Excelsior, Fear Not, Newark Senior, Newark Junior, Oriental-cum-Olympic, Pavonia, Palisades, Pioneer, St. John, and Washington). See[[<a>http://protoball.org/Clubs_in_NJ</a>]]. These clubs played in about 35 reported match games; over fifteen reports of intramural play are also known. There are reports of only one junior club (in NJ) and match play by one "second nine" (a Knickerbocker match game). Corrections and additions are welcome. +

1826.3 +

Note that this find comes five years before town ball is seen in Philadelphia. From Bruce Allardice, email of 6/9/2021: <div dir="ltr">"In the year 1823, Dr. John G. Coffin, established a journal in Boston entitled, "The Boston Medical Intelligencer, devoted to the cause of physical education, and to the means of preventing and curing diseases." The motto in the title page was as follows :- "The best part of the medical art, is the avoiding of pain." This journal some five or six years afterward, became the "Boston Medical and Surgical Journal," "</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">Dr. John G. Coffin (1769-1828), married. Eliza Rice.</div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">This is undoubtedly one of the petitioners for the gymnasium.</div> <div dir="ltr">The mentioned William Sullivan is probably Judge William Sullivan (1774-1839), a prominent local politician and lawyer.</div> +

A

Austin Base Ball Club +

It had 2039 residents in 1870. +

S

Seabury Base Ball Club of Faribault +

It had 3045 residents in 1870. +

1

1850s.33 +

It is interesting that the game of wicket is not mentioned, given Ashland's location in western MA. As of Jan 2013, this is one of three uses of "gool" instead of "goal" in ballplaying entries, all in the 1850s and found in western MA and ME. [To confirm/update, do an enhanced search for "gool".] This is the only entry that uses "gool" as the actual name of the game. +

1853.11 +

Pownal ME is about 20 miles north of Portland. +

1828c.3 +

Priscilla Astifan has looked hard for such an article, and it resists finding. She suspects the article appeared in a newspaper whose contents were not preserved. +

1861.13 +

Ravenna OH is about 35 miles SE of Cleveland in eastern Ohio. +

1861.12 +

Sanford ME is about 30 miles N of Portsmouth NH, near the NH border. +

1840c.26 +

See also 1837c.12 Craig reported that Oakey, 65 years old in 1894, had attended Erasmus Hall from 1838 to 1845. David Dyte added details in a July 3, 2009 19CBB posting. +

1660c.3 +

(Jacobs) says that unfortunately "balslaen" has been translated as cricket but it simply means hitting the ball. +

E

Eagle Base Ball Club of New York v Eckford Club of Brooklyn on 23 July 1861 +

17 total home runs hit in the match, 11 by the Eckford and 6 by the Eagle. Josh Snyder, SS for the Eckford, hit four. Eckford CF, John Snyder, hurt his knee in the ninth inning and was replaced by Wm. Brown. +

C

Club of Albany +

1882 African American ball club +

1

1867.8 +

19cbb post by Peter Morris, Nov. 8, 2002 +

P

Palisade Club of Englewood v Excelsior Club of Ridgewood on 13 June 1866 +

2 Hours, 35 Minutes +

O

Old Dominion Club of Alexandria v Mt. Vernon Club of Alexandria on 15 October 1866 +

2nd nines for both teams. Game started at 2:15 PM and ended at 5:30 PM. Old Dominion played without a shortstop for most of the game as he was delayed for some reason. See clipping for more detail, including boxscore. +

M

Mechanics Club of Hackensack v Alert Club English Neighborhood on 15 September 1866 +

3 hours 45 minutes +

1

1857.38 +

"For President Buchanan in 1857, a new reverse to the (latest "Indian Peace") Medal was commissioned from engraver Joseph Wilson . . . . [The medal showed] in the distance, a simple home with a woman standing in the doorway -- and a baseball game being playing in the foreground. . . . "No matter what some gentlemen were saying in New York at the "national" conventions of area clubs, the frontier game of baseball, in all its variety, was already perceived as the national game." -- John Thorn, "Our Baseball Presidents," Our Game posting, February 2018. +

1807.3 +

2008 update: John Thorn [email of 2/3/2008] discovers that others have been unable to determine exactly who the poet was, as there were three people with the name Garrett Barry in that area at that time. One of the three, who died at thirty in 1810, attended St. Mary's College in Baltimore. +

