Last Updated March 10, 2010
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Chronology
New York Area Ballplaying Prior to
the 1846 Hoboken
Game
A Working
Chronology
It was not so long ago that many of us considered that baseball was born
on June 19, 1846, when the Knickerbocker Club played a game against another team
on the Elysian Fields under its new rules.
However, it is now known that several earlier events in the New York area, taken
together, show evidence that many of the key elements of the game were already
in place in the 1830s [see pages 7-15 below]. This list is intended to put that
evidence in a single public place. We hope that additional new finds will show
more steps along the road to the National Pastime.
Note: This list was derived from version 11 of
the full Protoball Chronology, which was uploaded in April 2010. Additional relevant entries may have
been added to any later versions of the full Chronology; not all entries on
this subchronology are necessarily identical to those on the most recently
updated full Chronology. Readers
are encouraged to suggest or perform updates. Please send notes about omissions,
mistakes, typos, etc, to lmccray@mit.edu.
---
1656.1
– Dutch Prohibit “Playing Ball,” Cricket on Sundays in New Netherlands.
In October 1656
Director-General Peter Stuyvesant announced a stricter Sabbath Law in New
Netherlands, including fine of a one pound Flemish for “playing
ball,” cricket, tennis, ninepins, dancing, drinking, etc. Source: 13: Doc Hist., Volume iv,
pages.13-15, and Father Jogues’ papers in NY Hist. Soc. Coll., 1857, pp.
161-229, as cited in Manual of the Reformed Church in America (Formerly Ref. Prot. Dutch Church), 1628-1902, E.
T. Corwin, D.D., Fourth Edition (Reformed Church in America, New York, 1902.) Provided by John Thorn, email of
2/1/2008.
Note: It would be useful to ascertain what Dutch phrase was translated as
“playing ball,” and whether the phrase denotes a certain type of
ballplay. The population of Manhattan
at this time was about 800 [were there enough resident Englishmen to sustain
cricket?], and the area was largely a fur trading post. Is it possible that the
burghers imported this text from the Dutch homeland?
1659.1
-- Stuyvesant: No Tennis, No Ball-Playing, No Dice on Fast Day
“We shall interdict and forbid, during
divine service on the [fasting] day aforesaid, all exercise and games of
tennis, ball-playing, hunting, plowing and sowing, and moreover all unlawful
practice such as dice, drunkenness . . .” proclaimed Peter Stuyvesant.
Manchester, Herbert, Four Centuries of Sport in America
[Pubr?, 1931]. Note: Can we determine what area was affected by
this proclamation?
1676.1
-- The “Citty of New Yorke” Sets a Fine for Sunday “Gameing
or Playing: Ten Guilders
The Mayor and Aldermen of New York that none should “att any
Time hereafter willfully or obstinately prophane the Sabbath daye by . .
. Playinge att Cards Dice Tables or any other Vnlawful Games whatsoeuer,”
banning “alsoe the disorderly Assemblyes of Children In ye Streets and
other Places To the disturbance of Others with Noyse.”
Consequences? “Ye Person or Persons soe found drinkinge Gameing or
Playing Either in Priuate or Publicke Shall forfeict Tenn Guildrs for Euery
such offence.” Note that ballplaying was not specifically
prohibited. Dated November 13, 1676. Laws of the City of New
York [Publication data?], page 27. Submitted by John Thorn 9/29/06.
1766.1
– Cricket Balls Advertised in US by James Rivington
In 1766 “James Rivington imported battledores
and shuttlecocks, cricket-balls, pillets, best racquets for tennis and fives,
backgammon tables with men, boxes, and dice.”
Singleton, Esther, Social New York Under
the Georges [New York,
1902], page 265. [Cited by Dulles,
1940.] Caveat: Singleton does
not provide a source at this location; however, from context [see pp. 91-92]
her direct quotation seems likely to be taken from a contemporary Rivington
advertisement. Note: John Thorn is unable to find
online evidence of cricket ball imports before 1772, per email of
2/2/2008. “Pillets?”
1777.1
– Revolutionary War Prisoner Watches Ball-Playing in NYC Area
Sabine, William H. W., ed., The New York Diary of Lieutenant Jabez Finch of the 17th
(Connecticut)
Regiment from August 22, 1776 to December 15, 1777 [private printing,
1954], pp. 126, 127, and 162. Per Altherr ref # 34.
1778.5 -- Cricket Game Played at Cannon’s
Tavern, New York City
“The game of
Cricket, to be played on Monday next, the 14th inst., at Cannon’s Tavern,
at Corlear’s Hook. Those Gentlemen that choose to become Members of the
Club, are desired to attend. The wickets to be pitched at two
o’Clock”
Per John Thorn,
6/15/04: from Phelps-Stokes, Vol. VI, Index—ref. against Chronology and
Chronology Addenda (Vol. 4aA or 6A); also,
Vol. V, p.1068 (6/13/1778): Royal
Gazette, 6/13/1778. Later, the cricket grounds were “where the late
Reviews were, near the Jews Burying Ground ” Royal Gazette,
6/17/1780.
1778.6
-- NH Loyalist Plays Ball in NY; Mentions “Wickett”
The journal of Enos Stevens, a NH man serving
in British forces, mentions playing ball seven times from 1778 to 1781.
Only one specifies the game played in terms we know: “in the after noon played Wickett” in March
of 1781. C. K. Boulton, ed., “A Fragment of the Diary of Lieutenant
Enos Stevens, Tory, 1777-1778,” New England Quarterly v. 11,
number 2 (June 1938), pages 384-385, per
Altherr reference #33. Tom notes that the original journal is at the
Vermont Historical Society in Montpelier
VT.
1779.1
– Cricket Played On Grounds near NY’s Brooklyn Ferry.
