Asa Brainard, Excelsiors right fielder and leadoff hitter.

In the spring of 1860, the Excelsior Club of South Brooklyn laid plans for what was termed “a grand excursion,” the first extended trip by a baseball team on record.1 The tour, involving matches in a half dozen cities and towns through upstate New York, would also become a showpiece for the skills of the Brooklyn players, especially pitching phenom Jim Creighton.

The Troy Daily Whig interpreted the Excelsior tour as “a crusade through the provinces for the purpose of winning laurels.”2 Regarding the first game, on Monday, July 2 against the Champion of Albany, the Whig observed that the Excelsiors had “pretty well reduced base ball to a science,” proving themselves to be “good batters, capital catchers, and their pitching was terrific.”3 That combination led to 24-6 Excelsior victory. An Albany newspaper reported that Creighton “pitched balls swift as they could be sent from a cannon, and they were most difficult to strike.”4

Among the more than 1,000 spectators at the Champion-Excelsior game was “an immense delegation of Trojans,” that is, players from the Victory Base Ball Club of Troy, the Excelsiors’ opponent on the following day. The Victory boys promised that “if they did not beat the strangers this afternoon, they would give them harder treatment than they had experienced at the hands of the Champions.”5 The result was the closest and lowest scoring game of the tour — a 13-7 victory for the Excelsiors, who went ahead with nine runs in the first two innings.

The Excelsior club’s desire to visit Buffalo — and for that matter to tour at all — was motivated at least partially by a reason unrelated to the game. The Buffalo Daily Courier reported that Excelsior club members had “for years past, been anxious to make a visit to the [relatively nearby] Falls of Niagara, and have desired a challenge from the Niagaras as an inducement to make the tour.” The members of the Niagara of Buffalo were eager to oblige, according to the Courier, because the club’s formation in 1857 and its introduction to the New York Game owed a lot to the enthusiasm of a former Excelsior club member who had relocated to Buffalo.6

At 2 p.m. on July 4, the team traveled to Niagara Falls, where they enjoyed a ride “upon one of the finest rivers in the world,” saw “the intrepid [French stuntman Charles] Blondin walk“ on a tightrope stretched 160 feet above the gorge at the base of the falls (a feat he had first performed in 1859), took “a hurried view” of the falls, and were “hospitably treated” at the prominent Clifton House Hotel on the Canadian side.7

On the following day (Thursday, July 5), the clubs met on the Niagara grounds before a crowd of between two and three thousand spectators. The Niagaras correctly anticipated that the Excelsiors would win the game, but they were, according to the Buffalo Express, quite surprised and overwhelmed by the differences that separated the Excelsiors’ style of play from their own:

The manner in which the Brooklyn chaps handled the ball—the ease and certainty with which they caught it, under all circumstances, the precision with which they threw it to the bases, and the tremendous hits they gave it into the long field … made the optics of the Buffalo players glisten with admiration and protrude with amazement.8

By the end of the fourth inning, the Excelsiors had built a 20-6 lead. They scored 24 runs in the fifth inning alone and coasted to a 50-19 final score. By the end of the game, both pitchers must have been exhausted, as the box score noted that Niagara’s Franklin Sidway had pitched 354 balls, while Creighton had delivered 244.9

On the following day, the Excelsiors took an eastbound train to Rochester, where on July 7, the two clubs played. Like most of the Excelsior’s previous tour opponents, the Flour City club, which had been organized in May 1858, was overwhelmed by the visiting club, this time 21-1. After receiving a telegram announcing the result, Porter’s Spirit of the Times characterized the result as “the most complete victory on record.”10

After a day of rest, the Excelsiors returned to ball playing on Monday, when they faced the Live Oak Base Ball Club of Rochester in a game frequently interrupted by rain. The Live Oaks played marginally better than Flour City players, but still suffering a 27-9 loss. Then the Excelsiors traveled to Newburgh to play their final tour game, against the Hudson River club.

The first five tour games had been covered entirely by local reporters. For the sixth and last game, however, the weekly New York Clipper sent a reporter, almost certainly their base ball editor Henry Chadwick, who responded with a column-long article. He was highly disappointed with the Hudson River grounds:

The condition of the ground was not favorable for play, as it is as yet rather rough, and home base heads the field in the wrong direction, the locality in the rear of what is now the 3d base being the most desirous place for the head of the field.11

The reporter observed that the Excelsiors’ quality of play was not quite what it had been pre-tour. Nevertheless, the Excelsiors still managed to score 14, 10, and 13 runs in the 4th, 7th, and 9th innings en route to a 59-14 victory.12

Finally, on July 12, eleven days after they had departed, the Excelsiors returned home, “somewhat damaged in the way of fingers, and not a little worn out by the fatigue of almost constant travel…”13 Given that they had traveled nearly 1,000 miles and played six games during this period, it was, according to the Sunday Mercury, quite natural to suppose that they must have been pretty well “played out” by the end of their journey.14

The Excelsiors had completed what might be considered the first extended baseball road trip—an activity undertaken by all professional clubs since the formation of the National League in 1876. They demonstrated a high-quality style of play that had not been seen before by the upstate clubs. And their string of victories earned them a reputation as one of the best clubs of the nation, worthy of playing against the Atlantics of Brooklyn, universally considered the unofficial “champion” of Greater New York City base ball. Indeed, the skills that the Excelsiors had honed during one of the most intense periods of ballplaying ever attempted may have led to their overwhelming 23-4 victory over the Atlantics only a week after their return.

• Related link: Read “The Grand Excursion, Part 2” on the Excelsiors’ next road trip to Philadelphia and Baltimore

Notes

1  “Out-Door Sports: Base Ball: A Grand Excursion in Contemplation,” [New York] Sunday Mercury [hereafter cited as NYSM], 29 Apr 1860; “Base Ball: A Grand Excursion in Contemplation,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, vol. 19, no. 102 (30 Apr 1860), p. 2, col. 5.

2  “A Exciting Base Ball Match,” Troy Daily Whig, vol. 26, no. 8014 (4 Jul 1860), p. 3, col. 4.

3  “A Exciting Base Ball Match,” Troy Daily Whig, vol. 26, no. 8014 (4 Jul 1860), p. 3, col. 4.

4  The quoted remarks, from an unnamed Albany journal, were reprinted in “Out-Door Sports: Base Ball: Excelsior (of South Brooklyn) vs. Champion (of Albany),” NYSM, vol. 22, no. 28 (8 July 1860), p. 7, col. 2, and “Out-Door Sports: Base-Ball: Excelsior Base Ball Club,” Porter’s Spirit of the Times, vol. 8, no. 20 (10 Jul 1860), p. 308, col. 3.

5  “Base Ball,” Troy Daily Whig, vol. 26, no. 8013 (3 Jul 1860), p. 3, col. 5.

6  William J. Ryczek, Baseball’s First Inning (McFarland, 2009), p. 147, claims that two allegedly former members of the Brooklyn Excelsiors, Joseph B. Bach and Richard Oliver, were instrumental in the genesis of the Niagara club. Bach and Oliver, however, were elected officers of the Excelsior club in November 1857 and remained in the Greater New York City region for the rest of their lives.

7  “The City and Vicinity: Base Ball—Excelsiors and Niagaras,” Buffalo Daily Courier, vol. 25, no. 157 (4 Jul 1860), p. 2, cols. 4-5; Freyer and Rucker, eds., Peverelly’s National Game, p. 57.

8  “Base Ball—Match of the Niagaras with the Excelsior Club of Brooklyn,” Buffalo Morning Express, vol. 15, no. 4470 (6 Jul 1860), p. 3, col. 1.

9  Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, 6 Jul 1860, as reprinted in NYSM, vol. 22, no. 28 (8 Jul 1860), p. 7, col. 2. The BCA quotation, but not the pitch count, also appeared in Porter’s Spirit of the Times, vol. 8, no. 20 (10 Jul 1860), p. 308, col. 3, & p. 309, col. 1.

10  “Out-Door Sports: Base-Ball: Excelsior of Brooklyn vs. Niagara of Buffalo,” Porter’s Spirit of the Times, vol. 8, no. 20 (10 Jul 1860), p. 308, col. 3, & p. 309, col. 1.

11  “Base Ball in Newburgh: Excelsior vs. Hudson River,” New York Clipper, undated July 1860 clipping in the Mears Collection of the Cleveland Public Library.

12  “Base Ball in Newburgh: Excelsior vs. Hudson River,” New York Clipper, undated July 1860 clipping in the Mears Collection of the Cleveland Public Library.

13  “Out-Door Sports: Base Ball: Excelsior (of South Brooklyn) vs. Hudson River (of Newburg),” NYSM, 15 Jul 1860, p. 5, col. 3.

