Semantic search
1861.61 Army of the Potomac relaxes with base ball
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861 lauds the Army of the Potomac's good conduct in camp: "A song, a light-hearted laugh, a group in ecstasies as two stout-hearted fellows roll, one over another, in a wrestling match, a foot race, or a party at base ball are the leading variations on the more formal duties of duty and drill..."
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861
1861.62 Ohio Soldiers box and play ball
The Cadiz (Ohio) Democratic Sentinel, May 25, 1861 reports on Ohio soldiers at Camp Dennison, east of Cincinnati: "Various are the sports devised by the soldiers to pass away their leisure hours: such as sparring, ball playing, singing, dancing, and almost every sport that could be thought of, or that ever was practiced..."
The Cadiz (Ohio) Democratic Sentinel, May 25, 1861
1861.63 Thanksgiving game of 25th Massachusetts
The Worcester (MA) Spy, Nov. 27, 1861, prints a letter from the 25th Massachusetts datelined Camp Hicks, Annapolis, Nov. 21, where in a Thanksgiving game, company H defeated company A 31-22. The game ended at 5 pm by mutual agreement. Gives a box score. "The game was a hard fought one, lasting three hours, and engaged in by the best players of both companies."
Day, "My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. ..." Nov. 30, 1861 entry from Camp Hicks in Annapolis, MD: "the boys engaged in ball-playing and other amusements." Dec. 26, 1861 entry: "ball-playing and other athletic sports used up the day."
The Worcester (MA) Spy, Nov. 27, 1861
1861.64 Happy Pennsylvanians near DC
The Pottsville Weekly Miners' Journal, June 1, 1861 prints a letter datelined May 26 from Fort Washington, MD, near DC, from a Lieutenant in the 1st company, Washington Artillery (a Pottsville unit): "At the close of the day, our boys indulge in a game of ball in the water battery, where our quarters are located, and are apparently as happy as if they were taking an afternoon game on Lawton's Hill, or back of the basin."
The Pottsville Weekly Miners' Journal, June 1, 1861
1861.66 Ball Playing popular in Wisconsin Camp
The Wisconsin State Journal, May 25, 1861, prints a letter datelined 1st Regiment, Camp Scott, Milwaukee, May 24:
"Amusements in camp.....Chess constitutes an agreeable and profitable pastime. Card and ball playing are more general favorites in which a large proportion of the men engage."
Prior to the war, a base ball field was located at where Camp Scott was established.
The Wisconsin State Journal, May 25, 1861
1861.67 Base ball at Camp Vermont
The Burlington Weekly Free Press, Dec. 19, 1861 prints a Dec. 6th letter from the 12th Vermont, at Camp Vermont, near Alexandria: After a game of foot ball on Thanksgiving, "many joined in games of base ball."
See also chronology 1862.39.
The Burlington Weekly Free Press, Dec. 19, 1861
1861.68 7th New Hampshire has no brawls
The New Hampshire Statesman, Dec. 14, 1861, reports on the 7th New Hampshire, in camp at Manchester: "The chaplain remarked that [the men] have no brawls, and the only shouts ever heard in camp are the calls of the guard, or proceed from the ground devoted to ball play."
The New Hampshire Statesman, Dec. 14, 1861
1861.69 Pitching Quoits and Playing Ball
The New York Herald, May 14, 1861 reports on Col. Allen's regiment, the 1st NY National Guard, camped on Staten Island: "The hours of recreation are generally employed by the men in pitching quoits and playing ball."
The New York Herald, May 14, 1861
1861.70 Excelsior Brigade amuses itself
The New York Herald, May 23, 1861, reports on the Excelsior Brigade (a NYC unit), camped at Red House, Harlem: "During the time that the men are at leisure they amuse themselves by boxing, playing ball, jumping, running, or an any other harmless way they may see fit."
The New York Herald, May 23, 1861
1861.71 Irish Soldiers play ball with Rebel shells
The Cleveland Herald, Nov. 26, 1861, headlined "New One for Paddy" explains how Irish-American soldiers reacted to Confederate shelling: "One of the Massachusetts regiments had a game of base ball they day after the slaughter of Edwards' Ferry [the battle of BAlls Bluff], bu the Cleveland Hibernian Guard of the Eighth Ohio regiment, beat them at Romney... the Hibernian Guard actually stacked their arms and commenced playing ball with the six pounders that the enemy sent among them, tossing them about as cooly as if they were in the Cleveland Public Square."
Given the weight of the cannon balls, could this have been a rugby-like ball game?
The Cleveland Herald, Nov. 26, 1861
1861.72 Secesh and Unionists fraternize on ball field
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861: "Fraternization--I had the pleasure of beholding an oasis of fraternization of members of the Excelsior Base Ball Club, of Brooklyn, N.Y., composed in part of officers and privates attached to the Thirteenth Regiment New York State Militia, stationed on Mount Clare, near the city, and the Excelsior Base Ball Club of Baltimore, which is composed of secessionists almost to a man..." They played a game, the Baltimore club winning 26-25.
The New York Herald, June 28, 1861
1861.73 NC Lt. mentions baseball
Cornell University has a ms. letter dated 12-29-1861 from Lt. William Nunnally, 13th NC infantry, in which he mentions baseball, and visiting the CSS Merrimac. From the context, he must have been near Norfolk, VA at the time.
Cornell U., Box 1, Folder 19, catalog entry.
1861.74 New York Times advocates baseball for the army
“Let our army of 150,000 amuse themselves, and let cricket, quoit and base ball, alternating with the daily drill, give them vigor and endurance."
“The Lines of Arlington,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 1861.
“The Lines of Arlington,” New York Times, Sept. 15, 1861.
1861.75 36th Illinois Plays base ball in Aurora Camp
"Hiram, of Big Rock, in lieu of it opened a boxing gymnasium. This, with base ball, filled up the intervals between meal time and drill."
History of the 36th Illinois, p. 24. This was at Camp Hammond in Aurora, IL, in 1861.
Bennett and Haigh, History of the 36th Illinois, p. 24.
1861.76 Base ball in Rochester Camp
"A traveler going south out of Rochester on Mt. Hope Avenue during the war years would pass by Mt. Hope Cemetery, and then, just past the fork in the road formed by the West and East Henrietta roads, would come to the entrance of a military camp. Inside, he might glimpse an artillery company hard at drill, while off-duty recruits played a game of baseball."
This is Camp Hillhouse, in Rochester, NY.
Levy and Tynan, "Campgrounds of the Civil War," Rochester History, Summer 2004, p. 6.
1861.77 White House Secretaries watch Zouaves play ball
"When John Hay and George Nicolay drove their rented buggy over to Camp Lincoln to say hello to their friend Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, they found him wearing his “blouzy red shirt” and enjoying that New York favorite: Base Ball. Most New York firefighters played the game, and among those involved was Ellsworth’s aide-de-camp, Captain John “Jack” Wildey.
Wildey played ball before he became a Fire Zouave. He played for the New York Mutuals, named for his own Mutual Hook and Ladder Company Number 1. The Mutuals were formed in 1857 and played amateur ball at the Hoboken Grounds, their home field. Many firefighters and city employees played in a variety of New York teams, but the Mutuals were reckoned the best. It was perfectly normal for a handmade ball, a bit larger and softer than today’s baseball, to be found in the knapsack of an 11th New York Fire Zouave."
Hay and Nicolai were Pres. Lincon's Secretaries, and Ellsworth was perhaps Lincoln's closest young friend. Hay later became Secretary of State.
"Home Run Derby Star Captain "Jack" Wildey, The Emerging Civil War blog, July 16, 2018
1861.78 12th New York Plays the Nationals of DC
See the New York Sunday Mercury, June 30, 1861. Members of the 12th NY played a pickup team of the Nationals of DC, in DC, on "Tuesday last." Gives a box score.
1861.80 Left and Right Wings of 9th NY Play
. Right and left wings of the 9th NY play. Sgt.Major Burtis, an old member of the
Gotham club, pitchers the left wing to a 40-6 victory. Gives a box score.
New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 13, 1861
1861.82 "Old members of New York Clubs" play near DC
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 3, 1861 reports that the Van Houten Club of the 1st NJ defeated company A of that regiment 49-24 in a 6 inning game. "Many of the contestants are old members of New York clubs..." Gives a box score. Letter dated Oct. 29, Camp St. John, near Alexandria.
1861.83 The Mozart Regiment Plays Baseball
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 3, 1861 reports that on Oct. 28th, near Fairfax, VA, members of Company I of the Mozart Regiment (40th NY), "partly composed of ball-players," defeated a picked nine from the rest of the regiment. The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 10, 1861 reports the return match, also won by Co. I.
The regiment wasn't musical, but rather named after the Mozart Hall wing of the NYC Democratic Party.
Styple, "Writing and Fighting..." p. 46
Styple, "Writing and Fighting..." p. 46 prints (from the NYSM) the box score of the game.
1861.84 2nd Fire Zouaves Match
The New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 17, 1861 reports on a game between two nines of the 2nd Fire Zouaves, camped near Indian Head, MD. Company K's nine defeated Company I's 23-19.
The regiment was formally known as the 73rd NY Infantry.
1861.85 Colonel calls off drill so game can be played
The New York Sunday Mercury, Dec. 8, 1861 reports that the 14th NY defeated a team from the 24th NY so badly that the 24th quit in the 5th inning, already down 25-4. Game played in camp on the 25th. When the game started, the 30th NY was drilling on the hoped-for ball field, but upon request, the colonel of the 30th called off the drill so the game could be played.
The 24th was stationed near Upton's Hill, Fairfax County.
1861.86 A Battalion of Base Ballists?
The New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 18, 1861 reports: "We are informed by a correspondent that several gentlemen well known in base ball circles, have a project under consideration for the formation of a battalion or regiment, exclusively of base ball players: and it is seriously contemplated to recommend a call fora special meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players, for the purpose of bringing the matter more immediately before representatives of all the clubs." The Mercury notes that many ball players are already in the army, so the idea may not be practical, but that if only 5 men from each club joined, "better material for soldiers... cannot be found."
1861.87 Heavy battle losses don't stop baseball playing
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861 has an article on a visit tot he Army of the Potomac, where the writer visited a regiment recently decimated in the Battle of Ball's Bluff, and sees "a party at play in a vigorous game of base ball, and that not forty eight hours after they stood hemmed in by the rebels..."
The Chicago Tribune, Nov. 18, 1861
1861.88 In camp on Rikers Island
Charles F. Johnson, "The Long Roll," p. 16 (journal entry of May 21, 1861, when in camp at Rikers Island), mentions "a game of ball on the parade ground."
Johnson belonged to the 9th NY (Hawkins' Zouaves). Rikers Island is in New York harbor.
1861.89 Early-Days Monster in Left Field?
New-York Atlas, 10/21/1861
1861.90 Fort Wayne soldiers play town ball
A letter to the Fort Wayne Daily Times, May 16, 1861, states that Fort Wayne soldiers are playing town ball at Camp Morton.
Fort Wayne Daily Times, May 16, 1861
1861.94 Officers of US Chasseurs Play Base Ball
The 1st US Chasseurs (65th NY Infantry) while stationed in Camp Cochrane, DC had a game on Xmas day between the field and line officers. It ended in a 29-29 tie. The NYSM gives a box score. The two nines were called the "Old Bachelors" and the "Old Maids."
Styple, "Writing and Fighting..." p. 59 (from NYSM Dec. 29,1861)
1862.1 Brooklyn Games Organized as Benefits for Sick and Wounded Soldiers
Three games were announced in June 1862 for which net proceeds would be used for sick and wounded Union soldiers. The Eckfords and the Atlantics would play for a silver ball donated by the Continental Club. William Cammeyer provided the enclosed Union grounds without charge. Admission fees of 10 cents were projected to raise $6000 for soldiers' relief. The Eckford won the Silver Ball by winning two of three games.
"Relief for the Sick and Wounded," Brooklyn Eagle, June 21, 1862, page 2.
Craig Waff, "The 'Silver Ball' Game-- Eckfords vs. Atlantics at the Union Grounds", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 39-42
1862.2 The Death of Jim Creighton at 21
Excelsior star pitcher James Creighton, 21 years old, suffered some sort of injury during the middle innings of a game against the Union of Morrisania on October 14, 1862, and died four days later of a "strangulated intestine" associated with a hernia. (Other accounts cite a ruptured bladder - ouch.) One legend was that Creighton suffered the injury in the process of "hitting out a home run." Excelsior officials attributed the death to a cricket injury incurred in a prior cricket match.
Creighton was perhaps base ball's first superstar.
R. M. Gorman and D. Weeks, Death at the Ballpark (McFarland, 2009), pages 63-64.
Richard Bogovich, "The Martyrdom of Jim Creighton-- Excelsiors of Brooklyn vs. Unions", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 43-46
See Tom Gilbert's 3/4/2021 blog at https://howbaseballhappened.com/blog/how-baseball-killed-its-first-star-player. Tom's How Baseball Happened (Godine, 2020) carries Creighton's base ball career at p. 185ff, and his death is discussed on pp. 212-215.
Tom Gilbert, 3/5/2021-- "Creighton’s hernia did not “rupture”— it led to a strangulated intestine which became infected; the infection killed him. We know this because both Brooklyn Health Dept records and Green-Wood Cemetery records state the cause of death as “strangulated intestine.”
Tom Shieber, Hall of Fame curator who has studied Creighton extensively, believes the injury was an inguinal hernia which ruptured. In an article published on December 7, 1862, the New York Sunday Mercury recounts a conversation with Creighton before the Union game in which he states that he had injured himself in a recent cricket match. It is assumed that he received the hernia in the cricket match and that it ruptured during the Union game.
1862.3 US Cricket Enters Steeper Decline
[A] "The cricket season last year was a very dull one, this clubs in this locality [Brooklyn] playing but a few matches, and those of no importance." The recent delline:
[B] "For several years, cricketers had been talking of forming as association similar to that set up by the baseball fraternity. Despite several meetings, they had not done so. At the annual convention of 1862, the Clipper noted the meager attendance and proclaimed the gathering 'a mere farce.' It despaired of cricket ever becoming popular unless it was made more American in nature. The disappointing convention was the last the cricketer would hold."
[A] Brooklyn Eagle, April 25, 1862. Contributed by Bill Ryczek, December 29, 2009.
[B] William Ryczek, Baseball's First Inning (McFarland, 2009), page 105. The Clipper quoted is the May 24, 1862 issue.
See also Beth Hise, "American Cricket in the 1860s: Decade of Decline or New Start?," Base Ball Journal, Volume 5, number 1 (Special Issue on Origins), pages 143-148.
1862.4 State Championship Base Ball Game in PA
"Base Ball Match. - A grand base ball match will take place at the St. George's Cricket Ground, near Camac's Wood, for the championship of Pennsylvania, between the 'Olympic' and 'Athletic' Clubs, on next Saturday."
The New York Sunday Mercury reported on Oct. 12 that the Olympic won, 19-18, and that it was the first of a best two-of-three match.
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2, 1862. Accessed via subscription search May 20, 2009.
On what authority did it convey championship status?
1862.5 Brooklynites and Philadelphians Play Series of Games
Various assortments of leading players from Brooklyn and Philadelphia vied in both cities in 1862. Philadelphia sent an all-star assortment north in June, where it lost to Newark and to select nines in Brooklyn's eastern and western districts, but beat an aggregation of Hoboken players. Two select Brooklyn nines headed south and played two all-Philly sides in early July.
At the end of August, the Mutual club traveled to Philadelphia, winning 2 of 3 against Phila clubs. In October, the Eckford traveled to Philadelphia for a week of play against individual local clubs, and also played an "amalgamated nine" of locals, winning all games played.
Sources: various, including overviews at "Philadelphia vs. Brooklyn," Wilkes Spirit, July 12, 1862, and "Base Ball Match," Philadelphia Inquirer, October 22, 1862.
1862.8 Earliest Base Ball in Colorado Territory
"The first baseball games in Colorado Territory occurred in March 1862, when the Base Ball (two words back then) Club was formed. The first recorded contest happened on April 26, 1862."
Rocky Mountain News, March 13 and April 29, 1862. Cited in Brian Werner, "Baseball in Colorado Territory," in Thomas L. Altherr, Above the Fruited Plain: Baseball in the Rocky Mountain West (SABR Convention Publication, July 2003), page 71.
Werner identifies the game as the New York game.
Richard Hershberger, email of 1/19/2009, writes that on April 29 the Denver [CO] Daily Evening News reported on intramural game played by the Denver Base Ball Club, a likely reference to the games cited by Werner. He also notes that a March 12 issue of the Evening News referred to a "game played yesterday [that] went off well, considering that there were but two or three persons engaged who had ever played the game before, according to the New York rules, and it will take but a few more meetings to enable them to become proficient."
Jim Wohlenhaus, email of 2/24/2014, reports his own attempts to pin down Colorado's earliest games -- see the Supplemental Text, below. Jim's summary:
"The first recorded game was March 11, 1862 and not March 15. I do not believe the March 15 scheduled game ever was played.
"The Club was formally established on Mar 15, 1862. I am not sure if the first three games were played on April 26, or earlier. A comment in Protoball entry #1862.8 states these games were “intramural”. I would hazard a guess they were indeed, probably the first nine vs. the second nine. Since this was the only Club around, this was probably the only way to have competition. As an aside, I have found no mention of another Club until 1864 in Colorado Territory when two Clubs formed and challenged each other. Then baseball really started to take off in that year."
1862.9 First Admission Fees for Baseball?
May 15, 1862: "The Union Baseball Grounds at March Avenue and Rutledge Street in Brooklyn is opened, the first enclosed ball field to charge an admission fee."
James Charlton, The Baseball Chronology (Macmillan, 1991), page 15.
Regarding the opening of the Union Grounds, see:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Feb. 12 and May 16, 1862; New York Clipper, Feb. 22, 1862; New York Sunday Mercury May 11 and May 18, 1862,
Caveats: Admission was charged in 1858 for the Brooklyn-New York games at the Fashion Race Course, Queens, which was enclosed but not a 'ball field'.
Before the Union Grounds, there were no ball field enclosed for the purpose of charging admission.
Admission had occasionally also been charged for "benefit" games for charities or to honor prominent players.
1862.10 PA Base Ball Moves Beyond Philadelphia
"Base Ball Match. Harrisburg, August 21. - The first match game of base ball ever play in Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, cam off here yesterday, between the Mountain Club of Altoona, and the Keystone Club of Harrisburg. It resulted in a victory for the latter."
PhiladelphiaInquirer, August 22, 1862. Accessed 5/20/2009 via subscription search.
See 1860.38. Either the 1860 game in Allegheny was unknown, or not considered to have been played under National Association rules.
Harrisburg PA is in central PA, about 90 miles W of Philadelphia.
1862.13 Government Survey: Athletic Games Forestall Woes of Soldiers Gambling
After examining nearly 200 regiments, the Sanitary Commission [it resembled today's Red Cross] was reported to have found that "in forty-two regiments, systematic athletic recreations (foot ball, base ball, &c) were general. In one hundred and fifty-six, there were none. Where there were none, card playing and other indoor games took their place. This invited gambling abuses, it was inferred.
"War Miscellanies. Interesting Army Statistics," Springfield [MA] Republican, January 25, 1862. Accessed via Genealogybank, 5/21/09. PBall file: CW13.
is it worth inspecting the report itself in search of further detail? It is not available online in May 2009.
1862.14 22nd MA beats 13th NY in the Massachusetts Game
"Fast Day (at home) April 3, there was no drill, and twelve of our enlisted men challenged an equal number from the Thirteenth New York, to a game of base-ball, Massachusetts game. We beat the New-Yorkers, 34 to 10."
J. L. Parker and R. G. Carter, History of the Twenty-Second Massachusetts Infantry (The Regimental Association, Boston, 1887), pages 79-80.
Fast Day in MA was traditionally associated with ballplaying. The 22nd MA, organized in Lynnfield MA (about 15 miles N of Boston), was camped at Falmouth VA in April, as was the 13th NY. The 13th was from Rochester and would likely have known the old-fashioned game. PBall file: CW-126.
1862.15 NY and MA Regiments Play Two Games Near the Civil War Front
Mr. Jewell, from the 13th NY Regiment's Company A, provided a generous [15 column-inches] account of two regulation NY-rules games played on April 15, 1862, near the Confederate lines at Yorktown VA. Sharing picket duties with members of the 22nd MA Regiment, Jewell says that "at about half-past 10 o'clock some one proposed a game of Base Ball. Sides were chosen and it commenced." [As scorer, Jewell's box scores did not mark the sides as a contest between regiments, and it may have involved mixed teams. He did note that the leadoff batter/catcher for the "Scott" side was a member of Boston's Trimountain Base Ball Club.] "It was decidedly 'cool' to play a game of Base Ball in sight of the enemy's breastworks." Between games the ball was re-covered with leather from a calf boot found on the ground. During the afternoon game, Union troops in the area were evidently sending artillery fire out toward the Rebs as they were building new fortifications in the distance. General McClelland's entourage is reported to have passed toward the front while the game was in progress. Jewell sent his account to the Rochester paper. The two games, each played to a full mine innings, were won by Scott's side, 13-9 and 14-12.
Source: Rochester Union and Advertiser, April 24, 1862, page 2, column 2. PBall file: CW16.
1862.16 13th Massachusetts Plays Ball Near Officers, Dignitaries, Enemy Lines
"In the afternoons, after battalion drill, the game of base-ball daily occupied the attention of the boys. On one of these occasions, General Hartsuff riding by, got off his horse and requested permission to catch behind the bat, informing us there was nothing he enjoyed so much. He gave it up after a few minutes and rode away, having made a very pleasant impression."
Davis also mentions a game of ball being played in April 1863 as large numbers of troops were awaiting a formal review by President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton near the Potomac River, "to the no small amusement of the lookers-on" [page 198]. In November 1863, still in Virginia, Davis reports that while awaiting an order to attack a nearby Confederate force, "Time dragged along, and no movement was made. We were all tired of the inaction and the heavy strain on the mind from hours of expectation, and so we had a game of ball to pass away the time. Occasionally the ball would be batted over the crest of the hill in front, in range of the rebel skirmishers, necessitating some one going after it. It was a risky piece of business and required quick work, but it was got every time." [page 288.]
In March 1864, the 13th played the 104th NY and won 62-20. "As opportunities for indulging our love for this pastime were not very frequent, we got a deal of pleasure out of it." [page 309.] Later that month, the regiment celebrated the escape and return the colonel of the 16th Maine with base-ball, along with chasing greased pigs and a sack race. [Page 313.]
Charles E. Davis, Jr., Three Years in the Army: The Story of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers (Estes and Lauriat, Boston MA, 1894), page 56. The full text was accessed on 6/1/09 on Google books via a search for "'Charles E. Davis' three". PBall file: CW20.
Also cited in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), page 41.
The first entry is dated May 6, 1862, when the regiment was in the vicinity of Warrenton VA. There is no further detail on the version of base ball that was played.
1862.17 Ballplaying Frequently Played at Salisbury Prison in North Carolina
Beginning in 1862, prisoners' diary accounts refer to a number of base ball games [by New York rules; Millen infers that games occurred "almost daily"] at Salisbury prison in NC. Charles Gray, a Union doctor who arrived at Salisbury in May 1862, reported ball playing "for those who like it and are able." RI soldier William Crossley in a May 21, 1862 diary entry described a "great game of baseball" between prisoners transferred from New Orleans and Tuscaloosa AL, which brought "as much enjoyment to the Rebs as to the Yanks, for they came in hundreds to see the sport..."
[A] In an unattributed and undated passage, Josephus Clarkson, a prisoner from Boston "recalled in his diary that one of the Union solders wandered over and picked up a pine branch that had dropped on the ground. Another soldier wrapped a stone in a couple of woolen socks and tied the bundle with a string. The soldiers started a baseball game of sorts, although there was much argument over whether to use Town Ball rules or play like New Yorkers. 'To put a man out by Town Ball rules you could plug him as he ran,' wrote Clarkson. 'Since many of the men were in a weakened condition, it was agreed to play the faster but less harsh New York rules, which intrigued our guards. The game of baseball had been played much in the South, but many of them [the guards] had never seen the sport devised by Mr. Cartwright. Eventually they found proper bats for us to play with and we fashioned a ball that was soft and a great bounders.'" According to Clarkson, a pitcher from Texas was banished from playing in a guards/captives game after "badly laming" several prisoners. "By and large," he said, "baseball was quite a popular pastime of troops on both sides, as a means of relaxing before and after battles."
[B] Otto Boetticher, a commercial artist before the war, was imprisoned at Salisbury for part of 1862 and drew a picture of a ball game in progress at the prison that was published in color in 1863. A fine reproduction appears in Ward and Burns.
[C] Adolphus Magnum, A visiting Confederate chaplain, noted in 1862 that "a number of the younger and less dignified [Union officers] ran like schoolboys to the playing ground and were soon joining In high glee in a game of ball."
[D] An extended account of ballplaying at Salisbury, along with the Boetticher drawing, are found in From Pastime to Passion. It draws heavily on Jim Sumner, "Baseball at Salisbury Prison Camp," Baseball History (Meckler, Westport CT, 1989). Similar but unattributed coverage is found in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), pp 43-45. PBall file: CW21.
[E] See also Giles W. Shurtleff account of prison life in the history of the Seventh Ohio, p. 324. Shurtleff had played while at Oberlin College. See also The Congregationalist, May 4, 1864.
[A] Wells Twombley, 200 Years of Sport in America (McGraw-Hill, 1976), page 71.
[B] Ward and Burns, Baseball Illustrated, at pages 10-11.
[C] Magnum.
[D] Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), pp.27-31.
[E] Patricia Millen, "The POW Game-- Captive Union Soldiers Play a Baseball Game at Salisbury, NC", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 36-38
William Crossley, "Extracts from My Diary" p. 43.
It would be desirable to locate and inspect the Josephus Clarkson diary used in Twombley [A, above.]. Clarkson, described as a ship's chandler before the war, does not yield to Google or Genealogy bank as of 6/6/2009 or 4/3/2013. John Thorn's repeated searches have also come up empty. Particularly questionable is Clarkson's very early identification of Cartwright as an originator of the NY game.
1862.18 Impact of War Lessens in NYC
[A] "BALL PLAYERS OFF TO THE WAR.-- But few of the fraternity, in comparison with the number who left in May, 1861, have gone off to the war this time in the militia regiments...All the clubs have their representatives in the several regiments...but the hegira of warlike ball-players is nothing near as great as in 1861, the necessity not being as pressing..."
[B] "Base Ball. The return of the 47th and 13th regiments has given quite an impetus to ball playing, and the vigor and energy that characterizes the ball player are again displaying themselves in the various clubs."
[C] "BASE BALL. THE BALTIC BASE BALL CLUB OF NEW YORK. It is really a pleasure to welcome the 'Old Baltics' again to the base ball field. At the commencement of the rebellion a great many of the most active and prominent members of this club, patriotically enlisted under and fought for the 'old flag;' this was the main cause of the club's temporary disbandment..."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, June 1, 1862
[B] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sep. 9, 1862
[C] Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, Nov. 29, 1862
In an editorial printed on Aug. 9, 1862 Fitzgerald's City Item, of Philadelphia listed arguments for continuing base ball during the war.
1862.19 The 39th Massachusetts Plays Ball
The regimental history of the 39th MA has two passing references to ballplaying. On Thanksgiving Day of 1862, "There was a release from the greater part of camp duties and the time thus secured was devoted to baseball, football and other diversions so easily devised by the American youth" [p. 50]. The regimental camp was in southern MD, within 15 miles of Washington. April 2, 1863 "was the regular New England Fast Day, and a holiday was proclaimed by the Colonel . . . . [T]here was no failure in taking part in the races, sparring-matches, and various games, of at least witnessing them. The baseball game was between the men of Sleeper's Battery and those selected from the 39th with the honors remaining with the Infantry, though the cannoneers were supposed to be particularly skillful in the throwing of balls." [page 64]. The regiment was now in Poolesville MD, about 30 miles NW of Washington.
Alfred S. Roe, The Thirty-Ninth Regiment. Massachusetts Volunteers 1862-1865 (Regimental Veteran Association, Worcester, 1914). Accessed 6/3/09 on Google Books via "'thirty-ninth' roe" search. PBall file: CW-26.
The regiment was drawn from the general Boston area.
1862.20 Wisconsin Man's Diary Included a Dozen References to Ballplaying
Private Jenkin Jones sprinkled 12 references to ballplaying in his Civil War Diary. They range from December 1862 to February 1865. Most are very brief notes, like the "played ball in the afternoon" he recorded in Memphis in February 1863 [page 34]. The more revealing entries:
· Oxford, 12/62: "The delightful weather succeeded in enticing most of the boys form their well-worn decks and cribbage boards, bringing them out in ball playing, pitching quoits,etc. Tallied for an interesting game of base ball" [pp 19/20]
· Huntsville, 3/64: "Games daily in camp, ball, etc." [p. 184]
· Huntsville, 3/64: "Played ball all of the afternoon" [p.193]
· Fort Hall, 4/64: "[Col. Raum] examined our quarters and fortifications, after which he and the other officers turned in that had a game of wicket ball." [p.203]
· Etowah Bridge, 9/64: "a championship game of base-ball was played on the flat between the non-veterans and the veterans. The non-veterans came off victorious by 11 points in 61." [p. 251]
· Chattanooga, 2/65: "The 6th Badger boys have been playing ball with our neighbors, Buckeyes, this afternoon. We beat them three games of four.
Jenkin Lloyd Jones, An Artilleryman's Diary (Wisconsin History Commission, 1914). Accessed on Google Books 6/3/09 via "'wisconsin history commission' 'No. 8'" search. PBall file: CW-28.
Jones was from Spring Green, WI, which is about 30 miles west of Madison and 110 miles west of Milwaukee WI. Jones later became a leading Unitarian minister and a pacifist.
1862.21 Michigan Colonel Plays Ball in Tennessee, Still Rebuffs Rebs
The 12th Michigan Regiment had the task in December 1862 of guarding a supply railroad in Tennessee. On December 24, a detachment under Col. Wm. Graves was surrounded by a large rebel force that approached under white flag, demanding surrender. Graves' account: "The officer asked, 'Who is in command?' I answered, 'I am;' whereupon he surveyed me from head to foot (I had been playing ball that morning, pants in boots, having a jacket without straps) . . . ." Graves refused, a two-hour fight ensued, and the rebels retreated.
J. Robertson, compiler, Michigan in the War (W. S. George, Lansing MI, 1882), page 327. Accessed 6/4/09 on Google Books via ""michigan in the war" search. PBall file: CW-29.
The regiment seems to have been drawn from the vicinity of Niles, MI, which is 10 miles north of South Bend IN and 60 miles east of Chicago.. The 1862 engagement occurred at Middleburg TN, which is at about the midpoint between Nashville and Memphis.
1862.22 Crowd of 40,000 Said to Watch Christmas Day Game on SC Coast
"In Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Christmas Day in 1862, recalled Colonel A. G. Mills in 1923, his regiment, the 165th New York Infantry, Second Duryea's Zouaves, [engaged a?] picked nine from the other New York regiments in that vicinity.' Supposedly, the game was cheered on by a congregation of 40,000!" Mills eventually served as President of the National League and chair of the Mills Commission on the origins of baseball.
Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), pp 21-22. Millen cites A. G. Mills, "The Evening World's Baseball Panorama." Mills Papers, Giamatti Center, Baseball HOF. The account also appears in A. Spalding, Americas' National Game (American Sports Publishing, 1911), pp 95.96. PBall file -- CW-30
Is this crowd estimate reasonable? Are other contemporary or reflective accounts available?
The crowd estimate is exaggerated. There weren't anywhere near 40,000 troops on the island at that time. [ba]
1862.23 Soldiers' Christmas in Virginia - Ballplaying "on Many a Hillside"
A correspondent near Fredericksburg VA told Philadelphia readers about "orders from head-quarters that Christmas day should be observed as a day or recreation. The men gladly availed themselves of this privilege, and on many a hill-side might be seen parties playing at ball, or busy at work dragging Christmas-trees to the quarters . . . ."
The article also reported that "Brown cricket jackets are now issued to the men instead of the brown blouses formerly issued. These jackets make a very comfortable garment . . . but they are very unmilitary-looking."
"Christmas in the Army," Philadelphia Inquirer, December 29, 1862. Accessed via Genealogybank, 5/21/09. PBall file CW-31.
was a PA regiment involved?
1862.24 Ball Game Photographed at Fort Pulaski, Georgia
A ball game appears in the background of photographs of the 48th New York at Fort Pulaski. The Fort, near the Georgia coast, had been taken by the North in July 1862. The National Park Services dates its image to 1862.
One shot appears in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, page 32, and another, apparently, at the NPS site http://www.nps.gov/fopu/historyculture/baseball.htm [accessed 6/6/09.] PBall file: CW-33.
we welcome your interpretation of these photos.
The 48th NY was from NYC, and thus likely had members familiar with the game. [ba]
1862.25 Hitting Creighton: Patience Pays
"The question will naturally be asked, how came the Unions to score so well against Creighton's pitching? and the reply is, that they waited until they got a ball to suit them, Creighton delivering, on an average, 20 or 30 balls to each striker in four of the six innings played."
New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 2, 1862
The report goes on to disclose the secrets of Creighton's success as a pitcher. The Union of Morrisania club had defeated Creighton and the Excelsior of South Brooklyn, 12-4.
1862.29 Rebel Prisoners Seen Playing Ball in WI Prison Camp
A Wisconsin newspaper sent a writer to the nearby Camp Randall, where 881 prisoners of war were just arriving. “Some of the men and boys, of the 55th Tennessee regiment were amusing themselves with playing ball.” The reporter notes that many prisoners had only light clothing that would provide little protection against northern winds. Many of the prisoners had been among 7000 men captured in the CSA’s surrender of Island Ten, a strategic position in the Mississippi River near New Madrid, Missouri. The nature of the Tenneseeans’ ballplaying was not recorded.
“Camp Randall,” Weekly Wisconsin Patriot (Madison), April 26, 1862. Accessed at Genealogybank on 5/21/2009. Camp Randall was the former fairground for Madison WI.
See also Madison Journal, April 22, 1862, Milwaukee Daily News, April 24, 1862, Manitowac Weekly Tribune, May 14, 1862. [ba]
1862.30 Game Suspended When BIG Fight Breaks Out
“Sometimes the war disrupted these pastimes . . . . In the spring of 1862 a game between the Fifty-Seventh and Sixty-Ninth Regiments of New York Jacob Cole was lying on the ground watching the match when he heard a ‘rumbling noise.’ When Cole and his friend stood up they heard nothing, but when they put their ears to the ground Cole told his friend that ‘our boys are fighting.’ He remembered: ‘Hardly had I spoken before orders came to report to our regiments at once. So the ball game came to a sudden stop never to resume.’”
Source: Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), pages 41-42. Kirsch does not supply a primary source. It appears that Cole was in the 57th NY, and that the story of the interrupted ball game was carried in Jacob H. Cole, Under Five Commanders: or, A Boy’s Experience with the Army of the Potomac (News Printing Company, 1909), p. [?]. Accessed as snippet-view text May 31, 2009. Note: Can we confirm the source, determine where this game took place, and assess the credibility of Cole’s account?
Per p. 30 of the Cole book, this took place May 31, 1862, near the battle of Seven Pines, VA, a few miles east of Richmond. [ba]
1862.35 Massachusetts Officers Play Ball in May, on July 4
May: “One of the boys in a letter home vividly describes a hailstorm . . . ‘one day we had a regular hailstorm . . . The boys were out playing ball when it commenced sprinkling, and they thought it wasn’t going to be much of a shower, they kept right on playing, when all of a sudden came the [hail] stones, and the boys put for their tents . . . Queer weather here!’”
July 4: “Some of the officers played baseball and drill was neglected.”
Alfred S. Roe, The Twenty-Fourth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteers, 1861-1866 (Twenty-Fourth Veteran Association, Worcester, 1907), pages 112 and 135. Accessed on Google books 6/2/09 via “twenty-fourth regiment” search. The regiment’s officers were mostly from Boston. The regiment, organized at Readville, 10 miles SW of Boston, and was at Seabrook Island SC on these dates.
1862.36 CT Boys Play Ball on March to Fredericksburg
On a lay day during a long October 1862 march from Harper’s Ferry WV toward Fredericksburg VA, the 21st CT “indulged the natural propensity of the soldier for foraging.” To thwart that, the Captain “ordered the roll to be called every hour, so that it was difficult to get far from camp. The boys enjoyed a game of baseball, notwithstanding the march of the day before, and the prospect of a longer march the next day.” This is the only reference to ballplaying in the history.
The Story of the Twenty-First Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, During the Civil War. 1861-1865 (Stewart Printing Co., Middletown, 1900). Accessed on Google books 6/2/09, via “story of the twenty-first” search. The regiment was recruited in Eastern CT in late summer 1862, with the most men enlisting from Groton and Hartford.
1862.37 Thanksgiving and Foot-ball . . . and Base-Ball
A soldier in the 18th CT, Charles Lynch spent Thanksgiving at a camp near Baltimore. “November. The most important event was our first Thanksgiving in camp. Passed very pleasantly. A good dinner, with games of foot and base-ball.”
After Appomattox, Lynch wrote: June 5th: . . . Thank God the cruel war is over. Playing ball, pitching quoits, helping the farmers, is the way we pass the time while waiting for orders to be mustered out. We have many friends in this town and vicinity.” These are the only references in the diary to ballplaying. In June Lynch was stationed in Martinsburg WV, about 30 miles west of Frederick MD and 75 miles northwest of Washington.
Charles H. Lynch, The Civil War Diary 1862-1865 (private printing, 1915), page 11, page 154. Accessed on Google books 6/2/09 via “charles h. lynch” search. Lynch, and presumably much of the regiment, was from the Norwich CT area. Lead provided by Jeff Kittel, 5/12/09.
1862.39 Vermonters Play Manly Sport of Football, (and Base Ball) in Virginia
Thanksgiving in Fairfax County in northernmost VA: “At 2 o’clock, the regiment turned out on the parade ground. The colonel had procured a foot ball. Sides were arranged by the lieutenant colonel and two or three royal games of foot ball – most manly of sports, and closest in its mimicry of actual warfare – were played. . . . Many joined in games of base ball; others formed rings and watched friendly contests of the champion wrestlers of the different companies . . . . It was a “tall time” all around.”
George G. Benedict, “Letter from George Grenville Benedict, December 6, 1862,” Army Life in Virginia: Letters from the Twelfth Regiment (Free Press, Burlington, 1895), pp 80-81. Accessed 6/3/09 on Google Books via “army life in Virginia” search. Benedict, from Burlington, had been an editor and postmaster before the Civil War, and later became a state senator. The regiment appears to have been raised in the Burlington area. Submitted by Jeff Kittel, 5/12/09.
1862.44 Ohio Soldier Sees “Most of Our Company “ Playing Pre-battle Bat Ball
“The report of musketry is heard but a very little distance from us . . . yet on the other side of the road is most of our company, playing Bat Ball and perhaps in less than half an hour, they may be called to play a Ball game of a more serious nature.”
Attributed to “an Ohio private” who wrote home from Virginia in 1862, in Ward and Burns, Baseball: An Illustrated History (Knopf, 1994), page 13. No source is given. Note: can we find the original source and fill in some detail? Note: the private’s use of the term “bat ball” is unusual. “Bat ball” is found in much earlier times [it was banned in both Pittsfield and Northampton MA in 1791]. In this case, since the private is an observer, not a player, it may be that he is using an incorrect label for the game he observes in 1862. Still, it may possibly imply that the term “bat ball” was current in Ohio in the pre-war years (in the private’s youth?), if not later.
1862.48 Pork, Hard-Tack, Beans, and Baseball in the 5th Mass Artillery
“We had plenty of pork and hard tack to go with the beans. We amused ourselves when the weather would permit by having a game of baseball.”
William A. Waugh, Reminiscences of the rebellion or what I saw as a private soldier on the 5th Mass. Light Battery from 1861-1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15 2009. Waugh is here describing life in winter quarters near Falmouth on the Virginia coast and east of Fredericksburg.
1862.50 Texas Ranger Plugs Waaay Too Hard
“And the game might become so rough as to necessitate precautionary steps. ‘Frank Ezell was ruled out,’ wrote a Texas Ranger in his diary, because ‘he could throw harder and straighter than any man in the company. He came very neat knocking the stuffing out of three or four of the boys, and the boys swore they would not play with him.’”
Bell Irvin Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War (Grosset and Dunlap, New York, 1952), Book Two, The Life of Johnny Reb, page 159. Wiley’s end-note is, evidently, “diary of D[esmond]. P[ulaski]. Hopkins, entry of March 15, 1862, typescript, University of Texas.” Neither Hopkins’ unit nor its March 1862 location is noted. Note: can we locate the full text and its context?
D. P. Hopkins and Benjamin Franklin Ezell (1839 MS - 1913 TX) were members of Norris' Frontier Battalion which in March 1862 was stationed at/near Kerrville, TX. The Hopkins diary was published in the San Antonio Express, 1-13-1918. The March 15, 1862 entry (on page 23 of the Express) mentions this game, and mentions that the troops made their own ball out of yarn socks. [ba]
1862.52 Zouave Pitcher Baffles Batters With “Weak, Puzzling” Delivery
“On Roanoke Island Hawkins' Zouaves formed two scrub teams. A young volunteer pitcher won for his side by a weak, puzzling delivery which baffled the batsmen. It was Alphonse Martin, first in line of great American pitchers.”