August
9, 1779, match
between Brooklyn and Greenwich Clubs. “A
Set of Gentlemen” propose playing a cricket match this day, and every
Monday during the summer season, “on the Cricket Ground near Brooklyn
Ferry.” The company “of any Gentleman to join the set in the
exercise” is invited. A large Booth is erected for the accommodation of
spectators:” New York Mercury, 8/9/1779
Per John Thorn, 6/15/04: from Phelps-Stokes, Vol. VI,
Index—ref. against Chronology and Chronology Addenda (Vol.
4aA or 6A); Vol. V, p. 1092.
1780.1
-- NYC Press Cites Cricket Matches to be Played in Summer
A cricket match is advertised to be played on
this day, and continued every Monday throughout the summer, “on the
Ground where the late Reviews were, near the Jews Burying Ground.”
Per John Thorn, 6/15/04: from Phelps-Stokes, Vol. VI,
Index—ref. against Chronology and Chronology Addenda (Vol.
4aA or 6A); June
19, 1780. Vol. V, p. 1111, 6/19/1780: New
York Mercury, June 19, 1780
1780.2
-- Challenges for Cricket Matches between Englishmen and Americans
On August 19, 11 New Yorkers issued this
challenge: “we, in this public manner challenge the best eleven
Englishmen in the City of New York
to play the game of Cricket . . . for any sum they think proper to
stake.” On August 26, the Englishmen accepted, suggesting a stake
of 100 guineas. On September 6, the news was that the match was on:
“at the Jew’s Burying-ground, WILL be played on Monday next . . .
the Wickets to be pitched at Two O’Clock.” We seem to lack a
report of the outcome of this match.
Royal Gazette, August 19, 1780, page 3 column 4; August
26, 1780, page 2 column 2; and September 6, 1780, page 3 column 4. Submitted by George Thompson, 8/2/2005.
1787.5
– NY Newspaper Prints “Laws of the Noble Game of Cricket”
“At the request of several of our
Correspondents, we insert the following Laws
of the noble Game of Cricket, which govern all the celebrated Players in Europe.”
Independent
Journal [New York], May 19, 1787. Accessed via subscription
genealogybank.com search, 4/9/09.
Note: the rules do not use
the term “innings,” and instead employ “hands.”
1789.2
– New York Children’s Pastimes Recalled: Old Cat, Rounders Cited
“ . . . outside school hours, the boys
and girls of 1789 probably had as good a time as childhood ever enjoyed. Swimming and fishing were close to every
doorstep The streets, vacant lots,
and nearby fields resounded with the immemorial games of old cat, rounders,
hopscotch, I spy, chuck farthing and prisoner’s base . . . . The Dutch influence made especially
popular tick-tack, coasting, and outdoor bowling.”
Monaghan, Frank, and Marvin Lowenthal, This
Was New York: The Nation’s Capital in 1789
(Books for Libraries Press, 1970 – originally published 1943 , Chapter 8,
“The Woman’s World,” pages 100-101. Portions of this book are revealed on
Google Books, as accessed 12/29/2007.
According to the book’s index, “games” were also
covered on pages 80, 81, 115, 177, and 205, all of which were masked. The volume includes “hundreds of
footnotes in the original draft,” according to accompanying
information. Caveat: We find no
reference to the term “rounders” until 1828. See #1828.1 below.
1794.1
-- New York
Cricket Club Meets “Regularly”
“By 1794 the New York Cricket Club was meeting
regularly, usually at Battins Tavern at six
o’clock in the evenings. Match games were played between
different members of the club, wickets being pitched exactly at two o’clock.”
Holliman, Jennie, American Sports (1785-1835)
[Porcupine Press, Philadelphia,
1975], page 67.
Holliman cites Wister, W. R., Some
Reminiscences of Cricket in Philadelphia
Before 1861, page 5, for the NYCC data.
1799.2
-- NY Cricket Club Schedules Match Among Members
“A number of members of the Cricket
Club having met on the old ground on Saturday last, by appointment it was
unanimously agreed to meet on Thursday next, at the same place, at half past 2 o’clock.
Wickets will be pitched at 3
o’clock exactly.”
Commercial Advertiser, June 18, 1799, page 3 column 1. Submitted by George
Thompson, 8/2/2005.
1801.5
-- Sunday Ballplaying Eyed Everywhere: “Is This a Christian
Country?”
“A few weeks ago I saw on a Sunday
afternoon, one party of boys playing at ball in Broad-street; another at the
upper end of Pearl-street; and a third in the Park. Is this a Christian
country? Are there no laws, human or divine, to enforce the religious
observance of the Sabbath? . . . . Are our Magistrates asleep, or are they
afraid of losing their popularity, if they should carry the laws into
execution?”
New York Evening Post, December 23, 1801, submitted 10/12/2004 by John Thorn. On 8/2/2005, George Thompson
spotted a similar or repeat of this piece in the Evening Post, December 31, 1801, page 3
column 2.
1803.2
– Cricket Club Forms, Lasts a Year in NYC
An informal group called the “New York
Cricket Club” is headquartered in New
York City at the Bunch of Grapes Tavern, No. 11 Nassau Street.
The club flourishes for a year and then dies.
Per John Thorn, 6/15/04: The source is a Chadwick Scrapbook
clip. “St. George was preceded in NYC by a club whose headquarters were at
the Old Shakespeare in Nassau St.- This group was called the New York Club- it
flourished for a year or so, then died.” George Thompson has
located an announcement of a club meeting in the Daily Advertiser, March
23, 1803, page 3 column 3, and another that appeared in the Commercial
Advertiser on July 2 [page 3, column 2], July 7 [page 3, column 3], and
July 8 [page 3, column 3. In early 1804, the Evening Post,
February 10, [page 34 column 3] called another meeting at the same Nassau Street
address. Submitted to Protoball 8/2/2005.
1805.4
-- NY Gentlemen Play Game of “Bace:” Score is Gymnastics 41, Sons
of Diagoras 34.