14  “Out-Door Sports: Base Ball: Excelsior (of South Brooklyn) vs. Hudson River (of Newburg),” NYSM, 15 Jul 1860, p. 5, col. 3.

One of the most frequently suggested candidates was the Union Grounds in Williamsburg, New York, across the East River from Lower Manhattan. The site was developed by a Brooklyn businessman and politician, William Cammeyer. He seemingly was influenced by an 1858 All Star series played at the Fashion Race Course in what is now Flushing Meadows, Queens. Motivated by this innovation, Cammeyer in 1861 purchased the site and built an ice-skating rink that he intended to turn into a baseball field. A year later, he drained, leveled, and sodded the grounds and converted the site from an ice rink to an enclosed ballfield. The site covered 6 acres and was surrounded by a “broad fence six or seven feet in height.” The grounds had a “commodious clubhouse” and roofed seating for women spectators. On May 15, 1862, without admission fees, he hosted a game between the All-Star players from the playing field’s three tenant teams, the Eckford, Putnam, and Constellation clubs.1 The grounds were distinguished by a three-story pagoda in deep center field that lit up and decorated the winter skating pond.

The question is whether the Union Grounds is a candidate for hosting the first enclosed baseball game. We cannot overlook how the field was a converted ice rink that reverted to its original purpose when the ball season was over. There was also the matter of having a large alien structure in the outfield that had no place in baseball. Finally, the site was widely known as the Union Baseball and Cricket Grounds.

Another candidate, Capitoline Grounds, was sometimes confused with the Union Grounds. This field, in nearby Brooklyn, rivaled Cammeyer’s site. But Capitoline Grounds was primarily an ice-skating area that was used for an enclosed baseball game almost two years (May 15, 1864) after the Union Grounds All-Star contest.2 In the nation’s capital, the Nationals of Washington enclosed their pioneering grounds with a ten-foot fence in 1867.3

Philadelphia, too, had candidates of its own. One of the city’s oldest ballplaying sites was in South Philadelphia, at 11th and Wharton. The Wharton Parade Square, in the shadow of the Moyamensing Prison, was used for baseball and town ball in 1859, but it was not enclosed until 1871. Another pioneering site, the Jefferson Square Parade Grounds, was located at 25th and Masters Streets, across from the city’s reservoir. As early as 1863, ballgames were played on these grounds. The field had a clubhouse and wooden bleachers, but the site was not enclosed until 1865.4 East of this playing field, on 18th Street, was the Mercantile Grounds, which had been fenced in by 1865. The celebrated home of the early Athletics of Philadelphia at 17th and Montgomery Avenue had enclosing fences the following year.5 Four blocks east, at Camac Woods, was the best candidate for being the first enclosed ballfield.

This site, at 12th and Berks Streets, was part of a popular public park, noted for its manicured lawns and sumptuous strolling gardens. In September 1859 part of these grounds was prepared as a cricket pitch for the All-England Cricket exhibition series. The soon-to-be St. Georges Cricket Grounds was resurfaced, leveled, and enclosed by a “broad fence.” Wooden stands were erected for 1,500 spectators and benches surrounded the playing area. After the English cricket series the enclosed grounds attracted local baseball clubs. The original fence was raised and modified. A wooden clubhouse was built and “Barlow board benches” were set up for female spectators. Admission fees of 25 cents were frequently charged. On Tuesday, July 24, 1860, the Olympics of Philadelphia played the St. George baseball team. Using New York rules, the Olympics won, 25-17.6

Although Camac Woods (St. Georges Cricket Ground) was originally intended for the cricket exhibition series, the site was renovated and turned into an enclosed baseball facility that charged admission. The Olympics game, as a result, was the most qualified candidate for being the first game played in an enclosed site set up for baseball.

Notes

1  Brooklyn Eagle, May 16, 1862; Michael Gershman, Diamonds; The Evolution of the Ballpark, (Boston, 1993, pp. 11-3); Harold Seymour and Dorothy Seymour Mills, Baseball: The Early Years, (New York, Oxford University Press, 1960, 48-9.)

2  Philip Lowry, Green Cathedrals, (New York, 2006, pp. 34-5.) New York Herald, August 15, 1865.

3  David Voigt, American Baseball, (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1966, I, 19.)

4  Lithograph of Mercantile grounds by T. Sinclair, c. 1865 in Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Picture of Olympic Club House, c. 1865 in Library of Baseball Hall of Fame; Charles Peverelly, The Book of American Pastimes, (New York, 1866, p. 479); Philadelphia Inquirer, October 31, 1865, January 27, 1871; Sunday Press, May 6, 1866; Sunday Item, March 11, 1894.

5  Jerrold Casway, “At the Old Ball Game,” Temple Review, Spring 1992, pp. 22-3. Painting of Athletics-Atlantics game, October 22, 1865 in Library of Baseball Hall of Fame.

6  Jerrold Casway, “Camac Woods in Philadelphia,” Nineteenth-Century Notes, Fall 2008, pp. 1-3; Jerrold Casway, “At the Old Ball Game,” Temple Review, Spring 1992, pp. 19-22. Peverelly, op. cit., p. 410 & p. 474. Clipping in Campbell Collection, HSP, Vol. 64, 143-4. North American, October 11, 1859; Philadelphia Public Ledger, October 13, 1859; Philadelphia Press, October 14, 1859; Sunday Dispatch, January 28, 1872.

Although the Atlantics eventually lost, 22-16 to the Eckfords of Brooklyn on September 8, 1859, reporters used the words champion and championship more frequently in 1860, especially in accounts of games involving the Atlantics.

When the Excelsiors of South Brooklyn challenged the Atlantics in early 1860, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reporter perceived the match as creating “unusual interest,” because “it will decide which Club is entitled to the distinction of being perhaps the “first nine in America.”2

The Excelsior challenge was seen as particularly strong because the club had added pitcher James Creighton and left fielder George Flanly in the offseason, and also because of the Excelsiors’ tour through upstate New York, during which they defeated the strongest clubs of Albany, Troy, Buffalo, Rochester, and Newburgh.

The Atlantics, although winning all of their early 1860 games, were perceived as less competitive.3 This may have been partly due to the absence of Folkert Rapelje Boerum, the team’s captain and regular catcher, who had been on an extended trip to Europe since the spring, and to injuries suffered by Matty O’Brien, the regular pitcher, and at least one other unidentified player. These circumstances may help to explain the Excelsiors’ 23-4 victory on the Excelsior grounds on July 19.4

This apparently spurred the Atlantics, who resoundingly defeated the Mutuals of New York, 34-15, on July 30, and then attained closely-contested victories on their home grounds in Bedford over the Excelsiors (15-14 on August 9),5 the Enterprise (16-14 on August 17), and the Mutuals (26-24 on August 20). Commenting on the last game, the reporter for Porter’s Spirit of the Times observed, “The playing of the Atlantics, both in fielding and batting, was that superior character which has won for them, for so many years, the right and title to the Base Ball Championship.”6

On August 21 a Porter’s Spirit commentator caught the mood of the baseball community in the metropolitan area anticipating the meeting between the Atlantics and Excelsiors: “…The interest and excitement in the trial waxes warmer and warmer, and … it is now generally admitted that it will be witnessed by the greatest gathering of spectators ever assembled on any base ball field.”7

The size of the expected crowd raised concerns about the playing site. A commentator in Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times declared for the New York Parade Ground, “a beautiful level field of some thirty acres” with “ground as smooth as a floor” capable of accommodating 20,000 to 30,000.8

Instead, club officials settled on the Putnam Club grounds. “There are but poor accommodations [there] for so large a crowd as will be undoubtedly present,” the Eagle reporter asserted.9

On game day at least 15,000 spectators — including, according to the Eagle, delegations of ballplayers from Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Albany, Troy, Buffalo, Rochester, Poughkeepsie, and other cities — converged on the Putnam grounds, a large police force keeping them off the playing field itself.

In the fifth inning, with the Excelsiors leading 8-4, a fateful sequence of events began. Dickey Pearce reached first base after catcher and team captain Joe Leggett missed a foul tip and second baseman John Holder muffed a grounder. Charley Smith then made a “splendid strike” to left field that scored Pearce and enabled Smith to reach second base. Archie McMahon followed with a grounder to left field which, though fielded well by third baseman John Whiting, allowed Smith to score, McMahon eventually reaching second. One out later, McMahon ran to third, being ruled safe and then out when his hand came off the base. The New York-based Sunday Mercury reported that umpire R.B. Thorn’s “righteous decision raised a perfect howl among the outsiders,” who “began calling ‘Not out!’ in a very boisterous manner, and indulging in other insulting expictives [expletives?] against the umpire, and the captain and members of the Excelsior nine.”10

The New York Clipper reporter (most likely Henry Chadwick) identified the troublemakers as members of “the betting fraternity.” McMahon’s extended dispute of the umpire’s call, in Chadwick’s view, encouraged the rowdy behavior.11 At that point, Leggett “distinctly proclaimed” that he would pull his players off the field if the behavior continued.