A. G. Spalding, America’s National Game (American Sports Publishing, 1911), page 97. Available online via Google Books. Roanoke Island is on the North Carolina Coast near Kitty Hawk NC, and about 80 miles SE of Norfolk VA.. Hawkin’s Zouaves were the 9th NY Regiment, which was organized in New York City and was at Roanoke Island in the early part of 1862. Alphonse “Phonney” Martin was then not yet 17. Known for throwing tricky pitches, “Old Slow Ball” Martin pitched for Troy, Brooklyn, and the New York Mutuals in 1872 and 1873. Spalding gives no source for this note, which may well have been received via personal communication.
The New York Sunday Mercury, April 20, 1862 mentions a match on Roanoke by Company F of this regiment. Another match is reported in same, June 8, 1862.[ba]
1862.53 Southern Brigade’s Play Base . . . Somewhere
“On Christmas Day 1862 the officers of Manigault’s brigade had a footrace, and afterward the colonels ‘chose sides from among the officers and men to play base[ball].’”
Larry J. Daniel, Soldiering in the Army of Tennessee: A Portrait of Life in a Confederate Army (U of North Carolina Press, 1991), page 90. Daniel evidently attributes this quotation of a letter from James Hall to his father, December 25, 1862. His treatment of the name of the game, “base[ball], implies that the original letter read “base.” Manigault’s Brigade formed in Corinth, MS, in April 1862, comprising two South Carolina regiments and three from Alabama. We do not know the location of the brigade in December 1862, when Manigault was apparently elevated from colonel of the 10th SC to lead the brigade.
The brigade was near Murfreesboro, TN on 12-25-62. [ba]
1862c.54 Confederate soldiers in need of base ball and cricket bats
"Camp Games. Every volunteer who has been in service, has realized the tedium of camp life. Between reveille and breakfast--between morning and evening drill--there is waste time, which might be used advantageously at such many exercises as cricket, base ball, foot ball, quoit pitching, etc. A recent visit to some of our camp[s], showed several parties enjoying a quiet hand at pitching quoits in a shady grove. Cannot some of our hardware dealers have a supply cast, and let our soldiers know where they can be procured? Cricket and base ball bats are also wanted, and a few dozen substantial foot balls would, we are sure, find ready sale. For want of such things, the time of the soldier is mainly spent in playing cards."
The Charleston (SC) Mercury (3 Apr 1862). Available digitally through "Accessible Archives."
Duplicate of 1862.27
1862.55 They Do It Differently in Philadelphia
"THE GRAND MATCHES IN PHILADELPHIA. BROOKLYN VS. PHILADELPHIA...On the first day's play, there was no chalk line made between the home and 1st and 3rd bases, as the rule requires...It would be well, to,, to mark the home base line of six feet in length on which the striker is required to stand. Every player running the bases should be required to touch them...In cases of foul balls, too, the player running the bases should remain on the base, after he has returned to it, until the ball has been settled in the hands of the pitcher...we would also call the Philadelphians' attention to Section 20 of the rules. It applies to the striker as well as anyone else. (Section 20 deals with obstruction).
[A] New York Clipper, July 12, 1862
1862c.56 Dime Admission Free Adopted at More Sites
In 1862, a ten-cent admission fee is reported at the Union Grounds. In 1864, the some fee provided entry at the Capitoline Grounds.
Sources?
Are these the only two other known collection of entry fees in the middle 1860s?
1862.57 Games Between NY and MA Regiments Punctuated by Artillery
Union General George McClellan
Members of the Massachusetts 22nd Regiment and the NY 14th squared off for two matches on April 15, 1862, in the vicinity of active fire, and "in sight of the enemy’s breastworks mounted with heavy 64’s and 32’s." A discarded boot supplied material for a new cover for the game ball. Union General McClellan passed by while play was in progress.
Additional details are provided in the supplemental text, below.
Rochester Union and Advertiser, April 24, 1862.
Undoubtedly, Game played near Yorktown, VA
1862.58 2nd Mass Troops Beat 3rd Wisconsin Regiment, 75 to 7
The men of the Wisconsin 3d challenged our men to a game of base ball & this afternoon it was played & at the end the tally stood 75 for our side & 7 for theirs so I hardly think they will care to play a return match; we have some of the best players of quite a celebrated ball club from Medway & some of the play was admirable.
Letter from Captain Richard Cary, 2nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, May 3, 1862. Reported in The Beehive, the official blog of the Massachusetts Historical Society, April 5, 2012.
Protoball wonders if the Mass Game was in fact unfamiliar in WI.
Medway was a leading MA-rules club before the War.
Do we know the location of these Regiments in May 1862? Who was Captain Cary writing to?
The 2nd MA and 3rd WI were at/near Harrisonburg, VA on May 3, 1862. This entry is based on the letters of Cary to his wife, at the MA Historical Society. [ba]
1862.59 Thirsty Baserunning
"The Newburg boys excel in running bases with bottles of soda-water, sucking
as they run."
To a previous report of player Holder smoking while batting (see 1860.89) in a game in 1860,this head-scratcher can be added, from a report in the New York Sunday Mercury, June 29, 1862, of a game between the Hudson River Club of Newburg, NY, and the Eclipse Club of Kingston.
They won, either because or in spite of such skills, 39-21.
New York Sunday Mercury, June 29, 1862.
1862.60 Confederate POWs play baseball in New York City
May 9, 1862: "This morning we received balls and bats from New York and have organized a regular Base Ball Club. We have been playing considerable today and I feel quite fine in consequence."
"A Confederate Yankee: The Journal of Edward William Drummond,a Confederate Soldier from Maine" (Drummond and Roger S. Durham), p. 51.
Drummond, along with his Savannah "Chatham Artillery" unit, were captured at Fort Pulaski, outside Savanna, and taken to Governors Island POW camp in New York harbor. The next month he and his comrades play baseball almost daily.
Drummond was a Maine-born bookkeeper in Savannah at the start of the war. This entry suggests that his fellow townsmen were perfectly familiar with the game of base ball.
"A Confederate Yankee: The Journal of Edward William Drummond,a Confederate Soldier from Maine" (Drummond and Roger S. Durham), p. 51.
1862.61 Confederate POWs in Indianapolis play base ball
Confederate army POWs at Camp Morton, Indianapolis, played baseball in 1862, according to a letter from a POW, and a report by a Union general. See James R. Hall, "Den of Misery. Indiana's Civil War Prison" p. 39, 71.
Camp Morton was situated on the old state fairgrounds, and was used as a baseball field postwar.
The Century Magazine (1891, p. 763-64) has an article on Camp Morton which quotes a Union officers as saying the POWs enjoyed "ball playing" and has a plan of Camp Morton, which features a "base ball grounds."
James R. Hall, "Den of Misery. Indiana's Civil War Prison" p. 39, 71.
1862.63 Right and Left wings of 13th NY in Suffolk, VA
The Brooklyn Evening Star, July 9, 1862 prints a 7-5-62 letter from the 13th NY Regt. at Camp Cook, Suffolk, VA: "As soon as we got dinner settled, we got up a game of ball between the right and left wings. It was a very interesting game, and lasted all the afternoon. The Left Wing being 18 runs to 11--Company C in the left wing, of course."
This game is also reported in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 12, 1862. From Camp "Crook," on July 4th. See also The New York Sunday Mercury, July 13, 27, 1862 for other games of the 13th at Camp Crook. See also The Ball Players Chronicle, Nov. 28, 1867, for further mentions of these games.
The Brooklyn Evening Star, July 9, 1862
1862.64 Winter Baseball in West Virginia
The Gallipolis Journal, Jan. 8, 1863 reports that last month soldiers of the 91st Ohio amused themselves by playing ball in the camp at Fayetteville.
The Gallipolis Journal, Jan. 8, 1863
1862.65 Base Ball at Fort Monroe on Christmas Eve
The Semi Weekly Wisconsin of Milwaukee, Jan. 9th, 1863 reports that on Christmas Eve at Fort Monroe "I saw the soldiers playing at base ball..."
See also New York Herald, Jan. 5, 1863, headlined "Amusements of the Army"
The Semi Weekly Wisconsin, Jan. 9th, 1863
1862.66 In camp near Rochester, New York
The Brockport (NY) Republic, Oct. 2, 1862 prints a letter from Camp Fitz John Porter, Sept. 24, 1862, from a member of the 140th NY: "The boys are playing ball, writing to friends, and some are target shooting..."
The camp was at/near Rochester, NY.
The Brockport (NY) Republic, Oct. 2, 1862
1862.67 Playing Ball near Yorktown
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 30, 1862 prints an April 24 letter from a soldier in "camp near Yorktown" discussing the soldier's life there:
"While not on duty, they engage in almost every variety of exercise and amusement, playing ball, pitching quoits, and other athletic sports."
At this time the Army of the Potomac camped opposite the Confederate lines running south from Yorktown, VA.
The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, April 30, 1862
1862.68 Christmas Day on Hilton Head
"The New South" a union army newspaper, Dec. 27, 1862 reports on a Dec. 25th game at Hilton Head between the Van Brunt and Frazer base ball clubs. James L. Frazer was colonel of the 47th NY and George B. Van Brunt was then major of the 47th. The 47th was raised in NYC and Brooklyn.
A Charles Van Brunt had headed an early New Jersey team.
"The New South" Dec. 27, 1862
1862.70 Drummers defeat Fifers on Hilton Head
The Manchester Daily Mirror, Dec. 20, 1862 reports that "Base ball is the favorite amusement at Hilton Head just at present" and notes a game among the 3rd New Hampshire Infantry in which Galvin's Drum Corps nine defeated Davis' Fifers nine 30-27.
The Manchester Daily Mirror, Dec. 20, 1862
1862.71 Confederate Surgeon encourages ball-playing
In his "Manual of Military Surgery" for CS surgeons, noted Dr. Julian Chisolm recommended that the army encourage "gymnastic exercises" to relieve the soldier's boredom:
'"`UNIQ--pre-00018903-QINU`"'Chisolm book. See also Kirsch book, p. 31.
1862.72 Town Ball club formed by Ohio Regiment in West Virginia
The Leavenworth (KS) Daily Conservative, May 18, 1862 prints a May 2 letter from a soldier in the 84th Ohio, Camp Union, Fayetteville, VA (now WV): "We are enjoying ourselves hugely. We have a town-ball club organized and a splendid field to play in. ..."
At this time town-ball was popular in Cincinnati (and Philadelphia and Evansville). Query if the unit had soldiers from that city.
The Leavenworth (KS) Daily Conservative, May 18, 1862
1862.73 14th NY Plays in Annapolis
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 11, 1862, under the headline "Ball Playing in the 14th Regiment," reports that in Annapolis on the 6th, Oline's nine defeated Pendleton's, 34-21.
The Eagle wrote a lot of stories on the 14th, which appears to have had many prewar ballplayers.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Oct. 11, 1862
1862.75 Confederates Play Ball at Fort Sumter
The Charleston Courier, July 29, 1862, reports on the Confederate army garrison at Fort Sumter: "On the dismissal of the parade, the soldiers entered with zeal into an animated ball play."
The Charleston Courier, July 29, 1862
1862.76 Ball playing, running and jumping
The Boston Daily Advertiser, April [Aug?] 8, 1862: "From the Army of Virginia [at Sperryville] Their labor is light, and time enough is left and to spare for them to enjoy themsleves as they wish, such as ball playing, running, and jumping."
The Boston Daily Advertiser, April [Aug?] 8, 1862
1862.77 42nd Ohio plays ball in Louisville
The Daily Cleveland Herald, April 5, 1862 prints a letter from the 42nd Ohio, in Louisville, April 1: "...the boys are out upon the lawn, playing ball, rolling on the grounds, turning summersaults &c."
The Daily Cleveland Herald, April 5, 1862
1862.78 Baseball at Camp Cleveland
Theodore Tracie's 1874 book, "Annals of the Nineteenth Ohio Volunteer Artillery" recalls soldier life in 1862 in Camp Cleveland (bounded by West 5th, Railway, West 7th and Marquardt) in what is now Tremont. Says that among other diversions, "Baseball games were played on the parade grounds."
1862.79 Exhilarating Game of Ball
The Burlington Daily Times, May 24, 1862, reports on state adjutant general Washbrn's visit to Vermonters in Camp near Yorktown. "When off duty they amuse themselves with quoits, the exhilarating game of ball, or in other harmless sports."
The Burlington Daily Times, May 24, 1862
1862.80 Union POWs seen playing ball in Macon
Croom, "The War Outside My Window" contains the diary of Leroy Wiley Gresham of Macon. The May 6, 1862 entry (p. 133): "In the evening went downtown and saw the Yankee prisoners. Some were drilling, others cooking, some played ball."
There was a POW facility, Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon.
Croom, "The War Outside My Window" p. 133
1862.81 VA Artillerymen play town ball
Walbrook Swank, "Confederate Letters" p. 70 prints a letter from Charles T. Shelton (1839-63), a UVA grad who served in Virginia's Botetourt Artillery:
Our company is engaged in a game of town Ball..."
From the online snippet it is unclear where/when the letter was written. The unit was transferred to East Tennessee in 1862, and in late 1862 was sent with Stevenson's division to defend Vicksburg, MS. He mentions the game was familiar from his days in school.
Walbrook Swank, "Confederate Letters" p. 70
1862.83 Irish Brigade plays near Richmond
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37 lists an 1862 game of the Union's "Irish Brigade" seen by Confederates across the Chickahominy River, just east of Richmond, during the Peninsula Campaign.
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37
1862.84 Soldiers Play Philadelphia Champs
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37 lists an 1862 game where the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division [Army of the Potomac] played selected members of the Honey Run Club, the 1859 Philadelphia champs.
See 1863.49--same game, but put in a different year?
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37
1862.85 76th NY plays baseball--or is it drive ball?
Note: this entry was, in February 2022, merged in Chronology item 1862.104.
The 1862 letters of Lester Winslow, of the 76th NY, at the National Archives, feature stationary printed with the heading "Camp Doubleday" "76th New York" and show soldiers playing a bat-ball game. On this David Block writes:
"In the foreground of the illustration two soldiers face each other with bats, one striking a ball. Since no other players are involved, the only game that seems to correlate to the image is, in fact, drive ball. If not for Abner Doubleday's association, we would pay this little heed, but it is a matter of curiosity, if not amusement, to place baseball's legendary noninventor in such close proximity to a game involving a bat and ball." David Block, Baseball Before We Knew It (U Nebraska, 2005), page 198. See entry on Drive Ball.
Camp Doubleday, named for brigade commander General Abner Doubleday, was a fort protecting DC, near where Fort Stevens is/was.
1862.86 An interesting game of base ball in Oxford, MS
Jenkins Lloyd Jones, "An Artilleryman's Civil War Diary": "Near Oxford, Friday, Dec. 19th... The delightful weather succeeded in enticing most of the boys from their well worn decks [of cards] and cribbage boards,bring them out in ball playing, pitching quoits, etc. Tallied for an interesting game of base ball."
Dec. 19, 1862, near Oxford, MS. Jones was a member of the 6th WI Battery.
Jenkins Lloyd Jones, "An Artilleryman's Civil War Diary"
Dup of 1862.20?
1862.87 Maryland Confederates Play Town Ball
"Our only game out here is Town Ball and with the rest of the Maryland Boys we sometimes get up a game."
Diary of Edward Tilghman Paca, Oct. 26, 1862 entry, in Maryland Historical Magazine, 1994, p. 459.
Maryland Historical Magazine, 1994, p. 459.
1862.88 21st MA "played ball a good deal..."
James Madison Stone, "Personal Recollections of the Civil War" chapter 3 says that in mid-1862 "While at Newport News we had a rather pleasant time. We drilled a little, we played ball a good deal..."
Stone was with the 21st MA.
The Barre [MA] Gazette, June 13, 1862 prints a May 20th letter from a soldier in the 21st which says that each night closes with "a game of wicket."
James Madison Stone, "Personal Recollections of the Civil War"
The Barre Gazette, June 13, 1862
1862.89 71st NY enjoy themselves with a baseball game
The New York Sunday Mercury, June 29, 1862 reports on a baseball game between Co. K, 71st NY, and a picked nine from the rest of the 71st. The box score is given. Co. K lost 33-11, but they were all "enjoying themselves." Another game of the same regiment, same place, is reported in The New York Sunday Mercury, Aug. 3, 1862. The officers of the regiment gave a "splendid colaltion" after the match.
Tenleytown was then MD, now part of DC.
1862.94 Union Army Parolees Play baseball at Camp Douglas
The New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 26, 1862 reports on a game of baseball at Camp Douglas, the Confederate POW camp in Chicago, on the 22nd. between two teams of Union army parolees from Companies A and F, 5th NY Artillery. The latter won 15-14, with "good pitching" shown on both sides. Se also same, Nov. 9, 1862.
Parolees were army prisoners who were at home, awaiting exchange for enemy POWs.
1862.98 50th NC Plays ball in Eastern NC
"War Diary of Kinchen Jahu Carpenter" (1955) p. 9: "We drilled some, did picket duty, played ball..." This in the fall/winter of 1862, when the 50th was stationed in eastern NC.
1862.99 First ball playing in Wyoming
The 1862 Journal of Jane Holbrook Gould, in Annals of Iowa, 3rd series v. 37, relates the experience of emigrants on the Lander Trail. Her July 20th entry, when the group was camped at the Green River crossing of the Lander Trail (near modern Big Piney, WY): "Toward night the men played ball and appeared to enjoy it very much. It seemed like old times."
Unfortunately, the Journal doesn't make clear what kind of "ball" was played.
1862.100 Mormon soldiers play ball in Wyoming
Fisher, "Utah and the Civil War" p. 52 quotes the diary of Dr. Harvey C. Hullinger, of Lot Smith's company of Utah volunteers, sent to guard the immigrant trails: "Friday, June 6, 1862... It rained this afternoon, and the men played ball."
The company was then camped at/near Independence Rock, a site on the Pioneer Trail that is today a historic site.
Is this the first baseball in Wyoming?
Fisher, "Utah and the Civil War" p. 52
1862.101 Artillerists play quoits and baseball
Hampton Smith (ed.), "Brother of Mine: The Civil War Letters of Thomas and William Christie," feature the wartime letter of a member of the 1st MN light artillery. There are several mentions of Thomas playing baseball in camp:
p. 56 (letter from Corinth, MS, June 26, 1862): "As to exercise, quoits and base ball fill up every leisure moment I have..." (with quoits being his favorite)
p. 111 (letter from Lake Providence, LA, March 11, 1863): "We sleep sound and dreamless, fatigued by our exertions at Base Ball through the Day."
p. 123 (Lake Providence, April 11, 1863): mentions "my habits of playing cricket, quoits, and base ball..."
Hampton Smith (ed.), "Brother of Mine: The Civil War Letters of Thomas and William Christie,"
1862.102 First Inter-City AA Game?
The following appeared in the Newark Daily Advertiser on September 30, 1862:
"Considerable excitement was created among the "colored" boys of this city yesterday by a base ball match between the Hamilton Club of this city and the Henson Club of Jamaica, Long Island, both composed of the descendants of Ham. The match was played on the grounds on Railroad Avenue, [near today's Penn. Station], in the presence of a goodly number of the "gentler sex," and resulted in favor of the Hensons."
Curious if anyone knows of intercity games between black clubs prior to September 1862 and any thoughts on what claim this game might have as an earliest known. [John Zinn]
Newark Daily Advertiser on September 30, 1862
Curious if anyone knows of intercity games between black clubs prior to September 1862 and any thoughts on what claim this game might have as an earliest known. [John Zinn]
1862.104 Ballplaying Featured on 1862 Letterhead for Camp Doubleday
[A] John Thorn:
"Abner Doubleday
has become a joke among us baseball folks. "He didn't invent baseball; baseball invented him." This letterhead, from 1862 ,may give pause even to hardened skeptics." John also notes that the game depicted does not resemble base ball, or wicket, or cricket.
[B]David Block:
The 1862 letters of Lester Winslow, of the 76th NY, at the National Archives, feature stationary printed with the heading "Camp Doubleday -- 76th New York" and show soldiers playing a bat-ball game. On this David Block writes:
"In the foreground of the illustration two soldiers face each other with bats, one striking a ball. Since no other players are involved, the only game that seems to correlate to the image is, in fact, drive ball. If not for Abner Doubleday's association, we would pay this little heed, but it is a matter of curiosity, if not amusement, to place baseball's legendary noninventor in such close proximity to a game involving a bat and ball."
[A] John Thorn, tweet (showing the letterhead) on 2/2/22.
[B] David Block, Baseball before We Knew It (U Nebraska, 2005), page 198. See also the brief Protoball Glossary entry on the game of Drive Ball.
This coincidence is not taken as evidence that Abner Doubleday "invented" base ball.
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:
---
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 https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/digitool%3A79709
Is it clear why someone would create such a letterhead?
Can we find a fuller description of drive ball?
How does Protoball give a source for John's Tweet for later users who want to see it?
1862.106 Confederate Prisoners Play Bull Pen at Fort Warren
Confederate prisoners played "bull pen" at the Fort Warren POW camp in Boston Harbor. See McGavock Diary, p. 626 (May 14, 1862)
They played "foot ball" on May 17, 23, June 28th, 1862. No details of this "foot ball" game are given. The game probably resembled "Boston Code football", a sort of rugby precursor of what we know as modern football. The first "foot ball" club organized in the US was the Oneida Foot Ball Club of Boston, formed in 1862.
Gower and Allen, "Pen and Sword" (McGavock Diary), p. 626 (May 14, 1862)
1862.107 Army Commander Watches Baseball game
Near Yorktown in April 1862, the 22nd MA played the 13th NY. Said one soldier of the 22nd, "I never enjoyed a game of ball better in my life..."
The army was in front of Yorktown at the time.
Army commander General George McClellan, and Corps commanders Heintzleman and Porter, rode by and witnessed the game.
Cambridge Chronicle, May 3, 1862
1862.108 President Lincoln to Umpire a Game?
In a long article about ballplayers joining the army, titled "The Base Ball Fraternity--How it will be Affected by the Volunteers Leaving" it notes "The Potomac Club occupies the Reservation Grounds, near the White House, and, as an umpire is a prominent personage in a contest, the 'boys' should select 'Old Abe' and they are sure to get justice done them. In his youth, among the rail splitters, doubtless he has often played 'one old cat' if not base ball."
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 31, 1862
1862.109 Kershaw's SC Brigade Plays Base Ball and Snow Balling
While in camp near Fredericksburg in the winter of 1862-63, the soldiers of Kershaw's SC Brigade amused themselves by playing base ball and having snow ball fights.
Dickert, "Kershaw's Brigade" p. 205
1862.110 Scots Soldiers Play Base-Ball and Cricket
In the Spring of 1862, while in camp in Beaufort, SC, the 79th NY Infantry, a Scottish-American unit known as the Highlanders, played "Base Ball and Cricket" to "occupy some of our leisure moments."
Todd, "The Seventy-Ninth..."
1862.111 Soldiers play Round Town Ball in camp
1862.112 Twenty-First CT plays baseball in camp
In Oct. 1862, while in camp near Lovettsville, the Twenty-First Connecticut "boys enjoyed a game of baseball.."
"The Story of the Twenty-First Regiment" p. 52
1862.114 Some interesting games of ball
Well we are still in camp at the same place and are very comfortable, within hearing of occasional cannonading at Island No. 10 last night and this morning. We hear a good deal of thunder out that way. Well, the boys are getting up a game of ball and yelling for me and recon I must go.
Saturday, 29th. I left off writing the above the other day to play ball and somehow have not finished this letter yet. By the way, we have some interesting games of ball down here in “Dixie,” to pass away these beginning to be long, warm days.
Asa Mulford, 11th Ohio Battery, New Madrid Mo, March 25, 1862
Shared and Spared
1862.115 Parolees play baseball at Camp Douglas
Richard C. Hulse, Co. F, 5th New York Heavy Artillery
Camp Douglas, Oct. 20, 25, 1862:
We are to have a baseball match between our company and Company A that was taken prisoners with us. They are making great preparations about it.
We had a game of baseball between our two companies and our company came off boss.
1862.116 Union occupiers play in Lexington MO
1862.117 Georgia soldiers play town and base ball in NC
The diary of a solder in the 3rd Georgia Infantry, in camp at Elizabeth City, NC,
says they played town ball of March 19, 1862, and base ball the next two days.
1862.118 Ball Playing at Shiloh
Lucius W. Barber of the 15th IL Infantry kept a wartime diary. His diary entries says some soldiers were "engaging in a game of ball:" the day prior to the battle of Shiloh. Ball playing mentioned 2-20-63 and 1-20-1864 in Memphis, TN.
Barber diary, NIU
1863.1 Ballplaying Peaks in the Civil War Camps
[A] "[In April 1863] the Third Corps and the Sixth Corps baseball teams met near White Oak Church, Virginia, to play for the championship of the Army of the Potomac."
[B] "Ballplaying in the Civil War Camps increased rapidly during the War, reaching a peak of 82 known games in April 1863 -- while the troops still remained in their winter camps. Base ball was by a large margin the game of choice among soldiers, but wicket, cricket, and the Massachusetts game were occasionally played. Play was much more common in the winter camps than near the battle fronts."
[C] Note: In August 2013 Civil War scholar Bruce Allardice added this context to the recollected Army-wide "championship game":
"The pitcher for the winning team was Lt. James Alexander Linen (1840-1918) of the 26th NJ, formerly of the Newark Eureka BBC. Linen later headed the bank, hence the mention in the book. In 1865 Linen organized the Wyoming BBC of Scranton, which changed its name to the Scranton BBC the next year. The 26th NJ was a Newark outfit, and a contemporary Newark newspaper says that many members of the prewar Eurekas and Adriatics of that town had joined the 26th. The 26th was in the Sixth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, stationed at/near White Oak Church near Fredericksburg, VA. April 1863, the army was in camp. The book says Linen played against Charlie Walker a former catcher of the Newark Adriatics who was now catcher for the "Third Corps" club.
"With all that being said, in my opinion the clubs that played this game weren't 'corps' clubs, but rather regimental and/or brigade clubs that by their play against other regiments/brigades claimed the Third and Sixth Corps championships.
"Steinke's "Scranton", page 44, has a line drawing and long article on Linen which mentions this game. See also the "New York Clipper" website, which has a photo of Linen."
[A] History. The First National Bank of Scranton, PA (Scranton, 1906), page 37. This is, at this time (2011), the only known reference to championship games in the warring armies.
As described in Patricia Millen, On the Battlefield, the New York Game Takes Hold, 1861-1865, Base Ball Journal, Volume 5, number 1 (Special Issue on Origins), pages 149-152.
[B] Larry McCray, Ballplaying in Civil War Camps.
[C] Bruce Allardice, email to Protoball of August, 2013.
[D] (((add Steinke ref and Clipper url here?)))
Note Civil War historian Bruce Allardice's caveat, above: "In my opinion the clubs that played weren't 'corps' clubs, but rather regimental or brigade clubs that by their play other regiments/brigades claimed the Third and Sixth Corps championships."
Is it possible that a collection of trophy balls, at the Hall of Fame or elsewhere, would provide more evidence of the prevalence of base ball in the Civil War?
1863.4 MA Regiment Organizes a Baseball Club
“Not even regular guard and fatigue duty, drill and digging in the trenches could exhaust all of the energies of thee Massachusetts boys, so they must needs organize a baseball club, a thing they had never done in the month of January, and company rivalry ran high. The nine from Company I beat that of Company C to the tune of fifty to twenty-nine. It goes without saying that this was in the days of old-fashioned ball, when large scores were not unusual, and a phenomenally small one by no means argued a superior game.”
Alfred S. Roe, The Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry (Fifth Regiment Veteran Association, Boston, 1911) page 196 The book has no other reference to ballplaying. This passage appears in an account of late January 1863, and the camp was evidently near Newbern VA [a railroad terminus], about 45 miles SW of Roanoke in Southwest Virginia. Accessed at Google Books 6/609 via “fifth Massachusetts roe” search. The regiment comprised men from towns NW of Boston.
The unit was at New Bern, NC in January 1863. [ba]
1863.5 NJ Regiment Plays Ball on the Rappahannock in VA
The regimental history, writing of winter camp on the Rappahannock River in late January,: “The duties of a soldier’s life in camp were resumed. Drill, dress parade, inspection, picket and guard duty, policing, building roads, were the usual occupations. Amusements were encouraged and chess, checkers, baseball and athletic exercises helped to while away tedious hours.”
Camille Baquet, History of the First Brigade, New Jersey Volunteers (State of New Jersey, 1910), page 71. This is the only reference to ballplaying in the book, which covers 1861 to 1865. Accessed 6/6/09 on Google Books via “baquet ‘first brigade’’’ search.
1863.6 NY Private Plays a Lot of Ball Over Seven Weeks
The 1863 diary of George Brockway includes 10 entries on ballplaying from February 27 to April 17 1863. Most are terse, along the lines of the March 11 entry: “played ball.” On March 2 Brockway elaborated a little: “In the afternoon the Company played base ball. O yes made a batter club also.” Two entries cite extramural play. April 11: “The boys play a game of ball with the 77th N. Y. V and beat them 12 members.” April 14: “The boys play a match game of ball with the Jersey boys and got bet by 40.” There are no references to ballplaying after April 17, and Brockway’s diaries for his other 3.5 years as a soldier are not referenced.
George F. Brockway, Diary of 1863. Unpublished. Provided by Michael Aubrecht May 15 2009. The diary does specify Brockway’s location in spring 1863.
George F. Brockway of Auburn, NY was a saddler in Cowan's NY battery of artillery, attached to the VI corps. In early 1863 it was stationed near Fredericksburg, VA. Brockway moved to MI postwar. [ba]
1863.7 PA Unit Tries Cricket and Base-ball
In February 1863 the 48th PA took a steamboat to Newport News VA, where it camped for a month. From the regimental history: “Many amusements were indulged in during the stay at Newport News – horse racing, cricket matches, base-ball and the like. Leaves of absence became frequent.” This is the only reference to ballplaying. In late March the unit headed off to Lexington KY.
Oliver C. Bosbyshell, The 48th in the War (Avil Printing, Philadelphia, 1895), pp 102-103. Accessed 6/7/09 on Google Books via “bosbyshell 48th” search. The regiment formed in Schuylkill County of PA in late 1861, an area about 40 miles west of Allentown and 85 miles NW of Philadelphia.
1863.8 Wisconsin Soldier Reportedly “Died While Playing Wicket”
“March 2 [1863]. Jas Mitchell falls. Died while playing wicket.”
Diary entry, presumably by Captain Milo E. Palmer, 12th Regiment, in Deborah B. Martin, History of Brown County Wisconsin (S. J. Clarke Publishing, Chicago, 1913), page 216. The 12th Wisconsin was near “Coliersville” [Collierville?] TN in early March, according to the diary entries. Collierville is about 15 miles SW of Memphis. The 12th WI seems to have been raised in the Madison WI area. The book was accessed 6/7/09 on Google Books via “of brown county” search. No other cited diary entries refer to ballplaying. Caution: It is unconfirmed that “playing wicket” in this case referred to ballplaying. It seems plausible that wicket was played in the 1850s-1860s in WI, but it hardly seems a mortally risky game, and it seems possible that “playing wicket” has a military meaning here. Input from readers on this issue is most welcome.
1863.9 In Coastal SC: Union Men Played Ball “In Almost Every Camp”
The US had captured the Sea Island area of SC in 1861, and a group of anti-slavery advocates from Massachusetts ventured south to help educate former slaves in the region. In a letter home from “H.W.,” described as the sister of a Harvard man just out of college, wrote about seeing, on March 3, 1863, what she called “real war camps.” She listed daily work duties, and added, “in almost every camp we saw some men playing ball.” It appears the trip’s objective was “the 24th,” which seems to have been the 24th MA, where a cousin James was to be found.
Elizabeth Ware Pearson, Letters from Port Royal Written at the Time of the Civil War (W. B. Clarke, Boston, 1906), page 162. Accessed 6/7/09 on Google Books via “from port royal” search. Port Royal is about 15 miles north of Holton Head SC and about 40 miles NE of Savannah GA.
Note: can we determine what Union Army units were deployed to Port Royal and the Sea Islands in early 1863?
1863.10 5th Massachusetts Artillery Plays Base Ball, 1863-1864
The history of the Fifth MA Battery has four brief references to base ball from March 1863 to February 1864. Two soldiers’ diaries note games on March 11, March 29, and April 11 1863 in Falmouth VA. A Captain Phillips wrote from Rappahannock Station on February 23, 1864: “I am sitting at my desk with my door wide open, and the men are playing ball out of doors.”
History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery [1861-1865] (Luther E. Cowles, Boston, 1902), pages 559, 564, 572, 774. Accessed . . .
1863.11 23-Year-Old Iowa Cavalryman Played Ball, Probably in SW Missouri
“Mar 13 [1863] Wrote a letter to George and one to father. In the afternoon played a game of ball. Mar 14 Played a game of ball in the afternoon. Bill rode my horse on the forage guard.”
James H. Cowan, “Cowan’s Civil War Diary,” transcribed by Juanita Lewis, accessed 6/7/098 at http://iagenweb.org/civilwar/regiment/cavalry/01st/cowan.html. The diary, noted as volume 2, covers from September 1862 through April of 1863. The website notes that Cowan was from northernmost Iowa. His location in early March is inferred, perhaps incorrectly, from towns named Springfield, Rollo (Rolla?), Salem in the Feb/March entries.
Cowan was in the 1st Iowa Cavalry. [ba]
1863.12 Line Officers of 17th Maine Play 9 Innings for an Oyster Dinner
“What think you, man of pen and scissors, of our hardships and sufferings, including the rigors of a winter campaign and other poetical ideas, when I tell you that the line officers of our Regiment played a match game of base ball last Saturday. The contest was between the right and left wings for the purpose of ascertaining which party should pay the expenses of an oyster supper.” The Left Wing won, 24-21, in a game evidently played by NY rules – nine players played nine innings and with 27 outs.
“From the 17th Maine Regiment,” Lewiston [Me] Daily Evening Journal, March 23, 1863, page 1. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The printed missive, signed “Right Wing,” is headed “Camp Pitcher near Falmouth, VA, March 15th 1863.” The full text of the Regiment’s history, The Red Diamond Regiment, by William Jordan, is not accessible online as of June 2009. Lewiston ME is about 35 miles N of Portland.
1863.14 Sergeant from 15th MA Plays Round Ball with 34th NY
At Falmouth VA, excerpts from the diary of Sgt Earle of the 15th MA notes games of ball with the 34th NY on March 18 and again on April 16, 1863 in the regimental history.
The historian, Andrew Ford, writes 35 years later that “during March and April ball playing is frequently mentioned in the diary. The game played in those days was the old-fashioned round ball. Practice games inside the regiment occurred almost daily, and there were several great games with the New York Thirty-Fourth. Our boys were so successful that the captain of the New York team gave up the contest with the admission that if they ‘had been playing for nuts his men wouldn’t even have the shucks.’ The interest taken in these games in the army as a whole almost rivaled that taken in the races, sparring matches, and cock-fights of Meagher’s troops.” Ford does not elaborate on how he concludes that round ball was played, or that the army as a whole was taking to base ball.
Andrew E. Ford, The Story of the Fifteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry [1961-1864] (W. J. Coulter, Clinton [MA?], 1898), pages 242 and 244. Accessed 6/8/09 on Google Books via “’fifteenth Massachusetts’” search. The 15th MA drew significantly from Worcester County MA. The 34th NY regiment was known as the “Herkimer Regiment,” with roots in Herkimer County in Upstate New York; the town of Herkimer is about 15 miles east of Utica on the Mohawk River. The game in this area that preceded the NY game may have been round ball.
1863.15 Soldier Under General Rosecrans Sees Ballplaying in Tennessee
E. L. Tabler’s Civil War diary runs from January 1863 through May 1864. In March 1863 he was camped near Murfreesboro TN. On March 25 1863 he wrote: “the boys enjoy themselves very well playing at Ball & pitching Horseshoes.” Tabler notes that his regiment has been taken over by John C. McWilliams; a John C. McWilliams is listed at a Captain in the 51st Illinois, which was in the Murfreesboro area in March 1863.
“1998 Transcription by William E. Henry of a Civil War Diary,”
http://www.51illinois.org/TablerDiaryRaw1863.pdf, accessed 6/8/09.
1863.17 In 19th MA Camp, “Base Ball Fever Broke Out” in 1863
John G. B. Adams of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment: “While in camp at Falmouth [VA] the base ball fever broke out. It was the old-fashioned game, where a man running the bases must be hit by the ball to be declared out. It started with the men, then the officers began to play, and finally the 19th challenged the 7th Michigan to play for sixty dollars a side. . . . The game was played and witnessed by nearly all of our division, and the 19th won. The one hundred and twenty dollars was spent for a supper . . . . It was a grand time, and all agreed that it was nicer to play base than minié [bullet] ball.”
Capt. John G. B. Adams, Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment (Wright and Potter, Boston, 1899), pp 60-61. Accessed 6/8/09 on Google Books via “reminiscences nineteenth” search. The regiment arose in northern MA, near the NH border.
Adams, Reminiscences of the Nineteenth Massachusetts Regiment (Wright and Potter, Boston, 1899), pp 60-61.
From the reference to plugging, it's probable that the Massachusetts rules game was played.
1863.18 Base Ball [and Wicket] Played by the 10th Massachusetts
From April 1863 to May 1864, seven mentions of ballplaying – one of them a game of wicket – appear in the account of the 10th Massachusetts. In early April, “in the intervals between [snow] storms the boys found time and place for playing ball” [p. 173]. Later that month, “[i]n the midst of so much warlike preparation it was a relief to find the boys of the Tenth and those of the 36th New York playing a game of baseball and all must have quit good natured, since the game itself was a draw” [p. 177]. At camp at Brandy Station on April 18 1864 the 10th won a “hotly contested” game against the 2nd RI, and again on April 26 the two regiments competed, “but it was lose again for Rhody’s boys” [p.252]. On April 28th the officers of the 10th lost a “game of our favorite baseball” with the 37th [MA?] – p.252. The next day the 10th beat the Jersey Brigade, 15-13. [p253].
“Considering the momentous interests at stake and the dread record that was to be written for May, 1864, it seems not a little strange that the beautiful month was ushered in just as April went out, with baseball. While a game of ball and shell of terrible import was pending, these men of war, after all only boys of a larger growth, happily ignorant of the future, were hilariously applauding the lucky hits and the swift running of bases clear up to the day before the movement across the Rapidan. It was on [May] 3rd that Company I played Company G and won the game by twelve tallies, and with that day came orders to march in the morning at 4.00 a.m.” [p. 253].
The wicket games also occurred at Brandy Station in April 1864;“With the advance of the season came all the indications of quickening life, and athletics became exceedingly prevalent, and one item among many was a game of wicket on [April] 13th, between a picked team in the 37th [MA] and one drawn from the Tenth, resulting in a victory of two tallies for our boys” [p.251]. In a rematch 10 days later, the 10th won again [p.252].
Alfred S. Roe, The Tenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry 1861-1864 (Tenth Regiment Veteran Association, Springfield MA, 1909). Accessed 6/9/09 on Google Books via “’tenth regiment’ roe” search. The regiment was drawn from Springfield and Western Massachusetts, where wicket was evidently a not uncommon prewar pastime. Cf CW-57, which also reflects the 10th MA.
1863.19 Eventual National League Prexy Sticks with Cricket in War Camp
Nicholas Young
“[W]hile I played barn ball, one old cat and two old cat in early boyhood days, Cricket was my favorite game, and up to the time I enlisted in the army I never played a regular game of base ball or the New York game as it was then called. In my regiment we had eleven cricketers that had all played together at home and I was the leading spirit in getting up matches. We played a number of good matches but we were too strong for any combination that we could get to play against us, and we finally had to abandon cricket and + take up this so called New York game. I remember well the first game that I played. It was against the 27th NY Inf. at White Oak Church near Fredericksburg Va. In the Spring of 1863. I played occasionally during the remainder of the war, but after my discharge in 1865 I came to Washington and joined the American Cricket Club of this city. But I soon turned my attention to base ball + played with the Olympic Club of this city from 1866 to 1870.”
Nicholas Young was born in Amsterdam NY in 1840, and thus was playing the named games in the 1850s. He was a member of the 32nd NY Infantry, which was at Falmouth VA in spring 1863. He led the NL from 1881 to 1903.
Nicholas E. Young, letter to Spalding, December 2, 1904. Accessed at the Giamatti Center of the Baseball; Hall of Fame, 6/26/09, in the “Origins file.
Summarized in George Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray (Princeton U, 2003), page 37.
Zoss and Bowman’s Diamonds in the Rough says that the 32nd had a cricket team and that Young played on it [p. 81].
From online sources we do learn that Young was born in Amsterdam NY, was picked for an all-upstate NY cricket team to play an all-NYC team in 1858, and that he joined the 32nd NY Regiment. The history of 27th NY Regiment, which sprang from the general area of Binghamton, does not mention ballplaying.
1863.20 Soldier: “Our Camp is Alive with Ball-Players”
In letters home written on April 6, and April 10, 1863 from Acquia Creek, VA, officer Mason Tyler wrote: “When I arrived this afternoon [from Washington] I found all the officers with Colonel Edwards at their head out playing ball. Games are all the rage now in the Army of the Potomac. [page 78]” A few later he wrote: “[T]he wind is fast drying up the mud. Our camp is alive with ball-players, almost every street having its game. My boy Jimmie is so busy playing that he hardly knows how to stop to do my errands. He can play ball with the best of them, and pitching quoits he can beat anybody in my company, captain and all. [page 78]”
“On November 20th [1863] there was a baseball game between the Tenth and Thirty-Seventh, and the Thirty-Seventh won. [page 125]”
He wrote from Brandy Station VA in January 1864 to report on his recent reading, he added, “Sometimes we get up a game of ball, and now we have some apparatus for gymnastics, that occupies some of my time.” [page 131]”
Mason W. Tyler, Memoir of Mason Whiting Tyler, in Recollections of the Civil War (Putnams, New York, 1912) page 78. Provided by Jeff Kittel, May 12, 2009. Accessed 6/6/09 at Google Books via “mason whiting tyler” search. Tyler was a new Amherst College graduate when he enlisted, and was shortly elected a 1st Lieutenant.. PBall file: CW-XX.
