Some Base Ball Firsts

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Sortable

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 No-Hitter	1868-06-05	Brooklyn	NY
First Backward'K'	1868-07-03	Brooklyn	NY
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	RI
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 should writings.

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