“Yesterday afternoon a contest at the
game of Bace took place on “the Gymnasium,” near Tylers’ between the gentlemen of two
different clubs for a supper and trimmings . . . . Great skill and
activity it is said was displayed on both sides, but after a severe and well
maintained contest, Victory, which had at times fluttered a little form one to
the other, settled down on the heads of the Gymnastics, who beat the Sons of
Diagoras 41 to 34.”
New York Evening Post, April 13, 1805, page 3 column 1. Submitted by George
Thompson, 8/2/2005. Note: So, folks . . . was this a ball
game, some version of prisoner’s base with scoring, or what? John Thorn [email of 2/27/2008] has
supplied a facsimile of the Post report, and also found meeting
announcements for the Diagoras in the Daily Advertiser for 4/11 and
4/12/1805.
1808.1
-- Wall Streeters Are Bearish on Ballplaying “and Other Annoyances”
The minutes of the NYC Common Council record
a “Petition of sundry inhabitants in Wall Street complaining against the
practice of boys playing ball before the Fire Engine House adjoining the City
Hall, and other annoyances . . . “
Minutes of the Common Council of the
city of New York, 1784-1831, April 18, 1808, page 95 [Volume V.] Volume
eighteen of manuscript minutes (continued)
February 15, 1808
to June 27, 1808.
1811.2
-- NYCC Calls Meeting -- First Cricket Meeting Since 1804?
The notice was signed by G. M’Enery,
Secretary.
New York Evening Post, September 3, 1811, page 3 column 4. Submitted by
George Thompson 8/2/2005..
1811.3
– NY Paper Carries Notice for “English Trap Ball” at a
Military Ground
“At Dyde’s Military
Grounds. Up the Broadway, to-morrow afternoon, September 14, the game of
English Trap Ball will be played, full as amusing as Crickets and the exercise
not so violent:”
New York Evening Post, September 13, 1811, page 3 column 3. Submitted by
George Thompson 8/2/2005.
Three days later: “The amusements
at Dyde’s to-morrow, Tuesday the 17th September, will be Rifle
Shooting for he prize, and English Trap Ball. The gentlemen who have
promised to attend to form a club to play at Trap Ball are respectfully
requested to attend.”
New York Evening Post, September 16, 1811, page 3 column 3. Submitted by George
Thompson, 8/2/2005.
And four days later, notice was made that
“Trap Ball, Quoits, Cricket, &c.” would be played at the
ground. However, more space is now given to rifle and pistol shooting
contests.
New York Evening Post, September 20, 1811, page 3 column 3. Submitted by George
Thompson, 8/2/2005.
1812.3
-- NYC Council Finds Ball Playing Among “Abounding Immoralities”
“Your Committee will not pretend to
bring before the Board the long and offending catalogue of abounding
immoralities . . . but point out some . . .. Among the most
prevalent on the Lords Day called Sunday, are . . . Horse Riding for
pleasure . . . Skating [‘] Ball playing, and other Plays by Boys and Men,
and even Horse-racing.” Minutes of the Common Council of the city
of New York, 1784-1831, March 18, 1812, page 72 [Volume VII.] Submitted
by John Thorn 1/24/07
1817.3
– Ball Play Banned in New York
NY
“New York City
outlawed ball play in the Park, Battery, and
Bowling-Green in 1817.”
Thomas L. Altherr, “A Place Leavel
Enough to Play Ball,” reprinted in David Block, Baseball Before We
Knew It, page 245.
Altherr’s citation [page 320]: “A law relative to the Park,
Batery, and Bowling-Green,” in Laws
and Ordinances Ordained and Established by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonality
of the City of New York
(T. and J. Swords, New York, 1817), page 118.
1820.3
– English Cricketers Play Two-Day Match Again New Yorkers
“The most outstanding cricket matches
of the period were those in New York.
In fact, the matches of note were played in that city. These contests
took place between members of different clubs, and often the sport lasted for
two days. Great was the interest if any English player happened to be
present to participate in the sport. On June 16, 1820, eleven expert
English players matched eleven New Yorkers at Brooklyn,
the contest lasting two days.” Holliman, Jennie, American Sports
(1785 - 1835) [Porcupine Press, Philadelphia, 1975], page
68.
Holliman cites the New York Evening Post
June 16, 1820.
See also Lester, ed., A Century of Philadelphia Cricket [U Penn, 1951],
page 5. Tom Melville, The Tented
Field (Bowling Green U, Bowling Green, 1998),
page 7, adverts to a similar Englishmen/Americans match, giving it a date of
June 1, 1820. He seems to cite The
New York Evening Post of June 19, 1820, page 2 for this match, and so June
16 seems like a likelier date.]
1820c.26
– Octogenarian Recalls How Balls Were Made in NY
“If a base-ball were required, the boy
of 1816 founded it with a bit of cork, or, if he were singularly fortunate,
with some shreds of india-rubber; then it was wound with yarn from a ravelled
stocking, and some feminine member of his family covered it with patches of a
soiled glove.”
Charles H. Haswell, Reminiscences of An
Octogenarian of the City of New York
(1816 to 1860) (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1897), page 77. Accessed
2/2/10 via Google Books search (haswell octogenarian).
Haswell also reflected on Easter observances
of the era. They were subdued, save
for the coloring of eggs by some schoolboys. “For a few weeks during the
periods of Easter and Paas, the cracking of eggs by boys supplanted marbles,
kite-flying, and base-ball.”
1820c.27
-- Columbia College
(NY) Students, Locals, Play at Battery Grounds
“Of those [students] of Columbia, I write
advisedly – they were not members of a boat club, base-ball, or foot-ball
team. On Saturday afternoons, in
the fall of the year, a few students would meet in the ‘hollow’ on
the Battery, and play an irregular game of
football . . . As this
‘hollow’ was the locale
of base-ball, “marbles,” etc., and as it has long since been
obliterated, and in its existence was the favorite resort of schoolboys and all
others living in the lower part of the city, it is worthy of record”
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 New York
(1816 to 1860) (Harper
and Brothers, New York, 1896), pages 81-82. Citation supplied by John Thorn, email
of 2/3/2008. Accessed 2/4/10 via
Google Books search (octogenarian 1816).
