Last updated March 11, 2010
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Ballplaying
at Universities
A Working Chronology
This working chronology is drawn from version 11 of the full Protoball
chronology, as uploaded in April 2010;
-----
1500s.1
-- Ballplaying Permitted at
“Parisian legislators were more
sympathetic with regard to games than their English contemporaries. Even
the Founder of the Cisterian College of St Bernard contemplated that permission
might be obtained for games, though not before dinner or after the bell rang
for vespers. A sixteenth century code of statutes for the College of
Tours, while recording the complaints of the neighbors about the noise made by
the scholars playing ball
Rait, Robert S., Life in the Medieval
University [Cambridge University Press, 1912], page 83. Submitted by
John Thorn, 10/12/2004.
1609.1
– Polish Origins of Baseball Perceived in
“For your information and records, I am
pleased to inform you that after much research I have discovered that baseball
was introduced to
Letter from Matthew Baranski to the
Baseball Hall of Fame, March 23, 1975.
Note: Baranski himself cites First Poles in
David Block
1760s.1
– Harvard Man Recalls Cricket, “Various Games of Bat and
Ball” on Campus
Writing of the Buttery on the Harvard campus,
Sidney Willard later recalled that “[b]esides eatable, everything
necessary for a student was there sold, and articles used in the play-grounds,
as bats, balls, &c. . . . [w]e wrestled and ran, played at quoits, at
cricket, and various games of bat and ball, whose names perhaps are obsolete.”
Sidney Willard, Memories of Youth and
Manhood [John Bartlett,
1761.1
–
“A minute of the
Bentley, et. al., American College
Athletics [Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
1761.2
-- College Rule in PA; No Ballplaying in the College Yard, Especially in Front
of Trustees and Profs
“None shall climb over the Fences of
the College Yard, or come in or out thro the Windows, or play Ball or use any
Kind of Diversion within the Walls of the Building; nor shall they in the
Presence of the Trustees, Professors or Tutors, play Ball, Wrestle, make any
indecent Noise, or behave in any way rudely in the College Yard or Streets
adjacent.”
Sack, Saul, History of Higher Education in
Pennsylvania, vol. 2 [Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission,
1771.1
-- Dartmouth President Eyes Gardening as “More Useful” Than
Ballplaying
Eleazar Wheelock, A Continuation of the
Narrative [1771], as quoted in W. D. Quint, The Story of Dartmouth
College [Little, Brown, Boston, 1914] , page 246. Submitted by Scott
Meacham, 8/21/06.
1779.6
–
“If any student shall play ball or use
any other deversion [sic] that exposes the College or hall windows within three
rods of either he shall be fined two shillings . . . “ In 1782 the protected area was extended
to six rods. John King Lord, A History of
1781.2
– “Ancient Harvard Custom:
Freshmen Furnish the Bats, Balls
“The Freshmen shall furnish Batts,
Balls, and Foot-balls, for the use of the students, to be kept at the
Buttery.”
Rule 16, “President, Professors, and
Tutor’s Book,” volume IV.
The list of rules is headed “The antient Customs of Harvard
College, established by the Government of it.”
Conveyed to David Block, April 18, 2005, by
Professor Harry R. Lewis,
1781.2
– “Ancient Harvard Custom:
Freshmen Furnish the Bats, Balls
“The Freshmen shall furnish Batts,
Balls, and Foot-balls, for the use of the students, to be kept at the
Buttery.”
Rule 16, “President, Professors, and
Tutor’s Book,” volume IV.
The list of rules is headed “The antient Customs of Harvard
College, established by the Government of it.”
Conveyed to David Block, April 18, 2005, by
Professor Harry R. Lewis,
1784.1
– UPenn Bans Ball Playing Near Open University Windows
RULES for the Good Government and Discipline
of the SCHOOL in the
1786.1
– “Baste Ball” Played at
“Baste Ball” is played by
students on the campus of
“A fine day, play baste ball in the
campus but am beaten for I miss both catching and striking the ball.”