Tyler was in the 37th MA. [ba]
1863.22 Chaplain Reports Many Games of Ball in 16th New York
Chaplain Frank Hall of the 16th New York Infantry mentioned games of ball 10 times in his journal and letters home. [Note: we need to ascertain the range of actual dates; all seem to be for Feb. –April 1863.] All are passing references, like “Saturday, they had another splendid game of ball.” The men played on February 11, 1863, and Hall notes that “Gen. Bartlett came out . . . and played too & men from nearly the whole Brigade entered into the game. Col. Adams, shortly after Gen. Bartlett was called away & as he past on horseback someone threw the ball and it happened to pass right to his saddle bow. He caught it very gracefully & threw it back.”
In an April 11 1863 letter to his wife he describes the scene at camp. “I thought I would just write out the sheet to try & give you a picture of things a bit. I am sitting in the tent by the table on one of the three legged stools which I fixed with straps the other day. The day is delightful. The wind is pleasantly flapping the tent. The Jersey band back of it has just finished a delightful air. On the hill in front, to the left of the camp, the boys are playing a game of ball & a few men are to be seen in camp who are excused from picket.”
Frank Hall file, #BV-419-01, provided by Michael Aubrecht May 15, 2009. The 16th NY was drawn from northern counties, and included men from Plattsburg and Ogdensburg. The 16th was in northern VA in early 1863.
1863.23 Sgt. in the 6th Maine Reports “Huge Game of Ball” in VA
Sgt. Sewell G. Gray, 23, wrote in his diary entry for April 10, 1863: “. . . inspected at 1 o’clock p.m. by Captain Totten. This ended the duties of the day. I participated in a huge game of ball in the afternoon that proved disastrous to my powers of locomotion as it so lamed me that I can hardly stand on my pegs. Weather fine.” No other references to ballplaying are found.
“Diary of Captain Sewell Gray 1862 to 1863,” page 12. The 6th Maine was at Falmouth VA at this time. Gray died at the second battle of Fredericksburg in May 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009.
1863.24 Massachusetts Private Notes Eight April Games of Ball [One was Wicket]
Private Berea M. Willsey kept a diary in 1862, 1863, and 1864, and noted ballplaying succinctly 8 times, all in the month of April. In April 1863 there are entries for April 9th, 14th, 18th, 20th, and 22nd. On the 14th, when hostilities seemed near, he wrote “Eight days rations were given out to the different Regts & all surplus baggage sent away. Prepared myself as well as I could for the coming struggle & then had a good game of ball.” Willsey mentions a match against the 35th NY on April 20th and one against the 36th NY on April 22nd. The 10th was in a Virginia winter camp in this period.
In 1864 Willsey reports on a match game with the 2nd RI on April 26 and another against the 1st NJ on April 30. “We have never been beat, he says. On April 23, he records a “game of ball” that was wicket. “The dust has been flying in clouds all day, yet it did not prevent the game of Ball from being played. Our boys were opposed by the 37th Mass at a game of wicket making 337 tallies, while the 37th only made 200.” In 1864 the Regiment was in the vicinity of Brandy Station VA.
Jessica H. DeMay, ed., The Civil War Diary of Berea M. Willsey (Heritage Books, 1995), pp 84-86, 142-143. Full text unavailable online 6/10/09. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The 10th MA was from Western Massachusetts, and Willsey may have been from the North Adams area. Cf. CW-51, which also depicts the 10th MA.
1863.25 Men in 59th NY Play Ball, Run, Pitch Quarters, Etc
“Dear Wife . . . . The boys have had fine Sport this Spring, playing Ball pitching quarters and other Sports, it has been fine weather for some time and the ground dry and hard. Last Evening after Dress Parade I could not resist the temptation of joining with the men in there sports. After playing ball for some time I changed the sport by running a foot race with Lt. Murphy, which created a considerable fun after which the whole Redg. joined with the 127th Redg. in the same Sport, officers as well as men.”
Letter from Ambrose F Cole to his wife, Jane Utley Cole, April 14, 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. Note: can we determine where the 59th was formed, and where it was in April 1863?
59th mostly from NYC. Was in Army of the Potomac, in VA in April 1863. [ba]
1863.26 19th MA bests 7th MI, Wins Stake of $110
“Falmouth April 27th, 63. Dear sister . . . we expect to move very soon perhaps to night other troops have been on the move all day the 19th Mass regt and the 7th Michigan have had a great game of ball to day the stakes were one hundred & ten dollars a side the Mass boys beat & won the money . . . write often.”
Letter from James Decker to Francis Decker, April 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. Other Decker letters suggest that Decker may have been from the Syracuse NY area. Note: identify Decker and his military unit?
1863.27 Weary Soldier Plays Ball a Little While
“April 26th 1863. “Another day has passed and I have made a full day in the pay rolls. I heartily wish they were finished for I am tired of them. After parade played ball for half an hour . . . I think we will certainly march in a day or two:
George French, Diaries for 1862 and 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. French was a sergeant in the 105th NY. Note: we need to re-examine the context for this reference; where was the 105th in April, where was French from. The regiment had some soldiers from Rochester NY, including many Irish immigrants.
The 105th was near Falmouth, VA that April. [ba]
In March 1863 the much-reduced 105th NY was consolidated with the 94th NY. The new unit acted as provost guard (military police) near Falmouth, VA in April 1863.
1863.28 Box Score Shows D Company Over H Company, 40-15
Near Falmouth VA in April 1863, two companies of the 11th New Jersey Regiment played a ball game for which a box score was preserved. Each team was captained by, well, a Captain, and each Captain captain inserted himself as leadoff hitter. The box shows a nine-player, nine-inning game [or maybe eight] with a three-out side-out rule. [There seem to have been no outs recorded in one nine-run half-inning, but let’s not be picky.] Captain Martin’s D Company rushed out to an 18-2 lead and coasted to a 40-15 win over Captain Logan’s H Company.
A handsome account of the game’s context, with the box score, is found in John W. Kuhl, “The Game,” Military Images, Volume 25, Number 3 (November/December 2003), pp. 19-22. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The article’s author reports that the box score appeared in the regimental history but does not give a further source. Sadly, both captains were to be killed at Gettysburg in a matter of weeks. The regiment’s history is Thomas D. Marbaker, The History of the Eleventh New Jersey Volunteers from its Organization to Appomattox (MacCrellish and Quigley, Trenton, 1898). It appears to be available online via the subscription site ancestry.com as of June 2009.
1863.29 Print of artillerymen playing ball
1863.30 Herald Reports [Presumably] NY/NJ Match in Army of the Potomac
The Herald headline for an April 1863 article about Hooker’s Army of the Potomac promised “Fun and Sports in the Army: Base Ball Match – New Jersey vs. New York.” Unfortunately, no corresponding text is in the article as retrieved online. The dispatch from Virginia is dated April 28.
“Interesting from Hooker’s Army,” New York Herald, April 29, 1863. Accessed May 21, 2009 via subscription to Genealogybank. Note: can we locate the full text?
Same as 1863.40?
1863.31 New Jersey Eighth Trims New Jersey Fifth, 50 to 15
“A match game at Base Ball occurred between selected nines of the Fifth and Eighth New Jersey Regiments on Tuesday last, resulted in favor of the Eighth by a score of 50 to 15. . . . On the second innings the Eighth Regiment made 14 runs.”
“Base Ball in the Army,” Trenton State Gazette, April 30, 1863. Accessed May 20, 2009 via Genealogybank subscription. According to a fellow named Abner Doubleday, the 5th NJ was part of a “brilliant Counter-charge at the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 3: thus, the regiment and the match must have been in Virginia. [See A. Doubleday, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg (Scribners, New York, 1882), page 47.] An identical article appeared in the Newark Daily Advertiser on April 28, 1863 [provided by John Zinn on 3/10/09], and in the Daily State Gazette and Republican [City?] on 4/30/1864 [provided by John Maurath on 1/18/2009].
1863.32 In Virginia: Select Nine 29, 2nd NJ Brigade 15
“A match game of base ball was played near the banks of the Rappahannock on the 2nd inst., between selected nines of the 2d and 26th Regiments, and of the 2d New Jersey Brigade, resulting in favor of the former, 29 to 15. Among the players of the former were Lieuts. Linen [see file CW-65] and Neidisch [sic?] of the Eureka and Newark Clubs.”
Newark Daily Advertiser, June 6, 1863. Provided by John Zinn, March 10, 2009.
1863.33 Twenty Sixth NJ 20, Second NY 12, in Virginia
“On Saturday the 11th inst., a match game of ‘base ball’ came off upon the drill ground of the 1st N. J. Brigade, in Virginia, between the players of the 2nd Regt., and the 26th, the former being the challengers. It was witnessed with much interest by most of the Brigade . . . . “A challenge from the 26th is expected soon, when the 2nd hope to carry off the palm.”
“Local Matters. Base Ball in the Army,” Newark Daily Advertiser, April 15, 1863. Provided by John Zinn 3/10/09. Note: this game is also mentioned in passing in B. Gottfried, Kearney’s Own: the History of the First Jersey Brigade in the Civil War (Rutgers U Press, 2005), page 107.
1863.34 First New Jersey Brigade Plays Ball in 1863 and 1864.
Spring 1863: “The boredom became unbearable as the winter wore on. Mud was everywhere, limiting outside activities . . . . By the end of February, they walker a mile for wood, and the distance increased each day. During the long days the men also played chess, checkers, cards, and, when weather permitted, baseball and other athletic pursuits.”
Spring 1864: “The men played baseball and football as the weather moderated. ‘The exercise will do more toward restoring health in the regiment than all the blue pills in the medical department,’ noted Lucien Voorhees. Some men secured boxing gloves, and daily fights were all the rage.
Bradley M. Gottfried, Kearney’s Own: The History of the First New Jersey Brigade During the Civil War (Rutgers U Press, 2005), pages 100 and 157. Gottfried does not document these observations, other than briefly noting [p. 107] the 1863 game between the 2nd and the 26th Regiments noted in file CW-66. In 1863 the Brigade wintered at White Oak Church near Falmouth VA. Accessed 6/14/09 on Google Books via “’kearny’s own’” search; available in limited preview format.
1863.36 Massachusetts Regiments Play NY Game Most, Mass Game Some
“All We two Compnys do is to drill 1 and ½ hower in th mornig gon gard once in two Weaks We play ball pitch quoits the rest of the time. We play the New York Gam most of the time. Mass Game some We Changle other Regement and thay us the 25 Mass is the Best plays 46 next 44 next 51 Nex Battarys Next 5 R.I. Last some exciting games to. Have a Greesy pole Grees Pig all sorts of games you can think of Card Domonuse, &c. . . . But How are the girls in M [Marlboro NH] . . . the Boys have bases up & are in a stem to have me play ball I supose I must go. . . [resuming later:] My side got 10 tales. The other side got 7 talies the sam wons are going to try it to morrow.”
Letter from Ora W. Harvey, April 15, 1863, from New Bern NC. Harvey, from Marlboro NH, was with the 46th MA. New Bern had been captured by the North in March 1862 and held for the entire war. Text and facsimile online via the Notre Dame rare book collection, accessed 6/14/09 via ”’msn/cw 5026-01’” search. Marlboro NH is just west of Keene NH, and about 20 miles north of the MA border. New Bern is near the Atlantic coast and is about 100 miles SE of Raleigh.
1863.37 Diarist at White Oak Church Camp in VA Plays Ball
“Friday, April 17, 1863 Quite a fine day. Boys all playing ball. Co. drills in the afternoon.
“Wednesday, April 22, 1863 Cool with some appearances of a storm. Played ball today and got somewhat tired.”
G. S. Stuart and A. M. Jakeman, Jr., eds., John H. Stevens: Civil War Diary (Miller Books, Acton ME, 1997), page 127. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 1863. Note: we need to ascertain Stevens’ home and unit; the 9th PA lists a soldier by this name as a 1st Lt., as does the 5th MI, as does the 5th ME, which seems the most likely unit.. Text is not found via Google Books in June 2009.
1863.39 2nd NY Plays 9th NJ for $300.00
“April 22d pleasant. On wood detail this morning. This afternoon the 9 best base ball players of the 2 New York Troy regiment play with the best 9 Jerseymen in our brigade for 300.00. The Jersey boys beat 20 inings & a ining not played.”
Heyward Emmell, Journal, April 22 1863. Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. It would seem that Emmell was not familiar with base ball, or the game was played by unusual rules. A NPS research note places Emmell in the 7th NJ regiment, which may have been in the same brigade as the 2nd NY and 9th NJ. Note: the men were about to fight at Chancellorsville in VA, but we do not know the location of this game.
The New York Herald, April 29, 1863, appears to report this game, in a letter datelined April 24 from "near the Rappahannock." The 2nd brigade, 2nd division, Army of the Potomac included 4 NJ regiments and the 2nd NY. A team from the 5th/7th/8th NJ played the 2nd NY for $100 a side and "betting ran high." NJ won. Gives a box score.
The New York Herald, April 29, 1863
The 7th NJ was stationed near Fredericksburg, VA at this time.
1863.40 Bettors Beware: NJ Soldiers Upset 2nd NY, 34-11: Daily Inter-regimental Play is Reported
“[O]ur camp was made merry by the common prevalence of a variety of sports. Horse racing was quite extensively practiced, the presence of the paymasters enabling the officers to make up purses with much freedom. . . . In the Second Brigade of the Second division base ball became the popular amusement, and matches between regiments were of every day occurrence. The brigade counts for New Jersey regiments and one (the Second) from New York. The Jerseymen had played a number of matches between themselves, when the New Yorkers challenged the first nine from all the Jersey regiments to a match for $150 a side. The game was played on Tuesday, and attracted a large crowd. Betting ran high, with odds at the outset in favor of the New Yorkers. The playing was spirited on both sides; but the Jersey boys displayed the greater skill, and quickly turned the popular enthusiasm. They won the match on their eighth innings by twenty-three runs.” An elaborate box score is included.
“Near the Rappahannock, April 24, 1863: Sports in Camp,” New York Herald, April 24, 1863. Provided by John Maurath, January 18, 2008. Note: our image is truncated in the middle of the box score, and more text may appear in the full article. The NJ nine comprised 5 players from the 8th NJ, 3 from the 7th NJ, and 1 player from the 5th NJ.
The Trenton State Gazette carried a brief account of this game on May 2, 1863. It reported the final score as 34-14, the stakes were $100 a side, and noted that the 2nd NY was from Troy NY.
Same as 1863.30?
1863.41 High-Stakes Matches Dot VA as Winter Camps Thaw Out
“I thought we should have been half way to Richmond before this time, but here we are all very much taken up with base ball playing recently. Yesterday the fifth N. Jersey played the rest of the Brigade for $100 a side and we beat them, to day we played the second New York on the same terms and beat them, and tomorrow the Eight New Jersey playes the second N.Y. for $300 a side, and then we play the Sickles Brigade.”
Stanley Gaines, 7th NJ, to his sister from “Camp near Falmouth Va April 22d/63. In an earlier letter to a friend on April 14, 1863, Gaines had written, “Morality is certainly at a low ebb in the army, more preferring to play ball than to go to church, but a more generous open hearted and jolly crew than our soldiers it is hard to find.” Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009.
1863.42 Union Army Captain Sees Base Ball Good for Morale, and Health Too
General Joseph Hooker, Union Army
[A] “The Rochester Evening Express published a letter from a soldier dated March 31, 1863, saying the Union Troops near what is now Leeland Station in Stafford were amusing themselves by running races and ‘playing ball, the latter being the favorite amusement or our correspondent. ‘We played nearly all day yesterday, our gallant Colonel looking on with as much pleasure as though he had a hand in . . . . (Quite a number of spectators assembled on our parade ground to witness the expertness of our officers, as they were practicing a match-game with the commissioned officers of the veteran 13th.) I learn that the 108th Regiment and the 14th Brooklyn Regiment were to play a match game of ball to-day for a purse of $25. . . . It may appear that we should be engaged in something else beside playing base ball, but I tell you it is one of the best things in the world to keep up the spirits of the men, , and not only that, but it is of vast importance to their health, and necessary to the development of their muscle . . . . The old veteran Joe (Gen. Joseph Hooker) himself can be seen out on the field encouraging the boys on as earnest as if he were on the battlefield.”
[B] In a 2001 article, Allison Barash cites parts of this communiqué, and adds that the writer was “Captain Patrick H. “True Blue” Sullivan of the 140th New York Volunteers, who had played for Rochester’s Lone Stars Club before the war and was obviously hopelessly addicted to the game, left many written statements of Civil War ballgames.” She does note give a source for this passage or the other writings.
[A]Michael Zitz, “Soldiers Recount Stafford Baseball Games,” carried on the Fredericksburg.com website, accessed 6/14/2009. Google search <of the veteran 13th>.
[B]Allison C. Barash, “Baseball in the Civil War, The National Pastime (January 2001), pp 17-18. Stafford VA is about 10 miles north of Fredericksburg and 65 miles north of Richmond.
1863.43 Floridian: “Game of Ball . . . Has Become a Great Amusement Here”
“William D. Rogers closed a letter to his parents by confessing he was stopping to ‘join the Boys in a game of Ball which has become a great amusement here.’”
J. S. Sheppard, “’By the Noble Daring of Her Sons; The Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee,” (PhD Dissertation, Florida State U, 2008), page 200. Sheppard’s citation: “William D. Rogers to Dear Papa and Mother, April 17, 1863. William D. Rogers Letters, 1862-1865.” Thesis accessed 6/15/09 via Google Scholar search “’noble daring’ Sheppard.’’ Rogers’ unit was evidently at winter quarters near Tullahoma TN then, about 80miles SE of Nashville and 245 miles N of the Alabama border. Rogers was from Alabama.
1863.45 10th Maine Played “Time-Honored Game of Base-ball”
“Occasionally they indulged in the amusing and time-honored game of base-ball, but not infrequently they were called from this pleasure, to some arduous and important duty.”
William Whitman and Charles True, Maine in the War for Union (Dingley, Lewiston, 1865), page 247. It seems clear from context that ballplaying was not infrequent. It is unclear from the phrasing whether they played the NY game or an old-fashioned form. The passage seems to imply that the game was played in 1862-1863 winter camp; the Tenth ME was at Stafford Court House VA from January to April 1863.
1863.47 Ballplaying Watched by “Great Crowds of Soldiers,” and Some Play at Verge of Battle
“Another favorite amusement in the corps was the game of base ball. There were many excellent players in the different regiments, and it was common for the ball-players of one regiment or brigade to challenge another regiment or brigade.’ He added: ‘These matches were watched by great crowds of soldiers with intense interest.’”
George T. Stevens, Three Years in the Sixth Corps (Gray, Albany, 1866), page 183. Accessed on Google Books 6/15/09 via “’three years with the sixth’” search. (Part of this passage is cited in George B. Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, (Princeton U Press, 2003), page 37). Stevens’ 77th NY was in winter camp at White Oak Church, near Falmouth VA, in 1862-63. Stevens was a regimental surgeon.
Stevens [page 191] also reports that, awaiting the assault on Chancellorsville, even as the sounds of nearby clashes rolled in, “the thundering of the guns and the trembling of the earth seemed like a series of earthquakes. The spirit of our boys rose, and the battle on the right progressed, and there seemed to be indications of work for them. Groups might be seen at any time, when we were not standing in the line of battle, telling yarns, singing songs, playing ball, and pitching quoits, while they momentarily looked for the order to advance upon the heights, into the very jaws of death.”
1863.48 11th MA and 26th PA Play by Mass Game Rules for $50 a Side.
“That June a correspondent to the [New York] Clipper reported a match following the Massachusetts game rules played for $50 a side between Massachusetts’ Eleventh Regiment and the Twenty Sixth of Pennsylvania. He noted: ‘we have four clubs in our brigade, and there are several more in the division.’”
George B. Kirsch, Base Ball in Blue Gray (Princeton U Press, 2003), page 39. The 26th had fought in the May 1863 Chancellorsville battle, seems likely to be in Virginia in June, perhaps back at Falmouth. Kirsch does not specify the date of the Clipper article. It seems unusual that a MA – PA game would have been featured in a New York paper. Note: can we locate this article?
1863.49 Union Men Celebrate Thanksgiving with “Grand Game of Townball”
“During the [Thanksgiving] holiday of 1863, twenty picked men from the brigade [2nd Brigade, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac] and some of the members of the old ‘Honey Run Club’ from the Germantown, Pennsylvania area reportedly played ball.”
Patricia Millen, Passion to Pastime: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), page 24. Millen cites the New York Clipper for November 14th and November 28, 1863. The location of the game is not indicated in the book.
See also 1862.84. The Clipper of Nov. 14th indicates that the game would be town ball, played on the 25th at the parade ground of the 2nd brigade, 2nd division, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac, then stationed in VA.
1863.50 Rebel Soldier Plays “Fine Game of Town Ball” in Georgia
“As Confederate soldier Corporal William Harding wrote while stationed in Georgia in 1863, ‘had a fine game of Town ball which gave me good exercise. . .’”
Patricia Millen, Passion to Pastime: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books, 2001), page 19. Millen cites “Harding, John. Letter. Cooperstown, NY: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. 1863.” Note: can we obtain a facsimile of the letter, and determine Harding’s unit and the GA location of the game?
Same as 1863.57?
1863.51 Base-Ball and Foot-Ball Were Favorite Amusements”
“[Horse] [r]aces were a favorite amusement of the men in this camp . . . . Foot-races among the men wre frequently indulged in, not for the purpose of developing any retreating qualities. These were always exciting, and usually afforded themes for discussion and conversation for one day at least. Base-ball and foot-ball were favorite amusements among the soldiers, and afforded recreation which was highly appreciated.”
Rev. Geo. W. Bicknell, History of the Fifth Regiment Maine Volunteers (Hall L. Davis, Portland, 1871), page 298. Bicknell writes this of the 63/64 winter camp. The camp was at White Oak Church, near Falmouth VA – which is about 3 miles NE of Fredericksburg.
1863.52 At Winter Camp, Pleasant Days Saw Base-Ball or Wicket
“[T]he Thirty-Seventh provided liberal physical recreation. Nearly every pleasant day in the intervals between drills a game of base-ball or ‘wicket’ formed a center of attention for the unemployed members of the brigade; these games were becoming largely inter-regimental, a variety of ‘teams’ were organized throughout the brigade, some of which became very proficient. If a fall of snow prevented the regular pastime, it only furnished the opportunity for another, and many a battle of snow-balls was conducted. . . . ”
James L. Bowen, History of the Thirty-Seventh Regiment, Mass. Volunteers (Bryan and Co., Holyoke), 1884), page 260. In winter 1863/1864 the regiment, and evidently its brigade, was at “Camp Sedgwick” on the Rapidan River in VA.
The regiment was in a camp at Warren Station VA [near Petersburg], the 37th history [page 406] paints this early spring 1865 tableau: “As the warming weather of early succeeded the interminable storms of the severe winter, and the hoarse voice of the frog began to resound from the surrounding marshes, games of quoits and ball became possible on the color line and mingled with the good news of the collapsing of the rebellion in other directions.”
1863.53 In Virginia: Tenth Mass 15, First New Jersey 13
“A game between the ‘first 9’ of the 1st New Jersey and the 10th Massachusetts was also recorded in the New York Clipper as being played near Brandy Station [VA] on May 14, 1863 – the 1st New Jersey losing 15 to 13.”
Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion: Baseball and the Civil War (Heritage Books,2001), page 26. Note: can we obtain the article?
1863.54 In VA Camp, “Base Ball was the Popular Amusement”
“On the 25th [of March 1863] all cartridges were taken up, and fresh ammunition issued. From this time till after the fist of April, ‘base ball’ was the popular amusement in camp, and a select nine from our regiment played many games and return games with the 32nd New York Regiment, the 27th winning a good share of the games. The sharp exercise put the men in good condition after the winter of idleness in their tents and cabins.”
C. Fairchild, History of the 27th Regiment N. Y. Vols (Carl and Matthews, Binghamton NY, 1888), page 153. The regiment was camped near Falmouth VA.
1863.55 First and Second Nines of 9th NY Prevail at Yorktown VA
“The ‘first team’ of the Ninth New York Regiment beat the Fifty-first New Yorkers 31-34 [sic] at Yorktown Virginia, in 1863. But a few days later the ‘second nine’ of the two units played, with the Ninth Regiment triumphing by the fantastic score of 58-19!”
Bell Irvin Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War, Book One, “The Life of Billy Yank,” page 170. Unavailable online in full text June 2009. Wiley’s footnotes are complicated, but it seems most likely the this account comes from “diary of Charles F. Johnson, March 4, 8, 1863, manuscript Minn. Historical Society.” It is unclear that the 9th was near Yorktown in early March. Note: can we confirm or disconfirm this Wiley reference?
[ba]--the book "The Long Roll" is the wartime journal of Charles F. Johnson, 9th NY, and undoubtedly is Wiley's source (or the same as Wiley's source). Pages 215-217 note these games, which were played in camp near Newport News, VA. "Frank Hughson, President of the Hawkins Zouaves Baseball club" accepted a challenge from the 51st NY. Wagers were made, and the games played March 4 and 8, 1863. Graham, "The Ninth Regiment, New York Volunteers" p. 405 and the published Letters of Edward King Wightman, p. 121, also mention these games.
1863.56 Have Fast Ball Will Travel
[A] THE ATHLETIC CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA.--...Pratt, the well-known pitcher of the club...has been desirous for some time past of belonging to one of our leading clubs here; and during the visit of the Athletics to New York, Pratt being offered a good situation here, accepted it, and at once had his name proposed as a member of the Atlantic Club...Of course, he will henceforth be their pitcher...His accession to the Atlantic nine will strengthen them in what they have considered their weak point...We presume that the Atlantics will not play their match with the Eckfords until they can get Pratt in their nine..."
[B] "THE ATHLETIC CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA.-- A great change has suddenly occurred in the formation of the first nine of the Athletic club of Philadelphia. Pratt, their able pitcher, resigned from the club the day of his arrival in Philadelphia, the reason he assigned being that he had been offered a good situation in New York, and had joined the Atlantic club of Brooklyn, and henceforth he was to be the pitcher of that noted club, an honor no doubt that he was exceeding ambitious of obtaining."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, July 12, 1863
[B] New York Clipper, July 18, 1863
Tom Pratt was age 19.
1863.57 Georgia Corporal Plays Town Ball
May 16th, 1863. “We have had a fine game of Town Ball which gave me good Exercise, and I was on the Side that beat.” May 28th, 1863. “We have [jus]t had a fine game of Town Ball and I was on the Beating Side. Nothing can beat me and Sergeant. Jones. He is a first rate man.”
Letters from Corporal William Harden, Company G, 63rd Infantry Regiment, Georgia Volunteers, to his wife, written from just east of Savannah at “Thunderbolt.”. Accessed 6/26/09 at the Giamatti Center of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Civil War file. The 63rd formed in Savannah, and Harden had previously lived in Pike County, which is directly south of Atlanta.
Same as 1863.50?
1863.58 Ballplaying on the Lines at the Siege of Vicksburg
“The civil war, however, arrested the development of the new game [base ball] for a time. It was played during the war in camps all over the south. Regiments and companies having their teams. Sergeant Dryden, of an Iowa regiment, relates that during the long waits in the trenches before Vicksburg, the Union and Confederate soldiers jokingly challenged each other to play baseball, and that during the brief truces the men of his company and the enemy played catch from line to line.
“’We were throwing and catching the ball belonging to our company ne day,’ he relates, ‘when firing commenced afresh and the men dived into their holes. There was a big fellow named Holleran who, after we got to cover, wanted to go over and whip the ‘Johnny Reb’ who hd stolen our ball. The next morning during a lull in the firing, that ‘Reb’ yelled to us and in a minute the baseball came flying over the works, so we played a game on our next relief.’”
The siege of Vicksburg MS occurred from late May to July 4 1863. Many Iowa regiments participated.
J. Evers and H. Fullerton, Touching Second: The Science of Baseball (Reilly and Britton, Chicago, 1910), pages 21-22. Accessed 6/28 on Google Books via “touching second” search. This book provides no source for the Dryden passage.
Note: can we locate an original source for the Dryden data?
I can't find a mention of this in any online newspaper. A Carlton Dryden, Sgt. in the 10th Iowa, is the likeliest candidate for the "Sgt. Dryden" mentioned.
1863.59 General Supports Ballplaying by RI Unit
The regimental history of the First Rhode Island Artillery, covering 1861-1865, contains 13 references to ball-playing between August 1863 and January 1864. It also shows several other more general references to playing games, some of them pitting different regiments, starting in August 1861. A General Hayes is mentioned as watching several games, sometimes along with his wife.
The most detailed of the ballplaying entries occurred on January 25, 1864, in winter camp near Brandy Station VA: :On the 25th we had a fine game of ball in honor of General Hays, who had sent to Washington for balls and bats to enable us to play to good advantage. When the general and his wife came galloping into camp, with a number of officers and ladies, our captain went out to greet them and said: ‘Ah! general, I suppose you would like to see the battery on drill.’ The general quickly replied: ‘No; I want to see them play ball, which they can do better than any men I ever saw.’” Few other entries are more than minimal references. A typical example is for August 21, 1863: “The 21st was another fine day. The men continued to engage in different sports, and there were ball games, jumping, putting the shot, and other amusements.”
Thomas M. Aldrich, The History of Battery A: First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery (Snow and Farnham, Providence, 1904), pages 272-273. Accessed 6/28/09 on Google Books via “’history of battery a’ aldrich” search. In August 1863 the regiment was back in Virginia from the Battle of Gettysburg, and in January it was in winter camp near Brandy Station. The Hays passage appears without citation in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, page 41. Millen reports that Aldrich and a member of the 13th MA “believed or were thought to have believed, based on their track record of wins in the army, that their teams could have beaten any of the professional teams of the 1890. She does not give an original source for this, but cites L. Fielding, “Sport: The Meter Stick of the Civil War Soldier,” Canadian Journal of History of Sport, May 1978, pp 17-18.
1863.60 New Bats and Balls Arrive, But 91st NY Loses Again
“Saturday, November 21, 1863. Fine and cool. The Base Ball match comes off and the 91st gets beat by two runs and the[y] come home jolly.”
From a telephone auction offering that has this description: “Fascinating personal journal was carried on the person of 91st New York Volunteer Infantry Private Edwin Keay during the Union Army campaign of 1863 through the bayous and battlefields of Louisiana. . . Diary is perhaps most valuable, however, for its several mentions of the game of baseball, which are all but impossible to find in journals from the war . . . . ‘Thursday, December 3 . . . The new bats and balls have come up and the match takes place this afternoon . . . the 91st gets beat.’” Accessed at the Giamatti Center of the Baseball Hall of Fame [Civil War file] on June 26, 2009. The auction clip is not dated. The 91st was organized in Albany. It was garrisoned at New Orleans for much of 1863 and early 1864. Note: does the December entry imply that the Union Army supplied bats and balls to the troops? Note: It appears that other baseball-related entries are in the diary. Can we find it? A copy of a Keay diray, possibly a later one, is reportedly held as item MDMS-5433 in the Maryland Manuscript Collection [Keay spent some of 1865 stationed in Baltimore].
1863.61 Drawing Shows 1st NJ Artillery Playing Ball Game on a Diamond
A large drawing reposing in the Civil War file at the Giamatti Research Center at the Baseball Hall of Fame shows nine men in uniform playing a game conspicuously located on a diamond-shaped infield. The Caption: Camp of Battery B, 1st NJ Artil. Near Brandy Station Va.” The drawing, noted as “never-before published,” is reproduced opposite page 25 in Patricia Millan, From Pastime to Passion (Heritage, 2001). The ballplaying depiction is on the primitive side, and reveals little about the game played. There appear to be two balls in play, and one may be served to the batsman in a gentle toss from a soldier standing next to the batsman. The 1st NJ Artillery formed at Hoboken NJ in 1861. It fought mostly in Virginia, and its winter camp for ’63-’64 was near Brandy Station.
1863.62 The Times Calls a Spade a Spade-- Base Ball is Obliterating Cricket
...cricket has been almost obliterated by base ball, which, but ten years since, was in its infancy...The main cause of this is, that a few cricketers...play pretty much all the matches for the few Clubs that exist only in name; while Bass Ball Clubs play their matches with their bona fide members, and consequently their medium players always have a prospect before them of being chosen to play..."
New York Times, Sep. 25, 1863
1863.63 NABBP Curbs Swift Pitching, Swats Fly Rule Again
The (NABBP) meeting of December 9 (1863) adopted all recommendations made by the Rules Committee. Though the suggestion of counting wild pitches as runs was not approved, three measures were taken to curb fast, wild pitching: a back line was added to the pitcher’s position, ending the practice of taking a run-up to increase speed, as in cricket; pitchers were required to have both feet on the ground at the time of delivery; and, finally, walks...:
"Should a pitcher repeatedly fail to deliver fair balls to the striker, for the apparent purpose of delaying the game, or for any other cause, the umpire after warning him, shall call one ball, and if the pitcher persists in such action, two and three balls, and when three balls have been called, the striker shall be entitled to his first base, and should any base be occupied at that time each player occupying them shall be entitled to one base.
The exception to the meeting’s unanimous acceptance of the Rules Committee’s action concerned the fly game, which, as with all previous attempts, was rejected, by a vote of 25 to 22.
Robert Tholkes, "A Permanent American Institution: The Base Ball Season of 1863", in Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Vol.7 (2013), pp. 143-153
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 10, 1863
1863.65 Ravaged By War
The Sunday Mercury, in its summary of the (NABBP) meeting on December 13, 1863, first noted that the disappointing attendance (28 clubs, compared to 32 in 1862)...The convention’s action in dropping 29 clubs, one more than attended the meeting, from the rolls because of inactivity in 1862 and 1863 indicated the scope of the war’s impact...In addition to diminished activity in New York City, Brooklyn, Boston, and Philadelphia, the widespread formation of clubs and beginning of match play in the west and in some southern states before the war came to a halt in most locales. The contributors to Base Ball Pioneers 1850-1870 (Morris et al, eds.,2012) found interclub play on a regular basis continuing in 1863 only in upstate New York and in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, including its inauguration that year at the University of Michigan. Other places, such as Baltimore, Washington, D. C., Altoona and Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, Chicago and Freeport, Illinois, St. Louis, and perhaps San Francisco) retained single clubs that relied on rare intercity visits for interclub competition. In a far greater number of locales, from Minnesota to Louisiana and from Maine to Augusta and Macon, Georgia, organized play apparently ceased.
Robert Tholkes, "A Permanent American Institution: The Base Ball Season of 1863", in Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game, Vol. 7 (2013), pp. 143-153
1863.66 They didn't know the rules!
The members of the Chicago Light Artillery (Taylor's Battery) played baseball at the army's base at Young's Point, LA (across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg), in April of 1863. According to soldier Israel P. Rumsey, the soldiers broke out their balls and bats and "played Base Ball according to the rule for the first time" even though nobody could agree on exactly what the rules were! Rumsey's diary is quoted in Bjorn Skaptasan, "The Chicago Light Artillery at Vicksburg," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn/Winter 2013, p. 422-462 at 438
Bjorn Skaptasan, "The Chicago Light Artillery at Vicksburg," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn/Winter 2013, p. 422-462 at 438
1863.67 Excelsior Club Expels Turncoat Surgeon
"A Base Ball Player Turned Rebel – The Excelsior Base Ball Club of Brooklyn recently expelled one of its members, A.T. Pearsall, for deserting the flag of the Union, and going over to the rebels. He was a physician, and doing a good business. During the past winter he left, and no one knew where he had gone. Some time since he was heard from in Richmond, Va., as a Brigade Surgeon, on the rebel General Morgan’s staff. He had charge of some Union prisoners, taking them along the streets of Richmond, when he recognized a gentleman of Brooklyn, formerly a member of the Excelsior Club, and entered into conversation. He asked particularly about Leggett, Flanley, Creighton, and Brainerd, whom, as members of the Club, he wished particularly to be remembered to. These facts came to the knowledge of the Club, and they expelled him by a unanimous vote."
New York Clipper, July 4, 1863.
1863.68 24th Wisconsin Plays Baseball
"Nothing of importance has
transpired in the Twenty-fourth since I wrote you last, except the
regular routine of camp life. The Regiment went to Selma, a little town
about five miles from camp, on a light trip. They parted on the 4th and
came back the 13th. The Brigade was thrown out as a picket. The boys
amused themselves while there in making briar-root pipes, gobbling up
sheep, calves, porkers, etc., and playing base ball, which afforded
them a good deal of fun. "
Milwaukee Sentinel, Feb. 26, 1863, per 19cbb post by Dennis Pajot, Dec. 21, 2009
Also same, Feb. 27, 1863
1863.69 19th IL vs. 69th Ohio
In May of 1863 the Turchin Boys of the 19th Illinois (Basil Turchin was colonel of the 19th) played a team from the 69th Ohio, on the drill ground just outside the Union army camp at Murfreesboro, TN.
This Turchin team played a wartime game in Chicago (see protoball entry).
Cincinnati Inquirer, Feb. 25, 1879
1863.70 10th Vermont loves its Baseball
The Vermont Watchman, April 3, 1863, prints a letter from the 10th Vermont Infantry Regiment, camped at Conrad's Ferry, MD, stating that now the ground is drying up from winter, "base ball has come into vogue."
Conrad's Ferry is now known as White's Ferry. It's on the Potomac River.
1863.71 Ball Playing a "Favorite Amusement"
The Middletown (NY) Whig Press, April 8, 1863 prints a letter from a soldier in the "Tenth Legion" (56th NY) datelined St. Helena Island [near Port Royal], March 21, 1863: "Ball playing is a favorite amusement with them. They, however, are tired of inactivity, and long for a chance to meet the foe."
The Middletown (NY) Whig Press, April 8, 1863
1863.72 Soldiers confront idleness with ball playing
The Akron "Summit County Beacon," Sept. 10, 1863 prints a letter from "The Encampment of Camp Cuyahoga" (in Cleveland) saying that on the 25th "the day was spent in idleness and ball playing" because needed quartermaster supplies had not yet arrived.
The Akron "Summit County Beacon," Sept. 10, 1863
1863.73 CT soldiers indulging in ball playing and swimming
The Hartford Courant, Feb. 24, 1863 prints a letter about CT soldiers in Newport News, VA: "The soldiers are delighted with the position--were indulging in ball playing and swimming."
The Hartford Courant, Feb. 24, 1863
1863.74 No fear of breaking windows
The Elyria Independent Democrat, March 15, 1863 prints a letter, dated Feb. 15th, from Corporal H. J. Hart of the 8th Ohio, in camp near Falmouth VA: "While I write this Monday morning, the boys are having a game of ball nearby. We play ball near the house without fear of breaking windows."
The Elyria Independent Democrat, March 15, 1863
1863.75 Ohio soldiers play at Lexington, KY
The Summit County Beacon, March 26, 1863 prints a letter from a soldier in the 104th Ohio, datelined Lexington, March 15th: "The 19th Battery Boys have enjoyed themselves hugely this past week, playing ball. The 104th has also participated in the game and take hold of it as gayly as they were wont to do upon the old school house green in days of yore."
The Summit County Beacon, March 26, 1863
1863.76 Hawkeyes beat Suckers in Corinth, MS
The New Albany (IN) Daily Ledger April 4, 1863, reprints a letter from a soldier in Corinth, MS, dated March 29, 1863, saying that yesterday a base ball team from the 2nd Iowa defeated a team from the 52nd IL 100 to 77. The letter-write avers that "'Base Ball' does a good service in killing off the 'blues.'"
See also the Davenport (IA) Daily Gazette, April 18, 1863.
The New Albany (IN) Daily Ledger April 4, 1863
1863.77 New York Regiments play in camp near Falmouth
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 2, 1863, headlined "Base ball in camp," reports that on April 19th, the 1st Long Island Volunteers (67th NY) played the 62nd New York. See also The New York Sunday Mercury, April 26, 1863.
At this time the 2 units were part of the VI Corps, stationed near Falmouth, VA.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 2, 1863
1863.78 Base Ball relives the monotony
The Madison State Journal, June 4, 1863 prints a Wisconsin soldier's letter from Columbus, KY dated May 31, 1863: "There have been no guerrilla raids or threatened attacks to relieve the monotony of camp and garrison life: but the foot race and the game of base ball have been substituted..."
The Madison State Journal, June 4, 1863
1863.79 Thousands of soldiers playing ball
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 1863, reports on the camps of the Army of the Potomac, opposite Fredericksburg, VA: "...in camp the man are out by thousands playing ball, pitching horseshoe quoits, running foot races and indulging in other athletic sports."
The camps were near Falmouth.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 1863
1863.80 New Years Day on Hilton Head
"The New South" Jan. 3, 1863 reports a game on New Years Day among Major Van Brunt's provost guard. He was major of the 47th New York.
"The New South" Jan. 3, 1863
1863.81 Base Ball a "common game of amusement"
The Canton (Ohio) Repository, July 1, 1863 prints a letter from Dr. Lewis Slusser, June 18, 1863, stationed near Murfreesboro, TN with the Army of the Cumberland: "The leisure time of our men is variously employed. Cricket, base ball, pitching horse shoes, cards, chess and checker are the most common games of amusement."
The Canton (Ohio) Repository, July 1, 1863
1863.82 Base ball in camp part of Muscular Christianity
The Augusta Maine Gospel Banner, May 2, 1863 praises muscular Christianity in the army: "Added to their faithfulness in military duties, their occasional participation in the manly sports of base ball, foot ball, wrestling and leaping helps them in their growth to the stature of health, strength and cheerfulness."