1821.5
– NY Mansion Converted to Venue Suitable for Cricket, Base, Trap-Ball
In May and June 1821, an ad ran in some NY
papers announcing that the Mount
Vernon mansion, was now open as Kensington
House. It could accommodate dinners
and tea parties and clubs.
What’s more, later versions of the ad said: “The grounds of
Kensington Hose are spacious and well adapted to the playing of the noble game
of cricket, base, trap-ball, quoits and other amusements; and all the apparatus
necessary for the above games will be furnished to clubs and parties.”
Richard Hershberger posted to 19CBB on
Kensington House on 10/7/2007, having seen the ad in the June 9, 1821 New York Gazette
and General Advertiser. Richard
suggested that “in this context “base is almost certainly baseball,
not prisoner’s base.”
John Thorn [email of 3/1/2008] later found a May 22, 1821 Kensington ad
in the Evening Post that did not mention sports, and ads starting on
June 2 that did.
1823.1
– National Advocate Reports “Base Ball” Game in NYC
The National
Advocate of April 25, 1823, page 2, column 4, states:
“I was last Saturday much pleased in witnessing a company of active
young men playing the manly and athletic game of ‘base ball’
at the Retreat in Broadway (Jones’)
[on the west side of Broadway between what nowadays is Washington Place and
Eighth Street]. I am informed they are an organized association, and that a
very interesting game will be played on Saturday next at the above place, to
commence at half past 3 o'clock,
P.M. Any person fond of witnessing this game may avail himself of seeing it
played with consummate skill and wonderful dexterity.... It is surprising,
and to be regretted that the young men of our city do not engage more in
this manual sport; it is innocent amusement, and healthy exercise,
attended with but little expense, and has no demoralizing tendency.”
National Advocate, April 25, 1823, page 2, column 4. As
discussed by its modern discoverer George Thompson, in George A. Thompson, Jr.,
“New York Baseball, 1823,” The National Pastime 2001], pp 6
– 8.
1827.8
– Lithograph Shows Ballplaying in City
Hall Park, NY
John Thorn [email of 9/1/2009] has unearthed
an engraving of City
Hall Park
that depicts a ball game in progress in the distance. My squint shows me pitcher, batsman, a
close-in catcher, two distant fielders and three spectators (two seated). Old cat? Single wicket cricket? Scrub base ball?
The lithograph, titled “The Park,
1827,” is published as the frontispiece Valentine’s Manual for
the Corporation of the City of New
York (1855).
1828.8
– View of NYC Ballplayers “A Worse Menace Than Traffic”
“Let anyone visit Washington Parade,
and he will find large groups of men and boys playing ball and filling the air
with shouts and yells.”
Evening Post editorial -- no date given. This quote
comes from Berger, Meyer, “In the Ball Park Every Man’s a
King,” New York
Times, April 14, 1935.
Submitted by John Thorn, fall 2005.
1828.11
-- Ballplaying Boys in NYC Perturb the Congregations in Church
A “mob of boys, constantly engaged in
playing ball [so that] . . . on the Sabbath, while Congregations are in Church,
there is more noise and clamour in the vicinity than on any other day [from
this] squad of loungers, commencing their daily potations and smoking.”
Commercial Advertiser (NY), January 28, 1828, page 2, column
4. Contributed by George Thompson,
email of January 9, 2009.
1828.12
– Police Nine 1, Men and Boy Sabbath Breakers 0
It is reported that Alderman Peters of
NY’s Ninth Ward, “together with High Constable Hays, at the head of
eight or ten of the peace Officers . . . arrest a number of men and boys for
breaking the Sabbath by playing ball in a vacant lot.:
New York Evening Post, December 22, 1828, page 2, column 2: and Commercial
Advertiser, December 23, 1828, page 2, columns 2-3. Contributed by George Thompson, email of
January 9, 2009.
1832.2
– Two NYC Clubs Play Base Ball
"The history of the present style of
playing Base Ball (which of late years has been much
improved) was commenced by the Knickerbocker Club in 1845.
There were two other clubs in the city that had an organization that date back
as far as 1832, the members of one of which mostly resided in the first ward,
the lower part of the city, the other in the upper part of the city (9th and 15th wards). Both of these clubs played in
the old-fashioned way of throwing the ball and striking the runner, in order to
put him out. To the Knickerbocker Club we are indebted for the present improved
style of playing the game, and since their organization they have ever been
foremost in altering or modifying the rules when in their judgment it would
tend to make the game more scientific."
John Thorn added: The club from lower Manhattan evolves into the New York Club (see entry #1843.1) and later splits into the
Knickerbockers and Gothams. The club from upper Manhattan evolves into the Washington Club (see entry #1843.2) which in turn gives way to the
Gothams.
William Wood, Manual of
Physical Exercises. (Harper Bros., 1867),
pp. 189-90. Per John Thorn, 6/15/04.
Note: Wood provides no source. He was only about 13 years old in 1832,
according to Fred E. Leonard, Pioneers of Modern Physical Training (Association Pres, New York, 1915), page 121. Text provided by John Thorn, 6/12/2007.
1837.1 – A Founder of the
Gothams Remembers “First Ball Organization in the US”
William R.
Wheaton, who would several years later help found the Knickerbockers, described
how the Gothams were formed and the changes they introduced. “We
had to have a good outdoor game, and as the games then in vogue didn’t
suit us we decided to remodel three-cornered cat and make a new game. We first organized what we called the
Gotham Baseball Club. This was the
first ball organization in the United
States, and it was completed in 1837.
