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<p><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6955" style="font: 700 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><em id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6954" style="font-style: italic;">"Baseball Pioneers, 1850-1870, The Clubs And Players Who Spread the Sport Nationwide"<br/>edited by Peter Morris,, William J. Ryczek, Jan Finkel, Leonard Levin<br/>Publisher: McFarland and Company<br/>Jefferson, North Carolina 2012</em></strong><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6966" style="font: 700 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><em id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6965" style="font-style: italic;">Chapter 6, Page 203</em></strong><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><span style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"> </span><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_6967" style="font: 700 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">"...Even more importantly, for every player and club that proved itself on the national stage,<br/>there were dozens who became local legends. In Pana, Illinois for example, "the first<br/>baseball club was named the Excelsiors. J.C. McQuigg, still a leading attorney of Pana,<br/>was the star catcher and batter of the club. He was known as the Babe Ruth of Central<br/>Illinois, and won the state championship by knocking the ball out of the state fairgrounds<br/>at Decatur, Illinois, for a home run and brought in three men with him, winning the game<br/>and the silver cup."</strong><br style="font: 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"/><em id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_5584" style="font: italic 13px/normal 'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: #000000; text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; background-color: #ffffff; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><strong id="yui_3_16_0_1_1413030158325_5583" style="font-weight: bold;">Jay McAfee note:<br/>J.C. McQuigg is James C. McQuigg, son of John McQuigg Sr. & Sarah McAfee of Wayne County, Ohio. James was a Civil War Veteran and was severely wounded at the battle of Chickasaw Bluffs, Dec. 29, 1862.</strong></em></p>
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<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">"Northanger Abbey</span> was published posthumously in 1818, and while most scholars agree the first draft was written in the 1798-99 time period, there is no evidence that Austen's early draft included the baseball reference. It was submitted for publication in 1803 under the name “Susan,” but never went to press. The text was revised between 1816 and 1817, but did not get published until after Austen’s death that summer." (from David Block, 9/16/2020).</p>
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<p><strong>A. Notes from Bill Hicklin</strong></p>
<p>"Schlagball is the German name for its variant of longball, which is still played in schools, and on a club basis in the northern coastal region. It is substantially the same as Gutsmuth's "German Ballgame;" it was touted by German nationalists in the 19th century as just that, the German National Pastime on a par with baseball in America and cricket in Britain. Rules are to be found in almost every German sports manual of the 19th and early 20th century, its popularity peaking in the 1920s before it yielded to the explosive growth of soccer. The last national Schlagball championship was played in 1954. Also played in Austria under the name Kaiserball or 'Imperial Ball.'"</p>
<p>Bill Hicklin, submission to Protoball, 2015.</p>
<p>------</p>
<p><strong>B</strong> --<strong> Dakota play. from Terry Bohn</strong></p>
<p>" . . . the Dakota Territory was primarily settled by German immigrants (who played baseball). The capital city of Bismarck, North Dakota changed its name from Edwinton to Bismarck in 1873 in hopes the Chancellor would be flattered and help fund the Northern Pacific Railroad. It didn't work."</p>
<p>Terry Bohn, 19CBB posting, 11/19/2017.</p>
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<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><em>Query:</em></strong></span> is there evidence that schlagball was played by German immigrants to the US?</p>
<p><strong>----</strong></p>
<p><strong>C. -- </strong>FYI, Protoball's Brother-in-law's grandfather once taught schlagball at a German school. Maybe he can turn up details on schlagball's rules of play? </p>
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D
<p><strong>August 8, 1859</strong></p>
<p><strong>First Game Between Opposing Clubs</strong></p>
<p>A form of class warfare was played out on the grounds of the Lewis Cass farm, roughly in the vicinity of Grand River and Cass. The Detroits, organized in 1858, were a group of well-heeled citizens who, bored with cricket, decided to give baseball a try. A second team of clerks and office workers was organized in 1859. Because of their long work hours, they practiced at sunrise and called themselves the Early Risers. In first of several games involving the two teams, the Detroits routed the Early Risers, 59-21. (per vintagedetroit.com)</p> +
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<p><strong>Caution:</strong> dating this reference requires some assumptions. Waterhouse was born in 1754, and thus, if this recollection is authentic, he speaks of a penchant for ballplaying [and smoking] he held in his teens. He was born at Newport, RI and remained there until 1780.</p> +
<p><strong>Caveat:</strong> It is unknown whether this was a ball game, rather than prisoner's base, a form of tag played by two teams, and resembling the game "Capture the Flag."</p>
<p>Note: "Long Bullets" evidently involved a competition to throw a ball down a road, seeing who could send the ball furthest along with a given number of throws. Another reference to long bullets is found at <a>http://protoball.org/1830s.20</a>.</p>
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<p><strong>Note -- </strong>Actually, an earlier account of California ballplaying was recorded a month before this, in San Diego. See [[1847.15]]. </p> +
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<p><strong>Note: </strong>The <em>Clipper </em>printed this correction two weeks later:</p>
<p>"The Aurora Club of Chelsea, Mass, is composed of White and not colored men as was inadvertently stated in the late issue."</p>
<p><strong>Note: </strong>The article does not specify where these clubs played this match.</p>
<p>Can we confirm that the Resolute Club comprised African American players?</p> +
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<p><strong>Note: </strong>This drawing is listed as "contemporary" on the premise that it was meant to depict ballplaying in the 1400s.</p> +
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<p><strong>Note: </strong>This match between two African American clubs was later described as the US colored championship match, and, is reported as being played the same day as the account was printed. This may be a typo.</p> +
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<p><strong>Note: </strong>This entry was formerly listed for 1844 from prior sources.</p>
<p>The location of the village play in not given.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Is the author hinting that boys commonly bet on their ball-games? Isn't this a rare mention of barn-ball?</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> So, folks . . . was this a baserunning ball game, some version of prisoner's base (a team tag game resembling our childhood game Capture the Flag) with scoring, or what?</p>
<p>John Thorn [email of 2/27/2008] has supplied a facsimile of the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Post</span> report, and also found meeting announcements for the Diagoras in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Daily Advertiser</span> for 4/11 and 4/12/1805.</p>
<p>David Block (see full text in <strong>Supplemental Text, </strong>below) offers his 2017 thoughts on this entry:</p>