The Augusta Maine Gospel Banner, May 2, 1863
1863.83 Bay Staters play ball in NC
The Boston Traveler, March 4, 1863 prints a letter from Camp Stevenson, NC, datelined 2-27-63: "the boys enjoy their spare time to a great extent, in base ball, foot ball and other healthy amusements; great rivalry has commenced between the companies as to their respective merits in base ball, and friendly games for the superiority are constantly taking place." The 44th and 25th MA are to play tomorrow, and "great interest is manifested by both regiments as to the result."
This game is mentioned in the wartime diary of John J,. Wyeth of the 44th MA, who may be the writer of the above letter.
Camp Stevenson was at New Bern, NC.
The Boston Traveler, March 4, 1863
1863.85 New England rules game in camp
The Boston Traveler, June 2, 1863, prints a letter from Camp Gore, VA, March 22, 1863: "About the middle of the month, eleven men from our regiment played a match game of base ball, according to the rules of the New England Association of Base Ball Players, with eleven members of the 18th Mass. regiment." The 5 hour match was won by the 18th by "three tallies."
Camp Gore was at Falmouth.
The Boston Traveler, June 2, 1863
1863.86 Draftees Play Ball on Rikers Island
The Boston Herald, Sept. 8, 1863 notes that at the Riker's Island, NY camp for draftees, "Fishing, base-ball, quoits, and other healthful amusements, are among their daily engagements."
Riker's Island is near Manhattan.
The Boston Herald, Sept. 8, 1863
1863.87 The Colonel umpired the game
The Worcester National Aegis, March 30, 1863: "The Thirty-Fourth regiment, now encamped on Upton's Hill [outside of DC]... had a spirited and exciting game of base ball on Saturday." Putnam's nine beat Chickering's, 50-31. Colonel Lincoln umpired in this 5-hour game.
See also Lincoln, "34th Massachusetts"
The Worcester National Aegis, March 30, 1863
1863.88 Vermont soldiers play base and foot ball
The Montpelier Green Mountain Freeman, April 20, 1863 prints a letter from the 13th VT volunteers, datelined Fairfax County, April 14: "The boys of late have been indulging in games of ball--base and foot ball having occupied their spare moments."
The Montpelier Green Mountain Freeman, April 20, 1863
1863.89 2nd New Jersey colonel plays base ball
The Newark Daily Advertiser, April 17, 1863: "Since the math game between the 2d and 20th [NJ], the game has become very popular--Col. Beck, Lt. Col. Wiebecke, Maj. Close and Chaplain Proudfit, of the 2d, indulged in the sport quite extensively on the 14th inst."
The Newark Daily Advertiser, April 17, 1863
1863.90 Union soldiers watch Confederates play ball
John G. B. Adams of the 19th MA recalled that in early 1863, when the regiment was stationed opposite Fredericksburg, Unions soldiers watched the Confederates playing ball games cross the river. "We would sit on the bank and watch their games, and the distance was so short we could understand every movement and would applaud good plays."
Cited in Kirsch, "Baseball in Blue and Gray," which uses Adams' history of the regiment as source. See 1863.17 for the citation of the Adams book.
Kirsch, "Baseball in Blue and Gray,"
1863.91 Confederate soldiers play ball near Fredericksburg
The Augusta Constitutionalist, Feb. 8, 1863, reprints a column by "Personne," the Charleston Courier's war correspondent, Jan. 29, 1863, under the heading "Interesting Letter from Virginia." "The amusements of the army are rational and generous. Ball playing is a common game when the weather is pleasant..."
The letter was from Lee's army, then in camp near Fredericksburg, and mentions Jenkins' SC brigade. This confirms Union reports at this time of seeing Lee's soldiers playing ball.
The Augusta Constitutionalist, Feb. 8, 1863
1863.92 Alabama soldiers play ball near Fredericksburg
The Greensboro (AL) Beacon, March 287, 1863, prints a letter from the 5th Alabama, camped near Fredericksburg, March 8, 1863: "Since coming off picket the only amusement in camp is ball playing, which serves to while away the lonely hours."
The Greensboro (AL) Beacon, March 287, 1863
1863.93 Rebel POWs at Fort McHenry
The New Haven Daily Palladium, Sept. 24, 1863 writes of "Rebel" POWs at Fort McHenry, site of the Star Spangled Banner: they "have the run of the fine parade ground, amuse themselves with ball play and other exercises."
The "ball play" included baseball. See Elias, "The Empire Strikes Out" p. 9.
The New Haven Daily Palladium, Sept. 24, 1863
1863.94 Army Chaplain Plays ball in the Army of the Cumberland
The Boston Daily Advertiser, Nov. 5, 1863, picks up a Chicago Evening Journal article on Army chaplains in the Army of the Cumberland (then stationed around Chattanooga, TN), saying a chaplain of an Illinois regiment has been seen "dressing a wound... playing ball, running a race, as well as heard him making a prayer and preaching a sermon."
The Boston Daily Advertiser, Nov. 5, 1863
1863.95 Rebels seen playing ball
New Haven Daily Palladium April 1, 1863, prints a letter from the 27th CT: "From Falmouth, the rebels are daily seen, playing ball and apparently enjoying themselves."
New Haven Daily Palladium April 1, 1863
Duplicate of 1863.29
1863.96 Union soldiers play ball in California
The San Francisco Daily Bulletin, April 27, 1863 reports on the 1st California Cavalry camp near Stockton: "We drill four times a day, and in the interim devote our time to reading, playing ball, or fishing in various sloughs."
The San Francisco Daily Bulletin, April 27, 1863
1863.97 8th Kansas Plays near Nashville
The Atchison Freedom's Champion, May 2, 1863 prints a letter from the 8th Kansas, Nashville, TN, April 22: "The men enjoy themselves well, and it looks more like a college play ground than an encampment in the rebel country, to see our officers and privates playing ball together."
The Atchison Freedom's Champion, May 2, 1863
1863.98 Playing ball during a bombardment
The New York Herald, May 4, 1863 prints a May 2, 1863 (fast mail service!) from the Rappahannock River: "Playing Ball During the Shelling. Thursday afternoon several of the men of this brigade were playing ball just in the rear of our skirmishers, heedless of the shrieking of the shells or the whizzing of the shot from the rebel batteries in front of them. This was intrepidity indeed."
The New York Herald, May 4, 1863
1863.99 Confederate government clerks should play ball
The Richmond Examiner, Dec. 5, 1863, castigates lazy Confederate government clerks who just lounge around eyeing the ladies: "If nothing better offers, the organization of a base ball, cricket, or quoit club, with a play ground in the square, would do [to make the clerks less lazy]."
The Richmond Examiner, Dec. 5, 1863
1863.100 Georgians change from base to snow-balling
The Weekly Columbus Enquirer, Feb. 17, 1863 reports of Toombs' Georgia Brigade, stationed near Fredericksburg, VA: "The amusements of the camp since the late heavy fall of snow have changed from "base" to "snow-balling"--both of which are very healthful exercise.
The Weekly Columbus Enquirer, Feb. 17, 1863
1863.101 Rebel POWs play town ball at Camp Butler
The diary of William W. Heartsill, Confederate soldier (published under the title "1491 Days...") says that in March 1863, while in Camp Butler POW Camp near Springfield, IL, the prisoners played "town-ball."
Heartsill book
1863.102 117th IL plays town ball near Memphis
Gerlings's "One Hundred Seventeenth Illinois" p. 105: "May 18. Some of us played "town-ball" on the drill grounds. Col. Moore and Lt. Kerr being the leaders of the two sides." Same May 19, 20.
Col. Risdon Moore's 117th IL was stationed at Fort Pickering, Memphis in May 1863.
Gerlings's "One Hundred Seventeenth Illinois" p. 105
1863.103 Arkansas soldiers play "Old Fashioned Town Ball"
General Abe Buford
Willis, Arkansas Confederates, p. 406, refers to Arkansas Confederates playing town ball, citing J. P. Cannon, "Inside of Rebeldom" p. 98 [Nov. 1863 in camp at Canton, MS]: "One of the most popular schemes invented to have fun and to pass the time was a game called 'old fashioned town ball,' which is the ancestor of today's baseball. Even Gen. Buford took great interest in the game, although his 300 pounds of flesh and fat (mostly fat)... prevented any participation more than a mere spectator."
Confederate Gen. Abraham Buford was an overweight and fun-loving brigade commander.
J. P. Cannon, "Inside of Rebeldom" p. 98
1863.104 Grant's Men Play Town-Ball in the Swamps
Woodworth, "Nothing But Victory: The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1865" p. 299 writes that Grant's army , in camp at Lake Providence opposite Vicksburg, "had time to play 'town ball' in their off-duty hours."
Woodworth cites the diary of Abram J. Vanauken, Feb. 3, 7, 12, 13, 1863, at the Illinois State Historical Library.
Woodworth, "Nothing But Victory: The Army of Tennessee, 1861-1865" p. 299
1863.105 16th Vermont Plays Baseball
The Library of Virginia's online index to manuscripts lists the letters of Herbert G. Bond, 16th VT, 1862-63, which "mention the troops playing baseball." The index lists the ballplaying in Fairfax County.
The 16th was stationed in the VA defenses of Washington DC for most of this time.
1863.106 1st Delaware Plays Ball and Horseshoes
The Library of Virginia's online index to manuscripts lists the letter of Thomas D. G. Smith, March 31, 1863, which "mentions playing ball and horseshoes." The index lists the game as in Stafford County.
At this time the 1st was stationed near Falmouth, Stafford County, VA.
1863.107 Dispute between MA and NY rules
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37 lists 1863 games--26th PA vs. 22nd MA and 13th NY v. 62nd NY--where disputes broke out over whether to play by the MA or NY rules.
Frommer, "Old Time Baseball" p. 36-37
1863.108 Ball playing popular in 1st Minnesota
"Campaigning with the First Minnesota: A Civil War Diary" diary of Isaac Lyman Taylor, 1st MN, in MN Historical Society Journal. March 18, 1863 entry "Reading, writings, & playing ball." March 23 entry notes that ball playing is very popular in the regiment. The regiment was stationed near Falmouth, VA.
"Campaigning with the First Minnesota: A Civil War Diary"
1863.109 17th Mississippi plays town ball
Tucker, "Barksdale's Charge" p. 34 cites a 4-20-63 letter of Pvt. Joseph A. Miller, 17th MS: "We [here] taken a game of town ball this morning..."
Tucker, "Barksdale's Charge" p. 34
1863.110 Town Ball Played by 28th Alabama
Hallock, editor, "The Civil War Letters of Joshua K. Callaway," p. 94 cites a letter from Shelbyvlle, TN, June 1863: "there is a big game of 'Town Ball' going on out there and they are all very jolly..."
Callaway was in the 28th AL Infantry.
Hallock, editor, "The Civil War Letters of Joshua K. Callaway," p. 94
1863.111 Baseball played at Rhode Island Army Hospital
Grzyb, "Rhode Island's Civil War Hospital" (a book about the Portsmouth Grove Hospital in Portsmouth) p. 114 quotes the diary of Pvt. George Peck, 2nd Rhode Island: "Got my ankle hurt today by a bat playing ball." The book notes that ballplaying was a recreation at this hospital.
Grzyb, "Rhode Island's Civil War Hospital" p. 114
1863.112 19th Massachusetts plays 7th Michigan
Ward's "The 96th Pennsylvania.." p. 301 cites Fairchild's History of the 27th NY as noting games played between the 19th MA and 7th MI.
Same page 146: On St. Patrick's Day "regiments of the VI Corps played a game of baseball."
Ward's "The 96th Pennsylvania.." p. 301, 146
1863.113 A Change from Dodging Leaden Balls
The New York Clipper reported on a game between the 14th Regiment from Brooklyn and the 30th New York Volunteers during the summer of 1863. The Clipper included the box score and commented, “Our soldier boys will have their ‘hand in’ at base ball, it seems, and we commend them there for, as it must be a very agreeable change from dodging leaden balls.”
“Base Ball in the Army,” New York Clipper, June 13, 1863.
1863.114 Southern Girls Play Town Ball and Cat in Clarksville
Nannie E. Haskins diary, Feb. 25, 1863
Saturday morning opened with heavy clouds to obscure the Sun; after breakfasted, we all went out and had a game of hot ball – town ball and cat. They were all new to me, that is I never played them before. I have seen my brothers and other boys play them. We came to town about ten o’clock, by dinner time it was raining.
1863.115 SC soldier writes of chuck a luck and town ball in camp
McConnell diary, U. of South Carolina
The Yorkville (SC) Enquirer, Feb. 4, 1863 prints a letter from a soldier of the 17th SC from Camp Kershaw, near Kinston, which relates the soldiers in camp are playing "the sports sof boyhood in games of "Prison ball," "Bull pen," etc."
1863.116 "we had a game of ball notwithstanding"
Woodworth, "Cultures in Conflict--the American Civil War" p. 99 cites the Jan. 6, 1863 diary of Aurelius Voorhis, 46th IN, in Grant's army near Vicksburg, writing: "A cold, raw wind blew all day... We had a game of ball notwithstanding... [Drill] will take up some of our ball playing time but it suits me."
Woodworth, "Cultures in Conflict--the American Civil War" p. 99
1863.117 Future President notes ballplaying in camp
Rutherford B. Hayes
"Conspicuous Gallantry: Civil War Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes" contains a April 22, 1863 letter from Camp White in which Hayes' notes that "Drilling, boating, ball-playing and the like make the time pass pleasantly."
Camp White was near Charleston, WV. Hayes had played ball while in college.
"Conspicuous Gallantry: Civil War Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes"
1863.118 36th Illinois loses to 24th Wisconsin by 50
A favorite amusement all through our Murfreesboro stay was
base ball, and many an hour was spent at Camp Schaffer in this absorbing game. Sometimes the fun was varied by a contest with some other regiment, and though the 36th were very skillful, they sometimes met their match, as one record very candidly says : "In the afternoon eight boys of the 24th Wisconsin played ball against eight of ours and beat us (!) by fifty a very interesting
game."Bennett and Haigh, "36th Illinois" p. 425
1863.119 The officers mingled with the men
"The 6th was in fine shape. The return of the sick and wounded and the new recruits put us well up in numbers. The officers with one or two exceptions mingled with the men in fun and friendship. We played Base Ball, Foot Ball and Snow Ball when there was snow together."
C. N. Drew, "Yankee Scout" p. 89. He was with the light division, 6th Corps, near Falmouth in 1863.
C. N. Drew, "Yankee Scout" p. 89
1863.120 A bully game of base ball
"Had a bully game of base ball. Received letters from home."
Livermore, "My Story of the War" p. 379, quoting from the Chicago Mercantile Battery, at the siege of Vicksburg.
Livermore, "My Story of the War" p. 379
1863.121 Soldiers Play Wicket in Little Rock
From the Civil War journal of James B. Lockney, Wisconsin 28th Regiment.
"In Camp near Little Rock. Ark Wednesday Sept 30, 1863.
Today was rainy in the A.M. & drizzled some P.M. The boys had a game of Wicket the first time I ever saw it played. They used clubs of hurdles and a large ball about 6 in. in diameter. Some of the Officers took part & the game passed off quietly."
Note that the camp was probably in what is now the Little Rock city limits. [Caleb Hardwick]
1863.122 64th New York played ball
Marsh, "Brotherhood of Battle" quotes a soldier letter as saying the 64th NY "played ball" near Fredericksburg in early 1863. The author notes this was probably baseball.
Marsh, "Brotherhood of Battle"
1863.123 Confederate Cavalry plays ball in WVA
"...Jones and Imboden linked up, and spent several days together in Weston, where they staged a parade through the town and the troops under their command played ball on the grounds of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum."
Charleston Gazette-Mail, May 2, 2013. Jones and Imboden commanded brigades of VA Confederate cavalry. See also Summers, "The Baltimore and Ohio in the Civil War" p. 136, which notes this game was May 4, 1863 in Weston, now WVA.
Charleston Gazette-Mail, May 2, 2013
1863.124 49th NY plays base-ball near Falmouth
The Buffalo Evening Courier, April 4, 1863, prints a letter from a soldier in the 49th NY, datelined March 28 near Falmouth, Va: "Captain Seilkirk's Company (Co. D), which consists nearly of sporting boys, have excellent times in amusing themselves with boxing-gloves, base-ball, &c."
The Buffalo Evening Courier, April 4, 1863
1863.125 115th NY soldier Plays Ball
From auction catalog on www.invaluable.com, March 30, 2018, the 1863 Civil War Diary of David L. Mann:
Description: Manuscript diary of Private David L. Mann, New York 115th Infantry, Company E. Mann was a POW at Harper's Ferry in 1862 and notes he returned to Harper's Ferry, as well as Gettysburg, several times. A small selection from the diary, April 17th, "Boys are playing ball." June 13, "Attacked. Hold the enemy 1800 strong in check until the train is out of danger." June 14th, "Skirmished all day." Further discussions of metal caskets for dead soldiers, fighting, scouting, picketing, a drunken captain sounding a false alarm to saddle up. About 40% written in.
[the location is not given, but is probably VA]
1863.126 Hawkins' Zouaves Play 51st NY
The New York Sunday Mercury, March 29, 1863 reports that at Newport News on the 24th, the first nine of Hawkins' Zoauves (9th NY) Played a match game with the first nine of the 51st NY, winning 21-10. A box score is given. The report notes that several names will be familiar to those in the baseball fraternity.
Whitney, "The Hawkins Zouaves" p. 173 says these two regiments played March 4, 7, and 24.
1863.129 9th NY plays for a barrel of ale
The New York Sunday Mercury, April 26, 1863 reports that on the 20th and 21st, near Fletcher's Chapel, VA, two nines of the 9th NY (Hawkins' Zouaves) played "3 fine games," the prize being a barrel of ale. At the end the barrel was "besieged" by the whole regiment, and "run out" in no time.
1863.130 62nd NY wins twice
The New York Sunday Mercury, May 24, 1863 reports that on the 16th, near Falmouth, VA, the 10th MA and 62nd NY had a match game won by the New Yorkers 19-8. Tow days previous, the 62nd (Anderson's Zouaves) played the Pioneers of the 3rd division, VI Corps, winning 8-4.
"Pioneers" were sort of an army construction battalion.
1863.131 Cavalry defeats Infantry in VA
The New York Sunday Mercury, May 24, 1863 reports that on the 16th inst. near White House, VA, the Union club of the 168th NY played the first nine of the Harris Light Cavalry, the latter winning 37-33.
White House is near the coast.
1863.132 26th NJ wins twice
The New York Sunday Mercury, May 21, 1863 reports that on the 21st inst., the 26th and 8th NJ played a match game, the former winning 27-24. A return match was played on the 23rd, the 26th again winning 28-18.
1863.133 4th NY Battery Plays Extra Inning game
The New York Sunday Mercury, May 31, 1863 reports that on the 15th Inst. near Falmouth, the 4th NY Battery played baseball, with Johnson's side winning 33-32 in extra innings.
Same, June 14, 1863 reports that the Hooker Base Ball Club of this unit has formed, named after the army's commander, with Sgt. James H. Cabe as president and Corporal Jo. B. Johnson as treasurer. They've already played the 8th NJ and 11th MA.
1863.134 Played ball "in a new way"
Bardeen, "A Little Fifer's War Diary..." p. 170, entry of March 23, 1863, Falmouth: "Played ball with the 26th in a new way."
Bardeen's note--"This was the 26th Pa. but I have really forgotten the game of ball."
Bardeen was with the 1st MA Infantry.
Bardeen, "A Little Fifer's War Diary..." p. 170
1863c.135 16th Maine Plays baseball, chess, checkers
The catalog of the Southern Historical Society Collection, UNC, includes the letters of William H. Broughton, 16th ME. According to the catalog, "some letters mention games and sports, including baseball, ice skating, chess, and checkers."
The 16th served in Virginia for the entire war. the catalog is silent as to when and where the baseball letters were written, it is probable that they were written in the winter of 1862-63, in camp near Falmouth.
1863.136 Gen. Grant enjoys watching ball game
The National Tribune, Aug. 29, 1895, prints a letter from C. W. Colby of the 97th Illinois, who writes that in April of 1863 his unit was detailed to guard Gen. Grant's headquarters at Milliken's Bend. "Every evening we had a game of ball on the lawn in front of headquarters, and the General would sit on the porch, enjoying the sport as much as we did."
The National Tribune, Aug. 29, 1895
1863.138 48th NY Infantry plays on Thanksgiving
The 48th was a Brooklyn unit, and its baseball games often made the newspapers.
The one side ran short players, so some drummer boys were "drafted" to fill out the one nine.
Brooklyn Times Union, Dec. 18, 1863
1863.139 Soildiers play "Baste ball" in Virginia
The Richmond (IN) Palladium, May 8, 1863, prints a letter from a soldier in the 19th Indiana, datelined April 20 in camp near Belle Plaine, which says his regiment and the 7th Indiana "have many a game at baste-ball--that has been our chief amusement..."
Belle Plaine is near Fredericksburg, where Hooker's Army of the Potomac was camped. The game played might be a mis-spelling of "base ball."
The Richmond (IN) Palladium, May 8, 1863
1863.140 An exciting game of base ball
"April 11 [1863].—An exciting game of “base-ball;” was played to-day near our camp, between boys of the Fourteenth Brooklyn and the Harris Light. The contest resulted in a drawn game, so that neither could claim the victory. "
These were cavalry regiments in camp near Falmouth, VA
Glazier, "Three Years in the Federal Cavalry" (187) p. 165
1863.141 Drill, baseball and glee clubs
In his famous memoir, "Recollections of a Private", Warren Lee Goss of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry recalls that in 1863, "Drill, baseball, glee clubs, besides the inevitable and never forgotten or omitted 'bluff' occupied our time [in camp]."
Goss, "Recollections of a Private" p. 174.
1863.142 200 army baseball games are seen
Lawrence W. Fielding, "War and Trifles: Sport in the Shadow of Civil War Army Life" Journal of Sports History 4:151 at 157, writes that a Massachusetts soldier reported "seeing over 200 games of base ball going on at one time."
A search of the cited sources doesn't reveal more on the source for this. It was probably referring to the Army of the Potomac's encampment near Fredericksburg VA in the Spring of 1863.
Lawrence W. Fielding, "War and Trifles: Sport in the Shadow of Civil War Army Life" Journal of Sports History 4:151
1863.143 Soldiers Play cricket in Virginia
On April 27, 1863, at their camp at White Oak Church, near Falmouth, the soldiers of Neal's and Russell's Brigade played a game of cricket against each other.
New York Clipper, May 9, 1863
1863c.144 Lawrence MA soldiers play cricket near D.C.
The soldiers of the 14th Massachusetts (1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery) who played cricket at Fort DeKalb during the war came home and formed the Lawrence Cricket Club.
Fort DeKalb was in Arlington, part of the DC defenses. The date is uncertain. The fort was so named 1861-63.
Cole, "Immigrant City: Lawrence, Massachusetts," p. 140
1863.145 Games of Foot and Base ball between drills
The diary entries and letter of David Ritchie note several instances of base ball. p. 4 (in camp in Albany, NY, 1861): drill periods were "interspersed with games of foot and baseball and other amusements" p. 109, 111 (Jan. 1863, at/near Fortress Monroe): "played game baseball against Lt. Mink. Beat him." (is this a references to and old cat/fungo type game?) 1-20-63 played a game of baseball p. 156 (April 1864, near Orange, Va): "Played baseball at Capt. Reynolds' in afternoon." and on the 23rd, “witnessed game of ball between 7th Independent NY Battery] and Battery L. Latter beaten 13 to 6. Officers played in afternoon.” And another is recorded on the 30th.
Ritchie, "Four Years in the First New York Light Artillery" pp 4, 109, 111, 156
1863.146 27th MA Plays Baseball Under Enemy Fire
1863.147 NJ Artillerymen Play Ball in Virginia
[On April 29, 1864] “It rained some during the day, regular April showers. The men amused themselves, jumping, wrestling, running three-legged races. One lot was playing ball. At night there was a drizzling rain.”
Michael Hanifen, History of Battery B, First New Jersey Artillery (Republican-Times, Ottawa Illinois, 1905), page 45. Accessed 6/27/09 on Google Books via “of battery b first” search. Battery B was in Falmouth Virginia and about to join the Chancellorsville campaign. Millen writes that this indicates that ballplaying was seen as commonplace in the unit [page 26]. Battery B formed in the Trenton NJ area.
The Chancellorsville Campaign was in 1863.
1863.148 126th NY has "a good game of base ball"
Friday, March 27, 1863—This morning the 126th [New York] went on picket and the line was extended further about a mile. We had a good game of baseball in the afternoon.
Saturday, April 4, 1863—Today has been wash day. No drilling. In the afternoon had a game of ball.
1863 diary of Henry Cole, 126th NY Infantry. From near Centerville, VA.
Shared and Spared
1863.149 Soldiers play the "New York game"
1863 DIARY OF EDWIN ELLIOT RICHARDSON, CO. A, 46TH MASSACHUSETTS
New Bern
Saturday, Feb. 21st 1863. We drill all day long. Had a dress parade at night. There was a matched game of Ball played between our regiment and the 25th [Mass.] I did not learn which regiment played the best.
Monday, March 23rd 1863. A nice fair day. I played a game of Ball.
Friday, 27th 1863. Had a company drill. In [p.m.] played New York game. It is hard work to play that game. Had dress parade.
Saturday, 28th 1863. Played the New York game all day. There was not ay drill for a wonder. No dress parade.
1863.151 Alabama soldiers play bull-pen, cat and town ball
1863.152 13th NY plays 4th NY in Suffolk
1864.1 Southern Soldier Notes Repeated Ballplaying, Including Game of Cat
Finding, on the Chancellorsville battlefield, a partly used diary in the abandoned knapsack of a Union soldier from the 87th NY, Robert T. Douglass started making entries in May 1864.
“May 26 . . . Quite pleasant this afternoon. Played a game of ball with my friends in the 40th Va. Reg.” “May 27. . . . Relieved from guard this morning. Out in the field playing ball with a portion of the 40th Reg.” “May 28. . . . Played ball.” “May 30. . . . Played ball this evening for sport as I had nothing else to do. Bad news from home.” “June 2. . . . Played ball this afternoon. No news in camp of any importance.” “June 11 . . . . Played a game of ball called cat.” Douglass returned the diary to its original owner in 1867.
Provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The diary is also found online: Google web search: “douglass diary morrisville.” Note: Douglass’ unit appears to have stayed near the Stafford/Chancellorsville area in May and June. His diary entries continue through 1863 but have no additional ballplaying references. Accessed online 6/15/09.
1864.2 Minnesotan’s Diary Shows Ballplaying on Ten Days Over Ten Weeks
Isaac Clason, of Company B in the 2nd Minnesota Volunteers, made 10 minimal references to ballplaying from January 29 to April 16, 1864. No more appear to the June end of the record. A typical entry was “Had a fine game of ball this afternoon” [March 17]. On January 29: “Spent today playing ball, pitching anvils and everything to amuse myself.” On April 5: “Had a fine game of ball and in the evening went to the Boulten Minstrels performance. Not very good entertainment.” The diary refers to “Ringgold” [and to peach trees in bloom in March] and it would seem that Clason spent his winter in the area of Ringgold Gap, GA, where a September 1863 defeat had stalled the North’s incipient drive toward Atlanta until May 7 1864. Ringgold GA is about 15 miles SE of Chattanooga and about 6 miles south of the Tennessee border.
Diary of Isaac W. Clason, accessed online at ancestry.com by Google web search “clason diary.”
1864.4 10th Vermont Lieutenant Describes Ballplaying in Northern Virginia
In his diary for the year 1864, Lieutenant Lemuel Abbott [10th VT] includes six entries on ballplaying. One involved a challenge from the non-commissioned officers to the officers to play for an oyster dinner [January 29], and another in which his Company challenged the regiment to “play a game of ball for $50 [March 19]. One day he reports that “a game of ball came off this afternoon in which the commissioned offers won. Two more games are to be played Monday if a good day. [January 30]” All ballplaying entries appear between January 29 and April 29.
Lemuel A. Abbott, Personal Recollections and Civil War Diary 1864 (Free Press, Burlington, 1908), pages 13, 20, 28, 30, 41. The January entry is mentioned in Kirsch, Baseball in Blue and Gray, page 41. Accessed 6/19/09 on Google Books via “recollections 1864” search. Abbott’s Company B was from Burlington VT. Their camp during early 1864 was near Brandy Station, VA, about 60 miles SW of Washington and about 75 miles NW of Richmond.
See also Montpelier Daily Journal, Feb. 15, 1864, and Vermont Watchman, Feb. 19, 1864, for notice of the commissioned/non-commissioned officers game.
1864.6 Officers in 30th MA Play Base Ball In February 1864
“February 12, 1864. Officers played a game of base ball this afternoon.”
H.W. Howe “Diary of Henry Warren Howe, February 1864,” Passages from the Life of Henry Warren Howe ( Courier-Citizen, 1899), page 61. Provided by Jeff Kittel, 2009.
The 30th was stationed at Franklin, Louisiana at this time [Noted by Bruce Allardice]. Franklin is about 100 miles west of New Orleans, a few miles from the Gulf of Mexico.
Note: As of June 2018, Joshua Bucchioni is doing research on the 30th Massachusetts. See the Supplemental Text for some background on the regiment.
Do we the role of the 30th in February 1864?
Are there any indications as to whether NY or MA or other game rules were employed?
1864.12 In Virginia, Two PA Regiments Play “Great Base Ball Game”
“7th [April, 1864]. Fine weather. Drilled. Great base ball game between ours and the 143rd Regiment.”
Diary of John Bodler, 149th Pennsylvania, provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009.
The 149th regiment’s history also records this game. “The first days of spring [1864] weather greeted the legions of the vast army gathered around Culpeper that March and the men found a new activity to enjoy: baseball. Letters and diaries recorded the great fun the game brought in camp. Men gathered after the evening meal to lay the game for pleasure but soon there were games of competition between companies. Samuel Foust admitted losing a $20 bet when the team of the 149th lost to the 143rd regiment [page 125].” The history also refers to baseball games when the regiment was in Washington [September 1862?; page 27] and in June 1863 [page 68].
Richard E. Matthews, The 149th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War (McFarland,1994). Accessed in limited preview format 6/19/90 via Google Books “149th pennsylvania” search.
1864.13 NY Artilleryman Notes Two Inter-regimental Games
“[Illeg. Date ] April 1864. Base ball match between the 9th NYSM and 14th Regt. Score 9th Regt [illeg.] and 14th Regt 59 runs. . . .” [Illeg. Date] April 1864. Return match between 9th NTSM and 14th Regiment score 9th Regt [illeg.] and 14th Regt 33 runs”
Diary of Henry C. Sabine of the 14th NY Infantry, provided by Michael Aubrecht May 15, 1864. Sabine was near Culpeper VA on these dates.
The Clipper ran box scores of these games, fixing the dates as April 20 and 25, 1864, and noting them as the regiments’ first matches of the season. The scores were Ninth 36, Fourteenth 29 in the first match, and Fourteenth 38, Ninth 33 in the second match. Facsimile supplied by Gregory Christiano, June 15 2009. “Ball Play in the Army,” New York Clipper, May 7, 1864.
1864.14 Players “Lamed Badly” at Ballplaying
“Soldier baseball must have been vigorous. One Yank noted after a contest in Tennessee, “We get lamed badly.”
Bell Irvin Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War (Grosset and Dunlap, New York, 1952), page 170. Wiley’s footnotes are clustered, and hard to match to textual claims. His most likely source is “Edward L. Edes for his father, April 3, 1864.” Note: can we verify and enrich this account? Richard Welch’s The Boy General (Fairleigh Dickinson U, 2003), page 76) identifies an Edward L. Edes as a soldier in the 33rd Massachusetts.. In April 1864 the 33rd, apparently raised in Springfield, MA was on the outskirts of Chattanooga awaiting the start of the Atlanta campaign.
1864.15 Maine Soldier Lame from Ballplaying
“Rappahannock Station, Va., April 18th 1864. Dear Wife, . . . . there is a move on the foot or I am no judge of Soldiering. Our Dr. seems to think we shall stay here this summer. It is nothing but play ball when we are in camp lately and I must stop for my arm is lame throwing. I thought I would write today for the Picket goes out tomorrow and it is my turn to go.”
Letter from Eugene B. Kelleran, 20th Maine; provided by Michael Aubrecht, May 15, 2009. The 20th was spared in the upcoming battle of Chancellorsville in May 1864 when it was quarantined for suspected smallpox.
In 1864 the unit was facing the upcoming battle of the Wilderness, not Chancellorsville (which occurred in 1863). [ba]
1864.17 Florida Regiments Mix it Up in Town Ball
“The boys are killing time in camp by playing ball, which is such good exercise that it will fit them for the fatiguing marches to be taken this summer. The Soldiers here are undoubtedly, at this time more lighthearted and like schoolboys than I ever saw them. Maj. Lash and Col. Badger often play ball with the men.”
Letters from Washington Ives, 4th FL regiment, April 14, April 17, May 3, and May 7 1864, as noted in J. Sheppard, “’By the Noble Daring of Her Sons’: The Florida Brigade of the Army of Tennessee,” (FSU Dissertation, 2008), pages 291-292. Some of these letters, and evidently another written by Archie Livingston on April 24, further describe a series of games involving the 1st FL, the 3rd FL, the 4th FL, the 6th FL, and the 7th FL regiments in this period. The Sheppard thesis was accessed 6/20/09 on Google Scholar via “’noble daring’ Sheppard” search. The regiments were camped at Dalton GA, about 30 miles SW of Chattanooga defending the route to Atlanta.
1864.18 RI Soldier Cites “:A Game in Our Regt, Nine Innings a Side”
“We are enjoying our share of April showers . . . the soldiers prayer is that it may continue to rain until the 5th of June. When it is pleasant the boys are at their games of ball. Yesterday we had a game in our Regt 9 innings to a side. One side got 34 tallies the other 28. There was some fine playing. [4/15/1864].”
Letter from Corporal Henry Blanchard, 2nd Rhode Island, as cited in an auction lot accessed online June 20, 2009, by a Google Web search for “’lot 281 civil war’ RI”. Blanchard was at Camp Sedgwick near Petersburg VA in April. He was killed three weeks later in the Battle of the Wilderness. One can infer that Blanchard was new to a nine-inning game, presumably the New York game, and he uses the term “tallies” usually seen in the New England game.
Camp Sedgwick was in northern VA. FORT Sedgwick was near Petersburg, and not built after the Battle of the Wilderness. [ba]
1864.19 Waiting for Sherman, and Playing, in Georgia
“Captain James Hall of the 24th Alabama Regiment observed his men playing [. . . ] ‘just like school boys’ while waiting for the advance of Union General Sherman.”
Patricia Millen, From Pastime to Passion (Heritage, 2001), page 19. She cites B. I. Wiley, The Common Soldier in the Civil War (Grosset and Dunlap, 1960), page 170. L. J. Daniel, in Soldiering in the Army of the Tennessee (UNC Press, 1991), page 90, seems to identify this quote as taken from a letter from James Hall to his brother, April 19, 1864.
1864.20 150th Pennsylvania Pursues “The Pleasant Game of Cricket”
“Orders to be in readiness to move were received every day . . . . From their very frequency the regiment soon came to regard these orders with serenity, and in the first days of June abandoned itself in unclaimed hours, to the pleasant pastime of cricket – a game very dear to Philadelphians– for which a complete outfit had been ordered some time before.”
Lt.Col. Thomas Chamberlin, History of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers (F. McManus, Philadelphia, 1905), page 106. Accessed 6/20/09 on Google Books via “bucktail brigade” search. The regiment was camped at White Oak Church, near Falmouth VA. The regiment has several companies from Philadelphia.
1864.22 Union POWs in SC Given “Plot of Ground Where They Could Play Ball”
“Vegetable and market wagons were allowed to visit them every morning; a pint of rice, a slice of bacon, and usually a small loaf of bread, with some salt, were allowed them as a daily ration; and a plot of ground where they could play ball and exercise themselves was set apart for their use.”
H. E. Tremain, Two Days of War (Bonnell, Silver and Bowers, New York, 1905), page 218. Accessed 6/20/09 on Google Books via “two days of war” search. Tremain is apparently here describing the improved conditions that ensued after the Union troops threatened to treat rebel prisoners cruelly if inhumane treatment of Union prisoners continued. The location was Charleston SC, which was under bombardment in August 1864.
1864.23 Southern Officers Play Ball in Ohio Prison
Perhaps the best documented instance of ballplaying in the Civil War occurred near Sandusky Ohio, site of the Johnson’s Island prison for southern officers. Beginning in about July 1864, apparently, matches were common. Accounts from 6 diaries give accounts of regular play. According to one diarist, the officers also had a cricket club and a chess club.
In-depth coverage of base ball at Johnson’s Island is found in John R. Husman, “Ohio’s First Baseball Game: Played by Confederates and Taught to Yankees,” Base Ball, Volume 2, Issue 1 (Spring 2008), pp 58-65. Husman reports that while prior interclub play in OH is known, the prison saw the first match game. He also points out that at least some players knew the New York game from pre-war play in New Orleans.
See also W. A. Nash, "Camp, Field and Prison Life" p. 234, 168.
See also Benjamin Cooling, "Forts Henry and Donelson" p. 257, stating the POWs played town ball, which cites the prison journal of Captain John Henry Guy at the VA Historical Society; Curran, "John Dooley's Civil War..." p. 295, which has a diary entry on an Aug. 29, 1864 game.
See also John Snead Lambdin's "Recollections of my prison Life," in the Magnolia (MS) Gazette Oct. 22, 1880.
See also Diary of Lt. William Peel, 11th Mississippi, MS Dept of Archives and History, entries for July 29 and Aug. 28, 1864; D. R. Hundley diary, publsihed in 1874.
1864.24 Ohioan in Sherman’s Force Plays Near Atlanta
“Tuesday [September] 27 [1864] pleasant weather, I was detailed for Camp guard the A.M. we had a game of ball this afternoon, I stood two tricks of guard only.”
Civil War Diary of Samuel Whitehead, Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center MS collection, Ac #4248. Accessed 6/21 on Google Web search with “’samuel whitehead’ diary” search. The diary covers about May through November 1864. In September the 100th OH was at Decatur, GA, about 5 miles east of Atlanta. He was mortally wounded in November.
1864.25 The Hothead Union Captain and the Foul Ball
“The prison guard, Captain Hogendoble, struck by a foul ball from a prisoners’ baseball game, approached the batter, drew his pistol, and threatened to ‘blow their d-----d brains out.’”
Benton McAdams, “Greybeards in Blue,” Civil War Times, February 1998. Accessed 6/21/09 via Google Web search: “’greybeards in blue’ hogendoble.” The article tells the story of the 37th Iowa, comprising many older men, who were assigned in May 1864 to the military prison in Alton, Illinois. The source for this recollection is not provided.
1864.26 Union Prisoners in Texas Given a Ball Ground – For a While
“[A] new person being put in command of the inside [of the Texas prison] about the 1st of October [1864], made suggestions which the commandant allowed him to carry out, and relieved us ever afterward. He gave us a fine ball ground which was well occupied and proved a blessing.”
Major J. M. McCulloch, 77th Illinois, as quoted in Washington Davis, Camp-Fire Chats of the Civil War (Lewis Publishing, Chicago, 1888), page 70. Accessed on Google Books 6/21/09 via “’camp-fire chats’ davis” search. McCulloch does not elaborate on the nature of games played. He had been captured with troops from Ohio and Kentucky as well as Illinois. The prison was at Camp Ford near Tyler TX, about 100 miles E of Dallas.
An escapee from Camp Ford arrived in Milwaukee in November and told the Sentinel about his adventure. “We used to pass time playing checkers, cards, and dominoes. We were let out by twenties on parole to play ball, but so many ran away that the privilege was taken from us.” “Prison Life in Texas – Narrative of an Escaped Prisoner, Milwaukee Sentinel, November 11, 1864.” Accessed 5/21/09 via Genealogybank subscription.
1864.27 NH Officers and Men Together on the Ball Field
“During some portions of the winter of 1864-’65, in fine weather, the officers and men of the Eleventh often indulged in a friendly game of ball together. As they were playing one day, some general officers passed them on horseback, and one of them was overheard to remark, ‘That’s a good regiment, for the men and officers play ball together.’ Whoever that officer was, he never uttered truer words.”
Leander W. Cogswell, A History of the Eleventh New Hampshire Regiment (Republican Press Assn, Concord NH, 18911), pages 396-397. From June 1864 to early April 1865, the 11th NH was part of the siege of Petersburg VA. The regiment formed in Concord NH.
1864.29 Two NY Regiments Play “Grand Game on the Parade Ground” in VA
“During the winter the ground was occasionally covered with snow and battles with snow balls took place, different regiments challenging each other. When the weather was pleasant baseball became popular, and there were many excellent players on the Third Brigade. These games were watched by great crowds with intense interest. On April 18th, the 49th and 77th Regiments played a grand game on the parade ground.”
F. D. Bidwell, History of the Forty-Ninth New York Volunters (J. B. Lyon, Albany, 1916), pages 28-29. Accessed on Google Books 6/27/09 via “forty-ninth new” search. The regiment formed in the Buffalo area, and was at Falmouth VA on April 18.
1864.30 Union Prisoner Reported Shot While Playing Ball in Texas Pen
“One after another, the men rapidly died off. On the 26th of September, some of the prisoners obtained permission to play ball. One of them, in chasing the ball, ventured within a few feet of the camp lines, when he was short by the guards, and nearly killed.”
“The Death of Lieut. Matthew Hayes, New York Times, January 1864. Accessed 5/21/09 via genealogy subscription. The story depicts health conditions in Camp Groce, near Houston TX.
