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<p><span>Note:</span> 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.</p>
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<p><br/>On the 16th inst., the Union Club, of Richmond, a new organization, comprised of residents of Richmond, sent a challenge to the Richmond Club, the message sent being as follows:<br/>ROOMS UNION BASEBALL CLUB<br/>Richmond, Va., September 16, 1866</p><br/>SECRETARY OF THE RICHMOND BASEBALL CLUB:</p><br/>Sir:–Having been authorized, I hereby challenge the Richmond Club to a match-game of baseball, single game, to be played at any time between 5th and 20th of October, and according to the rules of the National Association. Please advise me of the action of the club as early as possible. Should the club think proper to decline the challenge, you will oblige me by stating plainly the reasons therefor.</p>
<p><br/>Respectfully, J. F. Dooley,<br/>Corresponding Secretary of the Union Baseball Club.</p>
<p><br/>The following was the gentlemanly(!) reply:</p>
<p><br/>RICHMOND, September 22, 1866<br/>J. F. DOOLEY, SECRETARY UNION BASEBALL CLUB:<br/>SIR:–Your communication of the 21st [sic] instant is before me. I am instructed to state that the Richmond Baseball Club does not desire, and will not play the Union Club a single game. We are not or do we expect to be members of the National Baseball Convention. Our reason: We are Southerners. Hoping this may be satisfactory. I am,</p>
<p><br/>J. V. BIDGOOD,<br/>Secretary Richmond Baseball Club</p> +
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<p><span>Richard Hershberger and others doubt the veracity of this story. He says [email of 1/30/2008] that one other account of that day says that Abe played hand-ball, and there is mention of this being the only athletic game that Abe was ever seen to indulge in. (But also see [[1830s.16]] on a younger Abe Lincoln and town ball in the 1830s).</span></p>
<p><span>Source [2] above contains other accounts of the nomination story. They support the idea that Lincoln "played ball" the day before the nomination, but it seems fairly clear that the game played was "fives," presumable a form of handball. For a very helpful submission from Steve Gietschier on the content of <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Herndon's Informants,</span> see the Supplemental Text, below.</span></p>
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<p><span>The limited availability of positions played in early game reports and summaries makes the establishment of Adams's claim to have been the first to play the shortstop position tenuous. A page in the Knick's Game Books from July 1850 show that in one practice game he played "F" for "Field" instead of his usual position of "behind" (catcher), and so may be when he first took the position. Otherwise, there is no inidication in a primary source that he played the position until 1855.</span></p> +
<p><strong>Caution:</strong> The arrival of the New York style of play was still a year into the future.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This assumes that the elevens at Haverford (see #[[1848.8]] above) don't qualify for this honor.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> This brochure seems to imply that New York rules governed this game, but does not say so.</p> +
<p><strong>Note:</strong> We have other no evidence that the term "<strong>Massachusetts Game</strong>" was actually in use as early as 1854. The earliest it is found is 1858.</p> +
<p><strong>Note</strong>: Whaaaat? See #1828.1 above, and the <a href="http://retrosheet.org/Protoball/Rounders">Rounders Subchronology</a>.</p> +
<p>A claim that the Live Oaks, or the Olympics, preceded the Flour Citys appears above - see #1855.14.</p> +
<p>According to Peter Morris in <em>Base Ball Pioneers </em>(McFarland, 2012, p. 253), the first club, the Excelsior, took the field in 1858. Source: William R. Griffith, <em>The Early History of Amateur Baseball in the State of Maryland</em>, (Baltimore, n.p.1997), p. 4.</p> +
<p>According to the <em>Boston Herald</em> (April 9, 1860), the MABBP convention drew only 33 delegates from 12 clubs.</p>
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<p>Anachronism alert-- in 1862 Princeton was known as the College of New Jersey.</p>
<p>See also item #[[1857.23]] </p> +