<p> <em>Email from David Block, </em>2/19/2017<em>:</em></p>
<p>"Gents,</p>
<p>Just a quick note to follow up on John's blog post from last week about the 1805 "bace" game. My opinion on whether that game was baseball or prisoner's base has gone back and forth over the years. As of now I tend to lean 60-40 to baseball. Other than the example from Chapman that John cited, I've never come across a use of the term bace to signify either game. Even if I had it wouldn't mean much as the word "base" has been used freely over the years for both of them. The mention of a score in the 1805 article is significant. Rarely are scores indicated in any of the reports of prisoner's base (prison base, prison bars, etc.) that I've come across. Usually they just indicate one side or the other as winner. There are a couple of exceptions. I know of one English example from 1737 where a newspaper reported on a match of prison-bars between eleven men from the city of Chester against a like number from the town of Flint in Wales. "The Cheshire gentlemen got 11, and the Flintshire gentlemen 2," it noted. I've also seen another English report from 1801, also of prison-bars, where one side was said to have "produced a majority of five prisoners." Still, George's example is American, where I suspect that, even at that early date, baseball was probably the more popular game of the two.</p>
<p>Regarding "baste," I have seen at least two dozen examples of the term "baste-ball" used in England in the 18th and 19th centuries. It's clear from context that this was an alternate spelling of base-ball, along with bass-ball. I don't doubt the same was true for the few instances of baste-ball's use in America.</p>
<p>"My opinion on whether that game was baseball or prisoner's base has gone back and forth over the years. As of now I tend to lean 60-40 to baseball. Other than the example from Chapman that John cited, I've never come across a use of the term bace to signify either game. Even if I had it wouldn't mean much as the word "base" has been used freely over the years for both of them. The mention of a score in the 1805 article is significant. Rarely are scores indicated in any of the reports of prisoner's base (prison base, prison bars, etc.) that I've come across. Usually they just indicate one side or the other as winner."</p>
<p>Best to all,<br/>David"</p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">John Thorn email of Feb., 25, 2024: </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">"Hi, George. I found this thesis invaluable for my understanding of early ball play in New York, and thus for EDEN. Do you have it? Here's a Dropbox link [omitted] in case you don't.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;"><br/></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Once upon a time we had wondered about the location of the Gymnastic Ground, near Tyler's. I found this pretty compelling (before this pleasure ground was Tyler's, it was Brannon's):</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Some idea of the garden during Brannon's tenure can<br/>be gotten from scattered sources. In 1842, for a suit in<br/>the Court of Chancery involving the ownership of the Church<br/>Farm, a group of elderly men and women gave depositions<br/>describing this part of the city as they recalled it in the<br/>eighteenth century. <strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Several testified that the garden was<br/>enclosed by a fence; one testified that Brannon maintained<br/>a ball alley; and another owned that between 1789 and 1793,<br/>during his days as a student at Columbia College (then located<br/>on Church Street between Barclay and Murray), he and<br/>"the collegians were in the habit of frequenting . . .<br/>Brannon's Garden."</span></em></strong> [“Chancery Reports (Sandford), 4:716, 724, & 730.]</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">I also have bound volumes of these chancery reports, which to my knowledge have not been digitized; I suppose I could check!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Also, I append an item possibly missed by all of us, from the </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: xx-large;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">New-York Herald</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span></span>(New York, New York) May 4, 1805</p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">Note that the Columbia College clubs' game of bace is here rendered as <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em>basse.</em></span></strong> The mention of "hands in" fully persuades me that </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">this is a game of bat and ball."</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;"><span>the game report first appeared in the New-York Evening Post of May 1, and next in The Herald of May 4.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: large;">David Block agrees</span></p>
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<p><strong>Note:</strong> The original source of the 1818 reference may have been lost. Bob reports that Dean Sullivan thesis cited Harold Peterson's <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Man Who Invented Baseball</span> (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), page 24. However, Peterson gives no source. A dead end?</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This book is in the form of a chronology. Barber gives no source for the wicket report.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This describes a scrub form of tutball/rounders. It suggests that all hitting was forward, thus in effect using a foul line, as would make sense with a single fielder.</p>
<p>The claim that tutball and stoolball used the same rules is surprising; stoolball is fairly uniformly described as having but two bases or stools, and using a bat.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Understanding the author's intent here is complicated by the fact that he was Canadian, Sam Slick was an American character, and the novel is set in Britain.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> see item #[[1829c.1]] below for Holmes' Harvard ballplaying.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> "Nines seems an unusual name for a ball game; do we find it elsewhere? Could he have been denoting nine-pins or nine-holes? John Thorn, in 2/3/2008, says he inclines to nine-pins as the game alluded to.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> </p>
<p>A few days earlier, Richard had noticed the use of "battery" in a July 26 game report: see Supplementary Text, below.</p>
<p>The <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dickson Baseball Dictionary</span>, page 86, citing the Chadwick <em>Scrapbooks</em>, had the first use of "battery" as 1868 (third edition).</p>
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<p><strong>Note:</strong> A bat had been described in Willughby's c.1672 account of hornebillets. See [[1672c.2]].</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> Melville is willing to identify the sport as the one that was played mostly in the CT-central and MA area . . . but it is conceivable that the writer intended to denote cricket instead? </p>
<p>From Bruce Allardise, December 2021: The original article is in the<em> New Orleans Times Picayune</em>, May 31, 1841, which references a reminisce in a {April 1841} Cleveland OH newspaper article. [bsa]</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> it would be interesting to see the original reference, and to know how 1550 was chosen as the reported year of play.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Note: Derrick would have been about 10 years old in 1550.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> those streets intersect a half block from the Hall of Fame, right?</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> we may want reassurance that the "Base-ball" poem appeared in the 1744 version. According to Thomas L. Altherr, "A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball," reprinted in David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It, the 1767 London edition also has poems titled "Stoolball" [p. 88] and Trap-Ball.[p. 91]. According Zoernik in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Encyclopedia of World Sports</span> [p.329], rounders is also referred to [we need to confirm this, as Rounders does not appear in the 1760 edition or the one from 1790.]. There was an American pirated edition in 1760, as per Henderson [ref #107]; David Block dates the American edition in 1762. He also notes that a 1767 revision features engravings for the four games.</p> +