1864.31 Trophy Ball Kept in 22nd MA Regiment
“657a Scarce Civil War era inscribed Massachusetts style trophy baseball . . . . Black leather 9” diameter four piece lemon peel style baseball with a period inscription on two side panels, ‘22nd MASS REGIMENT UNION Feb 2, 1864 U.S.A.’ The 22ndMass. Regiment fought in many of the War’s most important battles, including Chancellorsville, Gainsville [sic] and Gettysburg. . . .” The baseball may also be considered as a ‘true’ example of a ball created specifically under the rules of the ‘Massachusettsgame.’ In February 1864 it was camped at Beverly Ford VA, evidently near Brandy Station.
From an undated and unidentified auction catalog page accessed 6/26/09 at the Giamatti Center of the Baseball Hall of Fame [Civil War file]. The 22nd MA formed north of Boston. Note: are we sure that the lemon peel style was closely associated with the MA game?
1864.32 NY Horseman Gets Banged Up Playing Ball
From an auction listing: “Includes Civil Diary of H. E. Randell of Co. L, 3rd Regiment of the New York Cavalry . . . . The multi-page hand-written diary gives a highly literate soldier’s accounts of life in the field during the Civil War. Randell’s entry for February 2, 1864 reads, in part, ‘Played Base Ball nearly all day and experienced a ‘chapter’ of accidents. Got a severe blow with ball to the face, and a finger almost broken . . . for it is a healthful sport and quite exciting.’ Randell’s reference to being struck by the ball also corroborates the contention that the game, played between New York and Massachusetts regiments, was played under Massachusetts rules.”
From an undated and unidentified auction catalog page accessed 6/26/09 at the Giamatti Center of the Baseball Hall of Fame [Civil War file]. The 3rd NY Cavalry formed in the Rochester/Syracuse region of upstate NY, where the old-fashioned game of ball[believed to be like the Massachusetts game] had been played before the War. The 3rd Regiment appears to have been in North Carolina in February 1864. Note: the diary is listed in the same lot as the trophy ball noted in file CW-140, and the cited diary entry [2/2/64] is the same as is written on that ball. The two items may be related, but the distance between the two regiments needs to be addressed.
1864.33 New Yorkers Lose Their Only Ball, and Their Centerfielder
“I remember helping to organize for our own regiment as baseball nine which won the championship of the read-guard, defeating some active nines from Connecticut and Massachusetts. For our regimental team I served as pitcher and I believe as captain.
“The baseball contests were, however, brought suddenly to a close through an unfortunate misunderstanding with the Rebels, upon whose considerateness in this matter of sports we had, it appeared, placed too much confidence. We found no really satisfactory ground for baseball within the lines of our fortifications and, after experimenting with a field just outside our earthworks, we concluded that risk of using a better field which was just outside the line of the pickets. It was, of course, entirely contrary not only to ordinary regulations but to special orders prohibiting any men from going through the picket lines. It was particularly absurd for men without arms to run any such risk. I do not now understand how the officers of the 176th, including the major commanding, could have permitted themselves to incur such a breach of discipline, but the thing was done and trouble resulted therefrom.
“We were winning a really beautiful game from the 13th Connecticut, a game in which our own pickets, who were the only spectators, found themselves much interested. Suddenly there came a scattering fire of which the three outfielders caught the brunt: the centre field was hit and was captured, the left and right field managed to get into our lines. Our pickets fell forward with all possible promptness as the players fell back. The Rebel attack, which was made with merely a skirmish line, was repelled without serious difficulty, but we had lost not only our centre field but our baseball and it was the only baseball in Alexandria.
G. H. Putnam, Memories of My Youth 1844-1865 (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1914), pp 48-49. Accessed 6/28/09 on Google Books via “’my youth’ putnam” search. The 176th was part of the Red River Campaign, and Alexandria LA is in mid-Louisiana, about equidistant from Baton Rouge and Shreveport. The 176th, raised in New York City, was at Alexandria LA from mid-April to mid-May of 1864. The 13th CT, organized in Hartford, was there April 30 to May 10. Kirsch and Millen both carry the meat of this colorful passage. Millen identifies Putnam with the 114th NY.
The game was probably in Pineville, just across the river from Alexandria, according to local historian Richard Holloway.
1864.34 Tenth MA Plays Inter-regimental Games of Base Ball and Wicket in VA
“[The 10th and?] the 2nd RI are to have a grand match of Base Ball to day. a few days ago they played a game of Wicket with the 37th and our boys beat them handsomely . . . .[Source letter not available on Google Books.]
“Our Regiment played another match game of Base Ball with the 2nd RI to day and beat them as usual. They played a second game of Wicket with the 37th last Saturday and beat them again worse than the first time.
“I was out with the Officers of our Regt and the 7th this morning playing Wicket when I got hit in the eye with the ball which has blacked it most beautifully. My eye is ornamented with a black spot as big as a silver dollar, if you can remember the size of one of those, I had almost forgotten it.” The last two passages are from an April 26, 1864 letter home.
Charles Harvey Brewster, When This Cruel War is Over: the Civil War Letters of Charles Harvey Brewster (UMass Press, 1992), pages 284 and 288. Accessed 7/709 on Google Books [in limited preview], via “brewster ‘when this cruel’” search. From the apparent context, this passage appears in a chapter covering March to June 1864, when the 10th MA was near Brandy Station VA. The regiment was from Springfield in western Massachusetts, and the 37th MA formed in Pittsfield MA.
1864.35 Government Promotes Base Ball
"GOVERNMENT BALL GROUNDS.-- The game of base ball has lately received such an indorement (sic) at the hands of the U. S. government as will go far toward giving it permanency as the national game of ball in America. Not only have base ball matches been encouraged by the military authorities, at the various army stations, as a means of recreation, as a means of recreation and exercise for the soldiers, in hours of relaxation from active service...but the naval authorities have recently made arrangements by which our sailors can similarly enjoy a pleasurable sport and healthy exercise at the same time. A large space of ground, lately recovered from the swamp lands adjoining the Navy yard, has been prepared as a ball ground, and during the summer the sailors and marines on board the several vessels at the depot are to use it when off duty. ...Ball players are being made by the hundred in our army. The few members of clubs who happen to get into the different regiments that have emanated from the Metropolis have inoculated the whole service with the love of the game, and during last year, for the first time, we believe, that base ball matches took place in every State in the Union-- or out of it, as the case may be--this side of the Mississippi."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 30, 1864
1864.36 NABBP Holds Special Meetings
[A] "THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION.-- Pursuant to a call issued by the President of the National Association of Base-Ball Players, a meeting of the delegates to the last Convention was held at the Gotham Cottage, No. 298 Bowery, on Tuesday evening last, February 23, the object being to take such action as might be necessary to procure an act of incorporation for the association, and also to take into consideration the alleged misconduct of the late Treasurer, in refusing to make a proper transfer of the funds, etc., of the Association to the new incumbent."
[B] "THE MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION.-- The adjourned meeting of the members of the National Association took place at the Gotham Cottage, No. 298 Bowery, on Tuesday evening last, March 8th...The first business of the meeting being the consideration of the action of the late Treasurer, Mr. Cozans (explained)..that a more satisfactory explanation had been made,..Mr. Brown's affairs, as Treasurer of the Association, would be found to be all correct."
[C] "The second meeting of the National Association, at Gotham Cottage, Bowery, New York, took place last evening...The principal business was the appointment of three committees...First, a committee to examine into the books and papers of the officers of the association and to ascertain the position and standing of the clubs whose delegates comprise those officials...Second, of a committee to secure an act of incorporation for the association...and third, a committee to meet with the Central Park Commissioners with a view to securing the use of the Park Base Ball Ground this season..."
[D] "THE SPECIAL MEETING OF THE N. A. B. B. PLAYERS (on May 11)...statements were made by members of the three committees referred to..the act of incorporation could not be obtained except from the State Legislature at their next session, and in consequence of this fact the committee on Central Park grounds had not deemed it necessary to take measures to procure the same, as it was requisite that the Association should be a corporate body..."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, February 28, 1864
[B] New York Sunday Mercury, March 13, 1864
[C] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 9, 1864
[D] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 12, 1864
1864.37 Buzz For Fly Game Begins
1864.38 Base Ball On The Rebound
[A] "THE SEASON OF 1864...The prospects for a successful season for 1864 are more favorable than those of any season since 1861..."
[B] "THE OPENING PLAY OF THE SEASON. NOT since 1861 has there been a season that has opened more auspiciously for the welfare of the game than the present one; and the prospects are that we shall have one of the most enjoyable series of matches of any year since base ball was inaugurated as our national game of ball."
[C] 'THE JUNIOR FRATERNITY.-- Not a week passes that some new junior organization does not spring into existence..."
[D] "MATCHES FOR SEPTEMBER.-- ...We are glad to note the fact that not even in the palmy days of 1860, when every vacant lot or available space for playing ball was occupied by junior clubs, have these young players been so numerous as this season."
[E] "THE SEASON OF 1864.-- Taking into consideration the existence of civil war in the country, the ball-playing season of 1864 has been the most successful and advantageous to the interests of our national game known in the annals of baseball...We are glad also to record the fact, that among the marked features of the past season none has been more promising for the permanence of the game than the great increase of junior players and clubs."
[A] New York Clipper, April 16, 1864
[B] New York Clipper, May 14, 1864
[C] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 22, 1864
[D] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sep. 9, 1864
[E] New York Sunday Mercury, Nov. 13, 1864
1864.39 Helping the Sanitary Commission
"A BALL-PLAYING JUBILEE IN PHILADELPHIA.-- Wednesday, May 25, and the three days following it, are going to be devoted to a regular gala-time in ball-play in the City of Brotherly Love, the 25th inst. being the occasion on which the grand match was suggested to the ball-players of Pennsylvania and New Jersey is to take place-- the contest being one for the benefit of the United States Sanitary Commission-- the contestants being selected nines from the prominent clubs of New Jersey and Pennsylvania."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, May 15, 1864
[B] Philadelphia Illustrated New Age, May 25, 1864
The United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised an estimated $25 million in Civil War era revenue and in-kind contributions
1864.40 Signals for Throwing to Base
"THE SIXTH RULE OF THE GAME...all pitchers should follow the example of the Excelsior players in 1860. The pitcher and catcher of the Excelsiors had regular signals whereby the pitcher knew when to throw to the bases. This is the only right plan to pursue in playing this point of the game."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 13, 1864
1864.41 Legal Pitching Deliveries
"Base Ball in Albany...The Mutual Club had a fine time in Utica...although the Utica nine had a pitcher who "bowled" the ball to the bat, he being a cricketer...by the way, bowling is fair, provided full pitched balls be sent in, as it is neither a jerk nor a throw, and what is neither one nor the other is fair pitching, according to the rules."
Brooklyn Daily eagle, Sept. 2, 1864
1864.42 Is THIS How Bunting Started?
"EXCELSIOR VS. ENTERPRISE.-- The "muffins" of these clubs played their return game yesterday on the Excelsior grounds...The feature of the play was the batting of Prof. Bassler of the Enterprise team...Being an original of the first water, he adopted an original theory in reference to batting, which we are obliged to confess is not of the most striking character. His idea is not a bad one though, it being to hit the ball slightly so as to have it drop near the home base, therefore necessitating the employment of considerable skill on the part of the pitcher to get at the ball, pick it up and throw it accurately to first base."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 16, 1864
1864.43 Like It or Lump It, Gents
[A] "ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.-- ...If any club is dissatisfied with our reports of their games, let them personally inform us of the fact; not go to our employers to revenge any fancied injury or trying to injure us. The base ball clubs must either take our reports as we give them, in our endeavor to do impartial justice to all, or they will not have a line of notice emanating from our pen...the next time the club our correspondent refers to see their name written by us in any paper with which we are connected, it will be when they behave to us like other clubs...we do not harbor ill will towards a solitary member of the Atlantic club...but there is a principle involved...it being the right of a reporter of base ball matches to fairly criticise the actions of players..."
[B] "ATLANTIC VS. GOTHAM.-- ...Our reporter will give a full account of the proceedings, as the satisfactory explanations made to him by the Secretary of the Club on Friday, have, as far as he is concerned, entirely restored the friendly relations which had previously been interrupted."
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 29, 1864
[B] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 17, 1864
1864.44 Canadian Baseball Association Forms
"BASE-BALL IN CANADA. A meeting of delegates appointed to form a Base-Ball Association in Canada was held in the town of Woodstock on Monday evening, 15th August, 1864."
Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, Sept. 10, 1864
Four clubs, all in Ontario, were represented-- the Young Canadian Club (Woodstock); Maple Leaf Club (Hamilton); Barton Club (Barton); and Victoria Club (Ingersoll)
1864.45 Playing for Prizes
"ECKFORD vs. MUTUAL-- AN INTERESTING GAME. -- These clubs played their return match together on the Union ballgrounds, Brooklyn, on Monday last...considerable interest being taken in the match, from the fact that it was the last of the season in which the Mutual first-nine would be engaged, and also that the Mutuals had offered a series of prizes to their players, amounting to one hundred dollars, as an incentive to extra exertions."
New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 16, 1864
1864.46 Wicket Match-- Baseballers vs. Cricketers
"BASEBALL PLAYERS vs. CRICKETERS-- ATLANTIC vs. WILLOW.-- ...On tuesday last, three of the members of the Atlantic Club undertook to play a game of single-wicket with three members of the Willow Cricket Club..."
New York Sunday Mercury, Oct. 30, 1864
The play is described extensively.
1864.47 "Union" Games Started 1864 Season
[A] "...These practice games are simply nothing more or less than substitutes for the useless and uninteresting ordinarily played on practice days by our first-class clubs. It has been suggested, time and again...that they devote one day in a week...to practicing their men together as a whole against the field; but as yet, not a solitary club has ever practiced their best players together in this way...It is this neglect on the part of or clubs, to improve the character of the practice games on their club grounds, that has led to the arrangement of these Union Practice Games.”
[B] “THE GRAND PRIZE-MATCH IN BROOKLYN. The prize-game of the series of Union practice-games inaugurated by Mr. Chadwick, which took place on Saturday, May 21st...proved to be a complete success in every respect, and one of the best-played and most interesting games seen for several seasons past...(it) afforded those present proof of the advantage of such a class of games...”
[C] “THE SECOND PRIZE-GAME IN BROOKLYN.—...the Atlantics refused to play according to the rules of these series of games...They also seemed to regard the match as one on which their standing as a playing-club was concerned, rather than...one of a series of games designed to test the merits of the flygame.”
[D] "The Eckford was defeated by the field at the so-called prize game, and the Atlantic won the game with the field. The prize game, so far as it interferes with the rules of the Convention, should be frowned down by all clubs, as it was repudiated by the Atlantic and Enterprise clubs.”
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 21, 1864
[B] Wilkes' Spirit of the Times, May 28, 1864
[C] New York Sunday Mercury, June 5, 1864
[D] New York Evening Express, June 13, 1864
See Supplemental Text for further newspaper coverage.
1864.48 NABBP Hobbles Pitchers
[A] “THE NEW RULES.—...’Section 5. Should the pitcher repeatedly fail to deliver to the striker fair balls, for the apparent purpose of delaying the game, or for any other cause, the umpire, after warning him, shall call one ball, and if the pitcher persists in such action, two and three balls; when three balls shall have been called, the striker shall be entitled to the first base, and should any base be occupied at that time, each player occupying them shall be entitled to one base. Section 6. The pitcher’s position shall be designated by two lines, four yards in length, drawn at right angles to a line from home to second base, having their centres upon that line at two fixed iron plates, placed at points fifteen and sixteen yards distant from the home-base, and for the striker...Section 7...whenever the pitcher draws back his hand, or moves with the apparent purpose or pretention to deliver the ball, he shall so deliver it, and must have neither foot in advance of the line of his position or off the ground at the time of delivering the ball; and if he fails in either of these particulars then it shall be declared a balk.’”
[B]
—“THE NEW RULES—adopted by the last Convention, promise to work out a desirable reform. The Pitcher can no longer push a game into the dark, by the old style of baby-play, but is ‘compelled’ to deliver balls to the Striker, or else a base is given. And then again, instead of taking a wide range, in which to swing a bill and move the feet, he must keep within his circumscribed limit, and deliver a fair ball.”
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, March 27, 1864
[B] New York Evening Express, April 22, 1864
For various reasons, umpires enforced the new rules only inconsistently. See Supplemental Text.
1864.50 Dime for Admission, Two Dimes for Carriages
"THE REGULATIONS OF THE CAPITOLINE BALL GROUNDS...Rule 1st,-- The admission to the Ball ground shall be as follows: for a single person ten cents, for a carriage twenty cents, its occupants of course being charged additional."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 16, 1864
The Capitoline Grounds were just opening, and were the second closed grounds; see 1862.9 for the Union Grounds, also in Brooklyn.
1864c.52 Former Mass-Game Champs Form Winning Wartime Team
"A much more pleasing picture is the recreation enjoyed by the boys of the 33rd [MA] Regiment. There were thirteen Sharon boys in the regiment and most of them had been members of the Sharon Massapoags, the state baseball champions of 1857. . . .
"They formed a nine of their own and soon defeated every team in the regiment. The New York boys of the 136th regiment next fell before them. At Atlanta their contest with a nine from the whole Cumberland army was crowned with success. Though unfortunately, but quite naturally the victors became insufferably conceited."
Amy Morgan Rafter Pratt, The History of Sharon, Massachusetts to 1865 (Boston U masters thesis, 1935), page 74. Search string: <morgan rafter pratt>.
1864.53 General Hooker's Players "Pretty Badly Beat", 70-11
A: The match game of base ball between the staff, and orderlies of Gen. Hooker, and thirteen players from our regiment came off this forenoon, the result was in favor of our regiment, the innings stood seventy to eleven, pretty badly beat wasn't they. They will play another game this afternoon. Gen. Hooker ordered Col. Wood to postpone brigade drill, that they might play.
B:Nothing has been stirring for the last week except for ball playing and one brigade drill. We play ball about all the time now. We, or some of the officers, have received a challenge from Gen'l Hooker's staff and escort to play a match. Fourteen players have been selected to play against them, amongst whom is ELE< the letter writer>. Four of them are commissioned officers, the rest enlisted men. We have also had a challenge from the one hundred and thirty.sixth New York, bit I don't know if it will be played or not.
C: Major Lawrence with a skillful nine selected from Hooker's body guard, challenged the [33rd MA] regiment to match them in a manly game of base ball, and his nine got worsted. The New York regiment threw down the glove with a like result. The champion Sharon [MA] boys knew a thing or two about base ball, which they had learned in contests with the laurelled Massapoags at home.
A: Letter of April 13, 1864 by Lt. Thomas Howland. Obtained via Massachusetts Historical Society, August 2015.
B: Letter home by E. L. Edes, April 1864. For full letter, see Supplemental Text, below.
C: A. B. Underwood, Thirty-Third Mass. Infantry Regiment, 1862 - 1865 (A. Williams and Co., Boston, 1881, page 199. Search string: <kershaw had a smart>.
It seems likely that these games were played under Mass game rules.
General Sherman's winter camp was outside Chattanooga, and his march into GA started in the beginning of May 1864.
The Massapoag Club of Sharon MA fielded 10-14 players for its pre-war games, which were subject to Massachusetts rules. Why would the regimental history, 17 years later, refer to "nines"?
1864.54 Daily Eagle Sees Base Ball Now Played Throughout US North (East of the Mississippi)
"Ball players are being made by the hundred in our army. The few members of clubs that happen to get into the different regiments that have emanated from the Metropolis have inoculated the whole service with a love of the game, and during last year, for the first time, we believe, base ball matches took place in every State in the Union-- or out of it, as the case may be-- this side of the Mississippi. Materials are now furnished to the various regiments that require them, and this by order of the Government, and this year, unless some very stirring work is done, games of ball will be played throughout the country, not only by civilians in the great cities, but by our soldiers in every camp, North, East, West, and South."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 30, 1864
In submitting this piece, Bob Tholkes writes: "In recent years the role of the Civil War in expanding baseball, once considered crucial, has suffered bombardment by several large-bore researchers. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle made the case for the influence of the war. If the crucial nature of the war's role is a myth, it is a myth reaching back to the beginning."
1864.55 Soldiers on leave play ball in Chicago
The Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1864 reports that the Turchin Base Ball Club of the 19th Illinois Infantry will play a base ball game this afternoon at the Prairie Cricket grounds, West Madison St., Chicago. "All friends of the Nineteenth, and of this healthy and invigorating game, are expected to attend."
Basil Turchin was colonel and commander of the 19th. Some members of the 19th had played for the prewar Excelsiors of Chicago.
The Chicago Tribune, June 28, 1864
1864.56 Muffin Game Tactics
MUFFINS EXTRAORDINARY—THE GAME OF THE AMATEURS—FOSSILS vs SAPLINGS.—The base ball match on Saturday, between the married and single amateurs, or the Fossils and Saplings, as they called themselves, went off in proper style and made the day, if not the players, famous. It had been agreed to play with elevens instead of nines. All were on the spot at three o’clock, and eager for the contest. Lads of ten never engaged in sport with heartier zest than did these old lads, whose ages probably ranged from twenty to sixty or sixty-five. Two or three hundred ladies and gentlemen officiated as spectators and critics—looked, laughed, cheered, commented, exclaimed, asked and answered questions. The respective clubs, flattered by so large an attendance no less than by pride of party were inspired to do what they did do. And it is no disparagement to the Saplings to say that the crowd of witnesses will testify and the score plainly indicates, that the Fossils carried off the principal honors—accomplished fewer bats, fewer catches and fewer runs, more outs, more fouls, more balks, more wild throws and more miscellaneous blundering; excited more laughter and more commiseration.—Some of their feats should be handed down to posterity. For instance, our neighbor of the Telegraph, Mr. CRANDALL, made a home run on a miss (instead of a hit)—a thing never before known in the annals of the game. Judge BACON succeeded in knocking eight foul balls during a single turn at the bat—believed to be the most brilliant thing of the kind on record. Dr. FOSTER run from base to base after fouls, three or four several times, and then returned again in safety and triumph. Others performed similar feats.—Fielders and shortstops instead of throwing to bases which their adversaries were approaching, considerately threw in another direction and allowed them to make tallies.
The Fossils also accomplished gratifying results by standing out of the way of balls, and letting them pass out into the fields, by forgetting to pick them up when they came near, and by throwing haphazard, when, after due deliberation, they had decided to throw; also by the base men omitting to touch adversaries or bases when the ball was in their hands and by the runners omitting to run when they had opportunities. It is not denied that the Saplings won considerable distinction in similar ways, but they must admit themselves outdone...in the fourth inning, when they scored thirteen, it became pretty clear that they could not successfully compete in the admirable science of blundering which constituted the cream or essence of the game...But it should be noted that the superiority was established in spite of the incapacity or else the determined and continued opposition of two of the members of the Fossil Club...These were the catcher, Mr. McMILLAN, and the pitcher, Mr. WHITE. Why was it that Mr. McMILLAN lost not a single run, and caught and threw out CALLENDER and PORTER, of the Utica Club? Why is it that Mr. WHITE pitched a la THOMPSON of the same club and caught no less than three balls on the fly—the only fly balls caught during the entire game? These things need explaining...The practice of pitchers WHITE and ADAMS had one feature that should be mentioned for the benefit of the old base ball organizations of this and other cities. Getting the ball in hand while an adversary was en route for the bases, instead of throwing it to the base man, (the chances being a hundred to ne that he wouldn’t catch it) a race for the base resulted between pitcher and batter, and it became a question of comparative fleetness and wind whether the batter should make a score or no.
Utica Morning Herald, August 29, 1864
The Morning Herald offers in this excerpt a rare glimpse into how a true muffin game, that phenomenon of the 1860s where unskilled social members of clubs sponsoring baseball teams would have a game of their own. Typically they were played for laughs; occasionally a club would slip a skilled player or two into the lineup, but this was frowned upon.
1864c.56 Confederate Prisoners Play Ball in Chicago
At Camp Douglas, a prisoner of war camp in Chicago, the Confederate army prisoners played "the old-fashioned game of ball--with a ball and bats--but no base ball" (because to the prisoner, base ball meant you had to dress up in uniforms).
Copley, "A Sketch of the Battle of Franklin...." p. 172. He was taken prisoner in late 1864, thus the ballplaying he witnessed occurred in late 1864 or early 1865.
There are mentions in other books of POWs playing base ball at Camp Douglas.
For example, the Chicago Tribune, March 25, 1862 reports that the Camp Douglas POWs played " a game of ball.... giving full play to the arms, legs and lungs." Same Oct. 19, 1863, June 9, 1862, reports that the prisoners are playing base ball and quoits. Confederate Veteran, Vol. 15, p. 234 prints the recollections of T. J. Moore, 3rd TN Infantry, who was a POW at Camp Douglas: "We were allowed to play town ball." Keller, The Story of Camp Douglas" p. 114 cites POW Curtis Burke as saying "The prisoners amuse themselves out of doors ... playing ball."
Copley, "A Sketch of the Battle of Franklin...." p. 172
1864.57 Union Army Parolees Play Baseball in Camp
Cox, "Civil War Maryland" says Union army parolees played baseball in 1864 at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland.
"Parole" was a system of POW exchange whereby the soldier, after surrender, took an oath not to serve again until properly exchanged, and was then released. Union parolees went to the parole camp near Annapolis that the Federal government established, to wait (in friendly territory) until notified that they'd been exchanged for a Confederate parolee. So this is another example of Union army POWs playing baseball.
Cox, "Civil War Maryland"
1864.58 Early Use of "Battery" As Pitcher-Catcher Pairing
[Active vs. Eureka 7/24/1864] "As regards the pitching, 'Walker's battery' proved to be very effective in aiding to achieve the result..."
from Richard Hershberger's 19CBB posting, September 21, 2017: "Walker was the pitcher for the Actives. I take the form 'Walker's battery' to be a riff off the military usage of the day of naming a unit by its commander, e.g. "Sykes' Division." Walker here is the commander of the battery, which consists of himself and Rooney, the catcher."
New York Sunday Mercury July 10, 1864
Note:
A few days earlier, Richard had noticed the use of "battery" in a July 26 game report: see Supplementary Text, below.
The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, page 86, citing the Chadwick Scrapbooks, had the first use of "battery" as 1868 (third edition).
Is the reported date correct? A July 24 match was reported on July 10?
1864.59 Union POWs Play Town Ball
The Savannah Republican, Dec. 2, 1864 prints an item from the Canton MS Citizen of Nov. 11, says that Union soldiers captured at Athens, AL, while on parole and en route to Memphis for exchange, "played quite spiritedly in a game of old fashioned town ball" while in Canton.
Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest had captured the Union garrison at Athens shortly before this. "Parole" is a form of captivity where the POW gives his pledge not to escape, and will await a POW exchange.
The Savannah Republican, Dec. 2, 1864
1864.61 Artillerists enjoying fine exercise
The Sacramento Daily Union, April 25, 1864, prints a story from the New York Herald, March 17, 1864, from the Army of the Potomac camp near Culpeper Court House: "The artillery brigade attached to the First Army Corps are enjoying fine exercise at match games of base ball. The men of Battery L, from Rochester, Captain Reynolds, played a game yesterday with the employees of the Quartermaster, Captain Crittenden." The quartermasters lost badly.
See also 1864.89.
The Sacramento Daily Union, April 25, 1864
1864.62 Louisiana Confederates play in Virginia
The Richmond Examiner, April 2, 1864 mentions "a friendly match of base ball, played between Hayes' and Stafford's Second Brigade, of the same corps, which match was won by General Hayes' brigade."
Stafford and Hays' brigades were stationed with the Army of Northern Virginia's 2nd Corps, near Orange, VA at this time. They were both LA units, and contained many prewar baseball players from the New Orleans teams. The POWs at Johnson's Island who played baseball there were often from these units.
The Richmond Examiner, April 2, 1864
1864.63 Entire Regiment Plays Sports
The Boston Traveler, March 18, 1864, prints a letter from the 1st Massachusetts, dated Brandy Station, March 15, 1864: "Camp Sports. Base ball, foot ball, and various gymnastic exercises, are in full tide of popularity and successful daily prosecution now, and the entire regiment, officers and men, turn out to engage in them."
The Boston Traveler, March 18, 1864
1864.64 Confederate POWs play baseball at Rock Island
Confederate army prisoners at the Rock Island, Illinois POW Camp, played baseball there. See Ben McAdams, Rebels at Rock Island (2000), p. 68, citing the diary of J. W. Minnich, Private 6th Louisiana Infantry.
Ben McAdams, Rebels at Rock Island (2000), p. 68
1864.65 Ball playing at Spotsylvania battlefield
The Fayetteville Observer, May 30, 1864: From Lane's (NC) Brigade, datelined Spotsylvania, May 17: "We pass our leisure moments in watching the enemy's and our skirmishers popping away at each other; while a little further off we see some of them running around apparently plying ball."
The Fayetteville Observer, May 30, 1864
1864.67 Confederate Major pitches Town Ball
The 1934 History of Worth County, Georgia, p. 501: "About the middle of March, 1864, while quite a number of he men were engaged in a game of town ball some evening, Major Rylander acting as he often did as pitcher, orders came for the battalion to report as soon as possible at Orange Court House, Virginia, for duty.... The game of ball was abandoned."
John Emory Rylander was major of the 10th GA Battalion. The unit was stationed at/near Franklin, VA (near Suffolk) at the time.
The 1934 History of Worth County, Georgia, p. 501
1864.69 Lithograph shows soldiers playing bat-ball game
A Lithograph at the library of Congress, "Camp of the 37th Mass. Vol's. Near Brandy Station" published in 1864, shows soldiers playing a bat ball game.
The 37th is/was known to have played baseball.
1864.70 16thMississippi plays Town Ball
Evans' "The 16th Mississippi Infantry" p. 238 cites the James Johnson Kirkpatrick diary,2-22-64, from Camp Rapidan in VA: "...very sorry that drill is so early resumed. It interfered with our amusements. Town Ball is all the rage."
Evans' "The 16th Mississippi Infantry" p. 238
1864.71 Soldier in TN asks sister to send him a baseball
Original 2 page handwritten letter from Alonzo P. Brown of the Company E 107th Regiment New York Volunteers as he writes to a young lady (we think his married sister) named Mrs. James H. Giles from the battlefields of the Civil War. Written in ink he talks of her sending him a baseball she had promised as in a previous letter he explained that everyone was baseball crazy and they needed a good ball to play with in camp! He writes, "You state that you are going to send the Ball." I have another letter to document this is clearly in regard to baseball!
Auction notice at http:picclick.com
1864.72 New Jerseyan enjoys watching army baseball
Gettysburg College's online ms. catalog has (MS-015) the letters of Frederick H. Kronenberger, 2nd NJ Infantry. From the catalog: "He writes of enjoying baseball games between other units."
Gettysburg College's online ms. catalog, (MS-015)
1864.73 Baseball near Petersburg
In late 1864, the New York Times reported the game among the fortifications and camps along the Appomattox River, “Sometimes a few enterprising minds get up a baseball match, and they are as punctilious over ‘fair’ and ‘foul’ as the most ambitious club at home.”
"The Army of the Potomac," New York Times, Oct. 30, 1864.
1864.74 86th Indiana Plays Town Ball in East Tennessee
After the camp was established, a ball ground was laid off, and daily, when the weather was favorable, those not on duty took exercise by playing a few games of "town ball."
Barnes, Carnahan and McCain, "Eighty Sixth Indiana" p. 319. This was Jan. 1864 near Knoxville, TN.
Barnes, Carnahan and McCain, "Eighty Sixth Indiana" p. 319.
1864.75 12th Kansas plays ball in Fort Smith
Private Henry A. Strong writes about camp entertainment in his journal on January 14th, 1864 in Fort Smith, AR:
"Ball playing is got to be a chief amusement. Well, anything to drive away the blues when a fellow is on short rations"
Courtesy Caleb Hardwick
A Rough Introduction to This Sunny Land: The Civil War Diary of Private Henry A. Strong, Co. K, Twelfth Kansas Infantry
1864.76 29th Iowa plays ball in Little Rock
Charles Musser of the 29th Iowa writes while stationed in Little Rock, AR on February 15th, 1864 during the Civil War:
"The boys are pretty generally all well and in fine spirits. ... They are laughing and yelling over their ball playing, and such like amusements"
Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa, By Barry Popchock, 1995. Courtesy Caleb Hardwick.
1864.77 196th PA plays ball in Baltimore
Morris et al., "Base Ball Pioneers," p. 255, quotes Griffith, "The Early History of Amateur Baseball" as saying in 1864 he watched soldiers of the 196th PA practice baseball in Baltimore. Among the soldiers practicing was Dick McBride, the well known pitcher. The 196th was a 100-days regiment that contained many Philadelphia area ballplayers.
Morris et al., Base Ball Pioneers," p. 255
1864.78 55th IL Plays Baseball in Alabama
"War Diary of Thaddeus H. Capron, 1861-1865", Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 12 (1919) 330-406, p. 378, March 10, 1864 entry: "We are still in camps, leading a monotonous life--Our principal pastime being games of baseball."
Capron's 55th IL was stationed near Larkinsville, AL at the time.
"War Diary of Thaddeus H. Capron, 1861-1865", Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 12 (1919) 330-406, p. 378
1864.79 Ball Playing in Black Regiment
Reid (ed.), "Practicing Medicine in a Black Regiment: The Civil War Diary of Burt G. Wilder," p. 147 (Nov. 24, 1864 entry): "This afternoon was a grand parade and then a review by Col. Kozlay; then we played ball till dark."
Wilder's 55th Massachusetts was stationed near Beaufort, SC at the time.
Reid (ed.), "Practicing Medicine in a Black Regiment: The Civil War Diary of Burt G. Wilder," p. 147
1864.80 176th NY Plays Baseball in LA
The New York Sunday Mercury, Jan. 3, 1864 reports that the 176th NY, stationed at Bonne Carre Bend, LA, have formed two teams and are enjoying baseball games. Two recent matches (probably in 1863) are mentioned, and the names of the players are given.
1864.82 176th NY Plays in Madisonville, LA
The New York Sunday Mercury, Feb. 28, 1864 reports on a game played the 6th at Madisonville, LA by members of the 176th NY.
They played the 9th CT, winning 46-5. See SOT, April 30, 1864
1864.83 176th NY Plays 9th CT in LA
The New York Sunday Mercury, March 20, 1864 reports that at Madisonville, LA the 176th NY played the 9th CT, both teams composed "exclusively of commissioned officers." The 176th won, 46-5.
1864.84 Artillerymen Play Artillerymen in VA
The New York Sunday Mercury, March 20, 1864 reports a game played on the 15th at Rappahannock Station, VA between the 5th NY Battery and the 6th Regiment, NY Heavy Artillery. The latter won 23-16.
See also Spirit of the Times, April 30, 1864
1864.85 South Carolina soldiers Play Ball near Petersburg
Wil Greene, "Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion..." p. 133, cites the William J. Miller memoir,Winthrop University, as saying "We younger soldiers played ball often [in the winter of 1864] and in winter time we had snow..." This while they were defending Petersburg.
1864.86 Union artillerists play baseball in Texas
Williams, "Chicago's Battery Boys. The Chicago Mercantile Battery in the Civil War" p. 478 cites the diaries of Cone (2-13-64) and F. D. Pitts, Feb. 16/25, 1864 as saying that on Feb. 25th, while stationed on the Matagorda Peninsula, the left section of the battery defeated the right section 16-4 in a game of base ball.
1864c.87 Ball soft enough for soaking
A Vermont soldier described it in this way. "The ball was soft, and a great bounder. To put a base runner out, he had to be hit by the ball, thrown by the pitcher."
Quoted in Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank, p. 170, in his page on soldier's baseball. It appears Wiley cites either the James F. Williams diary, at the NYPL (entry of 2-20-64) or the Josiah S. Chandler ms., Western Reserve HS. Chandler was a member of the 5th VT infantry.
1864.88 17th Maine plays the "school-boy game of base-ball"
The Portland Daily Press, April 25, 1864 prints a letter from a soldier in the 17th Maine Infantry, dated April 18, which says that a few weeks ago at James City, VA "the boys got about all manner of games [including] the old school-boy game of base-ball."
Craft, "141st Pennsylvania" p. 168 says that "ball-playing" in camp at James City was popular in March 1864.
The Portland Daily Press, April 25, 1864
Craft, "one Hundred Forty-First Pennsylvania"
1864.89 Artillerymen "great on base-ball"
"[Reynolds'] men are great on base-ball and have a lovely ground for it in front of the stables."
From Charles S. Wainwright, "A Diary of Battle" pp. 325-326 (entry of March 10, 1864). Reynolds commanded a battery of the 1st Corps artillery, stationed near Culpeper, VA.
See also 1864.61 entry.
Charles S. Wainwright, "A Diary of Battle" pp. 325-326
1864.90 Union POWs play base ball in Macon POW Camp
Mattocks' "Unspoiled Heart" (a journal of the 17th Maine Infantry) p. 162 (7-6-64 entry): "Some of our officers amuse themselves hugely with cricket, base-ball, fencing, &c., ..."
Mattocks' "Unspoiled Heart" (a journal of the 17th Maine Infantry) p. 162
1864.91 DC Cavalry play in camp
"When not on duty, these men from Maine [of the 1st DC Cavalry] relaxed by playing cards, singing, drinking, wrestling, boxing, horse racing, target shooting, and baseball."
Citing contemporary sources, from March 1864 in DC. The cite is Mangrum's "Edwin M. Stanton's Special Military Units" (Thesis, U of North Texas, 1978), p. 270.
The cite is Mangrum's "Edwin M. Stanton's Special Military Units" (Thesis, U of North Texas, 1978), p. 270.
1864.92 Baseball in Culpeper Camp
The diary of Jacob Wallace Smiley, a Union sharpshooter with the 7th Company, 1st Battalion, New York Sharpshooters, in the Northern Virginia region. The majority of the entries detail his experiences in and around Culpepper from December 1863 to May 1864. He talks about camp life, drills, daily activities, letters from home, and playing baseball in camp. Smiley's last complete entry was on May 4, 1864, when the regiment moved from Culpepper toward Wilderness.
Smiley diary, at Civil War Diaries web site
1864.93 Seventh Wisconsin Infantry plays baseball in Petersburg tranches
The letters of Capt. Henry F. Young, 7th WI, include an 8-4-64 letter stating: "The men are beginning to Show their old life and animation last evening they had a game of ball."
This refers to baseball while in the Petersburg trenches. The letter appears on p. 251 with a lengthy annotation on 253n31, of the book "Dear Delia."
Smith and Larson, eds., "Dear Delia," p. 251, 253.
1864.95 Union army garrison plays baseball at Fort Bartow
A Georgia Historical Marker at "Fort Bartow" near Cartersville, GA, says that in 1864, the Union garrison played baseball in the field to the west of the fort.
Georgia State Historical Marker
1864.97 31st Iowa plays baseball in Alabama
The officers of the 31st Iowa Infantry, stationed around Woodville, AL, played a game of base ball.
Letter of April 28, 1864, datelined Woodville, AL, in the Albertson family papers, Georgia Historical Society.
1864.98 POWs form Wicket, Cricket and Baseball Clubs
1864.99 33rd Massachusetts plays in camp
33rd MA, Lowell
Saturday, March 19, 1864—Warm. Fixed up things and then about 10 or 11 o’clock went went out to see the review of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division—a gay sight. But they won’t wear their white gloves much longer. I read a letter from Nellie Garland today. Col. Asmussen returned from Bridgeport this forenoon. Gilbreth and Palmer and a mess of them went out and had a game of ball this p.m.
1864.100 Prize baseball from Decatur?
"Captain France was a member of the Seventeenth New York zouaves, who were attached to the Sixteenth corps under the command of N.S. Granger. There were a number of good ballplayers in the Seventeenth and when, in May '64, the corps was encamped at Decatur, Ala., the baseball enthusiasts conceived the plan of sending to Nashville, 130 miles north, for a ball and bat.
The plan was executed and many a hot game of baseball was played on the parade grounds. When the call for dress parade came and a game was in progress, it was customary for the man having the ball in his hand at the time to keep it until the next game was played.
In this manner the ball was carried on Sherman's march to the sea, through the Atlanta campaign, its siege and capture, then through the Carolinas campaign to Raleigh, Richmond and finally to Washington. At Washington, while the soldiers were waiting to be mustered out, the last game of ball was played. When it was over Lieutenant Barnett was walking off the field with Captain France. 'Here, France,' he called, and gave the ball an underhand toss into France's waiting hands."
The trail of the provenance picks up shortly after the printing of the newspaper article with an undated but clearly very old handwritten letter from Charles H. Pease, a Captain with the 17th New York Veteran Volunteers (Zouaves) who served with France. He writes:
"This ball was used by the Officers of the 17th N.Y. at Decatur, Ala in '62 during the ocupation (sic) by Federal troops and when the 17th received marching orders to go to the front at Atlanta Ga it was in possession of Capt. James S. France who kept it long after the war and finally gave it to my son Harry France Pease in 1915." Pease signs below. The close relationship between these former brothers in arms is apparent in the middle name of Pease's son.
The ball itself is crafted in the lemon peel style typical of the Civil War-era and bears vintage handwritten block-lettered text that reads, "Zouave B.B.C." and "Officers 17th N.Y.V.V.I." The ball is deeply toned but text remains bold and the structural integrity of the sphere is strong with no loose stitching or major defects to the leather. Also here is a modern printed transcript of many of Captain Pease's letters home from the war and a 2011 letter of appraisal from noted Civil War historian Will Gorges. The ball is consigned by the great-great grandson of Capt. Charles H. Pease, with his letter of provenance. Heritage Auctions, calling this ball the most thoroughly documented Civil War baseball
1864.101 Officers Play Baseball on Folly Island
On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 1864, officers of the 55th Massachusetts Infantry played "a game of base ball" at their camp on Folly Island, near Charleston, SC.