“The first
step we took in making baseball was to abolish the rule of throwing the ball at
the runner and ordered instead that it should be thrown to the baseman instead,
who had to touch the runner before he reached the base. During the
[earlier] regime of three-cornered cat there were no regular bases, but only
such permanent objects as a bedded boulder or and old stump, and often the
diamond looked strangely like an irregular polygon. We laid out the
ground at Madison Square
in the form of an accurate diamond, with home-plate and sand bags for
bases.”
“ . . . it
was found necessary to reduce the new rules to writing. This work fell to
my hands, and the code I them formulated is substantially that in use
today. We abandoned the old rule of putting out on the first bound and
confined it to fly catching.”
“The new
game quickly became very popular with New Yorkers, and the numbers of clubs
soon swelled beyond the fastidious notions of some of us, and we decided to
withdraw and found a new organization, which we called the Knickerbocker.“
Brown, Randall,
“How Baseball Began, National Pastime, 24 [2004], pp 51-54.
Brown’s article is based on the newly-discovered “How Baseball
Began – A Member of the Gotham Club of Fifty Years Ago Tells About It, San
Francisco Daily Examiner, November 27, 1887, page 14. The full text of this article is here. Note: How does Brown know that the
unsigned article was written by Wheaton?
1837.
9 – Hoboken NJ
-- Already a Mecca
for Ballplayers
“Young men that go to Hoboken to play ball must not drink too much
brandy punch. It is apt to get into
their heads. Now it is a law in
physics that brandy in a vacuum gets impudent and big.” New
York Herald (April
26, 1837), page?
Posted to 19CBBby John Thorn, 10/27/2008.
1837c.12
– Erasmus Hall School
Alum Recalls Three-Base Game with Plugging
On July 3, 2009, David Dyte posted the
following account on the 19CBB listserve:
“In 1894, the Brooklyn Eagle
published an article recounting the various games played by Colonel John Oakey,
a former A.D.A., when he was a child growing up in Brooklyn
and Flatbush [NY]. From 1837 he
attended the Erasmus
Hall Academy,
and told this story:
‘Erasmus Hall academy had a fine play
ground surrounding it. Here John Oakey and his school fellows played many a
game of three base ball. The boys
who played were called binders, pitchers, catchers, and outers, and in order to
put a boy out it was necessary to strike him with the ball. On one occasion
John Oakey threw the ball from second base and put another boy out. The boy said he did not feel the ball
and therefore he had not been put out.
John made up his mind that the next time he caught that chap between the
bases he would not say afterward that he did not feel the ball. It was only a few days after that an
opportunity occurred. John let the
ball go for all he was worth and caught the boy in the back. He went down in a heap, but instantly
sprang to his feet and cries out, “It didn’t hit me; it
didn’t hit me.” But
John Oakey and all the boys knew better.
For a week after that boy had a lame back, but he would never
acknowledge that the ball did it.’”
1838c.1
– NY Game Reportedly Played on Long Island
Well Before Knicks Formed
“Mr. Charles Bost [DeBost- LMc.] the
catcher and captain of the Knickerbockers, played baseball on Long Island fifty
years ago, (i.e., in 1838) and it was
the same game the Knickerbockers afterward played.”
As told by Knickerbocker captain Charles
DeBost in 1888, covered at Henderson, p. 150, no ref given. Note: Henderson puts these words
in quotation marks, but does not indicate whom he is quoting.
1838.2 – St. George Cricket Club Forms in NYC
The St. George
Cricket Club of New York City is formed, composed of English-born American
residents. Its professional player was Sam Wright, father of baseball notables
Harry and George Wright.
Per
John Thorn, 6/15/04: Source is Chadwick Scrapbooks, Volume 20.
1838.10
-- Brooklyn’s First Cricket Match?
“It was in the fall of 1838 that we
remember the first cricket match played in Brooklyn. The game of course, was a great novelty
to the Brooklyn people of the time, except to
such portion of them as wren of English birth. . . . The contestants were Nottingham
men and Sheffielders.” Sheffield won, 167 to 44.
“Sporting Reminiscences,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 16, 1873. Contributed by Gregory Christiano,
December 8, 2009. Citing material
in the Chadwick scrapbooks, Ryczek’s Baseball-s First Inning (page
101) calls this contest the “first widely-reported ‘modern’
cricket match.”
1839c.6 – Doc Adams
Enters the Field
“Adams, known to all as ‘Doc,’ began to play
baseball in 1839. “I was
always interested in athletics while in college and afterward, and soon after
going to New York
I began to play base ball just for exercise, with a number of other young
medical men. Before that there had
been a club called the New York Base Ball Club, but it had no very definite
organization and did not last long.
Some of the younger members of that club got together and formed the
Knickerbocker Base Ball Club . . . . The players included merchants, lawyers,
Union Bank clerks, insurance clerks, and others who were at liberty after 3
o’clock in the afternoon.”
From John Thorn,
“Doc Adams” in the SABR Biography
Project. See http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=639&pid=16943,
accessed 12/5/2008. The source for
the quoted material, offered when Adams was 81years old, is "Dr. D. L.
ADAMS; Memoirs of the Father of Base Ball; He Resides in New Haven and Retains
an Interest in the Game," The Sporting
News, February 29, 1896. Caveat: the year that Adams
began playing is not clear. We know
that he finished medical school in Boston
in 1838, and he recalls that he next began to practice and that “soon
after going” to NYC he began to play. [Email from John Thorn, 2/9/2008.]
1840.1 – Doc Adams
Plays a Ball Game in NYC He [Later] Understands to be Base Ball
D.L. Adams plays a
game in New York City
that he understands to be base ball, “...with a number of other young
medical men. Before that there had been a club called the New York Base Ball
Club, but it had no very definite organization and did not last long.”
The game played by Adams was the same as that
played by the men who would become the Knickerbockers. The game was played with
an indeterminate number of men to the side, although eight was customary.