<p><strong>Note</strong>: the dates and circumstances and locations of these cases are unclear in Millen. One refers to plugging.</p> +
<p><strong>Note</strong>: the inconsistencies among the preceding cricket entries in Protoball (see [[1478.1]]) need to be resolved . . . . or at least addressed</p> +
<p><strong>Note</strong><strong>: </strong>Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey until 1896.</p> +
<p><strong>Note</strong><strong>: </strong>Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey until 1896.</p> +
O
<p><strong>Ogden Park</strong>, also known as <strong>Ogden Skating Park</strong>, was a recreational facility on the near north side of <a title="Chicago" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago">Chicago</a> around the 1860s and 1870s. It was home to the Ogden Skating Club. It was on a piece of land east of where Ontario Street (at that time) T-ed into Michigan Avenue. Today's Ontario Street continues several blocks eastward, through the site of that old park.</p>
<p>The first newspaper references to the park and the skating club appear in local newspapers in 1861, where its location was termed "the foot of Ontario Street". City directories for 1867 and 1869-70 give the location of "Ogden Skating Park" as "Ontario, corner Seneca." Seneca Street was one block east of St. Clair Street and two blocks east of Pine Street, which later became part of the extended Michigan Avenue. Seneca ran between Ontario Street and Illinois Street. It was erased as the land was developed. References to the park appear to cease after 1870. It was, of course, inside the burn zone of the <a title="Great Chicago Fire" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire">Great Chicago Fire</a> in the fall of 1871.</p>
<p>With no skating possible in the summer, baseball games were played at the park. Most of them were between local amateur ball clubs, but there were occasional professional games. On July 31, 1869, the park was the neutral site for a match between the <a title="Cincinnati Red Stockings" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Red_Stockings">Cincinnati Red Stockings</a> and the <a title="Rockford Forest Citys" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockford_Forest_Citys">Rockford Forest Citys</a>. The Reds won 53-32. The game was close until Cincinnati score 19 in the sixth inning and 10 in the seventh.[Chicago <em>Tribune</em>, August 1, 1869, p.4] Several players on the teams, including Rockford pitcher <a title="Albert Spalding" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Spalding">Albert Spalding</a>, would later become stars for Chicago.</p>
<p>During 1870 the park was rented to the professional, then-independent baseball club, the <a class="mw-redirect" title="Chicago White Stockings (1870–89)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_White_Stockings_(1870%E2%80%9389)">Chicago White Stockings</a>, as a practice field and for a number of regulation games, usually against local or lesser-known opponents, or sometimes even college teams.</p>
<p>Most of the ball club's "legitimate" games (as the <em>Chicago Tribune</em> termed them), against national professional teams (many of which would turn up in the <a title="National Association of Professional Base Ball Players" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Professional_Base_Ball_Players">National Association</a> the following year) were held at the <a title="Dexter Park (Chicago)" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexter_Park_(Chicago)">Dexter Park</a> race track near the stockyards.</p>
<p>Overall, the White Stockings played about half their games at each venue, during a home season that ranged from late May to mid-November. [wikipedia]</p>
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<p>A "Sandford" was listed as third baseman in a July 1866, game. See http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038519/1866-08-01/ed-1/seq-3/.</p>
<p>Listed as secretary at club's founding, but may have been replaced by Henry F. Roll later in the year. See <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038521/1866-12-01/ed-1/seq-5.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038521/1866-12-01/ed-1/seq-5.pdf</a></p> +
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<p>A "colored" club.</p> +
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<p>A "game of ball" was played on 2nd street above the Columbia Hotel." <em>Sacramento Transcript</em>, April 1, 1851. The ball game is not specified.</p> +
D
<p>A 1937 newspaper article claimed that a baseball game was played in Jackson on July 4, 1845. No source for this is given. See Morris, "Baseball Fever," citing the Jackson Citizen Patriot, Sept. 19. 1937</p> +
W
O
<p>A BBC is mentioned in the Oswego Palladium, July 29, 1859, along with 2 cricket clubs and a wicket club.</p> +
W
<p>A Blackhawks Club existed in 1872. See Sycamore True Republican, Jan. 20, 1906</p> +
C
<p>A Chelsea Jr. club mentioned in the New York <em>Clipper</em>, July 27, 1867</p> +
1
<p>A December 19 challenge notice describes the "FBBClub of Co. H 6th U. S. Cavalry.</p> +
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<p>A Dick Hefferline appears on the 1820 census for Providence. The reference is undoubtedly prior to 1828.</p> +
G
<p>A Grant club is said to have existed in 1865. See Philadelphia City Item, Oct. 7, 1865, Tholkes RIM. See Protoball 19C clippings. Aka U.S. Grant</p> +
H
<p>A Hancock club of Boston played the MA game and was established in 1857. See Lovett, James D’Wolf; Old Boston Boys and the Games They Played; Little, Brown & Company; 1908, cited in Kittel Protoball article on the MA game.</p> +
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<p>A Palestine national baseball/softball federation was formed in 2017, according to the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WSBC) website, headquartered in Ramallah. The city and area were once part of Jordan. The area is now governed by the Palestinian National Authority.</p> +
F
<p>A Puzzlers BBC was formed in 1876 in McHenry. McHenry <em>Plaindealer</em>, Aug. 30, 1876</p> +
M
<p>A South Lemon Reapers club was defeated 49-11 by the Lockport Sleepers in 1874. See Will County Courier, Aug. 19, 1874</p> +
<p>A bb game was played in "Prospect Park" on July 4, 1875. See Chicago Tribune, June 27, 1875. Is this the Prospect Park that is now located in Morgan Park? Or a separate community? There was a PP in what is now Clarendon Hills, and another near Bloomingdale.</p> +
L
<p>A brief account of this game, and a photo of the ball used in the game, is in the Boston Globe, Dec. 25, 1910.</p> +
O
<p>A club of Washington University students? See St. Louis Post Dispatch, Nov. 17, 1968</p> +
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<p>A diagram of the game can be found at https://sites.psu.edu/ballgamesoftheworld/ball-and-bat-games/</p>
<p>Pesapallo was a demonstration sport at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. [ba]</p> +
U
<p>A drawing of the Union grounds is in the Our Game blog, April 8, 2019</p> +
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<p>A full explanation of Playground Ball can be found in the <em>Pensacola News Journal</em>, May 5, 1908. The game was designed to be playable in limited spaces. 10 players a side. The batter can run to either first or third. 5 inning games. A tally for each time a batter gets on base safely. Each side of the diamond 35 feet long. Pitcher 30 feet away from the batter. Bats are mere sticks no more than 2 inches in diameter. [ba]</p> +