Lt Col. Charles Fox, in North and South Magazine, Feb. 2010.
1865.2 Illinois Soldier Plays Wicket Near War’s End
“Washington March 29 65. . . . Put up fence round our Q’rs played wicket ball Evening bought cigars and smoked.” “Monday Apr. 3rd Lost and found my Pocket Book Played Wicket Traded watches.” “Tuesday Apr. 4th Played ball.”
Milo Deering Dailey, Civil War Diary of 1865. Accessed 6/22/09 by Google Web search: “’milo deering dailey.’” The diary covers February through-June 1865. Dailey was with the 112th Illinois, which was organized in Peoria IL. The regiment was in North Carolina in early April, closing on Raleigh from the east. Washington NC is about 95 miles E of Raleigh.
1865.3 Bay Stater to Wife: “We had a gay old time playing ball . . . send me five dollars”
“My dear wife, We were drawn up in line this afternoon and informed we would be discharged and sent to our Regiments in ten days. We had a gay old time playing ball. . . . You must send me five dollars without fail. I am almost distracted by the want of tobacco.”
Letter home from Wheeling, West Virginia, by John R. Irving, May 4, 1865. Irving, in a Massachusetts Cavalry unit, was assigned to General Custer’s Division. Note: it is possible that the ellipsis in this rendering omits a bit more detail about the ballplaying. Accessed 6/22/09 by Google Web search “’john r irving’ ‘auction contents.’” The letter is descried under auction #2.1.
1865.4 On Last Day of Service, PA Soldiers Play Ball
[Thursday May 4, 1865] “Not much to do in camp. Most of us playing ball.”
Civil War Diary of Dr. William McKibbin, covering February to August 1865. Accessed via Genealogybank subscription 5/19/09. McKibbin wrote this entry in Carlisle PA. He mustered out of the service on the next day, and three days later “Ella and I married at 7:00 in the evening.”
1865.5 Minnesotans Play Ball in Near Selma Alabama.
“Wednesday [May] 17 [1865]: Laid in camp. Boys playing ball. Weather fine and warm with breeze. David reported captured.”
Civil War Diary of William Johnston Dean, August 1862 – September 1865. This entry was written near Selma. Alabama. Diary accessed via Google Web search “’william johnston dean’ diary.” Dean was with the 9th Minnesota.
1865.7 Awaiting Release, Soldier in DC Plays and Watches Base Ball
“This afternoon I played ‘base ball’ for four hours a 1st baseman in a match game between the Officers of the 12th V.R.C. and the Officers of the 24th the game – after seven innings – standing in favor of the former club, the score being 53 to 23”
Letter, October 2, 1865, from York Amos Woodward, 24th Veteran Reserves. A series of Woodward’s letters, written in October and November 1865, contain 9 references to base ball, including a report of a game between the National club of Washington and the Excelsior of Brooklyn [October 9]. Woodward appears to have been in Washington at the time. From an auction offering accessed via Google Web search on 5/19/09.
1865.8 First Integrated (Adult) Club Takes the Field?
Luther B. Askin of Florence, MA (a hamlet of fewer than 1500 souls lying about 2 miles W of Northampton and about 90 miles W of Boston) is thought to be the first adult of African lineage to play on an integrated team in a standard match game. The first baseman is listed in box-scores of the first 13 matches played by the Florence Eagles Club in 1865.
Brian Turner, "America's Earliest Integrated Team?" National Pastime,Number 22 (2002), pages 81-90.
Brian Turner (email to Protoball, 2/1/2014), has supplementary data on early integrated play, and he reports that the 1865 game evidently remains the earliest known case of integrated adult play in a standard game.
Florence is recalled as one of the centers of Anti-Slavery activism in those times. The next earliest known instance of integration occurred in 1869 in Oberlin, OH, also a center of Anti-Slavery activism (see Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding Home, 1998, page 102). Further instances of early integration might be found in communities that held similar views.
Brian notes in 2014 that juvenile clubs were apparently less unlikely to engage in integrated play, even prior to the Civil War. The son of Frederick Douglass, for instance, is known to have played on a white junior club in Rochester NY in 1859. Luther Askin also played on such juvenile teams prior to the Civil War.
Have any earlier instances of integrated adult clubs arisen in recent years?
1865.9 The Abolition of Suppers to Clubs
"THE ABOLITION OF SUPPERS TO CLUBS.-- The following are the clubs whose presidents have appended their signatures to the resolution putting a stop to clubs entertainments to their adversaries after matches played among themselves. This season no suppers or refreshments will be tendered to any of the clubs playing matches with each other named in the following list, except it be done by private parties and not at the expense of the club. All visiting clubs from out-of-town localities will be hospitably received as usual. The clubs signed the resolution in the following order: Mutual, Star, Newark, Eagle, Resolute, Atlantic, Empire, Gotham, and Active. The others will also sign it before the month expires."
New York Sunday Mercury, April 16, 1865
Notable for their absence: the Knickerbocker and the Excelsior of Brooklyn.
1865.10 New England Association Formed
[A] "...the fact is, the Massachusetts and Maine players are so far removed from New York, that they cannot conveniently participate in the meetings of the National Association, and therefore they purpose setting up a duplicate institution...They will, of course, indorse the rules of the National Association...At a meeting lately held at the rooms of the Tri-Mountain Club, the following resolutions were adopted...Resolved, That the Tri-Mountain Base ball Club us its utmost influence and endeavors to secure the formation and organization of a New England Convention of National Baseball Players."
[B] "...A preliminary meeting of Delegates from those Clubs who propose joining the New England Convention of National Base Ball Players will be held on WEDNESDAY next, Oct. 25th, at 12 M., at the Hancock House, Court square, Boston...The following named Clubs have signified their intention of taking part...Tri-Mountain, of Boston, Fly-Away of East Boston, Harvard of Cambridge, Granite of Holliston, King Phillip of East Abingdon, Dictator of Newton, Continental of Newtonville."
[C] "N. E. CONVENTION OF BASE BALL CLUBS.-- A convention of delegates from the Dictator, Eureka, Electric, Fly-Away, Granite, Harvard, King Phillip, Lightfoot, Lowell, Orient, and Tri-Mountain Base Ball Clubs, was held at the Hancock House, yesterday...the association shall be called the New England Association of National Base Ball Clubs."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, Feb. 19, 1865
[B] Boston Herald, Oct. 21, 1865
[C] Boston Herald, Nov. 9, 1865
1865.11 Atlantic Ball Committee Issues Fanciful Invitation
"Base Ball. THE ATLANTIC CLUB BALL.-- The members of the Atlantic Club give their fifth soiree dansante, on Thursday Evening, January 10th, on which occasion they should have a delightful time, at Gothic Hall Adams st. The Atlantics are Pacific-ally inclined, and bent on Union with their Athletic brethren of several ball clubs. Their motto is Excelsior as players, and the Star of their destiny is Victory. Their Enterprise leads to Mutual efforts to excel, and patriotically they desire to see the Eagle resume its Empire over the whole land. Though they have never met the Knickerbocker or Gotham on the field they hope to do so next season, when they intend showing them how Active they are in the fly game. Resolute in achieving the laurels of the championship, that being the Keystone of their temple of fame, they fought bravely for the lead, and when the last game was ended their cry was Eureka. Their old friends of the Eckford, it is to be hoped, will meet them at the Gothic Hall on this festive occasion, for it is to be a fraternal gathering of representatives from all the clubs, from Ontario lake to Nassau island, and from Camden to Utica.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 6, 1865
Fanciful, but containing a reminder that the Atlantic were the champion club of 1864, and apparently forgetful of the Club's matches with the Gotham in 1857 and 1858, which ended with the Gotham's ending of the series.
1865.12 "Professional" Players? Yes. Playing For Money? No
[A] "THE MUTUAL CLUB AND THEIR GROUNDS. The Mutual Club...have rented the enitre ground (at the Elysian Fields)...their object being to afford equal opportunities for both the 'professional' and amateur players of the club to enjoy practice to their hearts' content."
[B] "PLAYING BASEBALL FOR MONEY.-- ...We trust never to see our national pastime brought down to the level of contests in the prize ring of pugilism. The honor of incasing the ball as the only trophy of victory in a match is sufficient without bringing pecuniary rewards into the game as incentives for extra efforts. When the time arrives for money to be made the object in playing ball, then good-bye to friendly contests and the rule of gentlemanly ball-players..."
[A] New York Sunday Mercury, May 7, 1865
[B] New York Sunday Mercury, July 30, 1865
1865.13 Elysian? Yes. Sacred? No.
"The old (Elysian Field baseball) grounds have lately been greatly improved. Trees have been cut down, rocks have been taken up, hollows filled up and hills levelled, and in fact everything has been done to make the field one of the finest ball grounds in the country. Permanent seats are to be placed on the boundary line set apart for spectators, and henceforth no difficulty will be experienced in keeping the crowd from interfering with the players around the catcher's and first and third base player's positions."
New York Clipper, May 13, 1865
1865.14 Baseball For The Wounded
"The Satterlees are returned wounded veteran soldiers, stationed, temporarily, at the West Philadelphia Hospital. Great difficulty is experienced in obtaining a 'practiced nine,' from the fact of players being constantly returned to duty with their regiments. The Club, with more propriety, might be called the 'Impromptu'."
Philadelphia Inquirer, May 26, 1865
1865.15 Base Ball for the Haute Monde
"Base Ball. EXCELSIOR OF BROOKLYN VS. KNICKERBOCKER OF NEW YORK. The Excelsior Club of Brooklyn, which in 1860 was the model club of the United States, and which, socially speaking, has but few equals now, had a friendly game with their old competitors of the veteran Knickerbocker Club, the Nestors of base ball, yesterday, at Hoboken, and a most enjoyable meeting it was. On this interesting occasion the busy denizens of Wall street, Exchange place, &c., threw aside their speculative ideas for the time being, and ignoring oil and gold stocks seek the green turf, and with bats and balls chase dull care away in brilliant style."
New York Herald, July 8, 1865
1865.16 Boom in Base Ball Travel
"Base Ball Clubs.-- The city (Philadelphia) will be visited by a number of ball clubs during fall...the Athletics themselves will visit Baltimore, Washington, Altoona, Princeton, and Salem...The clubs who will visit this city are mainly of New York. They will include the Mutuals, Eckfords, Actives, Unions, Empires, Eagles, Gothams, Excelsiors, Knickerbockers, Eurekas, hudson Rivers, Newark of Newark, Lowell of Boston, Enterprise and Pastimes of Baltimore, Mountain Club of Altoona, Alleghany of Pittsburg, Nassau of Princeton, &c."
Philadelphia National American, reprinted in the New York Evening Post, July 17, 1865
1865.17 Mass Game Survived the Civil War
"BASE BALL. A very interesting game (Massachusetts) was played on the 17th, between the Warren Club of Roxbury and the Lightfoot Clup of Neponset, on the grounds of the latter."
Boston Herald, June 21, 1865
1865.18 Atlantic Get Championship Flag
"FLAG PRESENTATION. Just as the game (Empire vs. Atlantic) commenced, a member of the Atlantic club, on behalf of Miss Emma Jean Boerum, presented to the Atlantic Base Ball Club a streamer 150 feet long. The Empire Club run it up their flag staff and it will henceforth wave as an emblem of championship until some club shall take it away. Such gifts are held in high esteem by the Atlantic boys, coming from the fair sex and so unexpectedly."
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 22, 1865
1865.19 The "Slide Game" Protested
"You will appreciate my motive in calling the attention of first-class players of the game of Base-Ball, to a notorious custom practiced by players of the present day...The system of which I disapprove...is, that on the field we notice the 'slide game,' or when a player in an effort to gain his base will throw himself on the ground, feet foremost, sliding for fully a distance of twenty feet. It is not only the unmanliness of such a proceeding, but the danger encountered by a basekeeper from his opponent dashing at the base, feet first, convincing you that in the attempt to 'put him out' half a dozen steel spikes may enter your hands or body, hence the necessity of abolishing such an unfair practice, benefiting only the party in play, and angering or humiliating the base players. It is almost impossible to put a player out who is determined to enforce this manner of avoiding the ball, unless you are willing to risk the severe injury of your hands. It is not only an improper play, but destroys the spirit of the game."
Anonymous reader communication in the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 24, 1865
1865.20 Eagle Eyes Height and Weight
"The following table will give the champion nine, their age and weight...
Name Age Weight
Pearce,c 28 145 pounds
Pratt, p 21 140 "
Start, 1st b 23 160 "
Crane, 2d b 20 180 "
C. J. Smith, 3d b 29 150 "
Galvin, ss 23 160 "
Chapman, l f 22 155 "
P. O'Brien, c f 39 150 "
Sid. Smith, r f 23 135 "
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 24, 1865
First appearance of players' physical information, a staple of newspaper articles for many years.
1865.21 Fitz Credited With Originating Tournaments
“To the untiring exertions of Col. (Thomas) Fitzgerald, the worthy President of the Athletic, is due the inauguration of the ‘tournament’, which has awakened such a wide-spread interest in all parts of the country...”
Philadelphia Illustrated New Age, Nov. 1, 1865
Few and far between in prior years, festivals or tournaments mushroomed in 1865, for example:
Portland, ME—at July 4 celebration. Open to all teams in ME, considered for state championship. 4 teams entered, knockout competition. 2 games at a time in the morning, championship game in the afternoon. 9 innings. Cash prizes for 1st and 2nd. Portland Daily Evening Advertiser coverage on July 6 indicated that the only out-of-town team was subject to “expressions of strong sympathy against them.”
Altoona, PA- per a reprint in Fitzgerald's City Item (Philadelphia) on 7/22, Altoona Tribune was promoting a baseball carnival—Athletics, Mountain Club of Altoona, and Alleghany Club of Pittsburg
Wash DC- Games on 8/28 between the Nationals and Athletics, 8/29 between the Nationals and the Atlantic of Brooklyn, “a festival such has never before been offered in Washington”. Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 8/28
Wash DC- Oct. 9-11 tourney had the Excelsior of Brooklyn, the Nationals, and the Enterprise of Baltimore. Round robin, one game per day. Wilkes Spirit of the Times, 10/21
Wilkes Spirit of the Times on Oct. 21 printed a letter from Chicago describing problems encountered at a tourney in Rockford, IL. 5 teams, two days, two games each day.
1865.22 89th Illinois beats 49th Ohio
On April 3, 1865, the 89th Illinois Infantry defeated the 49th Ohio 50-23 in a game played in their camp at New Market, TN.
Reyburn, "Clear the Track: A History of the Eight-Ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry," p. 450, citing a soldier's diary.
1865.23 NABBP Meeting Sets Attendance Record
[A] "The ninth annual convention...proved to be most numerously attended...ever held...over ninety clubs were present."
[B] "...forty-eight clubs from New York State; fourteen from Pennsylvania; thirteen from New Jersey; four from Connecticut; four from Washington, D. C.; two from Massachusetts; and one each from Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maine, making a grand total of 91 clubs represented..."
[A] Brooklyn Daily Eagle, December 15, 1865
[B] New York Clipper, December 23, 1865
1865.24 Change Pitchers
"Their nine [the Stars], however, needs two pitchers on it, no nine being
complete without a change pitcher."
New York Clipper, June 10, 1865
Earliest comment on need for more than one pitcher on a club. From a 19cbb post by Robert Schaefer, Nov. 9, 2003
1865.25 Three Mutuals Banned for "Heaving" Game to Eckfords for $100
"On September 27, 1865, gambler Kane McLoughlin paid $100 collectively to three [Mutual] players to heave, in the favored term of the period, a game the following day to the Eckfords. . . . in the fifth inning the Mutuals amazingly allowed eleven runs to score through [what the NYTimes described as] 'over-pitched balls, wild throws, passed balls, and failures to stop them in the field.' "
The Mutuals obtained confessions and banned catcher Bill Wamsley and two others. John Thorn cites this as base ball's first game-fixing incident.
John Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden (Simon and Schuster, 2011), page 127. The book includes [pp. 128-129] the written confession of the youngest plotter, Tom Devyr, whom the Mutuals reinstated the following year.
See also Philip Dixon, "The First Fixed Game-- Eckfords vs. Mutuals", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp.46-48.
1865.26 Otis MA Bests Lee MA at Wicket, 236 - 232
Lee, August 21, 1865
"To the Editor of the Pittsfield Sun: --
"The long-talked-of match game of wicket ball between the Otis and Lee Clubs, took place on Saturday last, resulting in a victory for the former. The game was well-contests, booth sides manifesting extraordinary skill and zeal, and aside from the one-sided decisions of the Referee, nothing occurred to mar the harmony of the occasion. The following was the result:
"Lee. First Innings 78, Second Innings 80, Third Innings 74, Total 232.
"Otis. First Innings 73, Second Innings 79, Third Innings 84, Total 236.
"It appears that the Otis Club were allowed to furnish a Referee -- and they furnished one who was a resident of [nearby] Sandisfield. In the minor details, when called upon to decide a question, he was so manifestly unjust as to bring forth showers of hisses from the spectators.
"The Lee Club have again challenged the Otis Club to play a match game for $50 and the suppers. If the challenge is accepted, it is to be hoped that an impartial referee may be chosen, who will be acceptable to both Clubs."
Pittsfield Sun, August 24, 1865, page 2.
1865.27 First Organized Base Ball Game in NC?
The New York Clipper, April 29, 1865 gives the box score of a game played near Goldsboro, NC on April 5th, between the drum corps and the privates of the 102nd NY Infantry, Sherman's Army, that had recently marched into NC.
Other than play at Salisbury POW camp, this might be the first organized base ball game ever played in the state.
The New York Clipper, April 29, 1865
1865.28 Union Guards at Elmira Prison Play Baseball with Confederate POWs
Baseball play was part of the Elmira POW Camp throughout the war.
The Chemung Union played against some Elmira POWs in 1865, according to James E. Hare, "Elmira," p. 75.
Janowski, "The Elmira Prison Camp" p. 360 says that in 1864 "The teams of the different [Confederate] states used to play baseball for the edification of the guards," quoting a soldier who was in the 54th NY guarding the POWs.
Horrigan, "Elmira: Death Camp of the North" says that on 9-3-64 two guards regiments, the 54th and 56th NY Infantry, played baseball against each other outside the camp.
James E. Hare, "Elmira," p. 75
1865.29 Ballplaying at Appomattox surrender?
There's long been a story that when Robert E. Lee's Confederate army surrendered at Appomattox, April 9, 1865, the Union victors played baseball games with the Confederate POWs. According to Pat Schroeder, who works for the NPS at Appomattox, that is not true--the Union and Confederate soldiers did indeed play baseball that week, but they played in their own camps, not against each other.
1865.30 Henry Chadwick, Shortstop
"I posted a couple of years ago about a match in the late 1860s or so in which Chadwick played, IIRC, right field. The discussion aroused a bit of interest, so I will mention now an earlier such game, played November 11, 1865 and reported in the Brooklyn Eagle of the 13th, between the Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Union. Chadwick plays shortstop for the Union. This confirms that he left the Eagle at some point that year. I'm not sure, but I think it was before the season, just based on writing style. I suspect that Sutton, who played for the Eagle, was his replacement, but the evidence is thin. If anyone has firm information on this I would be interested."
- Richard Hershberger
Brooklyn Eagle, November 13, 1865. Posted to the 19CBB listserve on November 8, 2017.
This game did not involve experienced players, and is omitted from Protoball's lists of early games and clubs. Richard advises (email to Protoball, 12/6/2017): "It's not the 'Eagle Club' and the 'Union Club.' It is reporters, and possibly other employees, of the newspapers the Brooklyn Eagle and the Brooklyn Union.
1865.31 Union soldiers play baseball with Confederates
"A letter from the Army of the Potomac dated the 1st inst., says that for five hours after the truce was declared along our lines in front of the 9th Corps, thousands of our boys threw down their arms and engaged in ball playing with the rebel soldiers. The utmost good feeling prevailed..."
This "truce" appears to have been connected with the Hampton Roads Peace Conference, and probably occurred Jan. 29th, 1865.
If true, this would be perhaps the first verified instance of ball playing between the two sides, in a battlefield situation. The story was printed in many newspapers that month. However, no contemporary diary mentions this event.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Feb. 6, 1865
1865.32 133rd New York plays an amateur club
The Washington Daily National Republican, May 19, 1865 reports on a game at Fort Meigs, near DC, where the 133rd New York lost to the National Club of DC 32-27. Gives a box score.
Fort Meigs was on the eastern edge of DC, in Maryland.
The Washington Daily National Republican, May 19, 1865. The New York Sunday Mercury, May 21, 1865.
1865.33 Texas Confederate Plays Town Ball Near Petersburg
A March 11, 1865 letter from Private Willis Watts of the 1st TX Infantry, Lee's army reports "We have pretty good huts to live in and are always very lively & merry when the weather permits we often Play Town Ball Cat Bull Pin or Something of that Sort."
1865.34 Sherman's army plays base-ball in SC
The Madison State Journal, Feb. 28, 1865 prints a letter from a soldier in the 22nd WI, dated Feb. 1, 1865, Robertsville, SC, which claims: "For the first time in an month, large numbers of men are engaged in the sports of school-boy days--the running leap, the wrestle and the base ball."
The Madison State Journal, Feb. 28, 1865
1865.35 Indiana Regiment plays Town Ball in NC
The Randolph Journal (Winchester, IN), April 6, 1865 prints a letter from a member of the 124th Indiana, near Kinston, NC, dated March 8, 1865: "I saw Lieut. Col. Neff this morning eagerly engaged in a game of town-ball, and exhibiting as much spirit and dash as a young blood of twenty five..."
The Randolph Journal (Winchester, IN), April 6, 1865
1865.36 Chicago artillerist plays baseball in Baton Rouge, earns $5
Winters, "The Civil War in Louisiana" p. 404 cites the diary of Florison D. Pitts, of the Chicago Mercantile Battery (at LSU): "While at Baton Rouge [in early 1865] he attended the circus and played baseball, receiving five dollars for the latter."
1865.37 Opdycke's Tigers Play ball in AL
Clark, "Opdycke Tigers" (125th Ohio) p. 379, etc. quotes a soldier's diary as saying (Feb. 2, 1865, near Huntsville): "The boys played ball on the parade ground." (Feb. 3, similar). Feb. 27: "Clear day. Ball game in morning. No drill or dress parade."
1865.38 Ball Playing at Andersonville POW Camp
The January 5, 1865 diary entry of W. H. Smith, a prisoner of war at Andersonville POW camp, says “Capt. Wirz gives me a pass to go to hospital. Have been down there all afternoon playing ball.”
Andersonville is in western Georgia. It is about 55 miles E of Columbus GA, which is on the Alabama border. It was the site of the most notorious and deadly camp for Union POWs.
1865.39 Al Pratt learns baseball in the army
Noted ballplayer and manager Al Pratt was interviewed in 1895. Pratt stated "Yes, it is true.... that I learned to play ball while in the army." Pratt notes he served in the 61st PA Infantry and was present at the siege of Petersburg.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 17, 1895.
1865.40 Soldiers Play Baseball while waiting to be mustered out
The National Tribune, Aug. 23, 1906 prints an article about how, while in Alexandria waiting to be mustered out of service, soldiers of the 186th New York played a team from the 51st Pennsylvania. According to the article, the 186th won so decisively that the 51st would never play them again.
Records show that the 51st PA arrived in Alexandria May 25, 1865, and that the mustering out took place from July 16-27. The 186th was mustered out June 2, 1865. The game must have taken place in late May or early June.
The National Tribune, Aug. 23, 1906
1865.43 First baseball in North Carolina?
While stationed at Morehead City, the 159th and 176th New York played baseball games on March 28 and April 11, 1865.
1865.44 Baseballs don't survive one inning
The Story of a Cannoneer under Stonewall Jackson by Edward a. Moore
1866c.1 Umps Finally Begin to Call Strikes and Balls
Association rules permitted umps to call strikes in 1858, and to call balls in 1864, and it's a little hard for us to imagine a game in which those features were missing. But when did they become common?
"The safe generalization is that balls and strikes were rarely called before 1866, gradually became more and more a routine part of the game, with the process reaching completion at some point in the professional era."
Having found and summarized over 25 newspaper articles from 1858 to 1872, Richard suggests three factors that delayed implementation of the key rules:
[1] Close calls were disputed, making umpiring uncongenial.
[2] Players didn't insist on called pitches, even though longer games resulted when umpires declined to make calls.
[3] Resistance to novelty, especially outside greater New York city.
Richard Hershberger, "When Did Umpires
Start Calling Balls and Strikes?," available on Protoball at <url>. Page 5 of 7.
1866.2 Early African American Club in Philly Plays Initial Game Agains Albany Visitors
"On October 3, 1866, at the Wharton Street grounds, the Pythians played and lost a match against the Bachelor Club of Albany, 70-15. This game is the only known regular match for he Pythian in their inaugural year."
"In spite of their enthusiasm for playing ball, the Pythian initially had trouble competing out of their neighborhood. Apparently, there was a turf boundary, and the Irish tried to keep the blacks of the inner-city wards from venturing south of Bainbridge Street . . . the 'dead line,' and any movement beyond 'meant contention.'"
For this game, however, a large crowd accompanied the club to the playing ground, and the game proceeded.
Jerrold Casway, "Philadelphia's Pythians: The "Colored" Team of 1866-1871," National Pastime (SABR, 1995), page 121. Jerry's source is the Sunday Dispatch, October 7, 1866.
1866.3 Five-Home Run game
Lipman Pike hit 5 home runs for the Athletic BBC of Philadelphia on July 16, 1866, a feat never equaled.
Jerrold Casway, "Lipman Pike's Home Run Record-- Athletic vs. Danville", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 49-50.
1866.4 Admission charged for Atlantic - Athletic championship matches
The Atlantic of Brooklyn and the Athletic of Philadelphia played two of three scheduled matches for the championship of 1866; admission was charged for both games.
Eric Miklich, "Money Ball-- Atlantics vs. Athletics", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 51-52.
1866.6 First Known Table-top Base Ball Game Appears
John Thorn writes:
"Who is the Father of Fantasy Baseball? Most today will answer Dan Okrent or Glen Waggoner, but let me propose Francis C. Sebring, the inventor of the table game of Parlor Base-Ball. In the mid-1860s Sebring was the pitcher (clubs only needed one back then) for the Empire Base Ball Club of New York (and bowler for the Manhattan Cricket Club). At some time around the conclusion of the Civil War, this enterprising resident of Hoboken was riding the ferry to visit an ailing teammate in New York. The idea of making an indoor toy version of baseball came to him during this trip, and over the next year he designed his mechanical table game; sporting papers of 1867 carried ads for his “Parlor Base-Ball” and the December 8, 1866, issue of Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly carried a woodcut of young and old alike playing the game. A few weeks earlier, on November 24, Wilkes' Spirit of the Times had carried the first notice. (In a previous 2011 post I discussed other fantasy-baseball forerunners, from Chief Zimmer's game to Ethan Allen's: http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2011/10/17/fathers-of-fantasy-baseball/)
Our Game posting, June 2, 2014; see -- http://ourgame.mlblogs.com/2014/06/02/first-baseball-table-game/. An illustrated advertisement for Parlor Base-Ball had appeared in Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, December 8, 1866.
The game had spring-loaded mechanisms for delivering a one-cent piece from a pitcher to a batter and by a batter into a field with cavities: "a pinball machine is not very different," John observes.
For a short history of table-top games, see
baseballgames.dreamhosters.com/BbHistory.htm
[] are there other reliable published sources of the evolution of table-top games, besides John's 2011 blog?
[] is anyone known to be attempting to reconstruct and play this game, or others?
[] can we determine what game events are given in the field of this apparatus?
1866.7 Finally, Substitutes Make the Box Score
The box score of a game between the Richmond and Ashby Clubs of Richmond, VA, on September 4, 1866, and reported in the Richmond Daily Dispatch of September 5 is the first known to have listed substitutes. Both were injury replacements, the only circumstance for which substitutes were then permitted.
The box score was accessed through genealogybank.com
1866.8 Earned Runs Concept Advanced
"Taking a fair average of the Eureka pitching, by deducting the additional runs in the first inning from the four miscatches, and allowing the one run only which the Athletics first earned in that inning, we find a total of 17 runs in three innings charged to Ford’s pitching, to offset which there was but one miscatch, and but 16 runs charged to Faitoute in six innings, an average of over two to one in his favor. These figures tell the story. We refer to this matter in order to do justice to Faitoute; many laying the defeats sustained in the two matches mainly to his pitching, whereas the fault lay in the errors in the field and in the lack of skill displayed at the bat, the superior of play on the part of their adversaries of course having a great deal to do with the result."
New York Sunday Mercury, September 2, 1866, per 19cbb post by Richard Hershberger, Sep. 4, 2012
This is remarkably advanced analysis. It doesn't take the final step of calculating the earned run average per nine innings, but it is otherwise identical to the modern ERA stat. It then argues that the true abilities of the players are better shown through statistical analysis than by superficial judgments. Gentlemen, we have a sabermetrician here!
1866.9 New England Association Forms , Intends to "Ignore the New York Game"
"Convention of Base Ball Players --
"A convention of delegates from clubs that play the New England game, was held at the Parker House this morning, to organize a 'New England Association,' which shall ignore the New York game. Twenty gentlemen were present, and were presided over by Mr. Richard Parks of Stoneham, with Mr. C. A. Brown as Secretary. The clubs represented were:
"Excelsior of Upton, Wyoma of Lynn, Liberty of Danvers, Alpha of Ashland, Active of Salem, Wenuchess of Lynn, Union of Danvers, Warren of South Danvers, Warren of Randolph, Peabody of Danvers, and Kearsarge of Stoneham.
"The association was duly formed, and the following officers were chosen to serve till next April:
"Daniel A.Caskin, of Danvers, President; J. Albert Parker, of Ashland, and William Kinsley, of Randolph, Vice Presidents; Richard Park [sic], of Stoneham, Secretary; Moses Kimball, of Danvers, Treasurer.
"The constitution of the Massachusetts Club [sic] was taken as a basis, and all desirable alterations made in it, after which the meeting adjourned till next April."
Boston Traveler, September 15, 1866. Note: In his article on the Kearsarge Club in Base Ball Founders (McFarland, 2013 -- pages 304-307), Peter Morris cites two other sources of this event: Boston Daily Advertiser, September 17, 1866, and Springfield Republican, September 18,1866, page 4.
[] Was there actually a single "Massachusetts Club" constitution in 1866 to draw from? Did it have the same playing rules as the New England rules adopted in 1858?
[] Richard "Parks" or Richard "Park"?
[] Do we have records of these 11 clubs playing in 1866, or earlier?
[] "Wenuchess" Club? Peter Morris' guess is "Wencehuse"
1866.10 Throwback Game of Cat-and-Dog Seen in Pittsburgh
"Cat and Dog -- An interesting trial of skill at this old time game was played at Pittsburgh Pa., on the 5th inst., between the Athletics, of South Pittsburgh, and the Enterprise of Mt. Washington. The game was witnessed by a large crowd of ladies and gentlemen.
[The printed box score shows three players on each side, a pitcher-catcher and two fielders. The result was the Athletics, 180 "measures" and the Enterprise 120 measures. There is no indication of the use of innings, side-out rule, or fly rule]
[This spare account leaves the impression of a one-time throwback demonstration.]
New York Clipper, 15 September 1866.
Pittsburgh Commercial, September 6, 1866.
Protoball would welcome input on how the rules of this game differed, if at all, from other games using "cat" in their names.
1866.11 California Clubs Hold Conventions, View Championship Games
"In 1866 . . . about a half dozen California baseball clubs sent representatives to first Pacific Base Ball Convention in san Francisco. This was primarily a San Francisco affair; only one team, the Live Oaks from Oakland, came from outside the city. This gathering of baseball tribes sought to standardize rules and organize a local championship."
A second SF convention was held the following year, and "twenty-five clubs from as far away as San Jose attended the meeting. One account claims that one hundred clubs" attended.
P. Zingg and M. Medeiros, Runs, Hits, and an Era: The Pacific Coast League, 1903-1958 (University of Illinois Press, Chicago, 1994), page 2. Cited in Kevin Nelson, The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball (California Historical Society Press, San Francisco, 2004), page 12.
Is there an indication of what standardization was needed, and whether rules were discussed or adopted that wee at variance with New York rules?
Can we determine what original sources Zingg and Medeiros used?
1866.12 Club Claims County Championship in MA
"ANAWAN BASE BALL CLUB - The Anawan Base Ball Club, of Mansfield, which was organized August 4, 1866, claims to be thus far the champion club of Bristol County. The following is the report of the matched games it has played this season - September 1, 1866, Norfolk, of Foxboro, 39, Anawan, 26; 8th, Rough and Ready, of South Walpole, 17, Anawan, 99; 15th, Taunton, of Taunton, 13, Anawan, 154; Oct. 13, Taunton, of Taunton, 23; Anawan, 30; 23d, Norfolk, of Foxboro, 14, Anawan, 52; 25th, Chemung, of Stoughton, 2nd 9, 27, Anawan, 2nd 9, 63; Chemung, of Stoughton, 1st 9, 24, Anawan, 1st 9, 45".
Taunton Union Gazette and Democrat November 1, 1866
Mansfield MA (1866 pop. about 2300) is about 25 miles SW of Boston and about 20 miles NE of Providence RI.
1866.13 First Team Name on Uniform Shirt
In 1866, Milwaukee's Cream City Club and the Union Club of Morrisania [Bronx] became the first to display a team's name on the uniform shirt.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1866-cream-city-milwaukee/
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1866-union-morrisania-ny/
For other unifomr firsts, go to http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
1866.14 First Uniform with Graphic Design
In 1866, the Live Oak Club of Cincinnati was the first to display a graphic design on the uniform shirt.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1866-live-oak-cincinnati/
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
Can we guess why this innovation came to Cincinnati and not, say, to New York?
1866.17 Baseball Introduced to the Richmond Public as a Novelty From the North
BASE BALL--MORE MATCH GAMES--DESCRIPTION OF THE MODE OF PLAYING IT.
Two match games of base ball are to come off this afternoon. First. The second game between the Stonewall and the Richmond Junior Clubs, at the grounds of the former, on Church Hill, when both clubs will appear in full uniform, and undoubtedly attract a large attendance of spectators. The next game, the clubs being composed of adults will probably excel in interest, will be played between the Old Dominion and Richmond Clubs at the grounds of the Richmond Club, opposite Elba Park. This game will also attract many spectators, and it is quite probable that among them will be the elite and beauty of Shockoe Hill. We call especial attention to these games, from the fact that the exercise is healthy and inspiring; and we truly hope that our prediction of a large attendance on both grounds will not be thwarted by the result.
The game of base ball was imported here from the North since the close of the war, and though copied in the main from the English game of cricket, is undoubtedly of American origin. It is unquestionably one of the best means in vogue for cultivating the physical powers. And, moreover, it may be set down as a remedy for many of the evils resulting from the immoral associations which the boys and young men of our towns and cities are very apt to become connected with. These opinions have been endorsed by some of the most eminent clergymen in the country, who themselves have formed clubs for purposes of "moral and healthful recreation."
Having been requested to give a sketch of the manner in which base ball is played, we have procured from Messrs. Cole & Turner the rules of the game; and in giving it we comply more particularly from the fact that many of us, in our school-boy days, played a game called "cat," which some think superior to the game of "base." The game of base ball is played in the following manner:
[Here follow, slightly edited into prose form, the entirety of the contemporary NABBP rules essentially verbatim]
In concluding this somewhat elaborate article upon the subject of base ball, we may state that it is seriously in contemplation to form a club for the purpose of playing heavy base by the most weighty (avoirdupois) and influential men in Richmond. We have in our possession the names of the first nine, who have already agreed to become members, and we may at no distant day, or at least so soon as the organization is perfected, give a more particular description of the "Heavy Base Ball Club." Their first game will be looked forward to with much interest.
Richmond Daily Dispatch, 31 August 1866
"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
1867.1 New York and Philly Colored Clubs Hold Championship -- Philly Win Is Disputed
From the New York Sunday Mercury, October 6, 1867:
THE COLORED CHAMPIONSHIP – The contest for the championship of the colored clubs played on October 3, on Satellite grounds, Brooklyn, attracted the largest crowd of spectators seen in the grounds this season, half of whom were white people. The Philadelphians brought on a pretty rough crowd, one of them being arrested for insulting the reporters. They also refused to have a Brooklyn umpire, and insisted upon an incompetent fellow’s acting whose decisions led to disputes in every inning. The Excelsiors took the lead from the start, and in the sixth inning led by a score of 37 to 24. But in the seventh inning the Brooklyn party pulled up and were rapidly gaining ground, when the Philadelphians refused to play further on account of the darkness. A row then prevailed.
The following particulars, as far as the reporters could record the contest, the black members of the organization imitating their white brethren in betting and partisan rancor which resulted from it:
EXCELSIOR [Philadelphia]: Price, 3b; Scott, c; Francis, 2b; Clark, p; Glasgow, 1b; Irons, cf; Hutchinson, lf; Brister, rf; Bracy, ss.
UNIQUE [Brooklyn]: Morse, cf; Fairman, p; H. Mobley, c; Peterson, 1b; Anderson, 2b; Bowman, 3b; D. Mobley, ss; Farmer, lf; Bunce, rf.
Excelsior – 42 Unique – 37 (7 innings)
Umpire: Mr. Patterson of the Bachelor Club of Albany
Scorers: Messrs. Jewell (Unique) and Auter (Ecelsiors)
---
In the same edition:
A GRAND DISPLAY BY THE COLORED CLUBS
The baseball organization among the colored population of Brooklyn, are in a fever of excitement over the advent of the celebrated champion Excelsior Club of Philadelphia, which colored nine will visit Brooklyn on October 3 to play two grand matches with the Eastern and Western Districts, the games being announced to come off on the Satellite Grounds on October 3rd and 4th. These organizations are composed of very respectable colored people well-to-do in this world, and the several nines of the three clubs include many first-class players. The visitors will receive due attention from their colored brethren of Brooklyn: and we trust, for the good name of the fraternity, that none of the “white trash” who disgrace white clubs, by following and bawling for them will be allowed to mar the pleasure of their social colored gathering.
---
Sunday Mercury, September 29, 1867:
CONTEST BETWEEN COLORED CLUBS
Arrangements have been made between the Excelsiors, of Philadelphia, and two Brooklyn clubs, all colored, to play two games for the colored championship of the United States at Satellite grounds, on the 3rd and 4th of October. We are informed that the contending clubs play a first-class game, and from the novelty of such an event colored clubs playing on an inclosed (sic) ground will excite considerable interest and draw a large crowd.
---
New York Clipper, October 19, 1867
EXCELSIOR VS. UNIQUE
The Excelsior Club of Philadelphia and the Unique Club of Brooklyn, composed of American citizens of African (de)scent, played a game at the Satellite Ground, Williamsburgh, on Thursday, October 3d. The affair was decidedly unique, and afforded considerable merriment to several hundred of the “white trash” of this city and Brooklyn. The game was a “Comedy of Errors” from beginning to end, and the decisions of the umpire – a gentlemanly looking light-colored party from the Batchelor Club of Albany – excelled anything ever witnessed on the ball field. Disputes between the players occurred every few minutes and the game finally ended in a row. At 5 ½ o’clock, while the Brooklyn club was at the bat, with every prospect of winning the game, the Excelsiors, profiting by the examples set them by their white brothers, declared that it was too “dark” to continue the game, and the umpire called it and awarded the ball to the Philadelphians. Confusion worse confounded reigned supreme for full an hour after this decision, and the prospect seemed pretty fair at one time for a riot, but the police, who were present in large force, kept matters pretty quiet, and the crowd finally dispersed…
New York Sunday Mercury, September 29, 1867 and October 6, 1867
New York Clipper, October 19, 1867
A shorter account appeared in New York Sunday Dispatch, October 6, 1867
See also Irv Goldberg, "Put on Your Coats, Put on Your Coats, Thas All!," in Inventing Baseball: the 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 38-59.
Was the October 4th game played between these African American clubs?
Is this game properly thought of as a national championship?
1867.2 Colored Clubs Play in Philly: Frederick Douglass Attends a Game
Frederick Douglass
[A] "FRED. DOUGLAS [sic] SEES A COLORED GAME. – The announcement that the Pythian, of Philadelphia, would play the Alert, of Washington, D.C. (both colored organizations) on the 16th inst., attracted quite a concourse of spectators to the grounds of the Athletic, Seventeenth street and Columbus avenue, Philadelphia.
"The game progressed finely until the beginning of the fifth innings, when a heavy shower of rain set in, compelling the umpire, Mr. E. H. Hayhurst, of the Athletic, to call [the] game. The score stood at the end of the fourth innings: Alert 21; Pythian, 18. The batting and fielding of both clubs were very good. Mr. Frederick Douglas was present and viewed the game from the reporters’ stand. His son is a member of the Alert."
Note: From two weeks later:
[B] "COLORED BALL PLAYERS. At Philadelphia, on the 19th inst., the Pythians, of that city, played a match game with the Mutuals of Washington, with the following results: Pythians – 43; Mutuals – 44
Pythian: Cannon, p; Catto, 2b; Graham, lf; Hauley, c; Cavens, 1b; Burr, rf; Adkins, 3b; Morris, cf; Sparrow, ss.
Mutual: H. Smith, p; Brown, c; Harris, 1b; Parks, 2b; Crow, lf; Fisher, cf; Burley, 3b; A. Smith, rf; Whiggs, ss.
[A] New York Clipper, July 13, 1867.
[B] New York Clipper, July 27, 1867.