The rowdiness briefly diminished, but resumed more strongly during the sixth inning. With one out pitcher Matty O’Brien missed Leggett’s ball both on the fly and the bound, and his brother Peter’s throw from shortstop to first narrowly missed retiring Leggett. Creighton then sent a ball toward Peter O’Brien, who threw it to second baseman John Oliver to put Leggett out. Oliver’s throw to first, however, was missed by John Price, and allowed Creighton to reach base safely. “The rowdy spirit of the crowd again began to display itself still more forcibly,” Chadwick wrote. “So insulting were the epithets bestowed on the Excelsiors, that Leggett decided to withdraw his forces from the field.”

According to the Sunday Mercury reporter, Leggett offered the game ball to the Atlantics. Matty O’Brien objected and stated a desire to continue, but the Excelsior captain remained adamant about not playing. He did, however, consent to O’Brien’s proposal to call the game a draw.

The wisdom of Leggett’s action was much debated in the New York press. Chadwick believed Leggett “acted wisely,” but was disappointed that the Atlantics did not support him, “as that was the only method of putting a stop to the outrageous conduct of the low gambling set that were present on the occasion.” On the other hand, an anonymous writer calling himself “Home Run” contended that Leggett lacked sufficient cause to pull his men when “the field was clear, the rope was perfect around its entire extent, and every player could exhibit as perfect play as he was capable of.”12

Thorn conceded that neither club “won” the game “inasmuch as it was brought to an abrupt termination by influences outside of the parties interested in the match.” But he argued that because the stoppage of the game was not by mutual consent, he had to declare “according to the rules” that the Excelsiors had forfeited the game to the Atlantics.13 The debate on the outcome continues to this day.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

That excursion got under way on Friday evening, September 21, when the Excelsior players and other club members left the Jersey City depot for an overnight train ride to Baltimore. Although they arrived at the President Street railroad station at 4 A.M., they were greeted by a committee of Baltimore Excelsiors, who escorted them, in one of Barnum’s four-horse carriages, to Guy’s Monument House hotel.

After settling in their rooms, they and their hosts all sat down at 9:30 to enjoy a splendid breakfast at the hotel. Following a reception that allowed “the admirers of the game and friends of the club” to meet the visitors, they were taken by carriage to various places of interest in the city.

According to the New York Clipper, the Brooklyn players were supported in every way possible: “Every attention it was possible to bestow upon them being given them by the gentlemanly members of the Baltimore Excelsiors. Indeed, from the time of their arrival to their departure not a cent’s expense were they allowed to incur.”

At 1 P.M., an hour before the start of the game, the visiting players gathered on Holliday Street, where a city car “gaily decked with flags and drawn by four horses” transported them to the local team’s grounds at the corner of Madison and Northern Avenues, near Mr. Hartzell’s Park House.

More than 3,000 spectators had already assembled on the grounds, including many “blooming belles of Baltimore.” The sight of the latter so transfixed players Asa Brainard, John Whiting, and Thomas Reynolds that Captain Joe Leggett had to forcibly call their attention to preparation for the game. The pregame practice of the visitors made it clear to the local team that they had a major challenge ahead of them. The Baltimore American reported, “The ball passed from one to the other with great precision, and seldom was it allowed to slip through the fingers of any of them. This little exhibition made it manifest that the Baltimore Club would learn a few new points before the game closed.”

As he had during the upstate New York tour, pitcher Jim Creighton immediately bewildered the locals. “Mr. Beam, of the Baltimore nine, a very fine batter usually, led off, but he was hardly prepared for the swift, lightning-like balls which Creighton began to favor him with,” a correspondent reported. “He struck once without effect, and looked astonished; he struck again, and missed, and looked surprised; again he made an ineffectual stroke at the ball, and gave up his bat, apparently in wonder and admiration of the performance of the pitcher.”

As the pregame practice indicated, the Brooklyn Excelsiors were equally dazzling in their fielding, making not only three double plays, but also a spectacular triple play. The latter came about in the sixth inning, when Creighton switched positions with left fielder Ed Russell. According to the Sunday Mercury:

“Mr. Shriver … was at the bat, while Sears occupied the third base, and S. Patchen (substitute for Hazlett) was on the second base. As Shriver struck the ball, both Sears and Patchen ran from their bases – pausing somewhat to witness the fate of the ball, which Creighton was after. … By one of the handsomest backward single-handed catches ever made by Creighton, he took the ball on the fly, and instantly, by a true and rapid throw, passed the ball to Whiting, who caught it, and threw it as quickly to Brainerd, on the second base, before either Sears or Patchen had time to return to their bases, thus putting three hands out ‘in a jiffy.’ But there was more yet in the ball; for Brainerd hardly received it from Whiting before it was on its way from his hands to Pearsall, who caught it in his own steel trap style, and made all the motions necessary to put out another hand, if there were any ‘lying around loose.’”

The batting of the visitors was similarly dominant, generating outbursts of 6, 6, 7, 12, and 13 runs in the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth innings en route to a 51-6 victory. After the final out, a scrub match was played for a while, and then a group of 50 people sat down to a sumptuous dinner, “served up in the French style,” at Guy’s Monument House. After various toasts, the group adjourned at around 11 P.M.

The Brooklyn Excelsiors departed the following afternoon on the 6 P.M. train and arrived four hours later in Philadelphia. After a stay overnight at the Continental Hotel, they spent the morning visiting various objects of interest. By this time, however, the busy schedule was taking its toll. The Sunday Mercury reporter observed: “They felt somewhat fatigued and worn out, by travel, the loss of sleep, and other exertions, and were not in as good order as they could have wished, to contend with the picked players who were to be brought against them.”

The situation was made worse when the Excelsiors players were obliged to walk quite a distance to the playing field at Camac Woods. The Philadelphia players, picked from the Equity, Olympic, Hamilton, Athletic, and Winona clubs, were also somewhat ill-prepared, having had no time to practice together. Thus the game, which resulted in a 15-4 victory for the Excelsiors, involved playing on both sides that was “very creditable, but not so spirited on the part of the Excelsiors as in the Baltimore match.” The Baltimore Republican reporter mentioned as “having excited our ‘special wonder,’ the daring, almost reckless catching of Leggett, and the swift, even pitching of Creighton,” while the Sunday Mercury noted that the Philadelphians were quite as much “taken down by Creighton’s peculiar pitching, as were the Baltimoreans.”

After the game, all of the players traveled to Schuylkill Falls, where they enjoyed a catfish supper, with appropriate fixings. At 11 P.M. the Excelsiors boarded the “owl train” and arrived back home at daylight.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

“Play was lively and exciting,” reported the New York Times, “not as much difficulty being experienced from the use of skates by the players as was expected.” Baseball players from the Live Oak, Olympic, Lone Star, and Flour City clubs of Rochester, New York, gathered on January 14, 1860, and “experimented with a baseball game with ice skates.”1 Baseball historian Peter Morris commented that with the growing popularity of both baseball and ice skating in the 1860s, “it was inevitable that someone would try and combine them.”2 On December 28, 1860, the Lone Stars accepted a challenger by Live Oak to a baseball match on skates on New Year’s Day 1861. Near the Float Bridge on Rochester’s Irondequoit Bay, 2,500 spectators watched a game “of the most exhilarating description, as was attested by the glowing cheeks of the respective players,” wrote the New York Clipper.3 The Clipper then asked, “Cannot some of our New York clubs get up a contest on one of our Central Park ponds? Let not our Rochester friends be ice-olated in this respect.”

Baseball on ice came to New York on February 4, 1861, not in Central Park, but on the so-called Litchfield Pond, aka Washington Pond (for Brooklyn’s famed Washington Skating Club).4 The 10 acres were located along Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Brooklyn.