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<p>A game was played July 4, 1862. See Cincinnati Daily Commercial, July 21, 1865</p> +
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<p>A junior club? See list of 1858 Brooklyn junior clubs at Chronologies 1858.47.</p> +
M
<p>A lengthy article on this game is in the Boston Globe, March 27, 1888</p> +
A
<p>A letter from Admiral Rogers to his wife, dated Oct. 2, 1871, says that his sailors on the Colorado "played ball" on the ship the day before. Was this baseball?</p> +
1
<p>A more detailed newspaper account says that Fisher Ames' 12-year-old son, who was playing "ball" with some other boys, threw a ball at Moor, who then attacked the boy. The father rushed over and split Moor's skull with a "club."</p>
<p>Fisher Ames (1800-85) beat the murder rap. The son was probably Charles Ira Ames. [ba]</p>
<p>Bill Humber furnished the following account, from a local doctor: "Hazleton Moore.... was drunk and joined in the game of ball in front of the store. Something Ames said or did provoked him and instead of throwing the ball to him he threw it at him, when Ames rushed towards him and struck him with the club in the head. He ... died the next day. The inquest... resulted in the acquittal of Ames on my evidence, that the blow need not have been fatal had M's skull not been extraordinarily thin."</p>
<p>Another account, from 1890: "It was in 1837 that Hazleton Moore was killed. I was there at the time. Ames was a very passionate man, and his first blow might be excused on that ground, but he struck him twice, the second blow when he was lying insensible on the ground. The Americans.... bribed Moore's wife to say away, and her absence at the trial helped to get Ames off. She acted badly."</p> +
<p>A note identifies this section as having been written in 1862, along with one that prohibits shaking carpets on public lands, including streets, lanes, alleys, etc.</p> +
<p>A political cartoon of the day showed Lincoln playing ball with other candidates. It can be viewed at <a href="http://www.scvbb.org/images/image7/">http://www.scvbb.org/images/image7/</a>. </p>
<p>Thanks to Kyle DeCicco-Carey for the link.</p> +
<p>A previous Protoball entry, listed as #1840s.16: "He [Abraham Lincoln in the 1840s] joined with gusto in outdoor sports foot-races, jumping and hopping contests, town ball, wrestling . . . " <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Source: </span> a limited online version of the 1997 book edited by Douglas L Wilson and Rodney O. Davis, <span><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Herndon's Informant</span>s</span> (U of Illinois Press, 1997 or 1998). Posted to 19CBB on 12/11/2007 by Richard Hershberger. Richard notes that the index to the book promises several other references to Lincoln's ballplaying but [Jan. 2008] reports that the ones he has found are unspecific.. <strong>Note:</strong> can we chase this book down and collect those references?</p>
<p>Earlier versions of this find were submitted by Richard Hershberger (2007) and John Thorn (2004). </p> +
R
<p>A relatively complete description of "roundstakes", or "rounders," as played in Eastern Massachusetts in about 1870, is found at [[roundstakes]]. The account is shown in that item's "Supplemental Text."</p>
<p>--</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">An aside: Plugging in Rounders?</span> </p>
<p>About baserunning, Gomme (page 145) writes in 1898: "As soon as (the batter)has struck the ball, he runs from the base to the first boundary stick, then to the second, and so on. His opponents in the meantime secure the ball and endeavor to hit him with it as he is running." </p>
<p>Protoball has found scant evidence that rounders included retiring baserunners by hitting them with the thrown ball. On May 7 2022, however, John Thorn posted this excerpt from <span style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Wickets in the West</span> by R. A. Fitzgerald, published in 1873 and covering the 1872 cricket tour of the US:</p>
<p>"To sum it up, (base ball) is an improvement on our old schoolboys' game of rounders, without, however, the most attractive part to the English schoolboy -- the 'corking'. We can see still, and we are not sure that we cannot still feel, the quiver of the fat boy's nether parts, as the ball, well-directed, buried itself in his flesh." </p>
<p>Putting baserunners out via a thrown ball, recalled as "corking" in this English account, has been called "plugging," "soaking," "burning," etc., in America. In about 1810, Block notes, the French game [[Poisoned Ball]] used the tactic, and the German [[Giftball]] (Poison ball) seems to have, as well. </p>
<p>--</p> +
1
<p>A research note by Jim Overmyer on why the game occurred in Pittsfield appears as <strong>Supplemental Tex</strong>t below. </p>
<p>For a stern critique of the student time spent away from studying, see <em>The Congregationalist</em> [Boston], September 2, 1859, cited at https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/amherst-and-williams-play-the-first-intercollegiate-game-of-baseball-1859-b1c0255f6338, posted January 15, 2018. </p> +
E
<p>A search of online newspapers shows no record of any 1859 game.</p> +
A
<p>A separate Jr club from the one organized on June 3, 1866 located in the Twentieth Ward.</p> +
1
<p>A team size of 12 and three-game match are consistent with some Mass game contests.</p> +
2
<p>A video of the game is at: </p>
<p><a href="http://ds.uhs.csufresno.edu/video/websiteMedia/townball16.mp4">http://ds.uhs.csufresno.edu/video/websiteMedia/townball16.mp4</a> [loads slowly 9/8/2107]</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Some particularly interesting variants from baseball include [note that key cricket characteristics are retained]:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>[] No foul balls [and no foul territory]</p>
<p>[] Plugging of runners is allowed</p>
<p>[] Basepath distance progresses from from 42' to 110'feet sequentially</p>
<p>[] Batters defend a "zone" as cricket batters defend a wicket</p>
<p>[] Optional running except for third strike.</p>
<p>[] No set batting order -- can vary inning to inning</p>
<p> </p> +
W
<p>A web search for "waggles england" in 2017 returns only the 1898 Gomme citation of the game.</p> +
A
<p>AKA Atlantic Club of Claremont? Claremont is a neighborhood in Jersey City.</p> +
D
H
<p>AKA Roll-the-Bat, Cherry, Rollabat. Cf. Sullivan, "Roll-the-Bat," <em>Southwest Folklore</em> 4 (1980) pp. 84-86; Cohen, <em>The Games We Played</em> (2001), p. 77</p> +
S
1
<p>About 20% of the games covered in available 1860 newspaper accounts of base ball in Syracuse depict "old-fashioned base ball" as played by a set of five area clubs. The common format for these games was a best-two-of-three match of games played to 25 "tallies" [not runs]. A purse of $25 was not uncommon. Teams exceeded nine players. However, no account laid out the details of the playing rules, or how they differed from those of the National Association. An 1859 article suggested that the game was the same as "Massachusetts "Base Ball," giving the only firm clue as to its rules. </p> +
B
<p>Abraham Lincoln is said to have played barn ball with enthusiasm in Springfield c. 1858. Nicholas Young remembered playing barn ball in the Mohawk Valley in the 1850s.</p> +
I
<p>According to "Baseball Pioneers" the Morning Star BBC played town ball for several years prior to 1860. </p> +
M
<p>According to Jeff Kittel in "Baseball Pioneers" the Morning Star BBC played town ball for several years prior to 1860. </p> +
S
<p>According to Newark Daily Advertiser of 8/21/1866, the players were members of the Young Men's Catholic Association. This is a different club from the 1861 Star Club of Newark</p> +
1
<p>According to Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, "lazzarone" referred to "the homeless idlers of Naples who live by chance work or begging." </p> +
J
<p>According to http://nashvillehistory.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html, Judge's Spring (or McNairy's Spring), was located at approximately 7th Ave. and Jackson St. in Nashville.</p> +
B
<p>According to the New Brunswick Daily Fredonian of 9/17/1869 - this was a "colored" club</p> +