1840.6 +

Note: John Thorn traces the Eagle Club further on pages 35 and 51-53. In 1852, It was to join the Knickerbockers and to arrive at a revisin of the Knickerbocker Rules. On January 7, 2021, Richard Hershberger advised the following: <div dir="ltr">"The entry currently states that William Wood says the Eagle Club originally played in the old fashioned way. Wood says no such thing. He says that there were two clubs in New York City that date as far back as 1832 and which played in the old fashioned way. He does not identify the Eagle Club with either. This is a strictly modern supposition. I'm not saying it is wrong, but there is no evidence for it, and the entry as it stands is misleading." This error was corrected 1/16/2021. Thanks RRH!</div> +

1835.19 +

Note: In the following paragraph, the man is called "Joseph Haywood". This is a reminisce of a fellow student in boyhood, Jos. Haywood, at a school where one Ephraim Johnson was the teacher. It is probably fictional. Haywood loved to spout Greek and Latin and inspired his fellow students to apply Greek and Latin phrases to their schoolboy games. I've searched both names and can't find anything suitable in NY. David Block, 6/1/2021: An "article extolling fellow student at an unnamed school." +

V

Velocipedes Club of Wauseon +

Defiance Democrat, July 27, 1867; Wauseon New Republican, June 24, 1869 +

P

Potomac Club of Washington v National Club of Washington on 5 May 1860 +

Evening Star, May 7, 1860 has the Potomac scoring 35 runs, not 37. +

1

1867.6 +

Note: for a 1916 account of the history of the "hit," see the supplemental text below. For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> +

F

Forest City Club of Ithaca v Mechanic Club of Groton on 5 September 1866 +

Note: The location of this game is not specified. Note: Tom Shieber of the Baseball Hall of Fame writes: "[T]his gilded [trophy] ball unquestionably features a figure-eight seam pattern. Of course, there’s no guarantee that a trophy ball is the actual ball used in the game it commemorates. Conceivably, a trophy ball might be damaged/lost/disposed/etc. and later replaced with a replacement trophy ball. Thus, this ball might commemorate the 9/5/1866 game, but actually have been made and gilded many years later. If I am not mistaken, I recall having run into this scenario once before (though details escape me), but I would say this is a rare occurrence at best. Anyway, I thought I had better mention it". +

1

1858.19 +

Porter's Spirit of the Times reported on July 17, 1858 that the Louisville BBC had been organized on June 10, 1858. +

A

Agallian Club of Middletown +

The Agallian Base Ball Club was the first formally organized baseball team at Wesleyan University. It was formed in the autumn of 1864 and played its first matches against other teams the following spring. Baseball had been played informally at Wesleyan back to at least 1860. Baseball letters were given (often at a considerably later date) to Wesleyan athletes in baseball beginning with the 1861-62 season. The name Agallian was given by professor of Greek James Van Benschoten as a derivation of the name Agalles, who was said to have invented the first game of ball-playing in ancient Greece (cf. College Argus, June 11, 1868). The club played its first match against the Charter Oak Base Ball Club of Hartford in the spring of 1865, losing 22-12. Its first intercollegiate game, which was also Wesleyan’s first intercollegiate athletic contest, was against Yale on September 30, 1865, with Yale winning 39-13. One of club’s founders, Charles L. Bonnell, class of 1868, served as captain for his entire playing career. The first practices and home games took place on the Washington Street green in Middletown and on a nearby vacant plot of land on Washington Street. Later photos exist of games being played on the Wesleyan campus on what is now Andrus Field, which at the time was essentially an undrained swamp or wetlands. The Agallian club was not a formally sponsored university team but a club composed of members of several Wesleyan classes. A later organization, the University Base Ball Club, founded in 1869, seems to have had a more formal endorsement from the administration. The Agallian B.B.C. ceased to function after 1871, when baseball began to be eclipsed by the popularity of rowing as a collegiate sport. Aside from informal contests between class teams, Wesleyan was not to have an organized baseball program again until 1888. https://archives.wesleyan.edu/repositories/sca/resources/wesleyan_university_agallian_base_ball_club_record

1

1845.4 +

Hoboken leans on the early use of Elysian Fields to call the town the "Birthplace of Baseball." It wasn't, but in June 2015 John Zinn wrote a thoughtful appreciation of Hoboken's role in the establishment of the game. See <a href="http://amanlypastime.blogspot.com/,">http://amanlypastime.blogspot.com/,</a> essay of June 15, 2015, "Proving What Is So." For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> +