The Brooklyn Atlantics would compete on skates against Brooklyn’s Charter Oak.5 The Atlantics were the dominant team of the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) throughout the 1850s and 1860s. The Atlantics, officially organized in 1855, “have always and at all times had a nine from whom any rival club might almost despair of winning any lasting laurels,” wrote Charles A. Peverelly in The Book of American Pastimes (1866).6 They had won another championship in 1860. The Charter Oak club from South Brooklyn was a lesser-known club organized in 1857.7 Harold Seymour called them “the leaders in sartorial splendor,”8 based on a description of their uniform in Porter’s Spirit of the Times: “a white cap with blue peak, pink shirt with white facings, stars, & c, black belt, upon which is inscribed ‘Charter Oak’ in full, and white pants with pink stripes.”9 No such detailed description was given for this game. The Atlantics wore red jackets with blue facings while the Charter Oak were dressed in plaid.

The prize for the winner was a silver ball, the size of an ordinary baseball, donated by a Mr. Litchfield,10 president of the Fifth Avenue Railroad Company, for whom the pond was nicknamed at the time.11 The weather was pleasant. “For a February day,” wrote the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “the weather might claim the prefix ‘fine.’ Cold, but clear and bracing, the sun coming out strong every now and then, thawing the embankment into a puddle, and though very comfortable in other respects, rendering it disagreeable under foot.”12 The game was played on the ice nearest Fifth Avenue, “in defiance of ominous-looking cracks or fissures, through which the water oozed up, produced by the tremendous pressure” wrote the Eagle.13

The streets were lined with people who came to see their baseball heroes who “dreamed not and cared not for broken bones and bruised flesh.”14 One-third of the crowd was estimated to be women and children.15 Some avoided the “triple row of spectators” and watched the game from their carriages, which provided “a good view of the enthusiastic and excited ball players,” wrote the Clipper.16 The pond was dotted with skaters ‘like feathered Mercuries,” wrote the Eagle.17 The crowd was estimated at between 15,000 and 30,000 spectators (depending on the source), “a large portion of whom were on skates,” wrote the Brooklyn Evening Star. Some arrived via the Greenwood and Atlantic street cars,18 ensuring that “the Railroad Companies had a rich harvest in the increase of travel.”19 The enormous crowd made the pond “uncomfortably crowded for skating purposes,” wrote the Star,20 while the Clipper remarked that “it really seemed as if the players would not have a rod of ice to display their skill upon.”21

Police were out in full force as “it was with utmost difficulty that the crowd could be kept from pressing too closely upon the clubs,” the Times wrote, but “everybody seemed bent upon being happy and making others so.” Those not close enough to see the game were not terribly disappointed but “amused themselves in skating at other points.”22 When they needed a break from the chilly air, “the refreshment men were not idle,” wrote the Star. “Booths were provided, and hot coffee and cakes and the all persuasive lager were in large demand.”23

The game began at 3 P.M. Each team fielded 10 players, with each adding an extra catcher. The base areas were marked with red paint. A Mr. Ellenbeck from the Live Oak Club was chosen as the umpire, while John Oswald from Charter Oak and G.W. Moore of the Atlantic club were chosen as scorers, who would definitely have their work cut out for them that afternoon.

Not surprisingly, the beginning of the game saw “several of the players, in their anxiety to stop or catch the ball, by a miscalculation were brought summarily, and in one or two instances rather unpleasantly, in connection with the ice,” wrote the Times.24 Charter Oak batted first and scored a run, and in their half of the first, the Atlantics scored eight runs. We do not have a play-by-play of the game, as the Clipper noted the futility. “We shall not attempt to follow up or criticize the succeeding innings, as it will be readily understood that the game, when played upon the ice with skates, is altogether a different sort of affair from that which the Clubs are familiar with.”25 Charter Oak had great skaters in Johnson, Jerome, and Phillips, “but the balance of their players could not support them. … (T)heir opponents, as a body, were their superiors.”26

The score was Brooklyn 18-2 after three innings, but the Atlantics grew overconfident and careless, in the Clipper’s opinion, allowing Charter Oak to score 20 runs in innings four, five, and six. Brooklyn’s Dickie Pearce, today credited as a pioneer in creating the shortstop position, “proved himself as good a short stop on the ice, as he is on a summer’s day; he made several splendid fly catches, and for an inning or two, caught capitally behind.” Pitcher Matty O’Brien, first baseman John Griffith Price, second baseman Charles J. Smith, and the first catcher, Folkert Rapelje Boerum, illustrated that “the championship boys can turn out a good crowd of skaters,” in the Clipper’s analysis.27 The New York Times said nearly all 20 players were experts in skating and “played as well on runners, as when on terra firma.”28 The Star said “the batting, catching, and fielding were remarkably good, when the unusual and uncertain footing of the player is remembered.”Pearce and Oliver of the Atlantics “exhibited their characteristic abandon, and danced, leaped, turned somersaults, and indulged in other eccentricities.”29

The final score was the Atlantics 36, Charter Oak 27. The Clipper was enthusiastic, writing, “We hope to chronicle many similar pleasant and exciting trials of skill during this and future winters.”30 The game was considered a success, and another match, between the Atlantics and Pastimes, was scheduled for two days later.31

The crowd was definitely entertained that day; the Eagle commented, “There lurks within the breast a tendency to laugh at the mishaps of one’s neighbors,” and “from the frequency of the tumbles, players as well as non-players, the conclusion is inevitable that many a participant in the sports of the day retired to bed with a sore head and aching bones.”32

While Brooklyn was skating, historical events were happening elsewhere. About 1,000 miles away, in Montgomery, Alabama, Howell Cobb, an ancestor of Ty Cobb,33 spoke to the newly established Confederate States of America, which had seceded from the United States. “We meet as the representatives of sovereign and independent States, who by a solemn judgment have dissolved all the political association which connected them with the Government of the United States,” Cobb declared.34 The Civil War would begin in April.

Baseball played on ice declined in popularity over the next few decades, although there were examples of it still being played in the early 20th century.35 Beadle’s Dime Base Ball Player in the 1870s even included a section entitled “Rules for Games on Ice.”36 The fad seemed to have worn off relatively quickly for some, however. Annoyed, the Eagle wrote, “We hope we shall have no more ball games on the ice. … Playing on skates is mere tomfoolery. … If any of the ball clubs want to make fools of themselves, let them go down to Coney Island, and play a game on stilts.”37

Apparently no one attempted a game like that.

The box score from the New York Times:

Sources

In addition to sources listed in the Notes, the author benefited from the following:

Astifan, Priscilla. “Baseball in the 19th Century,” in Rochester History Vol. LII, No. 3 (Summer, 1990). rochesterbaseballhistory.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/part-1-1990.pdf.

Morris, Peter. Base Ball Founders: the Clubs, Players, and Cities of the Northeast that Established the Game. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2013).

Ryczek, William J. Baseball’s First Inning: A History of the National Pastime Through the Civil War. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2009).

Notes

In early September of 1861, the New York Dispatch announced plans for such an event on the grounds of the St. George Cricket Club in Hoboken, New Jersey: a benefit for their veteran cricketer Sam Wright and his son, Harry.6

Sam Wright was arguably the best cricketer in all of England when he moved to the United States in 1837 to play for the St. George Cricket Club of New York. He starred for St. George over the next two decades, joined on the pitch in the late 1840s by the not-yet-teenage Harry. Sam was a jack-of-all-trades, playing where needed and serving as the club’s groundskeeper.7 By 1861, the 26-year-old Harry was drawing compensation as a professional for St. George, as his father long had, and praise as “the most promising cricketer among us.”8 He was also playing base ball for the Knickerbockers of New York.

The Wrights’ cricket benefit was a match between 11 English-born players from the St. George Club and 22 cricket-playing Americans “selected from the crack fielders of the leading [Brooklyn and New York City] Base Ball Clubs.”9 With the Americans having double the usual number of fielders and batters, the New York Clipper viewed them as doubling their chances of emerging victorious.10

An advance notice for the Wrights’ benefit, published by the New York Atlas on September 15, noted that after the cricket match, nine of the 22 Americans “will play a game of Base Ball against any nine that can be brought on the ground, or any eighteen Old Countrymen.”11 By the eve of the cricket match, the ensuing base ball game was being billed as a contest “between nine base ball players and eighteen cricketers for the benefit for Harry Wright, catcher of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club.”12 No reason was given in newspapers that covered the base ball game for why Wright was its beneficiary. That omission suggests he was being compensated for his performance on the base ball diamond, rather than for some personal loss, which surely would have been shared in order to drum up attendance, had redress been the benefit’s purpose.

Advertised base ball matches before this one had been played for “the honor of victory,”13 for a trophy (often the game ball), for a meal, occasionally for prize money or sometimes to benefit community members who’d fallen on hard times, but not for the purpose of channeling funds to an active base ball player.14 Prominent base ball players had been getting compensated under the table for years,15 a practice considered merely unseemly at first, then made illegal after professionalism was banned by the National Association of Base Ball Players (to which the Knickerbockers belonged) in 1859.16 Unlike play-for-pay, benefits were considered honorable and so provided a means, however thinly veiled, to skirt the NABBP prohibition.