1
<p>According to the WSOT article, the Excelsior lineup included Creighton as pitching and third batter, Brainerd at 2B, and Leggett as catcher. Mr. Welling of the Knickerbockers served as umpire.</p> +
B
<p>According to this article, "banana ball" debuted in 2021:</p>
<p>https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/introducing-banana-ball-the-savannah-bananas-attempt-to-change-baseball/</p> +
1
<p>Actually, Mr. Calthrop may have come along about 95 years too late to make that claim: see #[[1760s.1]] above.</p> +
<p>Adams' use of a frame-within-a-frame device is interesting to baseball history buffs, but the authenticity of the recollected game is hard to judge in a work of fiction. Mumford's lot was in fact an early Rochester ballplaying venue, and Thurlow Weed (see entry #[[1825c.1]]) wrote of club play in that period. Priscilla Astifan has been looking into Adams' expertise on early Rochester baseball. See #[[1828c.3]] for another reference to Adams' interest in baseball about a decade before the modern game evolved in New York City.</p> +
C
<p>Additional sources for same report, with some detail. The Maine club involved reported as the Gorham Base Ball Club.</p> +
1
<p>Adelman bases his analysis on the premise that base ball's predecessor games were played mainly be juveniles. This premise can be questioned. Even discounting play by university youths up to 1845, adult play in the military and elsewhere was hardly rare before the Gothams and Knickerbockers formed in New York around 1840, as many entries in this chronology indicate. </p> +
<p>Adelman does not mention that until 1854 there were few other known clubs for the KBBC to challenge to match games.</p>
<p> </p> +
<p>Admission had occasionally also been charged for "benefit" games for charities or to honor prominent players.</p> +
P
<p>African American Clubs</p> +
C
<p>African American ball club.</p> +
<p>African American ball clubs.</p> +
U
<p>African American base ball.</p> +
Y
<p>African American base ball.</p> +
C
<p>African American club.</p> +
<p>African American club.</p> +
P
<p>African American club.</p> +
I
<p>African American clubs.</p> +
U
<p>African-American team. Frederick Douglass' son Charles played for them.</p> +
B
<p>African-American team</p> +
S
<p>African-American. First inter-racial game in Los Angeles?</p> +
1
<p>After the Eckford Club contradicted the <em></em>claim that several players were resigning and moving to other clubs, the <em>Clipper </em>issued a retraction on December 3: "...we are pleased to learn that it is not correct, for we do not approve of these changes at all." </p> +
B
<p>Aka Bachelor of West Philadelphia?</p> +
H
<p>Aka Hamilton Club of Bedford, Bedford being a part of Brooklyn at this time.</p> +
S
<p>Aka King Philip BBC?</p> +
M
<p>Aka Melpomenia</p> +
R
<p>Aka S. J. Randall Club. Named for a politician.</p> +
I
<p>Aka William B. Irwin club. Men of a fire company.</p> +
<p>Almost forgotten for 30 years!</p> +
S
<p>Also played on the Isle of Man, the West Indies and the U.S.</p> +
M
<p>Also see The Peterborough Transcript, April 14, 1858 [ba]</p> +
C
1
<p>Altherr explains that Kingston Academy is British.</p>
<p>This book appears to be a reprint of the 1805 London publication above at [[1805.3]].</p> +
S
<p>Amateur Club was formerly the Empire Club</p> +
C
<p>American soldiers may have played baseball in Saltillo in 1847. O<span>n January 30, 1847, Adolph Engelmann, an Illinois volunteer, reported: “During the past week we had much horse racing and the drill ground was fairly often in use for ball games.” [cited in Our Game blog]</span></p> +
E
<p>An 1866 club called itself the Excelsior of West Baltimore. Baltimore <em>American</em>, Aug. 10, 1866.</p>
<p>An Excelsior BBC played the Peabody for the city junior championship in 1867. Baltimore <em>American</em>, July 30, 1867.</p>
<p>The Baltimore Daily Exchange, July 13, 1859, reports that in the past week the Excelsior BBC was formed, with W. D. Shurtz as president.</p>
<p>This club may have been preceded in Baltimore by the "Urche" club. See McKenna, "Baltimore Baseball: The Beginning, 1858- 1872"</p> +
W
<p>An 1868 image fsrom the CHS is in protopix.</p>
<p>It was called Timothy Wright's Grove in the 1850s, after the co-owner of the Chicago Tribune.</p> +
A
<p>An 1869 game was played at the Arsenal Grounds. See San Antonio Express, Oct. 17, 1965</p> +
W
<p>An 1888 photo of Williams Hall and College Hall is in the MSU archives. See https://onthebanks.msu.edu/Object/162-565-2041/78-williams-hall-and-college-hall-circa-1888/</p> +
I
<p>An Etna Wicket Club of New Haven mentioned in NY Clipper, Nov. 21, 1857</p> +
P
<p>An Excelsior BBC played the Peabody for the city junior championship in 1867. Baltimore <em>American</em>, July 30, 1867.</p> +
I
<p>An Irving Jr. Club is mentioned in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 16, 1867</p> +
<p>An Ivanhoe (jr) Club of Bedford (Brooklyn) is mentioned in the New York <em>Dispatch</em>, July 8, 1866</p> +
<p>An ad for organizing a cricket club in the Indianapolis Star, July 26, 1864</p> +
C
<p>An article in PSOT April 27, 1861 says this club was formed on the 4th.</p> +
U
<p>An article on early St. Louis baseball in "The Sporting News" Nov. 2, 1895 says the Union Club defeated the Empire BBC 15-14 in Dec., 1859, hen lost to the Empire 15-14 on New Years Day, 1860. The two clubs played four times 1860-61, the Union winning two 53-15 and 30-17, and losing two 9-21 and 20-24. [ba]</p> +
C
<p>An article on early St. Louis baseball in "The Sporting News" Nov. 2, 1895 says the Cyclones lost an early game to the Morning Star BBC 21-36.</p> +
S
<p>An extensive article on the Stars can be found in Samuel Pierson, "Thumbing the Pages of Baseball History in Bloomfield" (1939). They played at "The Green, on a diamond situated just north of Monroe Place." [ba]</p> +
1
<p>An interesting aspect of this drawing is that there appear to be four defensive players and only two offensive players . . . unless the two seated gentlemen in topcoats have left them on while waiting to bat. One might speculate that the wicketkeepers are permanently on defense and the other pairs alternate between offense and defense when outs are made. Another possibility is that all players rotate after each out, as was later seen in scrub forms of base ball.</p>
<p>Also note the relative lack of open area beyond the wickets. Perhaps, as in single-wicket cricket, running was permitted only for balls hit forward from the wicket. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> +
H
<p>An obscure poem reportedly recited during this game seems to suggest it was played in Scotland. See Alice Bertha Gomme, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland</span> (London, D. Nutt, 1894), page unspecified. </p> +
1
<p>An oddity: in a July intramural contest, batter Bickham claimed 58 runs of his team's 190 total, while the second most productive batsman mate scored 30, and 5 of his 10 teammates scored fewer than 6 runs each. One wonders what rule, or what typo, would lead to that result.</p> +
A
<p>Andrews' 1865 "Dictionary pf the Hawaiian Language" p. 279 contains the following:</p>
<p>"Ki-ni-ho-lo. s. kini and holo, to run. the name of a particular game of ball, similar to base ball."</p>
<p>Other sources say the more common name for a ball game is kinipopo. [ba]</p> +
1
<p>Angus Macfarlane's research shows that many New Yorkers were in San Francisco in early 1851, and in fact several formed a "Knickerbocker Association." Furthermore he discovered that several key members of the eastern Knickerbocker Base Ball Club -- including de Witt, Turk, Cartwright, Wheaton, Ebbetts, and Tucker -- were in town. "[I]n various manners and at various times they crossed each other's paths." Angus suggests that they may have been involved in the 1851 games, so it is possible that they were played by Knickerbocker rules . . . at a time when in New York most games were still intramural affairs within the one or two base ball clubs playing here.</p> +
<p>Another game in Sacramento was covered in April of 1854. John Thorn suggests that "the above 'game of ball' may be inferred to be baseball (I think)."</p> +
S