Smith, John Rhea, March 22 1786, in
“Journal at Nassau Hall,”
An article has appeared about Smith’s
journal. See Woodward, Ruth,
“Journal at Nassau Hall,” PULC 46
1787.1
– Ballplaying Prohibited at
“It appearing that a play at present
much practiced by the smaller boys . . . with balls and sticks,” the
faculty of
Quoted without apparent reference in
1793.1
-- Engraving Shows Game with Wickets at
A copper engraving showing
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/Library_Bulletin/Nov1992/LB-N92-KCramer2.html;
Submitted by Scott Meacham 8/17/06.
1796.2 –
Tarbox, Increase N., Diary of Thomas
Robbins,
1797.1 – Daniel Webster Writes of “Playing
Ball” While at
Daniel Webster, in private correspondence,
writes of “playing ball,” while a student at
Webster, Daniel, Private Correspondence,
Fletcher Webster, ed. [Little Brown,
1803.4
–
“To prevent, as far as possible, the
damages before enumerated, viz. breaking of glass, &c. the students in
College and members of the Academy shall not be permitted to play at ball or
use any other sport or diversion in or near the College-building.” A first offense brought a fine, a second
offense brought suspension.
“Of the location of Students, Damages,
and Glass,” in Laws of Middlebury-College in Midlebury [sic] in
Vermont, Enacted by the President and Fellows, the 17th Day of August, 1803,
page 14. Per Thomas L. Altherr,
“Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American
Ball Games,” Base Ball, Volume 2, number 1
1805.1 – Williams College Bans Dangerous
Ball-playing
The Laws of
1807.3
– Lost Poet Remembers College Ballplay, Maybe in
Garrett Barry wrote in his sentimental verse
“On Leaving College:”
“I’ll fondly tract, with
fancy’s aid,/The spot where all our sports were made./ . . .
The little train forever gay,/With joy
obey’d the pleasing call,/And nimbly urged the flying ball.”
Barry, Garrett, “On Leaving
College,” in Poems, on Several Occasions
1810.4
–
“Union Students were playing a
baseball-like game with a stick and ball of yarn in the old
Somers, Wayne, Encyclopedia of Union
College History [Union College Press,
1810s.5
– Harvard Library Worker Recalls Bi-racial Ball Play in Harvard Yard
“During my employment at
William Croswell, letter drafted to the
Harvard Corporation, December 1827.
Papers of William Croswell, Call number HUG 1306.5, Harvard University
Archives. Supplied by Kyle
DeCicco-Carey, 8/8/2007. Kyle notes
that Croswell was an 1780 Harvard graduate who worked in the college library
1812-1821.
1815.6 – Group at
1816.6
--
Haswell says that Columbia College players
play at the hollow on the Battery locations “very nearly the entire area
bounded by Whitehall and State Streets, the sea wall line, and a line about two
hundred feet to the west; it was of an uniform grade, fully five feet below
that of the street, it was nearly uniform in depth, and as regular in its
boundary as a dish.” Charles Haswell Reminiscences of an Octogenarian
of the City of
1817.4 – In
“No student shall, in or near any
College building, play at ball, or use any sport or diversion, by which such
building may be exposed to injury, on penalty of being fined not exceeding
twenty cents, or being suspended if the offence be often repeated.”
Of
Misdemeanors and Criminal Offences, in Laws of Bowdoin College
1818.1 – Yale Student Reports Cricket on Campus
A student at
Lester, ed., A Century of
Philadelphia Cricket [U Penn Press,
1818.3
-- “Baseball” at West Point NY?
“Although playing ball games near the
barracks was prohibited, cadets could play ‘at football’ near
Pappas, George S., To The Point: The
1820c.13
-- Cricket Match Seen on Yale Campus
“And on the green and easy slope where
these proud columns stand,/ In Dorian mood, with academe and temple on each
hand,/ The football and the cricket match upon my vision rise,/ With all the
clouds of classic dust kicked in each other’s eyes.”