Adams, Daniel L,
“Memoirs of the Father of Base Ball,” Sporting News,
February 29, 1896. Per Sullivan, p.14. Reprinted in Dean A.
Sullivan, Compiler and Editor, Early Innings: A Documentary History of
Baseball, 1825-1908 (University of Nebraska Press,
1995), pp. 13-18. Note:
the Sullivan extract does not mention 1840; it there another reference that
does? John Thorn – email of
12/4/2008 – suggests that the game Adams
found employed a four-base configuration, not the five bases and square
configuration in other games. “The polygonal field sometimes ascribed to
the later pre-Knickerbocker players was the likely standard prior to
1830.”
1840.5
– Chadwick [Later] Reports That “The New York Club” is
Organized
At a later time, Henry Chadwick, the first
baseball publicist, writes . . .”New York Game originated in 1840....”
Henderson, Robert W., Ball, Bat and
Bishop: The Origins of Ball Games [Rockport Press, 1947], p. 161-162.
No reference given.
1840.6
– New NY Club Forms – Later to Reconstitute as Eagle Base Ball Club
The Eagle Ball Club of New York is organized to
play an unknown game of Ball; in 1852 the club reconstitutes itself as the
Eagle Base Ball Club and begins to play the New York Game.
Per John Thorn, 6/15/04: Source
is Eagle Base Ball Club Constitution of 1852.
William Wood wrote that the Eagle
Club that “originally played in the ‘old-fashioned way’ of
throwing the ball to the batter and at the runner in order to put him
out.” See Thorn weblog of
7/16/2005. William Wood, Manual
of Physical Exercises. [Harper Bros., 1867], pp. 189-90
1840.10
– St. NY
Cricket Club [Accidently] Plays Toronto
for a $250 Side Bet
“On the afternoon of August 28, 1840
eighteen members of the St. George's Club [of
NY] turned up in Toronto following an exhausting
journey through the state of New York by coach
and across Lake Ontario by steamer. When they asked
about the Toronto Cricket Club, they were told that the members of the Toronto
Cricket Club had no knowledge of any such cricket match. [It turned out that an
invitation had been sent as a hoax by someone.] Mr. Phillpotts himself was not around
and the embarrassed officials of the Toronto Cricket Club hastily called a
meeting. Following this meeting, a
challenge match was organized between the two clubs for a stake of fifty pounds
($250) a side. A large number of spectators turned out
and the band of the 34th Regiment entertained the gathering. His Excellency,
Sir George Arthur, the Governor of Upper Canada, witnessed the match which the
New Yorkers won by 10 wickets. Following this match, the St.
George's Club and the Toronto Cricket Club planned a more proper
encounter between the two countries at New
York in 1844.” From the Dreamcricket website’s
chronology of American cricket [accessed 10/30/2008]:
http://www.dreamcricket.com/dreamcricket/news.hspl?nid=7254&ntid=4
1840s.42
– Town Ball Club Finds Spot in NYC for Playing
“In the early ‘40s a town ball
club arranged to hold its games on a vacant plot across from the Harlem
Railroad depot on 27th and Fourth.”
Randall Brown, “How Baseball
Began,” The National Pastime, 2004, page 53. Brown does not give a source. Query:
do we know of other references to town ball in New York? Can we find the source for this entry?
1841.14
– NY State Senator Tests the Sabbath Law
NY State Senator Minthorne Tompkins, whose
property opens on a lot “well calculated for a game of ball . . . has
been much diverted of late with the sport of the boys, who have numbers some
three hundred strong on [Sabbath Day]. . . . The Sunday officers believing it
to be their duty to stop this open violation of the laws of the State,
took measures to effect it, but Senator T. believing the law wrong, took
measures to sustain it, and when the officers appeared on the ground Sunday
fortnight, the Senator also appeared, and told the boys that he would protect
them, if they would protect him. Thus they entered into an alliance
offensive and defensive, and the officers, after a little brush with the
honorable ex-senator, he having given his name as responsible for their deeds,
left the premises in charge of the victors, they conceiving that among three
hundred opponents, discretion was the greater part of valor. The
ex-senator appeared at the upper police before Justice Palmer, and after a
hearing, entered bail for an appearance at the Court of Sessions, to answer the
offense of interfering with the duties of the officers, etc. He refused to pay
the costs of suit . . . . Justice Palmer discovering that the ex-senator's
lawyers, John A. Morrill and Thomas Tucker, Esqrs. were about obtaining a writ
of habeas corpus, concluded to let
him go without getting the costs, in order that the case might be tested before
the Court of Sessions. Thus the affair stands at present, and when it
comes up before trial will present a curious aspect." New
York Herald, December 21,1841. Posted to 19CBB by Richard Hershberger
on 2/2/2008.
Richard adds, “Alas, a search does not turn up the resolution to this
case”.
1842.1
– NYC Group Begins Play, Later [1845] Will Form Knickerbocker Base Ball
Club
A group of young men begin to gather in Manhattan for informal ball
games. The group plays ball under an evolving set of rules from which emerges
as a distinct version of baseball. In the autumn of 1845 the group will
organize formally as the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York City.
Peverelly, Charles A., The Book of
American Pastimes [New York,
1866], p. 368. Per Henderson, p. 162, and ref 133.
Henry Chadwick later wrote: “The
veteran Knickerbocker Base Ball club, of New
York, was the first club to take the field as a
regular organization in the Metropolitan district and the last to leave it when
amateur ball playing of the genuine order disappeared from our city. Ball
players of an older growth than those of the school play ground used to gather
in the vacant fields existing in 1842 near Thirtieth street and Third and
Fourth avenues, but it was not until 1845 that the spirit of enterprise had
extended itself sufficiently among them to lead to any organization being
formed calculated to legitimize the game as then played.” Chadwick,
Henry, “Base Ball Reminiscences,” The National Daily Base Ball
Gazette April 24, 1887,
[second installment].