The Wrights’ benefit cricket match got underway on Saturday morning, September 20, with Harry leading the English eleven. His teammates included two of his three younger brothers, George, only 14 years old, and Dan, born the year after Harry was.17 The American side included prominent base ballers from various clubs based on the New York side of the Hudson River: Jim Creighton and Asa Brainard of the Excelsiors (base ball champions in 1860 who were idled by the Civil War in 1861),18 Atlantics captain Dickey Pearce, Knickerbockers president Thomas Dakin, Andrew J. Bixby of the Eagle club and a Whiting, presumably John, also of the Excelsiors.19 In an upset, the Americans prevailed over Harry’s English eleven in just under six hours.20

The plan for Sunday had been for nine of the best base ball players in the area to oppose 18 cricketers, but there weren’t enough of the latter available. Instead, a team of Eighteen was formed with nine cricketers from the St. George club; Harry Wright; his brother George; and seven other base ball players from the New York’s Mutuals, Harlems, and Gothams, plus one unnamed club.21 Recognizing that many of the cricketers lacked experience playing baseball, their side was allowed six outs per at-bat while the baseballers were limited to three. The extra outs, together with posting all their players on the field at one time, gave the Eighteen a fourfold advantage in the eyes of the Clipper.22

Twice as many spectators were on hand compared with the previous day’s cricket match by the time the base ball game got underway on a warm first day of autumn.23 Admission was 25 cents (equivalent to nearly $9 in 2023), with ladies admitted free of charge.24 Those who parted with another three pennies for a copy of the New York Times before the game would have found a front page entirely devoted to news of the war.

The Eighteen were first to bat, with the 20-year-old Creighton pitching from behind an iron plate set 45 feet from home plate, and Pearce his batterymate. The balance of the Nine were filled from the ranks of the Brooklyn-based Excelsiors (Andrew T. Pearsall, George Flanley, Whiting, and Brainard), Stars (Hope Waddell), Eagle of New York (Bixby), and Eureka of Newark, New Jersey (Edward R. Pennington).25 Former cricket journalist turned base ball gadfly Henry Chadwick served as the game scorer, with R. Oliver of the Excelsiors umpiring.26

Two runs were tallied by the Eighteen in the first frame, highlighted by “a magnificent hit to centre field” by H.B. Taylor of the Mutuals.

As the Nine first came to bat, the Eighteen took the field to create what the New York Clipper understatedly called “a novel sight.” Two players occupied each position other than pitcher, where Simon Burns of the Mutuals stood alone, and catcher, where Harry Wright was shadowed by a pair of cricketers.27 The other seven positions were manned by a base ball player, with a cricketer hovering nearby; the latter listed in box scores as either a second player or “cover” for that spot. At shortstop, by at least one account, was young George Wright.28

Leading off for the Nine was Pearsall, a medical student at New York’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Born in Alabama, he would be wielding a surgeon’s knife for the Confederate army a year later.29 Pearsall singled and came around to score the Nine’s only run in their first turn at bat. The last two Nine batters in that inning were retired at first base on “poor hits to right field.”30

For the Eighteen’s second turn at bat, Brainard replaced Creighton, who moved to second base. Not a single batter reached base, as Brainard set down the side, all six of them, in order. Three hits and a home run to center field by Pearce put the Nine up 4-2 with one out in the second inning, but more damage was yet to come. After Harry Wright retired Pearsall on a foul fly, the next six batters reached base before Creighton was retired “on the bound” to Hunt of the Mutuals in short right field, “who first missed it on the fly.”31

Down 10-2, the Eighteen came storming back in the third. Each batter crossed the plate to make the score 11-10 in their favor.

The lead changed hands again when the Nine came to bat in the third, with Pearce and Pearsall scoring before center fielder George Vanderlip, future secretary of the St. George Club, retired Whiting on an outfield bound.

The Eighteen tied the score at 12-12 in the fourth inning with a single run against Creighton, who was back pitching. Creighton’s play to retire Vanderlip at home plate drew particular notice in the New York Clipper account of the game.32

Regarding Creighton’s fellow defenders, the Clipper judged center fielder Waddell’s play to be poor and claimed Flanley (spelled “Flanly” in its account) never fielded better, for which he drew loud applause. A “beautiful fly catch” by Pennington was also noted.33

The Nine tallied 10 runs in their half of the fourth, with each batter scoring once and Creighton twice. The three outs were recorded on Pearce, Pearsall, and Flanley, with each “striking twice” at Burns’s offerings.34

Once again the Eighteen responded with a single run. The Nine tacked on another seven runs in their next turn at bat to take a 29-13 lead.

The game continued in this fashion for another three innings, with the Nine growing their lead each inning. Home runs were struck in the final few innings by Pearce, Flanley, and Creighton, with Pearce’s blow (his second of the day) so splendid that he reached home “almost before the ball was handled.”35

Darkness brought an end to the game after eight innings, with the Nine ahead, 45-16. The Brooklyn Eagle box score noted that 12 of the 16 runs compiled by the Eighteen “were made by the base ball players.”36

How much Harry Wright collected from his September 21 benefit was never published, but the fact that he was the game’s beneficiary had broader import than any money he might have received. Likely the first game in which he was openly compensated,37 it might also have been the first in which any base ball player was.38

Box score from the New York Clipper, September 28, 1861:

Acknowledgments

The author thanks SABR author Tom Gilbert for providing details on the playing career of Excelsior ballplayer A.T. Pearsall. This article was fact-checked by Stew Thornley and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Peter Morris, ed., Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast That Established the Game (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company), 2013, Christopher Devine’s SABR biography of Harry Wright, John Thorn’s SABR biography of James Creighton and his Baseball in the Garden of Eden (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011). The author also reviewed accounts of cricket matches, baseball games, and benefits of many kinds published between 1853 and 1861 in the New York Clipper, New York Times, Brooklyn Eagle, and New York Herald. He also examined the Baseball-Reference.com website for pertinent material on those players whose careers extended to the advent of the National Association in 1871.

Notes

1 The Clipper in this period also highlighted charitable benefits held for those who had suffered or might suffer great personal loss, such as a New York concert on May 25, 1861, to benefit a Volunteer Fund that assisted Union soldiers, and multiple events in Philadelphia to raise funds for the families of seven ballet dancers killed in a theater fire in that city. “City Summary,” New York Clipper, May 25, 1861: 46; “General Summary,” New York Clipper, September 28, 1861: 190.

2 “Benefit performance,” Britannica website, https://www.britannica.com/art/benefit-performance, accessed June 28, 2023.

3 See, for example, “Mike Henry’s Benefit,” New York Clipper, December 8, 1860: 266, “Johnny Monaghan’s Benefit,” New York Clipper, February 23, 1861: 356, or “Give Him a Good One,” New York Clipper, December 22, 1860: 282.

4 “Racket Tournament,” New York Clipper, October 6, 1860: 200.

5 For example, in 1860, a collection of cricketers from various New York clubs played a benefit in East New York for a professional cricketer, Sams, said to be “in very poor circumstances,” and a match was held at St. George Cricket Club Grounds in New York to benefit all U.S. cricket professionals. “Great Match at East New York,” New York Clipper, October 20, 1860: 213; “Matches to Come,” New York Clipper, June 23, 1860: 77.

6 Two weeks later, the Clipper described the benefit for Sam and Harry as an annual event. The author was unable to find evidence of a similar benefit for the Wrights in earlier years. “Cricket – Americans, versus Englishmen,” New York Dispatch, September 7, 1861: 9; “Benefit of the Veteran Cricketers,” New York Clipper, September 21, 1861: 178.

7 Paul Preston, Esq, “Reminiscences of a Man About Town,” New York Clipper, October 17, 1868: 220.

8 Just one week before Harry was so recognized, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, ignited the Civil War. “The Cricket Season in New York,” New York Clipper, April 20, 1861: 4.

9 An earlier announcement in the Brooklyn Eagle invited ballplayers interested in competing to provide their names to Harry Wright at the St. George Cricket grounds in Hoboken by the 18th. One stipulation spelled out by the Brooklyn Eagle was that no professional cricketers would play for the team of 11. “Out-Door Sports,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 19, 1861: 2; “Cricket,” New York Times, September 20, 1961: 5; “Cricket,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 13, 1861: 3.

10 It was common practice at that time to allow weaker teams to play with 18 as a handicap. The even more generous use of 22 players in this match followed a practice reportedly first adopted three years earlier by a Canadian cricket club. “Eleven First Class vs. Eighteen Second Class Players of the Toronto Club,” New York Clipper, September 4, 1858: 157.