Attributed to William Cromwell, a student at
1820c.15
– Ballplaying at
Nehemiah Cleaveland and Alpheus Spring
Packard, History of
“The student of earlier years had not
the resources for healthful physical recreation of the present day [1880s]. We
had football and baseball, though the latter was much less formal and
formidable than the present game” [Page 96]. Note:
the precise time referenced here is hard to specify; but the authors graduated
in 1813 and 1816, and the context seems to suggest the 1810-1830 period.
Only one of the sketches of alumni, however,
mentions ballplaying of any type.
The sketch for James Patten, Class of 1823, includes this: “He entered
college at the mature age of twenty-four, was a respectable scholar, spoke with
a decided brogue, and played ball admirably. . . . When last heard from he was
an acting magistrate and a rich old bachelor.” [Page 276] The sketch for Longfellow, who in 1824
wrote of constant ballplaying on the ME campus [see #1824.1], does not allude
to sport.
1820c.27 --
“Of
those [students] of
Haswell
recalls the Battery grounds as “very nearly the entire area bounded by
Whitehall and State Streets, the sea wall line, and a line about two hundred
feet to the west; it was of an uniform grade, fully five feet below that of the
street, it was nearly uniform in depth, and as regular in its boundary as a
dish.”
Charles
Haswell, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian of the City of
1822.5
– Ball-playing Disallowed in Front of Hobart College Residence
“The rules for Geneva Hall in 1822 are
still preserved. The residents were
not allowed to cut or saw firewood, or play ball or quoits, in front of the
building.”
Warren Hunting Smith, Hobart and William
Smith; the History of Two Colleges (
1824.1 – Longfellow Reports Popularity of
Ballplaying at Bowdoin
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, then a student at
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, letter to his
father Stephen Longfellow, April 11, 1824, in Samuel Longfellow, ed., Life
of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with Extracts from His Journals and
Correspondence [Ticknor and Company, Boston 1886],volume 1, p. 51.
Per Seymour, Harold – Notes in the Seymour Collection at Cornell
University, Kroch Library Department of Rare and Manuscript Collections,
collection 4809.
Reprinted in Andrew Hilen, ed., Henry
Wadsworth Longefellow, the Letters of Henry
1824.5 --
During 1824 the
1825.5 – Base Ball Called One of the College
Sports as Early as 1825.
“What we know as Base Ball was played
in its primitive form as far back as the beginning of the last [19th]
century, and many of the oldest inhabitants remember seeing it played. It
was one of the college sports as early as 1825.”
Francis C. Richter, Richter’s
History and Records of Base Ball; The American Nation’s Chief Sport
[McFarland, 2005], page 4.
Originally published in 1914. Cited as Richter, History and
Records , page 12, by Harold Seymour – Notes in the Seymour
Collection at
1825c.14 – Future Ohio Governor
is “Best Ball Player at the College”
John
Brough was the Governor of Ohio from 1864 to 1865. At the age of 11 his father died and he
took on work as a type-setter. In
1825 he “entered the
1825.9 -- Ballplaying Planned on Saturdays in
“BALL PLAYING: There will be Ball
playing in
1827.1 – Brown U Student Reports “Play at
Ball”
Latham, Williams, The Diary of Williams Latham,
1823 – 1827, quoted in W. C. Bronson, The History of Brown
University 1764 – 1914 [Providence, Brown University, 1914], p.
245. Per
1829c.1
– Oliver Wendell Holmes Plays Ball as a Harvard student.