<p>Anson also mentions: "I longed .... to be playing soak ball, bull pen or two old cat..." during this time (schoolboy days--he was born in 1852 and raised in Marshalltown, IA).</p> +
A
<p>Any indication as to why the second game report for this African American club cites a score for 8 innings?</p> +
T
1
<p>Articles published later in the <em>New York Clipper,</em> the <em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Spirit of the Times</span>,</em> the <em>New-York Daily Times,</em> and the <em>Brooklyn Daily Eagle</em> announced the first appearance in print of 18 new clubs in the Greater NYC region during 1855.</p> +
<p>As a way of teaching nature [each chapter introduces several birds, insects, and "wild plants"] this book follows a group of boys and girls of unspecified age [post-pubescent, we guess] through a calendar year. The bass-ball/rounders reference above is one of the few times we run across both terms in a contemporary writing. So, now: Is the author denoting are there two distinct <em>games</em> with different rules, or just two distinct <em>names</em> for the same game? The syntax here leaves that distinction muddy, as it could be the former answer if the children played bass-ball and rounders separately that [June] day. </p>
<p>Richard's take on the bass-ball/rounders ambiguity: "It is possible that there were two games the party played . . . but the likelier interpretation is that this was one game, with both names given to ensure clarity." David Block [email of 2/27/2008] agrees with Richard. Richard also says "It is possible that as the English dialect moved from "base ball" to "rounders," English society concurrently moved from the game being played primarily played by boys and only sometimes being played by girls. I am not qualified to say."</p> +
R
<p>As listed in the Box score of the Chicago game (Trib, 8-24-70), the Rockford nine consisted of:</p>
<p>Armstrong, Graham, Williams, Winn, Wright, Abraham, Pender, Kingman and Thomas.</p>
<p>Rockford had 83 "colored" residents in 1870, per the census.</p> +
1
<p>As of 2018, we do not know the location, game type, or rules for this game.</p>
<p>It is interesting that the man identified his position as short stop, perhaps indicating that predecessor baserunning games in New England had already developed skill positions' decades before the Knickerbocker club formed. </p>
<p> </p> +
I
<p>As of 2021, we know of two earlier game reports of games in NZ.</p>
<p>See [[https://protoball.org/Marton_Base_Ball_Club]] (1881 game).</p>
<p>See [[https://protoball.org/Hicks-Sawyer_Minstrel_Co._side_1_v_Hicks-Sawyer_Minstrel_Co._side_2_in_November_1888]] (unsourced 1888 game).</p>
<p>Lyttleton is a nearby port city. </p>
<p>The Hicks-Sawyer "negro" minstrel troupe toured New Zealand and Australia 1888-89. This troupe had its own baseball club, which played numerous games against the local clubs. Cf. Sydney <em>Referee</em>, Aug. 30, 1888; Melbourne <em>Age</em>, <br/>Feb. 23, 1889; Adelaide <em>South Australian Register</em>, April 8, 1889; Broken Hill <em>Barrier Miner</em>, April 20, 22, 1889. [ba]</p> +
L
<p>As of April 2021 this game is also listed under "predecessor games."</p>
<p>The Delaware is a club of Delaware Township, 10 km west of London,</p> +
1
<p>As of February 2017, data on early ballplaying in the Chattanooga area are sparse. They include five accounts of soldierly play during the Civil War and brief mentions of area base ball clubs after the war</p>
<p>Protoball believes "shinny" to be a game resembling field hockey and ice hockey, and not a baserunning game.</p>
<p>Protoball has only two other reports of the game of "baste" in a Princeton student's diary in 1786 and in a biography of Benjamin Harrison on his teenage activities in the Cincinnati area. A good guess is that baste was a variant spelling of "base," a base ball precursor.</p>
<p>The <em>Cleveland Banner</em> is a newspaper in Cleveland TN.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> +
<p>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".] One of these, at [[1850s.33]] uses "gool" as the name of the game. See also <strong>Supplemental Text</strong>, below.</p> +
<p>As of January 2023, this appears to be one of Protoball's ten earliest reports of ballplaying in the United States, and the third to appear in what is now New York City. It may be the first know legal action taken against ballplaying.</p> +
B
<p>As of January 2023, this is all we know about Bete-ombro. The second rule, above, would seem to distinguish it from cricket.</p> +
1
<p>As of July 2022, Protoball lists over 260 base ball clubs from that era.</p>
<p>Bruce Allardice adds, 7/30/2022: "the [<em>Boston Post's</em>] 25 number seems to come from the number of clubs that attended the 1858 convention."</p> +
B
<p>As of June 2019, Protoball has only 3 references to “base,” one in the 1300s and two in 1805.</p> +
1
<p>As of June 2022, Protoball is not aware of accounts of ballplaying in Hawthorne's works. For a reference to his note on 1862 ballplaying near Alexandria VA, see [[1862.47]]. </p> +
<p>As of March 2021, this appears to be the earliest reference to a right -- in the form of special tickets -- to exclusive seating being bestowed to reporters. </p>
<p>Peter Morris discusses press coverage arrangements in Morris, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A Game of Inches</span> (Ivan Dee, 2006), section 14.5.3, pp 403 ff. He cites two Henry Chadwick sources of press areas in June and August 1867 at the Brooklyn Union Grounds and then the Capitoline and Irvington grounds. </p> +
M
<p>As of September 2014, we have no evidence as to the playing rules this club employed. Thus, we don't yet know whether the game played resembled the Knickerbocker game, codified in 1845, or not. The depiction of stakes for bases, if accurate, might suggest to some that the game was related to what in 1858 was described as the Massachusetts game -- however, the Mass game then used overhand deliveries to batsmen. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> +
S
<p>As of September 2017, we find no other mention of a game by this name in English-language web searches.</p> +
<p>As of Spring 2022, we are seeking additional information on local "strike-zone-on-wall" games.</p>
<p>One sees strike zones displayed on school-yard and other walls in many geographical areas.</p>
<p>What names were used for such games in different areas? Did any involve actual base-running?</p>
<p>Are such games known outside the US? Did most use standard tennis balls?</p> +
1
<p>As of mid 2023, the Protoball Chronology includes about 40 entries alluding to Rochester NY from 1825 to 1868. Nearly half have been generously contributed by crack Rochester digger Priscilla Astifan. Most of the games reported appear to be base ball-like games, but 8 refer to cricket, wicket and trap ball. <span>Ten entries refer to soldierly play during the Civil War.</span></p>
<p>Priscilla reported on 5/18/2023: <span> "I haven't yet found any notice in the available newspapers of the game being played or not. But at least the intention was interesting."</span> </p> +
E
<p>As per the newspaper report, each side featured 10 players and five first nine players, per side. Sprague pitched for "Wood's Side." </p> +
1
<p>Ashtabula (1850 population: 821 souls) is about 55 miles NE of Cleveland OH and a few miles from Lake Erie. The town of Jefferson OH is about 8 miles inland [S] of Ashtabula.</p>
<p>"The <em>Sentinel" </em>is presumably the <em>Ashtabula Sentinel</em>. </p> +
B
<p>Astifan, "Baseball in the 19th Century" says Brown Square was the site of Rochester's first match game.</p>
<p>Other early games were played at Jones Square, Franklin Square, and the Babbitt Tract. In 1858 the city council allowed Brown and Franklin Squares to be used for baseball. Rochester Union and Advertiser, Aug. 11, 1858.</p>
<p>The 1860 Rochester map shows Jones Square bounded by Jones Avenue on the south, bounded by Schuyler on the east, about where the modern Jones Square is.</p>
<p>Franklin Square in 1860 was on the east side of the river, bounded by Andrews on the south, Bowery on the north, and bisected by Chatham (north/south running street).</p>