11 “Grand Cricket Match,” New York Atlas, September 15, 1861: 8.

12 “Out-Door Sports.”

13 “Base Ball – To Players,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 13, 1860: 2.

14 The author has not identified any previous reports of a base ball game played for the benefit of an individual player, based upon his review of New York Clipper archives dating back to May 1853, the Craig B. Waff games tabulation and database of nineteenth-century baseball clippings at protoball.org, and nationwide newspaper archives housed at newspapers.com and genealogybank.com.

15 For example, in his Baseball in the Garden of Eden, MLB historian John Thorn shares reports of Creighton and possibly other Excelsiors receiving payments in 1860 and posits that “emoluments,” financial benefits for top players, may have induced Louis Wadsworth, the man he credits with baseball’s nine innings, nine players framework, to join the Knickerbockers in 1854. John Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 51.

16 Baseball in the Garden of Eden, 120 and 123; “Base Ball,” Spirit of the Times, March 19, 1859: 66.

17 “Eleven English vs Twenty-Two Americans,” New York Clipper, September 28, 1861: 186.

18 With most able-bodied men gone to fight, it was rare for a New York area baseball club to muster enough players for a match between April and July in 1861. In a July 11 newspaper account that began, “War is down upon everything,” the Star Club was said to have only two of its first nine at home. Once the 13th Regiment of the New York State Militia, which included many ballplayers in its ranks, returned home from Maryland in late July, match play picked up considerably; but not for the Excelsiors, who remained dormant. “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Evening Star, July 11, 1861: 2; “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Evening Star, August 1, 1861: 2; “Return of the 13th Regiment,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 30, 1861: 2.

19 John’s brothers Frank and Charles had also played for the Excelsiors, but it was John who was an ardent cricket player. One year earlier, John, along with Creighton and Brainard, first took up cricket and, together with Henry Chadwick, Harry Wright, and other ballplayers of note, formed the American Cricket Club, a club for US citizens with a goal of “Americanizing” (speeding up) the pace of cricket matches. “An American Cricket Club,” New York Clipper, September 15, 1860: 170; “Cricket,” Brooklyn Evening Star, September 13, 1860: 2.

20 “Cricket in 1861,” New York Clipper, November 30, 1861: 259.

21 “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers,” New York Clipper, September 28, 1861: 186. In addition to those clubs listed here, the New York Times game summary identified the Jefferson, Atlantic, and Knickerbocker clubs as providing players to the Eighteen. The author elected to adopt the list published by the New York Clipper, as that article listed the club affiliation for all but one of the Eighteen by name. The Brooklyn Eagle account of the game claimed that the team of Eighteen consisted of 10 cricketers and 8 base ball players, implying that they counted Harry Wright as a cricketer. “Cricket and Base Ball,” New York Times, September 22, 1861: 8; “Nine Ball Players vs. Eighteen Cricketers,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 23, 1861: 3.

22 “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers.”

23 “Cricket and Base Ball,” New York Times, September 22, 1861: 8.

24 “Nine Base Ball Players vs. Eighteen Cricketers,” Brooklyn Evening Star, September 20, 1861: 3.

25 There was another local ballplayer named Waddell in 1861, listed in some box scores as Weddell, a pitcher for the Brooklyn Enterprise club. That Waddell appeared in a box score for a game played in Brooklyn on the 21st, ruling him out as being the Waddell who played in the Harry Wright benefit game. “Enterprise vs. Brooklyn,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 23, 1861: 3. The New York Times game account agrees with the author’s list of teams represented in the Nine’s lineup with the exception of the Stars, which the Times omitted. The Brooklyn Eagle claimed only players from the Excelsiors and Atlantics populated the Nine, which clearly was not the case. “Cricket and Base Ball,” New York Times, September 22, 1861: 8. “Nine Ball Players vs. Eighteen Cricketers,” Brooklyn Eagle, September 23, 1861: 3; “The Star Club,” New York Clipper, December 14, 1861: 275; “The Star Grounds,” New York Clipper, December 14, 1861: 274.

26 “Nine Base Ball Players vs Eighteen Cricketers,” Brooklyn Eagle. Two members of the Eighteen, Harry Wright and an amateur, Waller, had faced Creighton in the reputed first shutout in baseball history, a game on November 8, 1860, in Hoboken between the champion Excelsiors and cricketers from the St. George Cricket Club. “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Eagle, November 10, 1860: 2; “Last Cricket Match of the Hoboken Season – Amateur Eleven vs. Professional Eleven,” New York Times, October 1, 1860: 8.

27 The New York Clipper cites Harry as catching, as did Henry Chadwick, in one of his scrapbooks, according to Christopher Devine’s Harry Wright: The Father of Professional Baseball. The New York Times, on the other hand, lists Harry playing second base, while the Brooklyn Eagle showed him as simply a fielder. The detailed play-by-play account in the Clipper, in contrast to summary reviews in the Times and Eagle, suggests that the Clipper more accurately portrayed where Harry, and for that matter all the players, were positioned on the field. Christopher Devine, Harry Wright: The Father of Professional Baseball (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2003), 23.

28 The box score published in the New York Clipper shows the youngster at shortstop, while the Brooklyn Eagle lists him at second base. The New York Times says he played in the field, but showed others manning each infield position. Christopher Devine, in Harry Wright, identifies George as having been “a second catcher” backing up Harry, based on an entry in one of Henry Chadwick’s scrapbooks. The author has adopted the positioning as defined in the Clipper for reasons detailed in an earlier note.

29 Pearsall is identified as a member of the Class of 1861 in the College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni catalogue, but he was one of 10 Class of 1861 members identified in the catalogue who did not appear in a New York Times list of new graduates who took the Hippocratic oath during commencement in March of 1861. Presumably Pearsall earned his degree in the fall of 1861. College of Physicians and Surgeons in the City of New York, Medical Department of Columbia College: Catalogue of the Alumni, Officers and Fellows, 1807-1891 (New York: Bradstreet Press, 1891), 85, https://archive.org/details/catalogueofalumn02colu/page/n3/mode/2up?view=theater, accessed August 15, 2023; “College of Physicians and Surgeons,” New York Times, March 15, 1861: 8; Dr. Miraculous, “The Ex-Excelsior, Founding Father of Montgomery Baseball,” Dr. Miraculous blog site, September 17, 2014, http://drmiraculous.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-ex-excelsior-founding-father-of.html.

30 “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers.”

31 Hunt may have been Dick Hunt, who played for the Mutuals in 1866, though he would have been only 13 or 14 years old in September of 1861. “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers.”

32 “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers.”

33 “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers.”

34 “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers.”

35 “Base Ball Players vs. Cricketers.”

36 “Nine Ball Players vs. Eighteen Cricketers,” Brooklyn Eagle.

37 This may have been the first benefit for Wright, but it wasn’t the first benefit in which he was involved. In the July 20, 1858, opener of the best-of-three New York vs. Brooklyn picked nine series at the Fashion Race Course in Queens County, New York, the little-known Wright played middle field (second base) and batted last for the New York side. The net proceeds from that game’s admission fees ($71.09) were donated to the “Widows and Orphans funds of the Fire Departments of the two cities.” “The Great Base Ball Match,” Brooklyn Times, July 21, 1858: 3; “Grand Base Ball Demonstration,” Brooklyn Eagle, July 10, 1858: 3; “The Sporting Season,” New York Atlas, August 1, 1858: 1.

38 In his Harry Wright: The Father of Professional Baseball, author Christopher Devine identifies an 1863 benefit held by the Knickerbocker club for Harry, his father, and two others (in which Harry netted $29.65), as being the first instance of Wright openly playing base ball for money, but he does acknowledge that this Nine vs. Eighteen game was also a benefit held for Wright. The benefit game to which Devine refers may in fact have been held three years later. Author David Quentin Voigt in American Baseball describes Harry Wright as earning a cash cut of $29.65 at an 1866 benefit. MLB historian John Thorn pointed out that rain limited the sporting contests held at that benefit, originally planned to include both cricket and baseball, to cricket alone. “The First Baseball Card, Arguably?” Protoball website, https://protoball.org/1844.20, accessed July 24, 2023.