1842.2
– New York
Cricket Club Forms with American Membership
The New York Cricket Club is formed. The club
consists at first of American-born sporting men affiliated with William T.
Porter’s sporting weekly Spirit of the Times. The
American-born emphasis stands in contrast to the British-oriented St. George
Club.
Per John Thorn, 6/15/04: Source
is “Reminiscence of a Man About Town” from The Clipper, by
Paul Preston, Esq.; No. 34: The New York Cricket Club: On an evening in 1842
or’43, a meeting of the embryo organization was held at the office of The
Spirit of the Times—a dozen individuals—William T. Porter
elected pres., John Richards v.p., Thomas Picton Sec’y- formed as rival
to St. George Club- only NY was designed to bring in Americans, not just to
accommodate Britons, as St. George was. The original 12 members were affiliated
with the Spirit. The first elected member: Edward Clark, a
lawyer, then artist William Ramsey, then Cuyp the bowler.
1843.2
-- NY’s Washington Club:” Playing Base Ball Before the
Knickerbockers Did?
“The honors for the place of birth of
baseball are divided. Philadelphia
claims that her ‘town ball’ was practically baseball and that it
was played by the Olympic Club from 1833 to 1859. It is also claimed that
the Washington Club in 1843 was the first to play the game. Certainly the
New York Knickerbocker Club, founded in 1845, was the first to establish a code
of rules.”
Reeve, Arthur B., Beginnings of Our Great
Games, Outing Magazine, April 1910, page 49, per John Thorn, 19CBB
posting, 6/17/05. Reeve evidently does not provide a source for the
Washington Club claim . . . nor his assertion that it had no “code of
rules.” John notes that Outing appeared from 1906 to
1911. Note: It would be good to have evidence on whether this club
played the New York
game or another variation of early base ball.
1843.6
– Magnolia Ball Club Summoned to Elysian Fields Game
“NEW
YORK MAGNOLIA BALL CLUB – Vive la
Knickerbocker. – A meeting of the members of the above club will take
place this (Thursday) afternoon, 2nd
instant, at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken
[NJ]. It is earnestly requested
that every member will be present, willing and eager to do his duty. Play will commence precisely as one
o’clock. Chowder at 4
o’clock”
Associated with this ball club is an engraved
invitation to its first annual ball, which has the first depiction of men playing baseball, and
shows underhand pitching and stakes for bases.
New
York Herald [classified ads
section], November 2, 1843. Posted
to 19CBB by John Thorn, 11/11/2007.
For much more from John on the find, and its implications, go to http://thornpricks.blogspot.com/2007/11/really-good-find-more-magnolia-blossoms.html.
1844.7
– English Gent in NYC Goes Off to a Ball
Game
“As I went down to the office I was met
by Henry Sedgwick at the corner of a street. He was hunting up some of a party who
were going off in a sailing boat down the East river
to play at Base ball in some of the meadows. He persuaded me to be of the party. I sld not have gone however I had not
expected to see a great display of miseries and grievances. . . . [on board the
boat] it ‘came on rainy’ and we brewed some whisky punch to whet
our spirits inwardly . . . . At last we came to old Ferry point where we
landed, and went in the mizzle to play at ball in the meadow, leaving our
captain to cook Chowder for us.”
Cayley, George J.,” Diary, 1844,”
manuscript at the New-York Historical Society, entry for April 9, 1844, pages
138-141. Posted to 19CBB by George
Thompson, 11/18/2007. George adds
that the writer was an 18-year-old Englishman working in a city office, and
that the game probably took place in what is now Brooklyn.
1845.1 – Knicks Adopt Club and Playing Rules
on September 23
Led by Alexander
Cartwright, the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York City organizes and
adopts twenty rules for baseball (six organizational,
fourteen playing). This rule book is later seen as the basis
for the game we now call baseball. The Knickerbockers are credited with establishing
foul lines; abolishing the plug (throwing the ball at
the runner to make an out); and instituting the tag and
force-out. However, the Knickerbocker rules do not specify a pitching distance
or a baseline distance. The distance from home to second base and from first to
third base is set at forty-two paces. In 1845 the “pace” was
understood either as a variable measure or as precisely two-and-a-half feet, in
which case the distance from home to second would have been 105 feet and the “Cartwright
base paths” would have been 74.25 feet. The “pace” of 1845
could not have been interpreted as the equivalent of three feet. [Explain
why?] The Knickerbocker rules
provide that a winner will be declared when twenty-one aces are scored but each
team must have an equal number of turns at bat; the style of delivery is
underhand in contrast to the overhand delivery typical in town ball; balls hit
beyond the field limits in fair territory (home run in
modern baseball) are limited to one base. The Knickerbocker
rules become known as the New York Game in contrast to the Massachusetts Game
favored in and around the Boston
area.
1845.17
– Intercity Cricket Match Begins in NY
“CRICKET MATCH. St.
George’s Club of this city against the Union
Club of Philadelphia. The two first
elevens of these clubs came together yesterday for a friendly match, on the
ground of the St. George’s
Club, Bloomingdale Road. The result was as follows, on the first
innings: St. George’s
44, Union Club of Philadelphia 33 [or 63 or 83; image is indistinct]. Play will be resumed to-day.”
New York
Herald, October 7,
1845. Provided by John Thorn,
email, 10/12/2007
1845.16
– Brooklyn 22, New York
1: The First-Ever
“Modern” Match?
“The Base Ball match between eight
Brooklyn players, and eight players of New
York, came off on Friday on the grounds of the Union
Star Cricket Club. The Yorkers were
singularly unfortunate in scoring but one run in their three innings. Brooklyn
scored 22 and of course came off winners.”