Krout, John A, Annals of American Sport
[
1830s.22
–Ballplaying Recurs in Abolitionist’s Life
You may think of Thomas Wentworth Higginson
[b. 1823] as a noted abolitionist, or as the mentor of Emily Dickenson, but he
was also a ballplayer and sporting advocate [see also #1858.17]. Higginson’s autobiography includes
several glimpses of MA ballplaying:
-- at ten he knew many Harvard students
– “their nicknames, their games, their individual haunts, -- we
watched them at football and cricket [page 40]”
-- at his
-- he and his friends “played baseball
and football, and a modified cricket, and on Saturdays made our way to the
tenpin alleys [page 36]”.
--once enrolled at
-- in his early thirties he was president of a
cricket club [and a skating club and a gymnastics club] in
Source:
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Cheerful Yesterdays
1834.5
-- Cricket Play Begins at
“The first cricket club of entirely native-born
American youth was founded at
John A. Lester, ed., , A Century of
Philadelphia Cricket [UPenn Press,
1836.1
– “Old-fashioned ‘Ball’” Popular in
“Baseball and foot ball did not, in
those days, ensnare the athletic sympathies and activities of [p36/p37] college
boys, but old-fashioned ‘ball’ and quoits were popular.”
Asahel C. Kendrick, Martin B. Anderson: A
Biography
1837.3
–
“[March 1837,
Whitney, Josiah D., letter to his sister,
March 1837, reprinted in E. T. Brewster, Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight
Whitney [Houghton Mifflin,
1838.5 – At
"Games and gymnasiums as a regular part
of college work, and hence regular organizations of students for athletics,
were unknown at that time. Athletics and games there were indeed a
plenty, but as purely spontaneous expressions of abounding vitality. I was
light, active, and fleet of foot, and became very expert in gymnastics and as a
player of town-ball, for baseball and cricket had not yet evolved."
[LeConte writes of his college years at the
LeConte, Joseph. The Autobiography of
Joseph Le Conte [D. Appleton & Company,
1839.3
– Rutherford Hayes Plays Ball as Student at
In a May 13 letter to his brother, the future
President observed: “Playing ball is all the fashion here now and
it is presumed that I can beat you at that if not at chess.”
Williams, C. R., ed., Diary and Letters of
Rutherford Birchard Hayes: Nineteenth President of the United States volume
1 [Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society,
1840s.4
– Form of Base Ball Introduced to College Campuses
Per Rader, page 74: no citation given.
Rader says that the game was brought to the campuses in the 1840s and 1850s by
“boys from the eastern academies.”
1840s.28
-- At
At upstate NY’s
1840c.34
–Ball-Playing at
“The College did not supply the
students [p167/168] of that day with a gymnasium as an incentive to physical
exercise; but they themselves naturally found out the kind of recreations they
needed . . . . [In addition to local excursions,] [s]ometimes ball-playing was
the recreation, and sometimes it was leaping or jumping, that brought the
largest crowd”
Theodore Appel, Recollections of College
Life, at
1840c.39 – Cricket [or Maybe
Wicket] Played by Harvard Class of 1841
“Games
of ball were played almost always separately by the classes, and in my case
cricket prevailed. There were not
even matches between classes, so far as I remember, and certainly not between
colleges. . . . The game was the
same then played by boys on Boston Common, and was very unlike what is now
[1879] called cricket. Balls, bats,
and wickets were all larger than in the proper English game; the bats
especially being much longer, twice as heavy, and three-cornered instead of
flat. . . . What game was it?
Whence it came? It seemed to
bear the same relation to true cricket that the old Massachusetts game of
base-ball bore to the present ‘New York’ game, being less artistic,
but more laborious.”
Member
of the Class of 1841, “Harvard Athletic Exercises Thirty Years
Ago,” Harvard Advocate [
1841.13 – At Yale, Wicket Now Seen as
“Ungenteel”
Commenting on the lack of exercise at Yale, a
student wrote:
“The is one great point in which the
English have the advantage over us: they understand how to take care of their
health . . . every Cantab [student at Cambridge U] takes his two hours’
exercise per diem, by walking,
riding, rowing, fencing, gymnastics, &c. How many Yalensians take one hour’s regular exercise? . . .
