Some Base Ball Firsts

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Pre-pro Baseball
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About Pre-pro
Waff's Game Tabulation
Bob Tholkes RIM Tabulation

Awaiting Review
First Date City State
Diamonds are a Game's Best Friend 1834 Boston MA
First Known Use of the Term "Town Ball" 1834-06-14 Springfield IL
Olympics Specify Umpire 1837 Philadelphia PA
Foul is Fair 1845-09-23 NYC NY
Brooklyn 22, New York 1: The First-Ever "Modern" Interclub Match 1845-10-11 Brooklyn NY
Knicks Play NYBBC in First Recorded Match Game 1846-06-19 Hoboken NJ
Umpires 1, Players 0 1846-06-19 Hoboken NJ
First Printing of Knickerbocker Rules 1848 NYC NY
First Reported Scholastic Cricket Clubs 1848 Philadelphia PA
Knicks Sport First Uniform 1849-04-24 NYC NY
The Beginning of Match Play Among Organized Clubs 1851-06-03 NYC NY
First Interscholastic Ball Game 1853 Andover MA
The First Base Ball Reporters - Cauldwell, Bray, Chadwick 1853 NYC NY
Base Ball Hits the Sports Pages? Sunday Mercury, Spirit of the Times Among First to Cover Game Regularly 1853 NYC NY
First Compensated Player 1854 NYC NY
Finally, Cricket Played Here (by Aduls) Without English Immigrants! 1854-08 NYC NY
First Interclub Second Nine Play 1854-11 Hoboken NJ
First Junior Base Ball Club Founded 1855 Newark NJ
First Publishing of Rules 1855-04-29 NYC NY
First Crowd Count 1855-09 NYC NY
First Designation of "Best" Club 1855-09-22 NYC NY
First Mention of Fastball Pitching 1855-09-22 Jersey City NJ
First Ball of the Base Ball Clubs Attracts 200 Couples 1856-01 NYC NY
First Recorded Base Stealing 1856-08-07 NYC NY
First Use of Two Catchers on One Team? 1856-08-30 Hoboken NJ
First Scholastic Play under the Knick Rules 1856-11 NYC NY
First Published Use of "steal" 1857-02-07 NYC NY
First Baseball Attendance of a Thousand or More 1857-07-09 Hoboken NJ
First Game Image 1857-09-12 NYC NY
The First Vintage Games? 1857-10 NYC NY
Slide, Webber, Slide 1857-10-10 NYC NY
First Note of Catcher Playing Close to Batter 1857-12-26 NYC NY
Backing Up Begins at Short 1857-12-26 NYC NY
First Prep School Interscholastic Play 1858 Bloomfield NJ
First Base Ball Sheet Music 1858 Buffalo NY
First Recorded College Game at Williams College 1858-05-29 Williamstown MA
First Admission Fee for Baseball 1858-07 NYC NY
First Complaint about Organized Baseball 1858-12-01 United States
First African-American Games 1859 Brooklyn NY
First Female Play of Modern Base Ball? 1859 Perth Amboy NJ
Proto-Sports Bar 1859 NYC NY
First Triple Play 1859-04-16 Brooklyn NY
First distance-estimated home run 1859-06-28 Brooklyn NY
First Fly Baseball Game 1859-06-30 Hoboken NJ
First Note of Pitcher Covering First 1859-06-30 Hoboken NJ
First Reference to Change-of-Pace Pitching 1859-07-03 NYC NY
First Industrial Game Reported 1859-07-20 Hoboken NJ
Canadian New York Rules Club Reported 1859-08-06 Toronto Ontario
First Recorded Hidden Ball Trick 1859-10 Brooklyn NY
First Intercollegiate Game by Association Rules 1859-11-03 New York NY
Intercollegiate Game, Possibly the First Played by New York Rules 1859-11-03 NYC NY
First Statistical Fruit 1859-12-10 NYC NY
Chadwick's Beadle's Appears, and Baseball Literature is Launched 1860 NYC NY
First Enclosed Ballpark 1860 Philadelphia PA
Batting Cage Debuts 1860-04 NYC NY
You Take It - I've Got It 1860 NYC NY
First Recorded Pickoff of Runner 1860-05-20 Brooklyn NY
First Tour Ever- Excelsiors Conduct Undefeated Western NY Road Trip. 1860-07 NY
First International Game Played by New York Rules 1860-08 Clifton Ontario