<p>The Babbitt Tract was at the corner of High (today, Clarissa) and Troup Sts.</p>
<p>"Mumford's meadow" was the site of a (predecessor?) baseball game c. 1825. See chronologies. The site of this meadow is shown in the linked-to pdf.</p> +
G
<p>At a guess, this club played their home games on the campus, what would be known as "Oak Grove" or "University Grove" near the modern-day college library.</p> +
I
<p>At a guess, this is the original of the note in Spalding's The National Game about American oil workers playing baseball in Burma. The Spalding phot collection, NYPL, has a photo of what may be this team, said to be employees of the Rangoon Oil Co., in "Yenamgyat, Upper Burmah." This location is probably Yenangyaung. </p> +
<p>At or near Rochester</p> +
1
D
<p>At this time Pittsburgh was often spelled "Pittsburg" but in 1911, the authorities agreed make the "gh" spelling official.</p> +
W
<p>Attached image is that of Colonel Norman Gassette (1839-91), first club president, a prominent Chicago lawyer and politician. Club vice president was Willard F. Wentworth (1838-1910), a former city treasurer.</p> +
U
<p>Augustus W. Graham, son of former senator Graham, wrote his father on Sept. 10, 1867 from Chapel Hill that his university club defeated the Crescent of Raleigh "last Saturday" 54-36, for the championship of the state. See the Papers of William A. Graham, vol. 7</p> +
C
<p>Austin had 4,051 residents in 1890.</p> +
E
<p>Balls Pitched</p>
<p>Pidgeon (Eckford): 44-28-28-24-51-15-10-30-65 - 295</p>
<p>Thompson (Harlem): 19-31-25-17-23-36-41-44-14 - 250</p>
<p>(E. Miklich)</p> +
R
<p>Baltic of New York? [ba]</p> +
O
<p>Baltimore <em>American</em>, Aug. 4, 1869</p> +
1
<p>Barre MA (1855 pop. about 3000) is about 60 miles W of Boston. Hardwick, Hubbardstown, Oakham, New Braintree and Petersham are 8-10 miles from Barre. Poor Dana MA was disincorporated in 1938.</p> +
<p>Barre MA (1860 pop. about 3000) is about 60 miles W of Boston and about 8 miles NE of Hardwick MA.</p> +
C
<p>Barton is the name of the township Hamilton is in. See Club of Barton entry. [ba]</p> +
I
<p>Baseball was played at Hamilton in 1860.</p> +
F
<p>Beaubien Farm was a cricket club grounds.</p>
<p>A game reported in the Detroit Free Press Aug. 23, 1857 is of two 10 on 10 intersquad games, with the scores 21-11 and 21-19. </p> +
E
<p>Bedford was and is a neighborhood of Brooklyn</p> +
1
P
<p>Benefit game for the Masonic Educational Committee Fund. $115 surplus over expenses donated on 19 August.</p> +
E
<p>Bergen County Democrat and New Jersey State Register, 7/6/1866</p> +
Q
<p>Bergen merged into Jersey City in 1870.</p> +
1
<p>Berkshire MA is about 5 miles NE of Pittsfield and about 10 miles E of New York state border. </p>
<p>This may have been a wicket match. One wonders why a Friday match would have been held.</p> +
<p>Beth Hise [email of 3/3/2008] reports that the wearing of colored ribbons was a much older tradition.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> One may ask if something got lost in the relay of this story to Wisconsin. We know of no wicket in England, and neither wicket or cricket used nine-player teams.</p> +
<p>Bill Hicklin, 10/5/20 points out that "Militia regiments in that period, especially in major East Coast cities and in the South, were as much social clubs as anything, organized mostly to hold balls and banquets. Compare the New York volunteer fire companies of the 1840s. A 'Road Trip to New York' would have been right up their alley."</p>
<p>Protoball had asked: Was it common for southern soldiers to travel to the north in 1859? Bruce Allardice: "This was not common. The cost was too great. The Richmond Grays were individually wealthy and could afford it. Drill competition between companies in various cities was common in 1859."</p>
<p>From Bruce Allardice, 10/5/20: "The unit was a famous unit of the Virginia volunteer militia, its members being among Richmond's 'elite.'. Captain Elliott became a Confederate army Lt. Colonel. The unit served in the war as part [Company A] of the 1st Virginia Infantry CSA." Bill Hicklin, 10/5/20, adds that it fought "right through to Appomattox."</p>
<p>Why the soldiers headed to a cemetery? Tom Gilbert pointed out, 10/5-6/20, that Green-wood Cemetery was even then a popular visitor attraction. "Green-wood cemetery in Brooklyn not only welcomed tourists but solicited them. The cemetery was designed with the goal of attracting the public. It imported the grave of Dewitt Clinton for that purpose. All of this predated the famous baseball grave monuments of course."</p>
<p>From Richard Hershberger, 10/4/2020: "Richmond is rich with abortive early connections with baseball. In actual practice, baseball took off in Richmond in the summer of 1866, right on schedule for its location, regardless of prior contact with the game."</p>
<p>Note: When base ball got to Richmond it really swept in: as of October 2020, Protoball shows no clubs prior to 1866, but 24 clubs prior to 1867. Some other Chronology entries touching on early base ball in Richmond include [[1857.36]], [[1861.1]], [[1863.99]], and [[1866.17]].</p>
<p> </p> +
<p>Bill Hicklin, 3/9/2016:</p>
<p>"It's one of the commonplaces of the old origins debate that led to the Mills Commission that Henry Chadwick was foremost among those arguing that baseball evolved directly from rounders, and indeed he said so many times. In opposition stood those patriotic Americans such as Ward who claimed an indigenous heritage from the Old Cat games."</p> +
C
<p>Black Club</p> +
K
<p>Black Club</p> +
L
<p>Black Club</p> +
<p>Black Club</p> +
O
<p>Black Club</p> +
<p>Black Club</p> +
B
<p>Black club</p> +
1
<p>Blair, whose grandfather was Lincoln's Postmaster General, lived in Silver Spring, MD, just outside Washington. Blair was born in 1858 or 1859.</p> +
<p>Block adds: "Other games besides baseball, of course, could have borne the label <em>Ball</em> on that occasion, but none seem obvious. Cricket, football, trap-ball, stool-ball, golf, and various games in the hockey family ,including bandy, hurling, and shinty, all had a presence in the British Isles in that era, but there is no reason the passing multitude in London that day would have considered any of them a "novelty." </p> +
<p>Block notes that the graphic is lifted by the same publisher's 1850 book, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Frank and the Cottage</span>).</p> +
<p>Block points out that this diary entry is (as of 2008) among the first four appearances of the term "base ball," [see #1744.2 and #1748.1 above, and #1755.4 below]. It shows adult and mixed-gender play, and indicates that "at this time, baseball was more of a social phenomenon than a sporting one. . . . played for social entertainment rather than serious entertainment." [Ibid, page 9.]</p>
<p>William Bray is well known as a diarist and local historian in Surrey. His diary, in manuscript, came to light in England during the 2008 filming of Ms Sam Marchiano's award-winning documentary, "Base Ball Discovered." (As of late 2020, ITunes lists this documentary at https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/base-ball-discovered/id385353782. Its charge is $10. Another route is <a href="https://www.mlb.com/video/base-ball-discovered-c7145607">https://www.mlb.com/video/base-ball-discovered-c7145607</a>)</p>
<p>As of 2019 the diary was missing again -- Block tells the sad story in <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pastime Lost</span> (U Nebraska Press, 2019), p. 37.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> +
<p>Block points out that this very early reference to base-ball indicates that the game was played by adults -- the Prince was 38 years old in 1749, further weakening the view that English base-ball was played mainly by juveniles in its early history.</p>
<p>The location of the game was Walton-on-Thames in Surrey.</p>
<p> Comparing the 1749 game with modern baseball, Block estimates that the bass-ball was likely played on a smaller scale, with a much softer ball, with batted ball propelled the players' hands, not with a bat, and that runners could be put out by being "plugged" (hit with a thrown ball) between bases.</p>