Boetticher, a captain, was captured and spent time in Libby prison in Richmond, Virginia, before he was shipped to the Salisbury Prison in North Carolina in the summer of 1862. It is his print “drawn from nature” and published by Sarony, Major, and Knapp in color in 1863 that captured life in the prison at Salisbury and the baseball games that were played in the pastoral surroundings for a few brief seasons before the prison became unbearable.1

For months Salisbury was the “most endurable prison,” with only 600 inmates who were allowed to “exercise in the open air.” They were comparatively well fed and treated kindly, recalled former inmate Willard W. Glazier in 1866.2 Before the great influx of prisoners arrived at Salisbury in October of 1864, the prison population remained consistently low. The old cotton factory rested on 16 acres and was renovated by the Confederate government in 1861 to house 2,500 inmates, deserters, civilian prisoners, and Negro prisoners of war. Men were allowed “liberty of the yard”3 and many of the captured soldiers enjoyed afternoon and evening games of baseball.

“Took a little walk in the evening and watched some of the officers play ball,” wrote 23-year-old prisoner Charles Gray, a Union Army doctor, in May 1862. Gray wrote frequently of the games in his diary. “A good state of cheerfulness, thanks to the open space is fairly prevailing.” “Ball play for those who like it and are able…”4

Gray and other observers watched the match games between the captured Union prisoners and other inmates. A soldier from Rhode Island, William Crossley, who arrived at Salisbury in March 1863, recalled a baseball game played by recently transferred prisoners from New Orleans and Tuscaloosa, Alabama:

And to-day the great game of baseball came off between the Orleanists and Tuscaloosans with apparently as much enjoyment to the Rebs as the Yanks, for they came in hundreds to see the sport, and I have seen more smiles to-day on their oblong faces than since I came to Rebeldom. … The game was a tie, eleven each but the factory fellows were skunked three times, and we but twice.”5

It can be surmised that the “factory” boys were possibly the Confederate guards from the factory-turned-prison or captured soldiers held in the prison barracks. By the time this game took place, Captain Boetticher had been exchanged for a Confederate captain in September of 1862.

On holidays during the Civil War, sport became a common diversion for soldiers as they attempted to forget the hardships, danger, boredom, and homesickness of wartime life. Accounts show that soldiers marched in St. Patrick’s Day parades, ran footraces on Thanksgiving, and held shooting and boxing matches. Regiments challenged each other to football and baseball games and snowball fights on Christmas — substituting sport for traditional holiday observances.

On July 4, 1862, at Salisbury prison there was music, a reading of the Declaration of Independence, sack races and footraces along with a greased-pig-catching contest and a baseball game.6 It is unclear if this is the game featured in Otto Boetticher’s rendering, although it is altogether possible. The image shows a well-worn, diamond-shaped playing field, hundreds of fans in the bucolic prison yard and prisoners who even appeared to don makeshift red uniforms!

Confederate Chaplain Adolphus Magnum, who visited Salisbury in 1862, wrote of the celebration on the Fourth of July to include a blindfolded wheelbarrow race and described a dress parade and ball play on the prison grounds:

… the officers among the prisoners came out and presented a truly beautiful scene in their recreation. A number of the younger and less dignified ran like schoolboys to the play ground and were soon joining in high glee in a game of ball. Others … sat down by side with the prison officials and witnessed the sport. 7

Salisbury prisoner Josephus Clarkson, a ship chandler’s apprentice from Boston, wrote of the impromptu ballgames that took place and of the lengthy debates over whether to play by town-ball rules (in which “plugging” or putting runners out by hitting them with the ball was allowed) or by the New York rules:

“Since many of the men were in a weakened condition, it was agreed to play the faster but less harsh New York rules which intrigued our guards. The game of baseball had been played much in the south, but many of them (the guards) had never seen the sport devised by Mr. Alexander Cartwright.” 8

It is unclear how long Clarkson spent at Salisbury but the inmates he described were failing in health. As the war dragged on, it was unlikely that the prison yard at Salisbury saw anything but deprivation. By 1864 the prison population had risen to more than 10,000 and hundreds of men died daily of starvation and illness. Most of Salisbury was burned to the ground when the war ended in 1865; a national cemetery is now close by.

After the war some historians promoted baseball as a healing tool to reinforce a new sense of union. A grand game of baseball was indeed played at Salisbury on July 4, 1862. It is unclear whether the game in Boetticher’s print was an illustration of this game or a composite of many he remembered while imprisoned there. The print does illustrate, however, that baseball was a uniting force for both armies during and long after the Civil War.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

One major challenge that the Atlantics faced in 1860, from the Excelsiors of South Brooklyn, is described in an earlier article in this volume.2 The Atlantics faced one additional serious challenger in 1860 — the Eckfords, who were undefeated in 13 contests. The two teams played a series of three games on successive Mondays, the Atlantics prevailing 20-11 in the decisive game.

A general feeling appeared to exist in early 1861 that the challenge system (and particularly the champion’s ability to control which challenges to accept) limited the number of teams that could compete for the title. Such a feeling may have prompted the Continental Club of Brooklyn to propose a new way of determining a champion in early April 1861. It called for teams to be paired by lot in a series of games leading to a home-and-home, best-of-three final.3

The idea was quickly doomed by the start of the Civil War, which left several teams short of players. But although the proposal was abandoned, the prize that it had intended to award the ultimate winner — a finely engraved “champion silver ball” — resurfaced as a topic of discussion in 1862.4 In its June 21 issue, the Brooklyn Eagle announced, in an article and an advertisement, that “the champion Atlantics and the celebrated Eckfords,” representing the Eastern and Western districts of Brooklyn, had agreed to play a series of games at the new enclosed Union Skating and Base Ball Grounds in Brooklyn. Admission would be ten cents, and the entire proceeds would go to the US Sanitary Commission, for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers. In addition, the Continental Club announced that it would suitably update its silver ball for a trophy to the winner.5

The first game was played on Friday, July 11. Although the game attracted an audience estimated at between 3,000 and 4,000, the Eagle reporter deplored the decision by many of them to view the game from the high banks surrounding the enclosure, thus significantly diminishing the contribution the proceeds could make toward the Sanitary Commission. The Eckfords won the first game, 20-14, the Eagle reporter attributing the loss to the play of the Atlantics, which it described as “only tolerable and hardly excusable from such players.”6

The Eckford victory increased interest in the return game, which was played, despite intermittent showers, without delay on the same field on Friday, July 18. The total crowd was estimated to be as high as 8,000 — once again split nearly in half between those inside the enclosure and outside on the surrounding banks. They saw a complete reversal of fortune. The fielding of the Atlantics was “up to the mark” and “throughout very fine” (according to the New York Times), while the Eckfords, according to a New York Clipper reporter, “played a very poor game, the poorest in fact that they have ever played.” The final score was 39-5.7

The split required the playing of a third game at the Union Grounds. Although Andy Mills had pitched ably for the Eckfords in the first two games, the club delayed the third game until Joe Sprague, its regular pitcher in the early part of the season, returned from a three-month hitch in the Union Army. The two-month delay allowed an unprecedented interest in the game to develop, as is evident in this Clipper account of pregame activity:

For an hour or more before the time appointed for commencing the game, all the avenues leading to the grounds were occupied with streams of people proceeding to witness the match, every car on the routes that passed near by being crowded to excess with passengers. … At a very moderate estimate, there must have been, by 4 o’clock, at least 10,000 people in and around the grounds.8

The Atlantics scored single runs in the first two innings. The first resulted from shortstop Tom Devyr’s mishandling of a ball hit by Peter O’Brien, followed by a hit to right field by brother Matty O’Brien, who made it all the way to third. The second resulted from a hit to left field by Joe Start, who subsequently stole both second and third bases, and scored on a wild throw by catcher Waddy Beach to Andy Mills, now playing third base.

The Eckfords came back with five runs in the second. With left fielder Fred Crane playing deep, Peter Spence safely hit in front of him. He scored when Al Reach sent a hit to right field that Mace muffed enough to enable Reach to reach second base. (The player identified as “Mace” may actually be F.S. Massey, who had played earlier for two Brooklyn teams, Osceola and later the Exercise Club, which absorbed the Osceolas in 1859.) After Beach lined out to Pete O’Brien, Joe Sprague hit a “hot one” to third baseman Charley Smith, whose throw to first failed to beat Sprague. Reach attained third on a passed ball, then Devyr hit a “splendid” grounder to right that allowed him to reach third and both Reach and Sprague to score. Devyr held that base while J. Smith sent a “skyer” that managed to drop between Charley Smith and the two O’Briens, but he scored as Andy Mills grounded out to Charley. Harry Manolt then hit a ball sharply back to pitcher Matty O’Brien, who failed to catch it on the bound. Peter O’Brien then threw the ball wildly to first, enabling Manolt to reach first and Smith to score.