First Known Shutout 1860-11-08 Hoboken NJ
Shut Out Reported as the First Ever; Excelsiors 25, St. George Nine 0 1860-11-08 Hoboken NJ
First Game Slated for a Gold Mining Town 1860 Mariposa CA
First Game Played on Ice Skates 1860 Brooklyn NY
First Mention of Hand Protection in Baseball 1860-12-25 Philadelphia PA
First 6-4-3 Noted 1861-08-17 Newark NJ
First saloon established on a base ball ground 1862-05-15 Brooklyn NY
First Note of Brushback Pitching 1863-10-17 NYC NY
Traps 1864-06-25 Newark NJ
First Known Deliberate Bunts 1864-09-15 Brooklyn NY
First Photo of Big-Time Ball Game 1865 Newburgh NY
First Known Integrated (Adult) Club Takes the Field 1865 Florence MA
Note: Clubs Need Two Pitchers 1865-06-10 Brooklyn NY
First Baseball Tournaments 1865-07-04 Portland ME
First Post-Game Newspaper Interview? 1865-08-19 Brooklyn NY
Baseball Players' Age and Weight Reported 1865-08-24 Brooklyn NY
Baseball on the Stage 1865-09 NYC NY
Barnstomers 1866 Dover NJ
First Known Table-top Base Ball Game 1866 United States
First Interracial game 1866-07-04 Honolulu HI
First Reported use of Knickers During a Base Ball Match 1866-07-07 New Brunswick NJ
Twenty-Five Cent Admission Fees 1866-08 Brooklyn NY
First Known Lady Umpire 1866-08-30 Morrisania NY
First Known Example of a Table-top Base Ball Game 1866-12-08 NYC NY
First Black-White Interracial Match Game 1867 Cadiz OH
Nationals Inaugurate Western Tours 1867 Washington DC
Signs Go Back To At Least 1867 1867 United States
Batters' "Hits" First Appear in a Game Report 1867-06-06 NYC NY
Upset Gives Western Clubs First win vs. the East 1867-07-25 Rockford IL
First Ball Game in Rome 1868-05 Rome Italy
First Known Use of "Homer" to Reference a Home Run 1868-08-06 New York NY
First Known Female Base Ball Team in Tennessee 1868-11 Nashville TN
First Black-White Game 1869 Philadelphia PA
Cincinnati Club Forms as First All-Professional Nine 1869 Cincinnati OH
First Inter-Racial Game 1869-09-03 Philadelphia PA
First Use of Sptball 1869-10 Baltimore MD
Slugging Stat Arrives in Early Form 1869-12-04 NYC NY
First Pro Club in Chicago? 1870 Chicago IL
Cincinnati Club Introduces 50-cent Admission Fee 1870 Cincinnati OH
First Switch Hitter 1870-06-14 Brooklyn NY
First Known Interstate Challenge of a Men's Team by a Female Team 1871-08 Memphis TN
First mention of Negro Baseball in Arkansas 1873-08-08 Little Rock AR
First African-American MLB player 1879-06-21 Providence Rhode Island
First Night Game Played Under Lights 1880-09-02 Nantasket MA
First night game under lights in Arkansas 1894-07-13 Little Rock AR
First recorded game between two different non-white races 1905 CA
First team of Japanese Immigrants to US 1919 Salt Lake City UT
First Colored World Series 1924-10-03 Philadelphia PA
"Sound" Baseball Played at Ohio School for the Blind 1939 Columbus OH
First Televised Baseball Game: Princeton 2, Columbia 1 1939-05-17 New York NY
First Major League Game Televised 1939-08-26 New York NY
First televised World Series 1949-10 New York NY
First Game at the North Pole 1960-08-25 North Pole
First Games Played by Unsighted Players 1964 Colorado Springs CO
First Game On Both Starting Pitchers' Birthdays 2012-05-03 Cincinnati OH


Note: The Firsts listed above have been added by individual Protoball users from 2015 on.

It is not intended to supplant published work on base ball firsts, and has not been systematically cross-checked with such writings. Interested readers consult (Dickson third edition)(Peter Morris' Game of Inches) for additional coverage of base ball firsts.