New York Morning News, Oct. 13, 1845, p.2. Text provided 11/3/2008 by Richard
Hershberger via email. Earlier
cited in Tom Melville, The Tented Field: A History of Cricket in America
(Bowling Green State University Press, 1998),
page 168, note 38: “Though the matches played between the Brooklyn and
New York clubs on 21 and 25 October 1845 are generally recognized as being the
earliest games in the ”modern” era, they were, in fact, preceded by
an even earlier game between those two clubs on October 12.” Thanks to Tim Johnson [email,
12/29/2008] for triggering our search for the missing game. Richard adds that one can not be sure
that these were the same sides that played on October 21/25, noting that the Morning Post refers here just to New
York “players”, and not to the New York Club. See #1845.4 and #1845.5 above.
On 11/11/2008, Lee Oxford discovered
identical text in a second NY newspaper, which included this detail: “After this game had been decided,
a match at single wicket cricket came off between two members of the Union Star
Club - Foster and Boyd. Foster
scored 11 the first and 1 the second innings. Boyd came off victor by
scoring 16 the first innings."
The True Sun (New York City), Monday, October
13, 1845, page 2, column 5.
1845.4
– NY and Brooklyn Teams Play Two-Game
Series of “Time-Honored Game of Base”
The New York Base Ball Club and the Brooklyn
Base Ball Club compete at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey,
by uncertain rules and with eight players to the side. On October 21, New York prevailed, 24-4
in four innings (21 runs being necessary to record the
victory). The two teams also played a rematch in Brooklyn, at
the grounds of the Star Cricket Club on Myrtle Avenue, on October 25, and the Brooklyn club again succumbed, this time by the score of
37-19, once more in four innings. For these two contests box scores were
printed in New York
newspapers. There are some
indications that these games may have been played by the brand new
Knickerbocker rules.
New York Morning News, October 22 and 25,
1845. Reprinted in Dean A. Sullivan, Compiler and Editor, Early
Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 [University of Nebraska
Press, 1995], pp. 11-13. This game had been announced in The New York
Herald on October 21. Per Sullivan, p. 11. Craig Waff [4/30/2007] located an
announcement of the first game the Brooklyn
Daily Eagle, vol. 4, number 253 (October 21, 1845),
page 2, column 3: it refers to
“the New York Bass Ball Club,” and predicts that the match will
“attract large numbers from this and the neighboring city.” For a long-lost account of an earlier New York – Brooklyn
game, see #1845.16 below.
Go to #1845.4 of the Protoball Chronology for
detailed accounts of these games
1845.5
-- Brooklyn and New York to Go Again in Hoboken
“Brooklyn vs. New York. -- An interesting game of Base
Ball will come off at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken,
to-day, commencing at 10 A. M., between the New York and Brooklyn Clubs.” New York Sun,
November 10, 1845, page 2, column. 6. Submitted by George Thompson, June
2005.
1845.18
– On “Second Anniversary,” The NY Club Plays Intramural Game
“NEW
YORK BASE BALL CLUB: The second Anniversary of the Club came
off yesterday, on the ground in the Elysian fields.” The game matched two nine-player squads,
and ended with a 24-23 score.
“The Club were honored by the presence of representatives from the
Union Star Cricket Club, the Knickerbocker Clubs, senior and junior, and other
gentlemen of note.” NY Club
players on the box score included Case, Clair, Cone, Gilmore, Granger, Harold,
Johnson, Lalor, Lyon, Murphy, Seaman, Sweet [on both sides!], Tucker, Venn, Wheaton, Wilson,
and Winslow. Posted to 19CBB by
John Thorn, 3/31/2008.
Source: The New York
Herald, November 11, 1845.
1845.2 – Knicks Play First Recorded
[Intramural] Games By The New Rules
In an intrasquad
game, seven Knickerbocker players win 11-7 over seven of their fellows; the
umpire is William R. Wheaton, a pioneering cricket and base ball player of the
New York Base Ball Club who helped to formulate the Knickerbocker rules. This
is the first recorded game employing the newly crafted Knickerbocker rules.
Per
John Thorn, 6/15/04: Controversy -- one game is played in September 1845 (no
precise date, with 42 runs scored from 18 men playing. Another game is played
on October 6; seven to the side, with 19 runs scored. Source: Harold Peterson.
Per
John Thorn, 7/704: on November 18, 1845. Two sides were chosen, by William R. Wheaton
and William H. Tucker, and the "Wheatons" won, 51-42 in ten innings'
play. In an era when 21 aces meant a win, there must have been several tie
scores at the ends of previous innings ... or, conceivably, both teams were shy
of 21 until the final inning and then exploded. Wheaton's
side included Adams, Cone, Talman, Turney,
Dupignac, Morgan, Turk, Jones, and Burritt. Tucker's side was comprised of
Moncrief, W. O'Brien, Cartwright, Birney, Niebuhr, Curry, DeBost, Suydan, and
I. O'Brien. This was the last practice game of 1845. Henry Chadwick ,National
Daily Base Ball Gazette, April 24, 1887
1845c.15
– Doc Adams, Ballmaker: The Hardball
Becomes Hard
The Knickerbockers developed and adopted the
New York Game style of baseball in September 1845 in part to play a more
dignified game that would attract adults. The removal of the
“soaking” rule allowed the Knickerbockers to develop a harder
baseball that was more like a cricket ball. Gilbert, “The Birth of
Baseball”, Elysian Fields, 1995, pp. 16- 17.
Dr. D.L. Adams of the Knickerbocker team
stated that he produced baseballs for the various teams in New York in the 1840s and until 1858, when
he located a saddler who could do the job. He would produce the balls using 3
to 4 oz of rubber as a core, then winding with yarn and covering with leather.
Dr. D.L. Adams, “Memoirs of the Father of Baseball,” Sporting
News, February 29, 1896. Sullivan reprints this article in Early Innings, A Documentary
History of Baseball, 1825-1908, pages 13-18.
Item submitted by Rob Loeffler, 3/1/07.
See “The Evolution of the Baseball Up to 1872,” March 2007.
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