<p> </p> +
H
<p>Bob Tholkes found an item in the Washington (DC) Evening Star, Sept.10, 1867: "The Havana base ball club challenged and played its first match with the Matanzas club on Sunday last, but with no result. Another game is to come off there to-day."</p> +
M
<p>Bob Tholkes found an item in the Washington (DC) Evening Star, Sept.10, 1867: "The Havana base ball club challenged and played its first match with the Matanzas club on Sunday last, but with no result. Another game is to come off there to-day."</p> +
I
<p>Bob Tholkes wonders: Is "town ball" the southern name for "base ball?"</p> +
1
<p>Bob Tholkes' thorough 2016 paper [cited above] throws welcome light on the nature of elite base ball in period immediately following the Civil War, a period also associated with the rise of "Base Ball Fever" during which local clubs, representing individual companies, affinity groups, etc., formed clubs, some of which playing at sunrise [as early as five o'clock AM], prior to the work day. </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> +
<p>Bob Tholkes, 5/6/2021: "<span>Didn't know there was a funeral announcement."</span></p>
<p><span>Richard Hershberger, 5/6/2021: "<span>I don't know of any report of the association meeting or otherwise showing any sign of life after the war."</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>In a 5/9/2021 search, Protoball doesn't find one after 1866 either.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Note: Protoball has an 1868 clipping of a throwback game (28 innings, score 24-23) played by Mass rules. See https://protoball.org/Clipping:The_Mohawk_Club_reverts_to_amateur.</span></span></p>
<p><span> </span></p> +
<p>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.</p> +
C
<p>Box scores confirm this is a white club. Different from the other Charter Oak Club.</p> +
A
<p>Box scores of the Active Jr. against the Washington Market BBC (undated) can be found in <em>National Chronicle</em>, April 17, 1869 </p> +
1
<p>Bradford explained that the issue was not that ball-playing was sinful, but that playing openly while others worked was not good for morale.</p>
<p><strong>Note:</strong> From scrutinizing early reports of stoolball, Protoball does not find convincing evidence that it was a base-running game by the 1600s.</p> +
<p>Brian Turner, 8/31/2014, notes that the wording of this order could be taken to mean that the game itself was seen as a form of cricket, and was not a distinct game. </p> +
<p>British sailors played rounders on the ice in Melville Bay, Greenland, Aug. 20, 1857. See Lloyd, "The Voyage of the Fox in the Arctic Seas"</p> +
S
<p>Bruce Allardice adds this note on the social makeup of the Savannah BBC [19CBB posting of 2/5/2016]:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"George G. Kimball was born in 1843 in ME, died 1923, attended Bowdoin (ME) College. Journalist.</p>
<p>William Forrestal May (1845-1920) was born in CT.</p>
<p>“Flanders”–only Flanders in 1870 Savannah a mulatto.</p>
<p>Edwin L. Beard was born in NY c. 1840.</p>
<p>Peter S. Neidlinger (1853-97) a clerk who was born in Savannah of German immigrants.</p>
<p>Peter Schaefer (1841-1902) was born in Germany.</p>
<p>Charles Rossignol (born c 1850) was born in GA, as was William Nungezer Nichols (1852-1930)</p>
<p>Frank Wagner Dasher (1852-88) was born in GA, of NY parents.</p>
<p>From the above, it’s pretty clear that the team was not highly gentrified but was at least half transplants."</p> +
T
<p>Bruce Allardice notes that "town corporation" was a British term for what we would call a city council. </p> +
A
<p>Brunson, "Black Baseball" says this Albion Club organized in 1868, but presents no cite prior to 1872. [ba]</p> +
1
<p>Buckland is about 45 miles north of Portland.</p>
<p>The ages of players is not clear.</p>
<p>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".] One of these [[1850s.33]] uses "gool" as the name of the game.</p> +
I
<p>Buffalo Evening Post, April 4, 1851 ran an ad about a meeting to form a cricket club. </p>
<p>Same July 15, 1856 mentions a proposed Albion Cricket Club. Same club as the Amateur?</p> +
1
<p>By 1860, most Massachusetts Rules games were being played to 75 runs, instead of the 100 specified in the rules adopted in 1858. A match for the state championship was abandoned, unfinished, after four days' play.</p> +
H
<p>By 1920 there was a Korea baseball championship. See www.projectcobb.org.uk</p> +
L
<p>Cambridge had 26,060 residents in 1860.</p> +
1
<p>Camp Sedgwick was in northern VA. FORT Sedgwick was near Petersburg, and not built after the Battle of the Wilderness. [ba]</p> +
<p>Camp Seminary was located near Fairfax Seminary in Alexandria VA, near Washington DC. </p>
<p>One may infer that the 2<sup>nd</sup> NJ remained at winter quarters in Alexandria VA at this time, providing protection to Washington. </p> +
S
<p>Can we determine Spalding's sources for this account? Is the game account clear that New York rules were used?</p> +
M
<p>Can we determine if this game was played by Mass game rules?</p> +
R
<p>Can we discover more about this club's foundation, history, and fate? </p> +
1
<p>Cannot confirm this source. The rules described appeared in the <em>New York Clipper, </em>October 10, 1857.</p> +
<p>Canton, NY is about 15 miles SE of Ogdensburg NY. Its population in 2000 was a bit over 10,000.</p>
<p>Ogdensburg [1853 population "about 6500"] is about 60 miles [NE] down the St. Lawrence River from Lake Ontario. It is about 60 miles south of Ottawa, about 120 miles north of Syracuse, and about 125 miles SW (upriver) of Montreal.</p> +
W
F
<p>Caution: Protoball has them playing in Buffalo that day, with a different score.</p> +
B
<p>Center Field. Also spelled "Bonaffon" and "Bonnaffon" in other sources. The Nashville City Directory lists "FV Bonnaffin" as a clerk for the quartermaster at a railroad depot. In 1867, "F.V. Bonnaffon" was stationed under the Nashville quartermaster in Kentucky.</p> +
M
<p>Cf Marion Base Ball Club of South Brooklyn. [ba]</p> +
1
<p>Chadwick emigrated from western England, and is reported to have been familiar with rounders there.</p>
<p>His claim that American base ball had evolved from English rounders was long refuted by fans of the American game.</p>
<p>In 1871 Chadwick identified Two-Old-Cat as the parent of American base ball. See [[1871.20]] </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p> +
W
<p>Chapter 1 deals with baseball in Maine from statehood well into the 20th century and he does tie some of the early stories to newspaper documentation.</p> +
<p>Chapters 1 and 2 deal with early Maine baseball.</p> +
C
<p>Chatham was known as "Chatham Four Corners" until 1869.</p> +
<p>Chicopee of Groton (Senior club)</p>
<p>Riverside of Nashua (Junior club)</p> +
1
<p>Chris Hauser, in an email on 9/26/2007, estimates that this notice appeared in the <em>New York Anglo-African</em>, and was referenced in Leslie Heaphy's <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Negro League Baseball.</span></p> +
<p>Chron serial#1840.16 was formerly assigned to stories of Abe Lincoln's ballplaying as a young man; see #[[1830s.16]] for that item.</p> +
O
<p>Claremont is a neighborhood in Jersey City.</p> +
1
<p>Clark then cites "a well-traveled myth in the American baseball community . . . that the first baseball played in Australia was by Americans on the gold fields of Ballarat in 1857 . . . . No documentation has ever been produced for a Ballarat gold fields game [also page 5]."</p> +
I
<p>Clarksburg had 895 residents in 1860.</p> +
1
<p>Clay's book, which seems to make no other reference to ball-playing, was accessed 11/15/2008 via a Google Books search for <life of cassius>.</p> +
C
<p>Club is of Fox Lake, WI not IL</p> +
O
<p>Club more commonly labeled Oriental of Brooklyn</p> +
E
<p>Club was formed about 7/1/1865</p> +
R
<p>Club was organized October 1867, and reorganized March 11, 1868.</p> +
I
<p>Collins, "Sea-tracks of the Speejacks" (1923) p. 48 has a photo of Americans and Samoans playing baseball in Pago Pago. Pago Pago is in American Samoa.</p> +
K
<p>Colored - African-American Club, played in 1866, 1867 and 1868</p> +
A
<p>Colored Club</p> +