Chronology:New York
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1738.1 Two New Yorkers Get Guard House Sentence for Ballplaying At Time of Religious Rites
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Location:
Age of Players:
"Turning now from these serious offences against public order, we find accounts of numerous violations common to most communities, even at the present day. These acts varied in the degree of their gravity. From the court records we learn of such minor offenders as Joseph and Edward Anderson, who were arrested for grievously assaulting a watchman who was marching them to the guard house for playing with a bat and ball during the time of divine service.
(Thanks to Tom Dyja for reporting this very early evidence.)
Sources:
George Edwards, New York as Eighteenth Century Municipality (Columbia University Press, 1917), pp. 116-117
Edwards' citation: "Minutes of Quarter Sessions, May 4, 1738."
Comment:
As of January 2023, this appears to be one of Protoball's ten earliest reports of ballplaying in the United States, and the third to appear in what is now New York City. It may be the first know legal action taken against ballplaying.
Year
1738
1827.7 NY Boy Celebrates "Releasement" from School By Playing Ball
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"In consequence of a dismission from school this afternoon, I play at ball . . . and perhaps you will say that I might have been better employed . . . If so are your thoughts, I can tell you, that you are much mistaken. If you have ever been confined to a study where every exertion of intellect was required, for any length of time, you must, upon releasement therefrom, have felt the pleasure of relaxation."
-- Nathaniel Moore, Student at Clinton Academy, East Hampton, Long Island.
Sources:
Nathaniel Moore, "Diaries 1827-1828," Manuscript Division, New York Public Library, 106-L-1, May 26, 1827. Per Thomas L. Altherr, "Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games," Base Ball, Volume 2, number 1 (Spring 2008), page 36 and ref #45.
Year
1827
1856.19 Five-Player Base Ball Reported in NY, WI
Game:
Age of Players:
Two games of five-on-five baseball appear in the Spirit of the Times, starting in 1856. The '56 game matched the East Brooklyn junior teams for the Nationals and the Continentals. The Nationals won 37-10. In 1857, an item taken from the Waukesha (WI) Republican of June 6, pitted Carroll College freshmen and "an equal number of residents of this village. They played two games to eleven tallies, and one to 21 tallies. The collegians won all three games. Neither account remarks on the team sizes. Other five-on-five matches appeared in 1858.
Sources:
Spirit of the Times, Volume 26, number 39 (Saturday, November 8, 1856), page 463, column 3.
Spirit of the Times Volume 27, number 20 (June 27, 1857), page 234, column 2.
Query:
Was 5-player base ball common then? Did it follow special rules? How do 4 fielders cover the whole field?
Year
1856
1865.28 Union Guards at Elmira Prison Play Baseball with Confederate POWs
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Age of Players:
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.
Sources:
James E. Hare, "Elmira," p. 75
Year
1865
1886.1 First League Championship Trophy is Commissioned
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"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."
Sources:
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.
Comment:
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.
Query:
Is this indeed the first such trophy in base ball history?
Year
1886