For more on one early African American club, the Pythian Club, see J. Casway, "Philadelphia's Pythians; The "Colored" Team of 1866-1871," National Pastime, (SABR, 1995), pp. 120-123.
1867.3 Upset Gives Western Clubs First win vs. the East
When the Forest City BBC of Rockford, IL, upset the touring National BBC of Washington, D.C., it marked the first win for a "western" club against a team from the east.
John Thorn, "The Most Important Game in Baseball History?-- Rockford vs. Washington", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 55-57
1867.5 Morrisania Club Takes 1867 Championship, 14-13
The Union Club of Morrisania won the 1867 Championship, winning its second game of the series, 14-13, over the Atlantic Club. Charlie Pabor is the winning pitcher. Akin at shortstop and Austin in center field make spectacular fielding plays.
Game played Oct. 10, 1867.
Gregory Christiano, Baseball in the Bronx, Before the Yankees (PublishAmerica, 2013), page 75. Original sources to be supplied.
Can we add something about the first game, and the sites of each game? A bit more about interim game scoring?
1867.6 Batters' "Hits" First Appear in a Game Report
In the first issue of The Ball Players’ Chronicle, edited by Henry Chadwick, a game account of the “Championship of New England” between the Harvard College Club and the Lowell Club of Boston featured a box score that included a list of the number of “Bases Made on Hits” by each player. This was the first instance of player’s hit totals being tracked in a game.
The Ball Players' Chronicle (New York City, NY), 6 June 1867: p. 2.
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:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
Do we know if Hits were defined in about the way we would define them today?
1867.7 Nationals Inaugurate Western Tours
"...the Nationals (of Washington, DC)...were the first Eastern club to widely "tour." And so among their other accomplishments should be noted their popularizing of the "tour" which came to dominate the baseball seasons of 1868, 1869 and 1870, before the National Association began in 1871...these tours did much to help convince club owners and supporters that baseball could sustain a professional existence."
Greg Rhodes,19cbb post June 17, 2002
1867.8 Signs Go Back To At Least 1867
"Always have an understanding with your two sets of fielders in regard to private signals, so as to be able to call them in closer, or place them out further, or nearer the foul-ball lines, as occasion may require, without giving notice to your adversaries."
Haney's Book of Base Ball Reference, 1867
19cbb post by Peter Morris, Nov. 8, 2002
1867.9 Your Tax Dollars At Work/Play
"...a number of the players had clerkships in that department and in
fact a fairly frequently reprinted quotation calls the Second Auditor's
office was "the birthplace of baseball in Washington."
19cbb post by David Ball, Dec. 16, 2002, quoting the Washington Star, 8/14/27 and Washington Evening Star, 10/1/33.
Creation of phantom jobs for ballplayers was a commonplace in baseball's amateur era.
1867.10 Mitts in Michigan
"We have noticed in all the matches played thus far
that the use of gloves by the players was to some
degree a customary practice, which we think, cannot be
too highly condemned, and are of the opinion that the
Custers would have shown a better score if there had
been less buckskin on their hands."
Detroit Free Press, 8/4/1867, reference in 19cbb post #2124, Aug. 4, 2003
1867.11 Playing the Old-Fashioned Game: 1867
a detailed account of a game of "old fashioned base ball" between "two select elevens who never played the modern game."
"In the old game, it will be remembered, there is a first base about a rod to the right and a little toward the front of where the batter stands; the second base is about twenty rods in front of him, in the centre of the field; the home base is about ten feet to the left of the batter. The person running must be put out by being hit with the ball when he is more than a pace from his pace, etc."
Paterson Daily Press of August 2, 1867
per a 19cbb post by John Zinn, Aug. 9, 2008, "This is only one of about a half dozen accounts of "old fashioned base ball" games in Paterson in 1867. The games typically lasted six innings with eleven on a side."
1867.13 Moneyball 1867
"Many will be surprised to learn that the Atlantics have vacated the scene of their greatest triumphs, and have located themselves on the Eckford grounds, or rather the Union ball grounds, in Williamsburgh, entirely out of the way of the residence of the majority of their members, and in opposition to the wishes of many of the best men in their club. It would appear from all accounts that the present ruler of the club, failing to make any advantageous arrangement with Weed & Decker for a greater share of the proceeds in match days than the players received last year, and finding Cammeyer of the Union grounds ready to offer good terms to secure the club, they availed themselves of the latter offer of sixty per cent of the receipts and closed with him at once. But this being against the rules of the association, they made out a new form of agreement and hired the grounds after paying forty per cent of the receipts taken in lieu of rent. They change will not benefit the club, and it is the worst precedent Cammeyer could have adopted as all clubs can now fully claim a share of the sale money."
New York Daily News, April 21, 1867, per 19cbb post by Richard Hershberger, Sep. 30, 2013
1867 would be a watershed year for baseball finances. At the beginning of the season ten cents was still the standard admission. Midway through the season some clubs would experiment with twenty-five cent admissions. It turned out that the public was willing to pay this, and this changed everything. At ten cents the receipts paid for expenses, but only the top draws like the Atlantics and the Athletics could turn a significant profit. At twenty-five cents this opened up a revenue stream to many more clubs, and the fraternity found itself awash with cash (at least compared to previously). A similar thing would happen a century or so later with television money. The effect in the 1860s was to lock in professionalism. By 1868 there were openly professional picked nine games being played, and the following year they dropped the pretense entirely.
1867.14 NABBP Draws Color Line
"...the report of the Nominating Committee, through the acting chairman, Mr. James W. Davis, was presented, the feature of it being the recommendation to exclude colored clubs from representation in the Association, the object being to keep out of the Convention the discussion of any subject having a political bearing, as this undoubtedly had.
The Ball Players’ Chronicle December 19, 1867
1867.15 First Uniform with Serif Letter on Shirt
The Pastime Club of Baltimore was the first to display a serif letter on its shirts, in 1867.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1867-pastime-baltimore/
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
1867.16 Baseball's Resemblance to English Rounders Discussed
"I have mentioned base-ball as one of our principal out-door games. We play cricket, but base-ball is to our lads what cricket is to yours. It is the English ball game “rounders,” but developed into something much more interesting and important. It is preferred to cricket, because the play is more varied and less formal; but nevertheless it has become a very formidable and solemn game." Sydney Morning Herald, April 11, 1867, quoting the London Spectator
[from “Yankee Pastimes” by “A Yankee”], Sydney Morning Herald April 11, 1867, quoting the London Spectator.
Finder Richard Hershberger also notes, 6/3/2016:
The distinction between baseball as a developed version of rounders and baseball as a development from rounders is subtle, but I think it is important. In the first, baseball/rounders is perceived as a family of closely related games, some more and some less developed. In the second, baseball is a single game defined by an official set of rules, descended but distinct from rounders. The former emphasizes the similarities, the latter the differences. This is a necessary precursor to the later claim that baseball is completely unrelated to rounders.
This is a late example of the formula that baseball and rounders are the same game, albeit baseball a more developed form. You can find such statements in the 1850s, but by 1867 the more typical version was that baseball developed from rounders. Here is English commentary on the [1874] American baseball tourists:
"Baseball is an American modification, and, of course, an improvement of the old English game of rounders..." New York Sunday Mercury, August 16, 1874, quoting the London Post of August 1, 1874
Is Protoball correct in thinking that the unnamed American's quote had appeared in an earlier "Yankee Pastimes" column in the London Spectator, and was then cited in the Sydney (Australia?) Morning Herald of April 11, 1867?
1867.18 First Inter-Racial Baseball Game?
Between a Haole (white) team and a "native" (Polynesian) team, won by the latter 11-9. See
http://protoball.org/Pacific_Club_of_Honolulu_v_Pioneer_Club_of_Honolulu_on_24_August_1867 and sources cited therein.
1867.21 Wisconsin's First State Base Ball Tourney Lists $1500 in Prizes
"FIRST ANNUAL STATE BASE BALL TOURNAMENT OF WISCONSIN, $1500 IN PRIZES TO BE AWARDED. There will be a State Base Ball Tournament at Beloit, Wis. commencing Tuesday, 30 September, 1867. Under the auspices of the Wisconsin Association of Base Ball Players.
"The following are the prizes to be awarded. . . ."
"A New Baseball Discovery," John Thorn, June 17, 2013, posted at https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/a-new-baseball-discovery-a1d8f579388.
(John found the 7-foot broadside for the tournament at the Beloit Historical Society, and posted it in a short article about the experience.)
Top first class prize -- $100 cash and $100 Gold Mounted Bat
Junior prizes (under age 18), "Pony Clubs" (under age 15)
Prizes for top out-of-state club, plus several "special" prizes: best pitcher, best catcher, most homers, best runner, best thrower.
From John Pregler: "The Beloit Free Press published the following complete list of the prizes awarded at the Beloit Base Ball Tournament:
Senior Clubs - First Class: 1st prize, Cream City of Milwaukee; 2nd prize: Whitewater of Whitewater; 3rd prize: Badgers of Beloit.
Second Class: 1st, Capital City Jr. of Madison; 2nd: Delavan of Delavan; 3rd, Eagle of Beloit.
Juniors: 1st, Badger Jr of Beloit; 2nd, Excelsior Jr of Janesville.
Pony: Rock River Jr of Beloit
Outside the State - Seniors: 1st, Phoenix of Belvidere, IL; 2nd, Mutual of Chicago" - Janesville Gazette, Sept. 19, 1867
[A] Is "Pony Club" a common term for teen clubs?
---
[B] Wasn't $1500 a tidy sum in 1867?
-- from John Thorn, 9/22/20: "$1500 was a hefty prize: $27,783.73 in 2019 dollars (via Consumer Price Index adjustment)."
1867.22 Eureka! A Press Credential
"The plan introduced by the Eureka Club of having tickets for the regular reporters of the press, none other to occupy seats near the scorer, should be adopted by all our clubs and public ground proprietors."
New York Sunday Mercury, June 23, 1867
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.
Peter Morris discusses press coverage arrangements in Morris, A Game of Inches (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.
Are earlier cases known?
Is it known whether these press accommodations were normally granted by a ball club, like the Eureka, or by the owner of the ballfield?
1867.24 A Cool Treat for Kansas Fans
"Quite a number of ladies and gentlemen were present to witness the exercises, but they were compelled to seek the shade, owing to the extreme heat. An ice cream saloon was erected, and its refreshments were able to keep the audience cool."
Fort Scott Weekly Monitor, July 31, 1867
Richard Hershberger, 5/4/2021: "New one to me, and I haven't got anything earlier."
As of 5/9/2021, Protoball shows:
[] an 1859 mention of ice cream at Rockford IL at https://protoball.org/Ballgame_in_Rockford_in_June_1859
[] an 1867 reference to ice cream at in IL https://protoball.org/Little_Vermillion_Club_of_LaSalle
We wonder what ice cream was like in 1859 and 1867, before cold storage was common.
Has anyone written about the evolution of comestibles for fans in the Origins Era?
1867.26 "Cavalry Base Ball" Illustration Printed in Pittsburgh
"A CAVALRY GAME
The October number of one of the Comic Monthlies, contains an illustration of a Cavalry game of base ball, which it says is patented. On a large field is placed a picked nine, 'operating' on horse-back; the left field, centre field, and right field occupy appropriate positions. The pitcher has a cannon that looks like one of the Fort Pitt twenty-inch guns (this exceeds Pratt, the lightening pitcher), and is pitching a ball by means of it at one of the cavalrymen, whose bat is raised to stop it; home-runs, short-stops, and the other points of the game are well illustrated. The umpire occupies a block house, from which protrude two telescopes, and the picture generally has a military aspect. One of the chief advantages of the horse-back game is to be found in the ease with which the home-runs ae accomplished."
Pittsburgh Daily Commercial, September 5, 1867, page 4.
|
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. |
Are other baserunning games known that were to be played on horseback?
Do we know what "Comic Monthlies" were?
1867.27 Union Club Offers Season Tickets in Washington Paper
"The Union Base Ball Club, of Lansingburg, New York, will arrive here today and play a match game with the Nationals, near the State Department, on Wednesday afternoon. Season tickets may be had at Cronin's, or at James Nolan's at No. 372 Pennsylvania Avenue, near Sixth Street. The price of a single admission ticket for a gentleman and ladies is fixed at twenty-five cents."
Daily Morning Chronicle, September 3, 1867.
From Bob Tholkes, 11/2/2021: "First reference I've seen in '67 for sale of season tickets...seller not named, though likely the Nationals. Innovation?"
Note: Peter Morris' fine A Game of Inches: The Story Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball (Ivan R. Dee, 2006), section 15.1.1, notes that the White Stockings charged $10 for a season ticket in 1870. Like the 1867 Washington offering, the Forest Cities of Cleveland in 1871 noted that a $10 season ticket would admit both a gentleman and lady, but the club also sold season tickets for individual entrants at $6.
Is earlier use of season tickets known?
1867.28 First Detailed Set of Rules for Stoolball Appear
"RULES OF STOOLBALL
1. The ball to be that usually known as best tennis, No. 3.
2. The [paddle-shaped] bat not to be more than 8 inches in diameter.
3. The wickets to be boards one foot square, mounted on a stake; the top of the wicket to be four feet nine inches from the ground. One of these wickets to be selected by the umpire as that to which the ball shall be bowled.
4. The wickets to be 16 yards apart, and the bowling crease to be eight yards from the striker's wicket.
5. The bowler shall bowl the ball, not throw it or jerk it, and when bowling the ball shall stand with at least one foot behind the crease.
6. The striker is out, if the ball when bowled hit the wicket.
7. Or, if the ball, having been hit, is caught in the hands of one of the opposite party.
8. Or, if while running, or preparing or pretending to run, the ball itself be thrown by one of the opposite party so as to hit the face of the wicket; or if any one of the opposite party with ball in hand touch the face of the wicket before the bat of either of the strikers touch the same.
9. Or, if the ball be struck and the striker willfully strike it again.
10. If the ball be hit by the striker, or pass the wicket so as to allow time for a run to be obtained, the strikers may obtain a run by running across from one wicket to the other.
11. If, in running, the runners have crossed each other, she who runs for the wicket whick is struck by the ball is out.
12. A striker being run out, the run which was attempted shall not be scored.
13. A ball being caught, so that the striker is out, no run shall be scored.
14. If "lost ball" be called, the striker shall be lowed three runs; but if more than three have been run before "lost ball" has been called, then the striker shall have all that have been run.
15. The umpires, one for each wicket, are the sole judges of fair or unfair play; and all disputes shall be settled by them, each at is own wicket; but n the case of any doubt on the part of an umpire, the other umpire may be by him requested to give an opinion, which opinion shall be decisive.
16. The umpires are not to order any striker out unless asked by one of the opposite party.
17. The umpires are not to give directions to either party when acting as umpires, but shall be strictly impartial.
N.B. The bat is in form similar to a battledore."
--
Note: These appear to be, other than Willughby's circa1672 of a non-running version of stoolball and and Strutt's 1801 general description, the first known full set of rules for stoolball, appearing over four centuries after the game's first known play.
Andrew Lusted, Girls Just Wanted to Have Fun; Stoolball Reports to Local Newspapers 1747 to 1866, (Andrew Lusted, 2013), inside front cover.
These rules are attributed to William De St. Croix, 1819-1877.
See also Andrew Lusted, The Glynde Butterflies Stoolball Team, 1866-1887: England's first Female Sports Stars (Andrew Lusted, 2011).
As a set, do these rules resemble contemporary rules for cricket in the 1860s? Do they align with cricket rules in 1800?
Do we know what the ball was like? Presumably, tennis balls were hand-wound string in this era, and the ball may have resembled cricket balls and base balls for the era.
1868.2 "Hits Per Game" Added to Standard Batting Stats
A seasonal analysis of the “Club Averages” for the Cincinnati Club in the 1868 season was included in the December 5, 1868 issue of the New York Clipper. “Average to game of bases on hits” is included for the first time for each player, in addition to “Average runs to game,” “Average outs to game,” and “Average runs to outs.” Each of these averages was represented in decimal form for the first time in the Clipper.
New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 5 December 1868: p. 275.
.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1868.3 IL Club Supplies Public Bulletin Board for Trip Updates
"The Occidentals have wisely provided a bulletin board, to be established at the corner of Fourth and Hampshire, on which will be posted telegrams announcing the progress of the game. The score at the close of the third, sixth and ninth innings will be telegraphed."
Quincy Whig, July 27, 1868.
This advisory was given in a two-paragraph item saying that on the next day the local Occidental club would travel to Monmouth (IL?) to play the Clippers.
1868.4 Henry Chadwick's Cholera Scare May Have Doomed American Chronicle of Sports and Pastimes
Henry Chadwick
From Richard Hershberger:
In the summer of 1867, Chadwick begins publication of the Ballplayer's Chronicle, later renamed the American Chronicle of Sports and Pastimes. It runs for about one year, the final issue being July 23, 1868, then halts publication without notice or explanation. The obvious explanation is that it was losing money, the baseball community not yet able to support such a publication until 1883 when The Sporting Life is founded. I have always taken this at face value as the explanation, but I just came across this in the Brooklyn Eagle of July 29, 1868, in the "Personal and Sundries" column:
"We regret to learn of the serious illness of Mr. Chadwick, the well-known base ball writer. He is at his place in South Durham, confined to his bed with an acute attack of choler morbus. We trust that he won't be "out" for many a year."
This would explain the abruptness of the affair. Presumably if it were making money some interim editor could have been arranged, so I'm not suggesting that the illness was the sole, or even primary, cause. But it explains some of the timing of events. The New England Base Ballist began publication at the beginning of August. About two months later, Chadwick appears as its New York correspondent, having recovered from the cholera.
-- Richard Hershberger
Brooklyn Eagle, July 29,1868
Protoball would welcome additional details.
1868c.5 The Manufactured "Figure 8" Base Ball Appears?
"I inclose a clipping relating to base ball. I am the inventor of the base ball cover referred to. Fifty-five years ago, when a boy of ten years, my mother gave me yarn enough, of her own spinning, for a ball. Next thing was leather for a cover. I was a poor boy and couldn't buy. An old shoemaker gave me two small pieces, and said perhaps I could piece them up. My efforts resulted in the exact shape now in universal use. About twenty years ago I showed to a nephew of mine the cover of my boyhood. He was working for Harwood, the great ball maker, of Natick, Mass. Harwood adopted this cover at once, as it takes much leather and has but one seams [seam?], instead of five or six. Well, I didn't reap the fortunate [fortune?], as I didn't get it patented, but no matter, I've “got there all the same.” (The Sporting Life November 14, 1888)
Letter to The Sporting Life from C.H. Jackson, West Brookfield, MA, November 4, 1888 -- printed November 14, 1888.
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."
1868.7 "Longest Throw" Measured by Harry Wright -- 396 Feet
Harry Wright
"Yesterday we had some 'ball-tossing' on our ground, that, I believe has never been equalled in this country or in England. There had been some bets that Johnny Hatfield could not throw a base ball 127 years clear . . . . If he succeeded he would get a suit of clothes. [Six throws are listed, the longest for 132 yards.] . . . . This throw has not been equalled since."
Letter from Harry Wright, quoted in Brooklyn Eagle February 12, 1872.
From Richard Hershberger, 2/12/2022: "150 years ago in baseball: a discussion of the record for longest throw. This would pop up from time to time for years to come." [Face Book '150 Years Ago" posting.] . . . " The modern record is held by Glen Gorbous, at the significantly longer 445 feet, 10 inches. That was in 1957. I'm sure it could be beaten today, but I want it to be your (favorite) team's outfielder trying this, not mine."
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4756338367753519&set=a.1364749713579085&type=3 As accessed 2/12/2022.
Source is cited as a letter from Harry Wright from 1868. The ball is described as a regulation base ball. The location of the feat given as "our ground."
In July 1868, Wright's "ground" was where?
Has someone recorded 'longest baseball throws' records somewhere?
And what else do we know about Johnny Hatfield?
1868.8 Throwback ('Old-Fashioned') Game Planned in Rochester
"BASE BALL ITEMS. A number of the old fashioned men are to have an old-fashioned game of base ball in [Jones?] Square in a few days. The respective sides have been chosen and a most enjoyable time is expected."
The [Rochester] Daily Union and Advertiser, August 28, 1868.
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. Ten entries refer to soldierly play during the Civil War.
Priscilla reported on 5/18/2023: "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."
Are other post-War throwback games seen in the area?
1869.1 "The Best Played Game on Record"
Due to the fine standard of play and the unusually low score (4-2), the Cincinnati Red Stockings' win over the Mutual in Brooklyn on June 15, 1869 in Brooklyn was hailed as the best game ever played.
Greg Rhodes, "A Cunning Play Saves the Streak-- Cincinnati Red Stockings at Mutuals", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 63-64.
1869.2 The Only Blemish
On Aug. 26, 1869, the "Haymakers", the Union BBC of Lansingburgh, NY, held the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings to what was officially declared a tie by refusing to continue the match after a decision by the umpire went against them.
Greg Rhodes, "Unbeaten but Tied-- Cincinnati vs. Unions", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 65-67
1869.3 Inter-Racial Game in Philadelphia
The game between the Olympic and Pythian Clubs of Philadelphia on Sep. 3, 1869, has been cited in 2013 is the first known inter-racial game.
Jerrold Casway, "Inter-racial Baseball-- the Pythians vs. the Olympics", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 68-70.
In March 2019 we learned of an earlier inter-racial game game in Ohio: see 1869.14.
These may be the first inter-racial games involving African-Americans. But there was an inter-racial game involving a Polynesian team in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1867. See 1867.17, see Honolulu in Pre-pro baseball, and see the Our Game blog article.
1869.5 Hits Elevated to Prominent Status in Box Scores
In the September 19, 1867 issue of The Ball Players’ Chronicle, hits are placed side-by-side with runs and outs for the first time in a series of box scores throughout the periodical. They are abbreviated with the letter “B” for the number of at-bats in a game for which “bases are made on hits."
The Ball Players' Chronicle (New York City, NY), 19 September 1867.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1869.6 Slugging Stat Arrives in Early Form
“Average total bases on hits to a game” first appears in the New York Clipper on December 4, 1869. It would continue to be used in 1870 and 1871 before falling out of favor. Slugging average—total bases on hits per at-bat—would be adopted by the National League in 1923 as one of two averages, along with batting average, tracked by the official statistician.
New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 4 December 1869: p. 277.
For a short history of batting measures, see Colin Dew-Becker, “Foundations of Batting Analysis,” p 1 – 9:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1869.7 Cincinnati Club Forms as First All-Professional Nine
George Wright, Harry Wright
"In the fall of 1868, a group of Cincinnati businessmen and lawyers, serving as directors of the Cincinnati Base Ball Club, agreed to a concept so commonplace today that it is difficult to imagine how risky it seemed at the time. The club would recruit the best players it could find, from around the country (and), pay all the players a salary..."
Rhodes, Greg & Erardi, John, The First Boys of Summer. Road West Publishing Co., 1994, p.4
1869.8 Largest Margin of Victory
"The most lopsided game of the nineteenth century that I'm aware of
came on June 8, 1869, when the Niagaras of Buffalos beat the Columbias of
Buffalo 209-10."
Peter Morris, 19cbb post 2/10/2002
The game lasted a reported three hours.
1869.9 Playing the pre-New York Rules Game- 1869
"The game played was the old-time "stinging" one, and no better opportunity to note the many and great changes that have been made, during the past score years, in the manner of playing Base Ball, could have been obtained than was thus offered.
The revolution has certainly been complete. Instead of the nicely rounded ash, miniature bread shovels and exaggerated exercise clubs were used as bats: and wooden stakes, standing some fifteen inches high, served as bases. The principal qualification of the pitcher was to send in balls which could be struck, while fouls were ignored and "tick and catch" was the decision instead of "foul,out.'"
Newark Evening Courier,May 25, 1869
description of the annual game of the "old Knickerbocker Club",with a box score showing 19 players on each side. Per 19cbb post by John Zinn, Aug. 8, 2008
1869.10 In Reconstruction SC, Riot Follows a Ball Game
In July 1869, a party of over 100 people, including a base ball club and a colored brass band, traveled south from Savannah to Charleston SC to play the Carolina Base Ball Club.
Savannah triumphed, 35-17, before a large, mixed-race crowd, which spilled onto the playing field after the game and before a throwing contest was to be held. Police and bayonet-wielding troops were summoned; a melee ensued, and in the process the Savannah band kept playing "Dixie."
Three weeks later, the Savannah Club returned. It won again, 57-36. And again there was violence, but it was limited this time.
Richard Hershberger, The Baseball Riot of 1869, Ordinary Times, February 4 2016. See http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/2016/02/04/the-baseball-race-riot-of-1869/. Richard's own sources are listed at the end of his article.
Richard contemplates whether to call this a base ball riot. "There clearly is an argument that baseball is incidental to the riot." The story shows where sports history and cultural history overlap.
For more on the Savannah club, see http://protoball.org/Savannah_Base_Ball_Club.
1869.12 Pastimes Adopt First Striped Stockings for Uniforms
The Pastime Club of Baltimore was, in 1869, the first to wear striped stockings on their uniforms.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1869-pastime-baltimore/
For more uniform firsts see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/
1869.13 George Wright Joins the All-Professional Cincinnati Club
In late February 1869, the Sunday Mercury reported that prominent player George Wright had joined the Cincinnati base ball club as its highest-paid player.
The 22-year-old, already counted among the most proficient players in the game; playing for New York's Union club in 1868, he had averaged four runs (and over seven hits) per game, and Henry Chadwick cited him as the best "general player" in base ball.
George Wright was only 22 years old in 1869, but had already had a variety of base ball experiences. Born into a prominent family of athletes (his father was a NYC club pro, and his older brother Harry played cricket and base ball, and was the player-manager of the famous Cincinnati championship club).
Wright's business was base ball. "Arranged employment and waived club dues had been considered acceptable evasions of the NABBP rule forbidding compensation since its adoption in 1859," and at age 19 he played on his brother Harry's Gotham Club in 1863 and 1864. His subsequent migrations:
Age 16-17 (1863-4) -- He played in the outfield of the Gotham Club in New York in 1863 and was the club's catcher for most of 1864.
Age 18 (1865) -- He caught for the Olympic Club of Philadelphia, and also subbed for that city's Keystone Club on its NYC visit. Chadwick would later name him the best catcher in the game.
Age 19 (1866) -- He started the year with the Gotham Club, and then decided to move to the first-tier Union Club of Morrisania, which compiled a better record than the year's unofficial champions, the Atlantic Club, and he became its shortstop.
Age 20 (1867) He moved to Washington and the National Base Ball Club, nominally serving with seven teammates as clerks in the Treasury Department. The National Club won 25 of its first 30 games, and undertook a tour to the West, including two games against his brother Harry's Cincinnati club.
Age 21 (1868) He played for the Union Club in NYC. The club won 39 of its 45 games, and undertook a 20-game tour of the west, including Cincinnati.
The Cincinnati club folded after its 1870 season, and George Wright joined his brother's Boston Red Stockings outfit in the new National Association for 1871 through 1875, where it won four of five league championships. He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1937.
Robert Tholkes, "The Young and the Restless: George Wright 1865-1868." Baseball Research Journal, Fall 2016, pp. 95-101.
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.
1869.14 First Known Inter-racial Game of Base-Ball
"A very interesting game of base-ball was played on the Newtown Grounds on Saturday afternoon, August 7, between the Black Hawks (colored), of Africa, and the Alerts (white) of Plainville. . . . "
The account included a box score showing the Black Hawks as winners, 47-43.
Cincinnati Enquirer, August 11, 1869.
Newtown OH (1880 pop. about 400) is about 10 miles east of Cincinnati, and is across the Little Miami River from Plainville OH.
Previously the September 3, 1869 Pythians-Olympic match in Philadelphia was seen as the first game between a white and non-white club. See 1869.3
1869.15 Teams Hassle Over Choice of Game Ball -- The Redstockings Liked the Less-elastic Variety
"Over a quarter of an hour’s time was wasted in a dispute as to what ball should be played with, the Athletics insisting that a lively elastic Ross ball should be used, whilst the Cincinnatis claimed that as they were the challenging party, they had the right o furnish the ball, and therefore proposed to use a ball made expressly for them, of a non-elastic nature, by which they hoped to equalize any advantage that the Athletics might possess over them in batting. The dispute was finally decided by the Cincinnatis agreeing to play with the ball furnished by the Athletics, as it always has been the custom for the club on whose ground a match is played to furnish the ball."
The game was Cincinnati vs. Athletic 6/21/1869.
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, June 27, 1869
Richard Hershberger explains (email to Protoball, 12/17/2021): "The elasticity of balls varied wildly in this era. Typically clubs that were better hitters than fielders preferred more elastic, i.e. lively, balls, while clubs that were better fielders preferred less elastic, i.e. dead, balls. This was a frequent source of dispute before games. The problem was eventually solved when the National League adopted an official league ball for all championship games."
==
Colleague and ballmaker Corky Gaskell adds, (email of 12/20/2021): "George Ellard made the base balls for the Cincinnati club. I am not 100% sure when he started doing that, but if my memory serves me right, he was making them during the 1869 season, and it wasn't uncommon for them to want that less lively ball to help their defense do its thing."
==
On 12/21/21, ballmaker Gaskell replied to a prior Protoball query for #1869.15: "Was the official NABBP ball relatively elastic or relatively inelastic, compared to the range in available base balls? Were cricket balls, which had very similar dimensions and weights, more or less elastic than base balls in the years prior to the pro leagues? Prior to the NL, was the convention that the home club furnished the ball?"
Corky's Answer: "'Official' base balls came later. . . not so much in the late 60s or early 70s.
1870.1 The Streak Ends -- Reds Fall to Atlantic, 8-7, in 11 Innings
On June 14, 1870, The Atlantic of Brooklyn broke the Cincinnati Red Stockings' 81-game winning streak, beating them 8-7 in 11 innings.
Greg Rhodes, "The Atlantic Storm-- Cincinnati Red Stockings vs. Atlantics", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 71-73.
See also George Bulkley. "The Day the Reds Lost," at https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-day-the-reds-lost-eb6bd8dd54a9, reproduced from SABR's National Pastime, 1983.
The Bulkley article reports that the Atlantics had lost three times in 1870, and local oddmakers gave 5-1 pregame odds for the Reds . . . lengthened to 10-1 after the Reds forged a 3-0 lead after three innings.
The Atlantic club tied the game in the eighth, and threatened in the ninth, until shortstop George Wright pulled the still-legal trap play that he turned into a double play. There ensued a dispute over whether the Atlantic could claim a tie by vacating the premises, one that was decided by Henry Chadwick in favor of the Reds playing their first-ever tenth inning.
In the 11th, Atlantic catcher Bob Ferguson decided to bat left-handed to avoid hitting to SS Wright, and got on base, scoring the winning run on a throwing error by Cincinnati 1B Charley Gould.
1870.2 "Chicagoed"
The 19th-century baseball slang for being held scoreless originated when the Mutuals BBC traveled to Chicago and humiliated the White Stockings, 9-0, on July 23, 1870.
Richard Bogovich and Mark Pestana, "The First 'Chicago' Game-- New York vs. Chicago", in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 74-76
1870.3 "Homer" Ump Robs Mutuals
The Mutuals, named champions for 1870 in the East, were denied enthronement as national champions when, with the Mutuals leading in the ninth inning of the decisive game in Chicago on Nov. 1, 1870, a local umpire refused to call strikes on White Stocking batters.
Bob Tiemann, "The Birth of the NA-- Mutuals vs. Chicago" in Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century (SABR, 2013), pp. 77-78
Tiemann suggests that the incident was an incentive for the formation over the winter of 1870-71 of the National Association, with the first championship based on total wins over the course of the season.
1870.4 Union Club of Morrisania Disbands
"November 1870 -- Morrisania Unions Disband -- players scatter to different clubs. Pabos, Bass and Allison went to Forest City, Cleveland; Gedney, Holdsworth, Shelley, and Martin to Brooklyn to play for the Eckfords, now a professional club; Birdsall will play right field for Boston; Higham to the Mutuals; Simmons and Pinkham to the Chicago White Stockings; Bearman to the Fort Wayne Kekiongas."
(For more on the breakup of the Union Club, see Supplemental Text, below.)
Gregory Christiano, Baseball in the Bronx, Before the Yankees (PublishAmerica, 2013), page 77. Original sources to be supplied.
Can we add any indication of why the club disbanded?
1870.5 Cincinnati Club Introduces 50-cent Admission Fee
In 1870, the Cincinnati Club began charging an admission fee of 50 cents.
The Atlantic Club declined to impose this fee, and as a result the Red Stockings bypassed them in their first tour of eastern clubs that year.
In time, this price appears to have become the standard for matches between all-professional clubs.
Sources?
We are uncertain that the fifty-sent admission was uniformly required in the National Association.
1870.6 Dead Ball Adopted
On November 30, 1870, the National Association of Base Ball Players reduced the amount of rubber permitted in base balls to one ounce, effectively inaugurating a "dead" ball. Balls had previously contained as much as 2 1/2 ounces.
Peter Morris, A Game of Inches, 2005, p.37
Critics of the game had long insisted that low-scoring games were indicated play of higher quality.
1870c.7 First Catcher's Glove? About 1870, Perhaps
"Re: a claimed antedating of catcher's gloves
"Another early primary source glove reference is to Cincinnati Red Stocking catcher Doug Allison wearing gloves in 1870: 'Allison caught today in a pair of buckskin mittens to protect his hands.' Cincinnati Commercial June 29, 1870
"For several yearly editions starting in 1872, the DeWitt Guide had the following advice: "The catcher will find it advantageous when facing swift pitching to wear tough leather gloves with the fingers cut off near the joint and they will prevent him having his hands split and puffed up."
"The earliest advertisement I’ve found for “catchers’ gloves” being sold commercially is 1875.
"There are many secondary source references to gloves being used in the early 1870s by Allison, White, Nat Hicks, Fergy Malone, and others. I agree that gloves were somewhat common and not considered shameful in the early 1870s. The shaming started in the late 1880s and 1890s when the infielders and outfielders starting using very large gloves (originally meant for catchers) which were often derided as “oven mitts” or “boxing gloves.”
Cincinnati Commercial, June 29, 1870.
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.
1870.9 Lively Ball Suspected in Mutual-Olympic Game
"It was supposed that a lively ball was played with, on account of the heavy batting [Mutual had 31 hits and 29 runs]. Both the Olympic games of yesterday and Monday were played with a ball that contained but half an ounce of rubber; the yarn and covering bringing it up to regulation weight."
New York Tribune, September 14, 1870.
For a concise account of rules on baseballs, see Chapter 17 ("The Ball and Bat"), in Richard Hershberger, Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball, (Rowan and Littlefield, 2019, pp 121-126.
Richard Hershberger annotation, 9/14/2020: "Missing from [the formal rule on ball makeup] is any discussion of relative proportions of rubber and yarn. In other words, how much rubber? Rubber is denser than yarn, so the size and weight requirements imply a range of legal proportions between the two. Some clubs were rumored to get around this, having illegal balls made with extra rubber, balanced by cork. . . . There were learned discussions of the merits of lively and dead balls, and arguments before the game started over what ball to use. Also, the occasional surreptitious switch mid-game."
Ball Four points out [pp 124-125) that a limit of one ounce of rubber was defined for a regulation ball in 1871. In 1876, the new National League addressed the issue by requiring clubs to use a standard Spalding ball in its games, thus lessening suspicion the club that provides a game ball thereby gains competitive advantage.
Were the weights and/or circumferences of balls subject to impartial tests at or before games?
1870.10 Philly Paper Lists Betting Odds for US Championship Match in Brooklyn
"The Athletic Base Ball Club [of Philadelphia]has again been defeated, making the sixth thrashing [of 11-10] which they have received during the present season. This afternoon [September 15] they played on the Union Grounds, in Brooklyn, the deciding game for the championship of the United States, with the Mutual Club . . . . Bets were freely offered prior to the game of a hundred to fifty . . . but even at these heavy odds there were few takers." The crowd was reported as about three thousand persons.
"Another Defeat," Philadelphia Inquirer, September 16, 1870. As reproduced on Richard Hershberger's Facebook posting, September 15, 2020
"Note also how the betting line is featured prominently in the account. The baseball press routinely decried the influence of gambling on baseball, while carefully reporting the odds. Consistency was not a priority here.
"The crowd of three thousand seems a bit low. It is respectable for this era, but a really big game would draw a lot more. The Philadelphians claimed that that the A's held the championship, with this loss passing it to the Mutuals. No one outside Philadelphia really believed the A's held the championship, or more would have turned out today."
-- Richard Hershberger, 9/15/2020
1870.11 Chicago Switches to the Dead Ball, Starts Winning Again
"Circumstances prevented any improvement in the organization of the [White Sox] nine until some weeks after their return from their disastrous [New York] tour; finally, however, the nine was re-organized . . . the muffin players' rubber ball was re-placed by a dead ball, and from the[n] . . .the Chicago club has been marked by a series of uninterrupted victories, the crowning triumph being the defeat of the strongest nine in the United States in two successive contests."
New York Clipper October 29, 1870
1870.12 Chadwick Ponders Red Stockings' Decline: Lack of Onfield Harmony?
"THE REDSTOCKINGS AND THEIR RECENT DEFEATS -- Everybody in this vicinity is making the inquiry, 'What is the matter with the Reds?' Their recent defeats at Chicago and Rockford have surprised their friends here. . . [B]oth at Chicago and Rockford last week they were badly whipped. Something must be wrong. It is not the lack of skill or generalship that is the cause. We rather suspect that there is that same lack of harmony and acting in concert . . . which marked the play of the first Chicago nine. . . . In the game at Rockford on October 15, the Red Stockings received the worst defeat they have sustained since they first donned the red hose."
New York Sunday Mercury, October 23, 1870.
1870.13 November News: Will the Atlantic Club Stay Strong?
"The Atlantics will be divided up among the leading professional nines for 1871. Ferguson and Start are to go to Chicago, Chapman and Hall southwest, and others will help with the Mutuals and Haymakers. The Atlantics, it is said, will then return to an amateur footing for 1871."
New York Sunday Mercury November 13, 1870.
http://www.brooklynatlantics.org/history.php, (accessed 11/13/2020).
"Is the Atlantic Club about to be gutted? Spoiler: Yes. With no reserve system or multi-year contracts, every offseason was a potential cage match. The Atlantics historically have been successful at doing unto others, but this year they will be done unto. Indeed, it will be so thorough that they will sit 1871 out, as a professional club. They will return to the professional ranks in 1872, but will never really recover. The predicted destinations aren't quite right. Ferguson and Start will go to the Mutuals. The vague bit about Hall going "southwest" is right.
"The Olympics of Washington will make a run for it. Mostly this will involve the old Red Stocking players Harry Wright doesn't take with him to Boston. Taking George Hall from the Atlantics will be part of this. It won't work. The Olympics will go 15-15: the very definition of mediocre. Chapman will stick with the Atlantics initially, them jump to the Eckfords. So it goes."
from Richard Hershberger, 150 Years Ago Today, 11/13/2020 Facebook Posting.
In June 1870, the Atlantics had broken the famous winning streak of the visiting Cincinnati Red Stockings, 8-7. In 1872 the club was to become professional again, and join the National Association. The Atlantic website cited above shows a later Atlantic lineage to the Brooklyn Dodgers, formed in 1911.
"Strictly speaking the social club spun off from the baseball club December 16, 1865, the two operating in tandem until the baseball side disbanded. The Hall of Fame library has the program from the club's centennial celebration in 1965. The club later was a bit confused about the connection with the baseball side. It knew it had one, but it always dated itself from 1865." -- Richard Hershberger, email of 11/13/2020.
1870.14 Boston, Other Towns Eye "First-Class Professional Nines" Like the Red Stockings
[Beyond the Cincinnati-Chicago base ball rivalry] "The pecuniary success attendant upon of the Red Stocking Club -- the best managed club in the country -- has tempted other cities to try the professional nine experiment. The Boston Journal says that for some time past, gentlemen interested in the game of base ball have been considering the subject of securing for Boston a professional base ball nine who should do honor to the city. It seems to be one of the few notions in which Boston is lacking. The success of the Union Grounds as a pecuniary investment has shown that the thing is perfectly safe and feasible. . . . It is proposed to petition the next Legislature for a special charter as a base-ball club, with a capital stock of not less than $10,000, in shares of $100 each."
"Indianapolis is raising a first-class professional nine under competent management. Cleveland will again have a professional nine;: Troy, ditto, and an opposition tot he Athletics is organizing in Philadelphia. St. Louis, too is in the market, and also New Orleans.
Brooklyn Eagle, November 17, 1870.
Richard Hershberger, "150 years ago in baseball" [FB posting, 11/17/2020:
"Rumors about new professional clubs for next season. Here we see an intermediate stage, combining the assumption that the Cincinnati Club will keep on doing what it does, along with early rumors of a new club on Boston. The Union Grounds mentioned here is not the one in Cincinnati or the one in Brooklyn, but the one in Boston, so named because it originated as a joint project of several local clubs. Its pecuniary success is in part due to the visits of the Cincinnati Club. The Boston baseball establishment has been paying attention. More developments will soon arise.
"As for the other predictions, they are a mixed bag. Cleveland and Troy will indeed have professional clubs next season, but the other proposals won't pan out, or at least not right away."
Do we know more about the fate of the Union Grounds and Boston sports?
1870.15 Chadwick Explains Rule Shifts on Called Strikes, Deliberate Flubs Afield
[Two of nine newly proposed rules after the 1870 season:]
"Sec. 4. The striker shall be privileged to call for either a 'high' or 'low' ball. . . . The ball shall be considered a high ball if pitched between the height of waist and the shoulder of the striker; and it shall be considered a low ball if pitched between the knee and he waist. . . ."