The gymnasium has vanished, wicket has been voted ungenteel, scarce even a freshman dares to put on a pair of
skates, . . .
Yale Literary Magazine, vol. 7
1842.3
– Harvard Man George Hoar Writes of Playing “Simple Game Called
Base”
George F. Hoar, a student at
Hoar, George F. Autobiography of Seventy
Years [Pubr?, 1903], page 120. Per Seymour, Harold – Notes in
the Seymour Collection at Cornell University, Kroch Library Department of Rare
and Manuscript Collections, collection 4809.
1842.9
– Haverford Students Form Cricket Team of Americans
“
Lester, John A., A Century of Philadelphia
Cricket
1843.4
– On Yale’s Green, Many a “Brisk Game of Wicket”
“Were it spring or autumn you should
see a brave set-to at football on the green, or a brisk game of
wicket.” Ezekiel P. Belden, Sketches
of Yale College
1846.7 –
“Friday, October 16. At prayers as
usual. Studied Demosthenes till
breakfast time. After breakfast
came off the great match between our class and the juniors. We beat them
77 to 53. They had on the ground nineteen men out of twenty-nine, and we
thirty out of thirty-five. Had the remainder of both classes been there, at the
same rate we should have beaten them 90 to 81. As a class they were completely
used up. Their players, however, averaged about 0.23 each more than ours. The
whole was played out in about an hour. The victory was completely ours, a
result different from what I expected. Got a lesson in Demosthenes and went to
recitation.” On October 3, the MA diarist had written: “played
a game of wicket, with a party of fellows . . . . Had a fine game, though I,
knowing little of the rules, was soon bowled out. Then came home and wrote journal till
5PM. Then to prayers and afterward to supper.”
1846.8 –
Dr. Edward Hitchcock gives this
account of the game of wicket in his MA college:
"In my days baseball was
neither a science nor an art, but we played ‘wicket’. On
smooth and level ground about 20 feet apart were placed two 'wickets,' pine
sticks 1 inch square and 8 to 10 feet long, supported on a block at each end so
as to be easily knocked off. The ball was made of yarn, covered with stout
leather, about six inches in diameter and bowled with all the power of the wicket
tender at each end. The aim was to roll it as swiftly as possible at the
opposite wicket and knock it down if possible. This was defended by the man
with a broad bat, 3 feet long, and the oval about 8 inches [across], who must
defend his wicket. If the bowler could by [bowling] a fair ball, striking
twice between the wickets, knock down the opposite wicket, the striker was out.
But if the batter could by a direct or sideways hit send the ball sideways or
overhead the outside men, they [ i.e. ., the batter and his teammate at
the opposite end] could run till the ball was in the hands of the bowler. But
the bowler to get the batter out must with the ball in his hand knock the
wicket outwards before the batter could strike his bat outside a line three feet
inside the wicket . . . . This game was played on the lowest part of the 'walk'
under the trees which now extends from chapel to the church."
Hitchcock, Edward,
“Recollections,” in George F. Whicher, ed., Remembrance of
1846.13 – Spring Sports at Harvard: “Bat & Ball” and Cricket
“In the spring there is no
playing of football, but “bat & ball” & cricket.”
From “Sibley’s Private Journal,”
entry for August 31, 1846, as supplied to David Block by letter of 4/18/2005
from Prof. Harry R. Lewis at Harvard, Cambridge MA. Lewis notes that the Journal is “a
running account of Harvard daily life in the mid nineteenth century.”
1848.8
-- Cricket Flourishes at Haverford College PA
“The College was closed in 1845. When
it reopened in 1848, cricket sprang up again under the leadership of an English
tutor in Dr. Lyons’ school nearby. Two cricket clubs, the Delian
and the Lycaean, were formed, and then a third the Dorian.”