1869.5 +

For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> +

1868.2 +

For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> +

1869.6 +

For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> +

1859.69 +

For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9: <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/">https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/</a> +

1864.49 +

Of special interest here is co-author George S. Hilliard, whose background may explain why he regarded base-ball and bat and ball as the same game. Hilliard (1808 – 1879) was born in Machias on the coast of Maine, where the term “the bat and ball” was used to describe a specific baseball-like game (see B. Turner, “The Bat and Ball,” Base Ball (Spring 2011). Starting in 1828, Hilliard was an instructor at the Round Hill School in Northampton, MA, where baseball-like games were part of the physical education curriculum (see, entry [[1823.6]]; also see B. Turner, “Cogswell’s Bat,” Base Ball (Spring 2010)). +

1810s.9 +

Using stones for bases fits Carver’s 1834 description of “base or goal ball.” Elwyn also specifies that an inning was “one out, side out,” a feature of the Massachusetts game later codified in 1858. And, of course, that old New England favorite, “soaking.” +

1729.1 +

Brian Turner notes that this find "predates by 33 years the 1762 ban on bat-and-ball (along with foot-ball, cricket, and throwing snow-balls and stones in the streets of Salem -- see entry [[1762.2]]). It also predates by two decades a reference in a 1750s French & Indian war diary kept by Benjamin Glazier of Ipswich." (See entry [[1758.1]]) Gilman was from a leading family of New Hampshire, mainly centered in Exeter, a bit inland from Portsmouth, where Elwyn gave a description of 1810's "bat & ball," in which he certainly seems to name a specific game. (See entry [[1810s.9]]). Seccomb, also spelled Seccombe, was born and lived in Medford, Mass., and later in life wound up in Nova Scotia -- not because he was a Loyalist, but for other reasons. Brian notes that "By “Batchelors,” Gilman probably means students pursuing a bachelor’s degree, hence the categorization of this entry under "Youth." For over two centuries, 14 was the age at which boys entered Harvard." (Email of 9/1/2014.) +

C

Cavalry Base Ball +

Note: 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. To see what may be a somewhat similar game, try the droll <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcNWfcdEJ6E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcNWfcdEJ6E</a> +

P

Portland Base Ball Club v Tri-Mountain Club of Boston on 28 June 1859 +

Tri-Mountains, 21 runs: C. C,. Dimond, 1b, 5 hands lost (outs), 0 runs; G. Arnold, Jr., 3b, 4 outs, 2 runs; I. H. Ware, 2b, 4 outs, 1 run; B. F. Guild, P, 4 outs, 1 run; F. N Scott, cf, 3 outs, 3 runs; J. W. Fletcher, lf, 2 outs, 4 runs; M. E. Chandler, rf, 1 out, 5 runs; H. F. Gill, ss, 3 outs, 3 runs; E. G. Saltzman, c, 1 out, 2 runs. Portland, 14 runs: G. H. Abbott, c, 2 outs, 2 runs; G. W. Woodbury, 1b, 5 outs, 1 run; S. Chadwick, Jr, cf, 1 out, 3 runs; J. W. Blanchard [??], lf, 3 outs, 1 run; J. C. M Furbisk, p, 3 outs, 2 runs; J. H. Knight, 3b, 3 outs, 2 runs; H. D. Evans, 2b, 5 outs, 1 run; E. P . Ten Broeck, rf, 2 outs, 1 run; H. Waters, ss, 3 outs, 1 run. Note; according to the reported line score, Portland batted last, and led 12-9 after six innings, but was outscored 12-2 in the final 3 innings. +

1

1866.17 +

"Baseball didn't take root in Richmond until 1866, and the pioneer appears to have been Alexander Babcock, a New Yorker who played for Atlantic of Brooklyn in the 1850s, but went south and fought for the Confederacy, settling in Richmond after the war. He founded the Richmond Club, probably the first there, and then the Pastimes, which was a sort of City All-Stars and touring team." -- Bill Hicklin, 10/5/2020 +

P

Pastime Club of Richmond +

"Baseball didn't take root in Richmond until 1866, and the pioneer appears to have been Alexander Babcock, a New Yorker who played for Atlantic of Brooklyn in the 1850s, but went south and fought for the Confederacy, settling in Richmond after the war. He founded the Richmond Club, probably the first there, and then the Pastimes, which was a sort of City All-Stars and touring team." -- Bill Hicklin, 10/5/2020 +

Property:Comment

Navigation menu

Search