"Sec 9. The the bal be even momentarily held by a player while in the act of catching it, and he wilfully [sic] drops it in order to make a double play, if should be regarded as a fair catch."
New York Clipper, November 26, 1870 (attributed to Henry Chadwick.)
1870.16 Red Stocking Leader Explains Background for Club Decision to Exit Pro Base Ball Scene
Aaron Champion
Aaron Champion, past club President, in a December 1870 speech touching on the costs of excellence after the club decided not to support a pro club after 1870:
" . . . we have tried it [to fund a nine via outside subscription], and have failed most beautifully. The season 1868 we had a professional nine, and succeeded in getting in debt with it. The season of 1869 we engaged a professional nine. . . . [in November 1868] we found that the Cincinnati Club was $17,000 in debt. . . . 1869 went by. We had the best nine in the country -- the leading club. They had played fifty-seven games, and did not lose a single game. We were out of money, and were still in debt."
"How Cincinnati Supports Base Ball," Cincinnati Gazette, December 8, 1870. From Richard Hershberger, "150 Years ago in Base Ball, FB posting, 12/7/2020.
1871.2 Battery Sought for African American Club in St. Louis
"To Colored Professionals -- A good catcher and good left hand pitcher are wanted for the Brown Stockings, of St. Louis. A good salary will be given for the season. Address Douglass (sic) Smith, 109 North Street, St. Louis."
New York Clipper, April 8, 1871.
1871.4 National Association Urged to Adopt Modern Batting Average
In a letter published in the New York Clipper on March 11, 1871, H. A. Dobson, a correspondent for the periodical, wrote to Nick E. Young, the Secretary of the Olympic Club in Washington D.C., and future president of the National League. Young would be attending the Secretaries’ Meeting of the newly formed National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, and Dobson urged him to consider a “new and accurate method of making out batting averages.”
“According to a man’s chances, so should his record be. Every time he goes to the bat he either has an out, a run, or is left on his base. If he does not go out he makes his base, either by his own merit or by an error of some fielder. Now his merit column is found in ‘times first base on clean hits,’ and his average is found by dividing his total ‘times first base on clean hits’ by his total number of times he went to the bat. Then what is true of one player is true of all…In this way, and in no other, can the average of players be compared.”
Dobson included a calculation, for theoretical players, of hits per at-bat at the end of the letter; the first published calculation of the modern form of batting average.
Dobson, H.A. “The Professional Club Secretaries’ Meeting.” New York Clipper (New York City, NY), 11 March 1871: p. 888.
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:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0btLf16riTacFVEUV9CUi1UQ3c/
1871.5 Base Ball Attendance Practices at the Dawn of the Pro Era
As the Professional Era took shape, 50-cent admission fees were common, if not standard, in the new league.
(Add data on typical crowd sizes?) (On typical bathroom facilities?) (On available food and drink availability and prices?) (On other now-forgotten practices?)
Debate on admission fees persisted for the AA and the NL was to persist into the 1880s.
Admission gave attendees access to standing room. A seat in the grandstand was (always? sometimes?) extra, and within 2 or three years grandstand seats were being sold for one dollar.
Sources?
1871.6 Boston Club Puts City Name on Uniform
In 1871 the Boston club put the word "Boston" on the team shirt, the first club to do so.
http://www.threadsofourgame.com/1871-boston/
For more uniform firsts, see http://www.threadsofourgame.com/uni-firsts/#
1871.7 Brimmed Uniform Caps Introduced
Several clubs began wearing hats with brims in 1871. 15 examples are shown in the source link below.
1871.8 First Co-Ed college baseball game?
Sheppard (ed.),"History of Northwestern University and Evanston" p 154 cites the college paper as reporting that on July 4, 1871: "Baseball Match Between Ladies' College nine and Northwestern University: prize a silver ball: score 57 to 4 in favor of Northwestern."
The "Evanston College for Ladies" was at the time separate from the main college.
Sheppard (ed.),"History of Northwestern University and Evanston" p 154. Seymour, "The People's Game" also references this event.
1871.9 State-wide Base Ball Association for California?
"The Pacific Base-Ball Convention held an adjourned meeting last night . . . on Merchant street, Col. Harry Linden presided. . . .
"Messrs Gorman, Cashman, Linden were appointed a Committee to procure an elegant champion bat, regardless of cost, for future contests among Base-Ball Companies."
"It being suggested that the Constitution and By-laws needed revision, Messrs Hooks, Glascock and Calvert were appointed a Committee for that Purpose. . . .
Standing Committees for Judiciary, Credentials, Finance, Rules and Regulations, and Printing were named.
San Francisco Examiner, February 4, 1871
Richard Hershberger, 2/4/2021:
150 years ago in baseball: the Pacific baseball convention. This is much like the state conventions we see at this time, but more of an independent affair. California was still, even with the trans-continental railroad, the far end of beyond, so the baseball institutions tended to develop in parallel with but independent of those to the east. The Pacific convention was more of a free-standing affair than the state associations in the east, which mostly existed to appoint delegates to the national convention. It also seems comfortable with the idea of a formal championship, though I question empowering a committee to purchase the trophy bat "regardless of cost."
Was the is first ever meeting of this group?
Did it intend to represent base ball throughout California?
Had other states established state-wide base ball associations by 1871?
1871.10 Player Salaries Bump Up: Well-funded Mutuals Deplete the Atlantics
"The Mutuals will now have a nine in field of old Atlantic players, with but one exception."
"(The Mutuals) engaged Dick Pearse, who signed papers on the 3rd . . . at $2000, we believe. . . . Now all (of the Atlantic's fate) is left in the hands of the only veteran of the nine, viz: John Chapman."
Brooklyn Eagle, February 6, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, 2/6/2021"
1871.11 Pros' Leading Averages Reported In Buffalo Newspaper
" BASE BALL. The Best Averages -- Names of Leading Players -- "
"All the leading professional clubs of the country have published their averages, and below we give the names of the players who occupy first, second, and third positions in the averages of first-base hits . . . ."
[For the Atlantic (Brooklyn), the Athletic (Philadelphia), Chicago, Cincinnati, Haymakers (Troy), Forest City (Cleveland) and other clubs, leading hitters' batting success per game was reflected in this format:]
"CINCINNATI
George Wright 4.27
Waterman 3.87
McVey 3.63"
Buffalo Commercial, February 6, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, 2/8/2021 (FB posting):
"150 years ago in baseball: batting averages. The idea of batting averages was borrowed from cricket, and at this point is not at all new to baseball. The details, however, have not yet taken their modern form.
Have charts like this appeared before? Have writers been referring to such averages in plumbing the relative merits of batsmen?
Did each club send its data to interested news outlets?
1871.12 Pro Clubs to Meet in March, National Association Starts Its Fade
"The appointed meeting of the Secretaries of the professional clubs, announced to take place in New York on the 17th of March, St. Patrick's Day, has been changed into a convention of the professionals, and the meeting will settle not only the dates of all the matches for the season, but also the championship question. The best thing they can do is to organize an association of professional clubs at once. . . .
"Mr. Chadwick resigned all connection to the National Association last October. . . . To the Excelsior club in this city [Brooklyn] is due the credit of inaugurating the movement for an amateur association . . . ."
Brooklyn Eagle, February 28, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, 2/28/2021: This column "tacitly acknowledges that the old National Association is dead. Or perhaps it is a nail in the coffin to make sure it stays that way. The National Association met last December just as it had for years. It adopted rules revisions, elected officers, and so on. From a procedural perspective, it is chugging along as always. But it is in fact dead. The corpse will twitch a little bit, but there will never be any discussion of holding the convention next December."
"The discussion of the upcoming meeting of March 17 is portentous. It was originally called by Nick Young, secretary of the Olympics of Washington, so the professional clubs could coordinate their schedules. The idea wasn't to set up a detailed schedule, but so that a club going to, for example, Chicago could be confident that the Chicago Club wasn't in Boston at the time. The secretary of the Chicago Club has suggested upgrading the meeting to also set up a formal championship system for the professionals."
From 150 Years Ago in baseball FB posting
Did the March 17 date hold up? Was it held in NYC?
Was St. Patrick's Day an extra special day in the 1870s?
Was Chadwick's departure a matter of controversy? Why?
1871.13 The Beginning of Base Ball Trivia?
"Sports and Pastimes. Base Ball Matters. . . . The Athletics made twenty-five clean home runs in a game with the Nationals, of Jersey City, New Jersey, on the 30th of September 1865."
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, March 12, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, FB Posting '150 Years Ago', 3/21/2021:
"[B]aseball history trivia! Baseball had ample history by this time to support the endeavor. For those scoring at home, the final outcome of the game was Athletics 114, Nationals 2. But it wasn't as close as that makes it look."
Asked if such newspaper features were common, Richard replied, 3/12/2021: "This one is pretty typical. The big New York papers in earlier years had often had rules-related questions, but these were drying up by the 1870s."
Was this one of the first known uses of past base ball feats as fun trivia in base ball reportage?
1871.14 Rival Assn of Amateur Players Forms: Includes Clubs from NY, Philly, Baltimore, Boston.
"THE CONVENTION OF AMATEUR CLUBS IN BROOKLYN
A NATIONAL SSSOCIATION OF AMATEUR BASE BALL PLAYERS IS ESTABLISHED
CLUBS FROM NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE AND BOSTON REPRESENTED
"Thursday, March 18, 1871 was an eventful day in the brief annals of the National game . . . there was a re-union of the amateur class of the fraternity . . ."
Participating clubs included Knickerbocker, Eagle, Gotham. Excelsior, Star, Olympic, Equity, Pastime and Harvard clubs."
New York Clipper, March 25, 1871
from Richard Hershberger, "150 Years Ago Today", 3/18/2021:
"[T]he formation of the National Association of Amateur Base Ball Players. This is the long-talked-about splinter organization, spinning off from the old National Association, which is deemed to be thoroughly infested with professionalism cooties.
Spoiler alert: We won't be talking about the new NAABBP very much down the road. It will stumble along for several years, but will be essentially irrelevant the whole while. Why not? It isn't as if amateur baseball will ever go away. Professional baseball has never accounted for more than a tiny fraction of all baseball played. It just attracts nearly all the attention."
Note: for Richard's full commentary, see Supplemental Text, below.
Was this new NAABP destined to tinker with the rules of play?
1871.15 White Stockings Choose New Orleans for Extended Preseason Play
"The White Stockings, of Chicago, arrived here yesterday on the mid-day train, and will remain here for four or five weeks. Their first game will be with the Lone Stars, at the Base Ball Park, next Sunday."
New Orleans Republican, March 22, 1871
Richard Hershberger, FB Posting, 3/21/2021:
"150 years ago in baseball: Spring Training. The Chicago White Stockings arrive today in New Orleans. The season began much later than it does nowadays. Spring Training today is entering the home stretch, while just starting in 1871. It also was far less consistent. Few clubs made trips to the South at this point. It will be decades before that is universal. These things were pretty much done on the fly, with the financial prospects weighing heavily in the decision whether to make a trip or just train at home."
The White Stockings stayed in New Orleans until April 17th, making their stay 4 weeks. See New Orleans Times-Democrat, April 17, 1871. [ba]
1871.16 Professionals Edge Away from NABBP; Modern Standings Begin to Take Shape
"BASE BALL BOTHER. National Professional Association. The Championship Question Settled.
"A convention of delegates from the professional base ball clubs of the country was held at #840 Broadway last evening. At the time that the call for the convention was sent out its objects were stated to be the settlement of the manner of achieving the title of champion club of the country, and the arrangement of the routes of the club tours during the season. But the action of the amateur clubs in withdrawing from the National Association see 1871.14 . . . caused the scope of the Convention's duties to be enlarged, and . . . made necessary the reorganization of the National Association on a professional basis."
New York Herald, March 18, 1871
Richard Hershberger, FP posting of March 17, 2021:
"150 years ago today in baseball: The big day! Yesterday the amateurs met in Brooklyn and formed a new association. See 1871.14. Today we move across the East River, where the professionals form theirs. It wasn't originally supposed to be this way. The meeting was initially called simply to coordinate travel schedules. From there it expanded to arranging a championship system. With yesterday's event the meeting expanded yet further. The status of the old National Association of Base Ball Players is up in the air. Simpler for the professionals just to start fresh. . . . .
"Their championship system is quietly revolutionary. The old unofficial system followed the model of champion and challenger, like in boxing. The new system is not laid out explicitly here, but it is close to the modern system of every club playing a series against every other club.
This 'championship season' (which is what the official rules still call what the rest of us refer to as the 'regular season') is the great invention of the NAPBBP. This often is overlooked, as NAPBBP tends to carry the stench of failure today. So let us pause a moment and contemplate the glory that is the regular season.
...
Done? Excellent! This is not quite the regular season as we understand it today. It is a series of best-of-five series. If a club won the first three games of the series, there was no need to play the last two. This is why the win-loss records for 1871 are so scattered. Teams did not play the same number of games, but they weren't expected to. This will result in some wackiness in determining the championship. No spoilers! We will get to that in the Fall. Suffice it to say that for 1872 they will switch to every team playing the same number of games, at least in theory."
1871.17 Philadelphia Claims Best 1870 US Record -- Over the Red Stockings? Really?
"BASE BALL MATTERS: Answers to Correspondents:
[to] K. S. M. The Mutuals of New York city won the national championship last year, but the Athletics of this city had the best record. . . ."
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury April 9, 1871; See Hershberger commentary, below/.
Richard Hershberger, FB Posting, April 9. 2021:
"150 years ago in baseball: a bit of historical revisionism via homerism by the Philadelphia sporting press. Thank goodness that no longer plagues us! For the record, the 1870 Mutuals went 68-17-3 while the Athletics went 65-11-1. Presumably the claim to a better record was based on winning percentage, rather than absolute number of games won. This criterion was not at all established at the time. The problem with claiming the moral, if not nominal, championship this way is that the Cincinnati Club went 67-6-1. Those records include both professional and amateur games. Perhaps the writer was thinking of just professional games? The Athletics went 26-11-1, while the Cincinnatis went 27-6-1. So while there is an argument to be made that the A's had a better record than the Mutuals, this is not at all the same as the A's having the best record. So it goes."
Did the Mutuals themselves claim the best 1870 record, or just the NABBP Championship, or what?
1871.18 First Pro League Game Doesn't Feature Offense
"THE NATIONAL GAME -- The First Dose of 1871 -- A Whole Nest of Goose Eggs -- 000000000 -- Where Are We Now?"
(Cleveland newspaper headline for the 2-0 loss in Fort Wayne to the Kekionga Club by the visiting Forest City Club of Cleveland)
" . . . The play throughout was nearly perfect as could be imagined . . . the difficult pitching of [Cleveland's] Mathews kept our score down to a continual whitewash"
Cleveland Leader May 5, 1871.
Richard Hershberger, FB posting of 5/5/2021:
"This is remembered today as the first game of the first professional league. So it was, but this account only barely hints at this being a momentous occasion. This was the first game only by accident, earlier scheduled games being rained out. But more to the point, few thought of this game as the beginning. The season has been ramping up for several weeks now. Nowadays we think of those earlier games as mere spring training, preparing for the real season. At the time they thought of a game such as this as yet another game, but one that happened to be for the championship. [Note: "for the championship" then meant "in a regular season game."]
The most modern aspect of this account is that Bobby Mathews, the Kekionga pitcher, is given at least partial credit for the shut out. Earlier on, the fielding would have gotten all the credit."
1871.19 Chicago Club Expires A Month After Great Chicago Fire
"BASE BALL. The Last of the Chicago Club.
At a recent meeting of the stockholders of the Chicago Base Ball Club, where it was by resolution declared that the stock of that club is canceled and surrendered, and a committee was appointed to wind up all the affairs of the club, the following resolutions of thanks and acknowledgement were unanimously adopted. . . "
Chicago Tribune, November 26, 1871:
From Richard Hershberger, Facebook posting of 11/25/2021:
"150 years ago in baseball: Wrapping up the affairs of the Chicago Club. It was gutted by the Great Chicago Fire and stumbled through the close of the season. Continuing as the city was rebuilding clearly was not in the cards. Say what you will about Chicago businessmen, they do appreciate the formalities. Rather than simply walking away they shut it down properly. Here we have the formal dissolution.
This relates to the trivia question, what is the oldest baseball club still in existence? If we don't count colleges, and if we insist that the club still play baseball, then the candidates are the Braves (by way of Milwaukee) or the Cubs. The Braves were founded in 1871 as the Boston Base Ball Association. The Chicago Club we see shutting down here was a year older. If we can tie the modern Cubs to it, then that is our answer.
The problem is that we see here the original organization formally dissolving. We will next spring see the formation of the organization that will, in 1874, field the professional team that came to be known as the Cubs. The only facts available to argue for continuity between the two is that some individuals were stockholders of both. This is very weak tea. It certainly isn't the standard we apply to other clubs. If we did, it would remove the Cubs' claim, as this standard would also connect the Phillies to the original Athletics, who were founded in 1859. But this would be absurd special pleading. So sorry, Cubs. You aren't the oldest club. You are, however, the oldest still in your original city. That isn't as sexy a first, but it is not nothing."
The Great Chicago Fire occurred October 8-10, 1871. 17,000 structures were destroyed, and 300 people were killed.
1871.20 Chadwick Agrees: The Parent of Base Ball is Two-Old-Cat . . . Not English Rounders, After All?
Henry Chadwick
"We do not believe that cricket will ever be naturalized here, but that its rival is destined for evermore to be the national game. To those who would object to our explanation that it is fanciful, we can only say that we believe it violates none of the known laws of reasoning, and that it certainly answers the great end of accounting for the facts. To those other objectors, who would contend that our explanation supposes a gradual modification of the English into the American game, while it is a matter of common learning that the latter is of no foreign origin, but the lineal descent of that favorite of boyhood, 'Two-Old-Cat,' we would say that, fully agreeing with them as to the historical fact, we have always believed it to be so clear as not to need further evidence, and that for the purposes of this article the history of the matter is out of place. We have throughout spoken of cricket as changing' into base ball, not because we suppose these words represent the actual origin of the latter, but to bring more vividly before the mind the differences between the two. He would indeed be an unfaithful chronicler who should attempt to question the hoary antiquity of Two-Old-Cat, or the parental relation in which it stands to base ball."
Henry Chadwick, 1871 Base Ball Manual
Bill Hicklin, 3/9/2016:
"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."
David Block, et al: Could Chadwick have believed that Two-Old-Cat was also the parent of British Rounders? The term was known over there before rounders was, no?
Page and pub site of the 1871 Manual?
1872.1 Forest City Club Lists Player Duties, Role of Team Captain, Etc.
"1. THE CAPTAIN. The captain of the club shall be elected by the board of directors and shall serve at their pleasure. . . .
3. No member of the club will be excused from practice or play unless upon a written certificate from Dr. N. B. Prentice . . .
6. No member of the club shall accept any gift of money to lose or assist in losing a game and violation of this rule and will subject the member to be expelled in disgrace. . . .
8. . . . No member will be allowed to use the uniform of another player without the permission of the owner.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, 3/9/1872.
Richard Hershberger posted the following, 3/10/2022:
150 years ago in baseball: the Rules and Regulations adopted by the Forest City Club of Cleveland for its players. It rather jumps out that they felt it necessary to specify that players weren't allowed to throw games for money, with the penalty of being "expelled in disgrace."
But the topic for today's sermon is the role of the captain. This touches on a persistent modern misunderstanding of the early professional era. Look at the list of the captain's responsibilities and this looks similar to the modern field manager. Look up the 1872 Forest City club and you will find two "managers" listed: Scott Hastings, going 6-14 and Deacon White going 0-2. (The team was, it turns out, not good, and won't last the season.) They actually were the captains. The "manager" in this era was a different role. The details varied, but the manager typically was in charge of the business side of things: supervised the gate on game day, made travel arrangements on the road, and so on. Sometimes the manager was in charge of hiring and firing players, making him more like the modern general manager.
The captain always was a player. The manager usually was not, but there were a few exceptions such as Harry Wright. Here in 1872 not all teams had a full time manager, the officers running things directly. Later this summer when the Forest City team goes on a trip, a report identifies the "manager" for that trip, meaning the guy who will corral the players get them from city to city. Within a few years the job will have grown to a full time position, nearly always held by someone hired specifically for that job.
The problem is that the modern listings of managers are a mess for the 19th century. We have this modern concept of what is a "manager"--Earl Weaver or Billy Martin and so on--and we try to impose this model on the past. So some researcher reads a report with the captain doing stuff we expect of a modern manager, and lists that guy as the manager. Or a researcher sees some other guy called the "manager" and lists him. This eventually got distilled down to a standard list, with the two roles jumbled together in an incoherent mess. The moral is that if we want to understand what was going on, we have to set aside modern understandings of how these things work.
Do we know if there are interesting variants in other clubs' rules?
1872.2 Pro Players Disparaged in Newspapers As Worthless, Dissipated, Buyable
"The professional player, aside from his personal character, is not precisely a majestic object . . . . Not to put too fine a point upon it . . . is usually a worthless dissipated gladiator; not much above the professional pugilist in morality and respectability. . . . It is only necessary for the gambler who has large sums at stake to buy him, in order to make certain of winning his bets."
Base Ball: The Professional Player, Titusville (Pa.) Herald March 12, 1872. Ascribed to the the New York Times of March 8, 1872.
Richard Hershberger' FB commentary, 3/12/2022:
"150 years ago in baseball: A discussion of professional ball players. It is not complimentary. It would take decades for this attitude to disappear entirely. Note in particular the assumption that of course a professional will throw a game if you pay him enough."
Any idea who might have written this little barb at the NYT? Was it widely quoted in the US?
1872.4 Harry Wright Offers Game, Players, to Harvard
Letter from Harry Wright, of the second-year Boston pro league club, to a representative of the Harvard club, March 18, 1872:
". . . would it be agreeable to play . . . Saturday April 6th . . . upon our grounds . . .
We propose having our first game played on Fast Day, weather permitting
Harry Wright, Secy"
From the Spalding Collection at the New York Public Library
Asking, 3/18/2022:
Was it common for pro league clubs to play amateur clubs? (see BA response, above)
Did the game come off?
Asking, 3/19/2022:
Was the Boston club known as the Red Stockings in 1872?
Was the proposed game to amount to a pre-season warmup for the Boston pros?
1872.5 Chadwick Foresees Amateur Base Ball's "Revival"
Henry Chadwick
"AN AMATEUR REVIVAL -- Now that the distinction between the two classes of the fraternity is marked beyond the possibility of mistake, each class having its own National Association and its own special rules and laws, there being no longer any just cause for amateurs retiring from base ball playing for fear of being classified as professional or hired ball tosser; not that it necessarily follows that to be a professional ball player is to occupy a degrading position, but that the majority prefer, for business reasons, to be participating in the game for recreative reasons. No ball player can now be regarded as a professional unless he be attached to a club nine which either pays its players a regular salary or a share of gate receipts. This appears to be the boundary line between the two classes . . ."
Brooklyn Eagle April 5, 1872.
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."
1872.6 Umpiring Evolves As A Profession: Certification, Bipartisan Pay
"Having pointed out the evil of indiscriminate selection of umpires, we will now suggest a remedy.
And this is the appointment of certain persons by the annual convention to act as umpires, and who will receive a certain sum -- say $10 and their traveling expenses -- for every game they umpire . . . .
The contending clubs can each pay a moiety of the expenses, and it will fall heavily n neither."
New York Sunday Dispatch, May 19, 1872.
From Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball, May 19, 2022.
"The umpire question. Umpire selection in the early days was very informal. Sometimes arrangements would be made ahead of time, but even for important matches it was not unknown for the two captains to pick a guy out from the crowd. It would usually be someone they both knew, so it wasn't totally random, but if he had not shown up, they would have picked someone else.
Here in 1872 this system is wearing thin. This is the professional era and the stakes are higher. In today's excerpt, we see a radical suggestion: pay the guy. This will start happening soon. It will help, but won't solve the problem entirely. There still is the matter of finding someone both captains agree upon. The next decade or so will see endless overly elaborate schemes to come up with an equitable system. The underlying problem is that even once everyone agrees the umpire needs to be paid, no one wants to pay enough for this to be a full-time job. Employing part-timers means they are using local guys, with all this entails. The bickering will be endless. Or at least it will be until they finally bite the bullet and go with a full-time umpire corps employed by the league. That won't be until the 1880s. Here in 1872, the NA doesn't even have a league structure to run an umpire corps, much less the operating funds.
The article here suggests $10 per game. This won't be enough to persuade capable men to put up with grief for two hours. The going rate will settle in at $15. That is roughly equivalent to $300 to $400 in today's money."
What is a good general history of umpiring?
1872.7 Junior Championship for Philadelphia, Using Pro Rules
From published "Conditions of Entry" for the Junior Championship of 1872 in Philadelphia: A best-of-three knockout format, entry fee $1.00, using rules of the Professional Association, prize is a gold or silver ball.
Philadelphia City Item August 8, 1872:
Richard Hershberger commentary, 8/8/2022 FB posting:
"The City Item is sponsoring a championship among Philadelphia junior clubs. A few things jump out about this. First is that it is the second week of August and they are just now getting around to this. The second is that each team plays a best-of-three series with each other team, the third game played only if necessary. The NA has switched to every team playing a fixed number of games with every other team, but this system has not yet been internalized by the baseball community generally as How It Is Done. The games are explicitly to be played under the Professional Association rules. This is a bit odd, not only because these are amateur clubs, but because in 1872 the professional and amateur associations had the same playing rules. But using the professional rules is so important that it is stated twice, just to be sure. This is an early example of the amateur association's drive to irrelevance."
1872.8 Cleveland's NA Club Dissolves; League Financial Incentives to Blame?
"THE FOREST CITY CLUB -
The Cleveland paper speaks as follows in regard to the Forest City Club of that city: 'The management of the Forest City Club have wound up the concern. The nine is to have paid off today, and the contracts with the players cancelled' . . . . Probably the national game has seen its best days in Cleveland.'"
<See full clip in image below.>
Boston Globe, August 12, 1872
Richard Hershberger's comments in '150 Years Ago'. FB posting of 8/12/2022:
'The Cleveland Forest City Club is dead. Oddly enough, the Forest City team is not quite dead. It is still twitching, but this won't last.
The Forest City Club is not like the other defunct clubs of this season. It wasn't comically under capitalized, nor was it merely a regional semi-pro team with pretensions. It was a legit professional stock company baseball club. The team wasn't actually good, but it was better than its current 6-14 record suggests. Look at the roster and it is a perfectly plausible collection of players. They are playing below their ability, but also look at the complaint that there have been only three first-class games played in Cleveland. It actually was five, but the point stands. They have played the bulk of their games on the road. This can't help their win-loss record, but worse was what it did to their finances. Clubs typically retained two-thirds of the gate while at home, meaning that road games both incurred travel expenses and brought in less revenue.
One way to look at the NA was that its purpose was to force its members to travel. This broke down here for two reasons. First, there was not yet any central schedule. The clubs were to play a fixed number of games against each opponent, but the actual scheduling was left up to them. The second was that Cleveland was the westernmost club, as a secondary effect of the Great Chicago Fire the previous year. Stopping in Cleveland on the way to or from Chicago was one thing. Making an expensive trip just for Cleveland was another. Put these together and the eastern clubs simply didn't schedule games there. Presumably they would have eventually, had the club endured, but they kept putting it off. The result was that the club's finances collapsed, making the question moot.
At least mostly. The players are carrying on as a cooperative team, meaning they split their share of the game among themselves. This strategy rarely worked. Boston, in what looks to me like an act of charity, will shlep out there next week for two games, but these won't bring in enough to make it worth the players' time and the team will give up the ghost."
Do we know how Cleveland media covered this sad event?
1872.9 Innovator Harry Wright's Custom on Called Strikes
"Harry Wright went to bat and waited, as is his custom, until the umpire, Mr. Hanna, reminded him of his duty by calling a strike."
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 20, 1872
Richard Hershberger, 8/19/2022:
150 years ago today in baseball: "Boston at Cleveland, winning 12-7. This is the last gasp of the Cleveland team, but what interests me is this tidbit about Harry Wright's batting strategy, not swinging until the umpire calls a strike. This will later become a common approach. This is the earliest mention of it I know, making Harry a forward thinker in yet another area of baseball."
For Richard's 2014 summary of the called rules, see
Wright even passed on meatballs down the middle? Is that smart?
1872.10 Unofficial Scoresheets Evolve, K's Not Reported Yet
"Scoring is not yet regulated on the league level. Individual clubs and scorers are still experimenting."
-- Comment by Richard Hershberger in 8/24/2022 FB posting.
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, August 25, 1872
From Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago today in baseball: "Baltimore at Philadelphia where they beat the A's 12-8. . .
I am excerpting the box score because it is an interesting format. Notice how strike outs are only indirectly indicated. The reporter, Al Wright, is also the A's official scorer, so this is not merely some journalistic idiosyncrasy. Scoring is not yet regulated on the league level. Individual clubs and scorers are still experimenting."
Steve Colbert comments: "I have seen this format a couple of times while digging through box scores in the 1870 and 1871 seasons. When reviewing some of the play-by-play's, apparently missed 3rd strikes were recorded only as errors and not logged as strike outs anywhere that I can tell."
Is it noteworthy that only one walk occurred in this 12-8 game?
1872.11 In Rare Extramural Game, Knickerbockers Fade, Lose 26-17 in Base Ball Game with Cricketers
"AMATEUR GAMES -- The Manhattan Cricket Club played baseball with the Knickerbockers on the 28th [August 1872] . . . . The game was close till the eight inning, when the cricketers got in a streak of batting and the Knicks had to field one short . . . "
New York Sunday Mercury, September 1, 1872.
Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago today in baseball:
The Manhattan Cricket Club beats the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club 26-17. To be absolutely clear, they were playing baseball. Cricket and baseball clubs playing one another in one or both games was an established practice in this era. Generally the baseball team won at baseball and the cricket team won at cricket. When a team won at the other's game it usually was a case of ridiculously great disparity of athleticism. Imagine a modern MLB team, given a reasonable time to learn the rudiments, playing a rec league amateur cricket team. Or, taking it the other direction, an India Premier League team playing an American rec league baseball team.
This provides the explanation for the Knickerbockers' loss: They were really, really Not Good. Indeed, they never had been, except for a few years in the mid-1850s when their greater experience sufficed to make them respectable. In their defense, they weren't trying to be good. They were trying to combine exercise and socializing. They were generally successful at this. But on the rare occasions they played an outside game, the results could be ugly.
[] Do we recognize any Knickerbocker players in this 1872 line-up?
[] Was it common to call the club "The Knicks" in 1872?
1872.12 NA Clubs Struggle to Meet Payroll
Baltimore American September 7, 1872.
Richard Hershberger, "150 Years Ago Today," 9/8/2022:
"The officers of the Baltimore Club are working to raise funds to carry the club over the coming winter. This speaks volumes. The Baltimores were a good team. At this point their record is 29-13-1, putting them in second place behind Boston. The quality of the product on the field is not their problem. Yet they aren't breaking even, and have to scramble to raise funds to stay afloat.
I have had two great realizations about the early business of baseball. It dawned on me years ago that the later 1870s makes sense only in light of the Panic of 1873 and the depression that followed. But that is in the future. My more recent realization is that even apart from the general economy, they did not yet have a viable business model. Competition for players inevitably drove salaries up beyond the break-even point. The scramble to raise funds we see here is the rule, not the exception. This is why the churn rate was so high. Investors got tired of being tapped for more cash. Two or three years was about the limit for most clubs.
The creation of "organized baseball" was all about controlling costs, by which I mostly mean player salaries. This will take a while for them to figure out. The great breakthrough will be the reserve system, but that won't come until the 1879/1880 offseason."
See also Steve Colbert comment, in Supplemental Text (Below).
1872.13 Chadwick Criticizes Playing the National Pastime for Money
Henry Chadwick
"One of the most agreeable and interesting features of the present base ball season, was the organization of a grand base ball tournament by Mr Cammeyer. . . .[He] offered the very handsome sum of $4,000, to be played for by the Athletic, Boston, and Mutual clubs. . . .[Cammeyer] had some reason to doubt at first as to whether the Boston Red Stockings would take a hand in the affair, and the venerable Brooklyn organist [Henry Chadwick] of the the Boston Club had deprecated the playing of our national pastime for a purse of money . . .The $4,000 were divided . . . viz., $1,800 for the first, $1,200 for the second, and $1,000 for the third prize."
J.W. Brodie, "The Base Ball Tournament", New York Dispatch, October 13, 1872:
From Richard Hershberger, 10/13/2022:
1872.14 "Homer" Used to Reference A Home Run in Baltimore Paper
" . . . a 'homer' on a long hit to left field by Pike . . . "
Baltimore Gazette, 10/18/1872
Richard Hershberger, 10/18/2022 FB posting : 150 years ago in baseball: "a truly epic turning point in baseball history, the earliest known use of "homer . . . The game was played yesterday, Mutuals at Baltimore, tying 7-7 in eight inning." (The great Paul Dickson, author of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, commented-- "A remarkable find to be sure. Great work").
1872.15 Late-season Pro-league Proto-standings
1872 League records format.
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, October 27, 1872:
Richard Hershberger, "150 years ago in baseball, 10/282022. "The not-quite final standings. The championship season runs through the end of the month, so we are pretty close. This is the standard format in the day, and I quite like it. It takes some getting used to, but it provides information absent from the modern format."
Note: Peter Morris' A Game of Inches, 2012 Edition, p. 477, gives an overview of the evolution of the box score, starting the what is seen as the first, the New York Herald account of the game between the NYBBC and a club from Brooklyn, played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, in October 1845. He adds that Henry Chadwick with inventing it. "Chadwick is usually credited with being the inventor of the the box score. But the facts seem to suggest that, at most, Chadwick deserves credit, at most, with adding a few categories to it."
1872.16 British Base Ball Tour Is Planned
[American base ball players] "propose to travel throughout England, playing against each other, or to play against any nine that will appear against them. They will also play cricket . . . "
'Jackson's Oxford Journal', Oxfordshire, England, November 2, 1872:
Richard Hershberger, 11/2/2022: 150 years ago in baseball: "Talk of the Boston and Philadelphia teams visiting England. This idea has been floating around for several years now, only gradually coming together. It will eventually happen in 1874. We can take this item as early marketing, to get the idea out there."
Do we know more about Thomas "Tim" Hall's role in early Boston base ball?
Do we know why the named English gentlemen had come to the US beforehand?
Do we know the names of Boston and Philly players planning to go?
1872.17 Athletics Show Annual Expenses, Income for 1872
The Philly Athletics released their 1872 income/expenses for about $26,000.
Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, November 17, 1872
Richard Hershberger, 11/17/2022, 150 years ago in baseball: "The Athletic Club's financial statement for 1872. Professional baseball had not yet reached the point where it hid its books and claimed poverty. Here in 1872 the books were treated as a public matter, and the poverty was entirely genuine. This is an "inside baseball" discussion, but worth examining.
If you just look at the bottom line, the club came out just barely ahead for the year. It looks even better when you see that they paid out $3000 to retire debt. (For a debt of $5141? Perhaps there was some negotiated forgiveness. We are not told.) But look at the top line: Dues from members. The Athletics were not a stock company, but a club of the old fraternal model, which sponsored a baseball team. What is in it for the dues-paying members? They aren't meeting twice a week in the summer to take their exercise together. Those days are long past. They are essentially a booster club. The team won the pennant last year, so people are eager to associate themselves with it, and to secure premium seating. Spoiler alert: Boston will get this year's pennant.
The real question is can a club field a successful professional team based on gate receipts? There are a few odds and ends of additional revenue, but they are tiny. The answer we see here is "no." Take out the member dues, and even if we also take out the debt payment, the result is in the red. The largest expense by far is player salaries. (Harry Painter, in case you were wondering, is the "superintendent," i.e. the groundskeeper.) The challenge will be to lower this expense line. Another spoiler: Things will get worse before they get better. Baseball of the 1870s will be strewn with financial failures." ---
His anyone systematically tracked player salaries in he early pro years?
A: Baseball reference lists 13 players as being on the Athletics in 1871. Three of these played only 1 game. The standard roster of 10 players were paid an average of $1,500 apiece, per the article saying the players were paid $15,000 and change. [ba]
1872.18 Boston Pro Club Faces Insolvency on Way to Becoming Longest-Lived
[A] Boston Headline, 12/5/1872"
"Crippled Financial Condition of the Boston Club Association ["a $4000 debt"] - A Meeting to Devise Measures -- Will the Champions be Sustained for Another Season?"
[B] "We see here where management is essentially passing the hat among the fans. This will come together in a unique solution. The organization running the team is the Boston Base Ball Association. The fans will be the Boston Base Ball Club ("club" reflecting its social nature), which will take over the block of outstanding BBBA stock, paying for the privilege. This will carry the Bostons over until better times. This is why the now-Atlanta Braves are the oldest team in baseball." -- Richard Hershberger
[A] Boston Herald, December 5, 1872:
[B] FB posting by Richard Hershberger, 12/5/2022
1872.19 Chadwick on the Evils of Betting
Henry Chadwick: "[S]uspicion is raised whenever either glaring errors or one-sided scores mark the playing of the game."
Brooklyn Eagle, December 20, 1872
Richard Hershberger, FB posting, 150 Years Ago Today in Base Ball, 12/20/2022
"Chadwick denounces pool selling. This is a system, borrowed from horse racing, to centralize bets and stake-holding, making it harder for someone to forget he made that losing bet. It was introduced last season to the Union Grounds in Brooklyn. How is that going?
There is a lot of classic Chadwickiana here, ascribing all evils to whatever is on his mind at the moment. The premise is that with the betting centralized, there is more temptation to pay players to throw games. The logic is not entirely clear. Setting this up would be the actions of individual gamblers. Why would they care how much money other people had rising on the game? Especially since the arrangement would have to be made ahead of time, while the pools were still being sold.
Chad's best point is toward the bottom, that suspicion is raised "whenever either glaring errors or one-sided scores mark the playing of the game." Fair enough, though not actually new. Such suspicions are characteristic of the era. It is plausible that sanctioned betting pools exacerbated the problem. It is important, however, in understanding this era that the perception of game throwing is a different problem from actual game throwing. The first was widespread. The second is harder to say, but proven cases are notably rare. "
1873.1 Atlantic Club Business Model is Vulnerable
While the writer thinks the Atlantic club is ready to make a run for the pennant, our Richard Hershberger notes that its business model, under which players are paid out of gate receipts, has a troubled future.
Brooklyn Eagle, January 13, 1873
1873.13 Ballpark Admission Fees To Be Set at Twenty-five Cents -- not higher -- for Pro Games
"Manager (Nick) Young, of Washington, very wisely advocates the adoption of the twenty-five cent tariff of admission to professional contests this season, and the half-dozen professional clubs of the country had better adopt is advice. They will find it difficult to collect large audiences even at twenty-five cents this season . . . As for fifty cents, that is not a sum that will not be longer countenanced."
New York Sunday Mercury, February 16, 1873.
[A] From Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball (2/16/2023 FB posting): "The discussion over the price of admission. This discussion has been going on since 1866, when some clubs were delighted to discover that spectators were willing to pay the princely sum of 25 cents to see a game. This raised the question, might not they be willing to pay even more? Experiments ran all the way up to one dollar, but that clearly was overreach. The discussion settled into 25 versus 50 cents. It will go on, on these terms, into the 1890s. This seems curious from the modern perspective, but this was an era of essentially zero inflation. Inflation as a fact of life is really a post-WWII thing.
[] Do we know how often 50-cent admissions were charged prior to 1873?
[] Was Young's recommendation in fact smoothly adopted for the 1873 season?
1873.14 The Delayed Double Steal -- New or Familiar?
Richard Hershberger comments below on another report of a delayed double steal, this one by the Boston club. The Atlantics had evidently pulled one not long before.
New York Sun, June 11, 1873:
1874.1 Firsts recorded African-American club in Louisville
The Louisville Courier Journal, Sept. 16, 1874 has the first record of an African-American team in Louisville, the Globe.
The Louisville Courier Journal, Sept. 16, 1874
1876.1 MLB Is Established
William Hulbert
On February 2, 1876 Major League Baseball took shape.
John Thorn, History Awakens: February 2, 1876 and the Founding of the National League: An Amazing New Discovery.
John Thorn's comment: "[T]he story of how a player-based professional organization (the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, 1871–1875) gave way to one that was club-based (the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, 1876 to date) did not take place all on one day; it had commenced earlier, with considerable stealth.
A flummoxed Henry Chadwick termed this revolutionary idea — which is the very genesis of all of today’s professional sports leagues — a “coup d’état,” and he was right."
1886.1 First League Championship Trophy is Commissioned
"The Wiman trophy, despite the doubts expressed above, was designed and created expressly to be awarded to the winner of the American Association pennant. Absolutely unique because it is the only trophy intended explicitly for an American Association championship club, it was commissioned by the owner of the New York Metropolitans, Erastus Wiman, in 1886.
Other trophies and pennants of the 19th century — the Hall Cup, The Police Gazette Trophy and Pennant, the (William Chase) Temple Cup, and The Pittsburg Chronicle–Telegraph Trophy — were exclusively awarded to National League champions. The 19th century (Helen) Dauvray Cup trophy and medals were reserved for the world champions and were awarded to the winning team at the conclusion of the World Series."
Robert H Shaefer, "The Wiman Trophy, and the Man for Whom It was Named, Base Ball, Vol. I №2 (2007), p. 55.
[Reprised in John Thorn's Our Game blog, 2/14/2022]
see https://ourgame.mlblogs.com/the-wiman-trophy-and-the-man-for-whom-it-was-named-14c334840975.
Erastus Wiman, Owner of the American Association's New York Metropolitan Club commissioned a silver trophy for the championship of the 1887 season of the American Association.
Is this indeed the first such trophy in base ball history?