John Lester, A Century of Philadelphia
Cricket [UPenn Press,
1848c.9
--
[As a teenage student at Farmer’s College,
near
Life and Public Services of Hon. Benjamin
Harrison [Sedgewood
Publishing Company, 1892], page 53.
1850s.18
-- Baseball’s Beginnings at U Penn
“Baseball was first played by Penn
students before the Civil War when the University was still located at its
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/sports/baseball/1800s/hist1.html,,
as accessed 1/3/2008. No reference is supplied.
1850c.35 –
A
member of the class of 1849 recalls college life: “Athletics were not
regularly organized, nor had we any gymnasium. We played base-ball, wicket ball,
two-old-cat, etc., but there was not foot-ball.”
The
college history later explains:
“The game of wicket, which was a modification of cricket, was
played with a soft ball five to seven inches in diameter, and with two wickets
(mere laths or light boards) laid upon posts about four inches high and some
forty feet apart. The
‘outs’ tried to bowl thee down, and the ‘ins’ to defend
them with curved broad-ended bats.
It was necessary to run between the wickets at each strike.”
Wilfred
Shaw, The
1851.5
– Robert E. Lee Promotes Cricket at
A twenty-one year old cricket enthusiast
visited West Point from
“Colonel Lee said he would be greatly
obliged to me if I would teach the officers how to play cricket, so we went to
the library. . . .Lieutenant
Alexander asked for the cricket things.
He said, ‘Can you tell me, Sir, where the instruments and
apparatus are for playing cricket?’ The librarian know nothing about them
and so our project came to an end.” “The Boyhood of Rev. Samuel
Robert Calthrop.” Compiled by
His Daughter, Edith Calthrop Bump.
No date given. Accessed 10/31/2008 at http://www-distance.syr.edu/SamCalthropBoyhoodStory.html. Note:
Lee is reported to have become Superintendent of West Point in September
1852; and had been stationed in
1853c.13 – At Harvard, Most
Students Played Baseball and Football, Some Cricket or 4 Old Cat
Reflecting
back nearly sixty years, the secretary of the class of 1855 wrote: “In those days, substantially all
the students played football and baseball [MA round ball, probably], while some
played cricket and four-old-cat.”
“News
from the Classes,” Harvard Graduates Magazine Volume 18
(1909-1910). Accessed 2/11/10 via
Google Books search ("e.h.abbot, sec.").
1854.10
-- Ball Played at
“Baseball in
Minor Myers, Jr., and Dorothy Ebersole, Baseball
in Geneva: Notes to Accompany An Exhibition at the Prout Chew Museum, May
20 to September 17, 1988 [Geneva Historical Society,
1854.13
– English Visitor Sees Wicket at Harvard
“It was in the spring of 1854 . .
. that I stepped into the
“They politely invited me to take the
bat. Any cricketer could have stayed there all day and not been bowled out.
After I had played awhile I said, “You must play the modern game
cricket.” I had a ball and they made six stumps. Then we went to Delta,
the field where the Harvard Memorial Hall now stands. We played and they took
to cricket like a duck to water. . . .I think that was the first game of
cricket at Harvard.” “The
Boyhood of Rev. Samuel Robert Calthrop.” Compiled by His Daughter, Edith Calthrop
Bump. No date given. Accessed
10/31/2008 at
http://www-distance.syr.edu/SamCalthropBoyhoodStory.html. Actually, Mr. Calthrop may have come
along about 95 years too late to make that claim: see #1760s.1 above. Harvard is in
1857.23
– Princeton Freshmen Establish
“In the fall of ’57, a few members
of the [Princeton University – Princeton NJ] a few members of the
Freshmen [sic] class organized the Nassau Baseball [sic] Club to play baseball
although only a few members had seen the game and fewer still had played. Description follows of attempts to clear
a playing area, a challenge made to the Sophomores, and selection of 15 players
for each side.] After each party
had played five innings, the Sophomores had beaten their antagonists by
twenty-one rounds, and were declared victorious.” The account goes on to report that the
next spring, “baseball clubs of all descriptions were organized on the
back campus and ‘happiness on such occasions seemed to rule the
hour.’” The account
also reflects on the coming of base ball:
“in seven years a new game superseded handball in student favor
– it was ‘town ball’ or the old
Note:
old CT game? Source:
“Baseball at
1857c.34 – Wicket Played at
Eastern OH College; Future
“In
the street, in front of [
F. M.
Green, Hiram College (Hubbell Printing, Cleveland, 1901), page 156. Accessed via Google Books search ("hiram
college" green). James A. Garfield was Principal and Professor at
1858.8
– Harvard Student Notes “Multitude” Playing Base or Cricket
There
“[On] almost any evening or pleasant
Saturday, . . . a shirt-sleeved multitude from every class are playing as base
or cricket . . . “Mens
Sana,” Harvard Magazine 4
1858.29 – First Recorded Game at
“On Saturday last [May 29] a Game of
Ball was played between the Sophomore and Freshmen Classes of Williams
College. The conditions were three
rounds of 35 tallies – best two in three winning. The Sophs won the first, and the
Freshmen the two last. It was
considered one of the best contested Games ever played by the students.”
“Williamstown [MA],” The
Pittsfield Sun, vol. 58, number 3011 (June 3, 1858, page 2, column 5. Posted to 19CBB on 8/14/2007 by Craig
Waff. The best-of-three format is
familiar in the
1858c.44
– Wolverines and Wicket
“Wicket was then about our only outdoor
sport – and it was a good one, too – and I remembered that we
challenged the whole University to a match game.”
Lyster Miller O’Brien, “The Class
of 1858,”
1858.51 – At Harvard, Two Clubs
Play Series of Games by
The
Lawrence Base Ball Club and a club from the
“The
1858.53 – At
The
Kenyon Club, comprised of Kenyon students, lost to the boys from Milnor Hall at
the College, losing 93 to 68 in three innings. Each side fielded eleven players. The box score reveals an unusual feature. Players scored widely varying runs in an
inning; Denning, for example scored 10 times in the first inning for the Kenyon
Club, while three of his teammates did not score at all. This might indicate that either an
all-out/side out game was played, or a cricket-style rule allowed each batter
to retain his ups until he was retired.
“Base
Ball at
1859.1
– First Intercollegiate Ballgame:
In the first intercollegiate baseball game
ever played,
The two schools also competed at chess that weekend.
1859.38 – NYU Forms a Base Ball
Club
The
students of
1859.2
– Intercollegiate Game [First Played by NY Rules] Pits Xavier and Fordham
Per Sullivan, Dean A., Compiler and Editor, Early
Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 [
1859.11
--
Keetz, Frank M., The Mohawk Colored Giants
of Schenectady [Frank M. Keetz,
1860.23
– NY Game Gets to ME
“The first documented game of baseball to actually be played in
Anderson, Will, Was Baseball Really
Invented in
1860.25
– Wicket and Base Ball at
University
Quarterly [
[After a report on Kenyon’s base ball
club] “The heavier game of wicket has also had many admirers, and we
doubt not but that many of them will live longer and be happier men on account
of wielding the heavy bats.”
Provided by Richard Hershberger, email of 8/22/2007.
1862.6 – Harvard Turns to the
“Base-Ball,
the second in importance of [Harvard] University sports, is even younger than
Rowing [which still prevailed]. It
originated apparently, in the old game of rounders. Up to 1862 there were two varieties of
base-ball – the
D. Hamilton
Hurd, compiler, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (J. W. Lewis,
Philadelphia, 1890), page 137.
Accessed 2/18/10 via Google Books search ("flagg and frank"
hurd). Flagg and Wright reportedly
had played avidly at
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