The Eckfords added another run in the third and two more in the fourth, building their lead to 8-2. They scored no more that day, but the Atlantics failed to take advantage, adding only one late run. As the innings wore on, the Clipper reporter noted, “the Atlantics expected to make that rally that has hitherto brought them out of many a tight spot in their matches, but somehow or other they did not succeed.”

The Eckfords’ 8-3 victory gave them the three-game match. Besides attracting the largest audience to a base ball game to that date, it marked the first changeover of “champions” in the New York City region.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

Notes

The contest itself wasn’t noteworthy, as reflected in the Brooklyn Eagle’s confession that its report was “very brief,” squeezed by other news.[fn]“Base Ball,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 15, 1862, 2.[/fn] The legend is that during the game Creighton swung so mightily while hitting a home run that the swing caused a serious abdominal rupture. However accurate that is, he suffered for a few days at home after that game and died on the 18th. He was only 21.

The Eagle wrote about Creighton’s death at length, and the New York Times, which said he was “extensively known as an expert base ball player,” echoed the Eagle’s statement that Creighton died as “the result of internal injuries sustained while playing a match on Tuesday last.”[fn]“Brooklyn News,” New York Times, October 20, 1862 (see subheading “Death of a Base Ball Player”).[/fn] Creighton’s death was also announced in such papers as the Boston Daily Advertiser, the Public Ledger in Philadelphia, the Sun in Baltimore, Virginia’s Alexandria Gazette, and the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel. The Advertiser’s account called Creighton a “well known base-ball player” and specified that he “burst a blood-vessel in striking at a ball,” though without specifying the result.[fn]Boston Daily Advertiser, October 22, 1862, 2.[/fn]

Creighton was buried at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. A few years later, the Eagle wrote that visitors to his grave would “see a very neat and pretty marble shaft, bearing all the emblems of the Base Ball field, and the name James Creighton. It was erected in conjunction by the Excelsior and Union Clubs.” The paper also provided this account of Creighton’s fateful at-bat: “Hannegan was pitching for the Union, and Creighton was at bat. Hannegan was joking with Jim, and told him he would strike out. Creighton had struck twice, and in making a third attempt at a ball struck with such great force and immediately fell down. After a while he felt no more uneasiness, and played the balance of the game.”[fn]“Our National Game,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 16, 1865, 2. The Eagle’s first use of “struck” was merely to mean “swung,” implying that Bernie Hannegan had in fact attained a strikeout. [/fn]

James P. Creighton, Jr. was born in Manhattan to James and Jane Creighton on April 15, 1841. His mother died when he was 8 years old. A decade later Creighton was playing for the Niagaras of Brooklyn when he had his first chance to pitch. Soon thereafter he switched to the opposing team, the Star Club, and in 1860 he joined the Excelsiors. He impressed during the team’s ground-breaking tour that season, which included a leg through Philadelphia and Baltimore to Washington.

One account of Creighton’s final game appeared in Sporting Life on April 13, 1887, when it reprinted a letter from an unnamed “Old Timer” to St. Louis’s Republican: “Creighton’s death occurred from the rupture of his bladder, which occurred while he was pitching for the Excelsiors against the Unions of Morrisania. I was a kid at the time, and was a spectator of the match. Creighton played out the game, although I think he changed positions and went out into the field to play during the last two or three innings. Some of my companions averred that they heard his bladder burst, but if they did they did not say anything about it at the time, and it was not generally known until the next day that the celebrated pitcher was injured.”[fn]“Creighton’s Death,” Sporting Life, April 13, 1887, 7.[/fn]

Henry Chadwick wrote a rebuttal in his regular column the next issue: “I saw Creighton play in a cricket match at Bedford, on the outskirts of Brooklyn, as a member of the St. George Club, in a game with the Willow Club eleven in 1862, and in that match, in making a very hard effort to hit a leg ball, Creighton unknowingly ruptured himself. Not being aware of the serious injury he sustained on the occasion, he very unprudently engaged in a base ball match with the Excelsiors, of Brooklyn, against the Unions, of Morrisania, and he had not pitched long in the game before he had to retire from his position from pain. On that occasion Creighton said that he had strained himself playing cricket. He went home early that day from the ball match, and the next thing I heard of him was that he had died from the neglected injury he had received in the cricket match; in other words, from a severe rupture.”[fn]“Chadwick’s Chat,” Sporting Life, April 20, 1887, 5. Creighton did star in a cricket match for New York’s St. George Club against Brooklyn’s Willow Club on October 9, 1862, just five days prior to the Excelsiors’ game against the Morrisania nine.[/fn]

In recent years some baseball historians have speculated that shortly after Creighton’s death influential baseball figures, led by the Excelsior club’s president, Dr. Joseph B. Jones, attempted to shift blame to cricket, its rival then for “national pastime,” so that baseball wouldn’t be viewed as dangerous. If there was such a plot, it didn’t blossom. By 1887, when Chadwick weighed in, there was no need for excuses.

A contrary accusation is that Creighton’s death from hitting a home run was quickly fabricated to enhance baseball’s popularity. “Dying while hitting a long home run is a great story, it’s just not true,” said Tom Shieber, senior curator of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a few years ago.[fn]Wayne Coffey, “Daily News Sports Hall of Fame Candidates,” New York Daily News, June 18, 2006.[/fn] Shieber’s search of original sources found no homer by Creighton in that fateful game. Still, the home-run myth was probably popularized, if not started, almost half a century later by Creighton’s teammate, John Chapman. In Alfred Spink’s 1910 book The National Game, Chapman was quoted as saying, “I was present at the game between the Excelsiors and the Unions of Morrisiana [sic] at which Jim Creighton injured himself. He did it in hitting out a home run. When he had crossed the rubber he turned to George Flanley and said, ‘I must have snapped my belt,’ and George said, ‘I guess not.’”[fn]Alfred H. Spink, The National Game (St. Louis: The National Game Publishing Co., 1910), 128. [/fn] Despite many authors questioning this legend, it still shows up in print to this day presented uncritically.

Overlooked in this saga is the remainder of James Creighton’s father’s very sad life. In little more than a decade after 1862, Jim Creighton, Sr. also buried a daughter, Mary, a grandchild, and another son, John. They are all buried near James Senior’s wife and namesake.

This essay was originally published in “Inventing Baseball: The 100 Greatest Games of the 19th Century” (2013), edited by Bill Felber. Download the SABR e-book by clicking here.

This 1865 photograph of the Atlantics of Brooklyn by Charles H. Williamson depicts the “Champion Nine” of 1864 and was given to opposing teams who played the Atlantic Club. (Library of Congress)

The Atlantic Club of Brooklyn had every reason to feel confident as they traveled to Newark, New Jersey, on August 18, 1865. Their starting nine, the recognized champions of base ball since September of 1864, hadn’t lost a match in almost two years. Four days earlier, they had defeated the Mutual Club, their strongest rivals, for the second time in as many weeks.

These two wins were very significant. Before the National Association was founded in 1871, the championship was defended against clubs affiliated with the National Association of Base Ball Players in “home-and-home” series. Only by defeating the champions twice in three games – one home game for each club and then a third match played at a neutral ground, if necessary – could the title change teams. By winning twice against the Mutuals, the “Bedford Boys” had passed their most difficult test. They had every reason to believe they could coast to the end of the 1865 season without fear of losing the pennant.1

Their opponent on August 18 was the Eureka Club of Newark. The Eurekas were a well-respected nine, but they were perceived to be a level below the Atlantics and Mutuals. The Eurekas even admitted as much; the club’s stated goal before the match was “keeping down the score.”2

The Atlantics were bringing their strongest nine to Newark; among them were Dickey Pearce, Joe Start, and Charlie Smith. Pearce, who is best known for being the first man to play shortstop as an infield position rather than as a fourth outfielder, was also a gifted catcher. He manned the backstop in Newark.

Start and Smith were widely perceived as the best first and third basemen respectively, by their contemporaries. Start, acknowledged as the first to position himself near first base instead of always keeping one foot on the bag, was also one of the game’s first great power hitters.3 Smith, meanwhile, was called “the king of third basemen” by Harry Wright.4 Smith was also a great hitter and normally near the team lead in runs.5

From the time the champions arrived, however, circumstances began to conspire against them. The game started 90 minutes late due to the delayed arrival of the Eurekas.6 Furthermore, the decision was made not to play with the livelier ball that the Atlantics were used to. Only the dimensions and weight of the ball were regulated in 1865; some teams played with a livelier ball, while other teams elected for a dead ball. The Atlantics always elected for the lively ball when they had the choice. The Eureka Club decided that the day’s game would be played with a more deadened ball, limiting the Atlantics’ power advantage.7

Tom Pratt was the Atlantics’ starting pitcher. He was their regular pitcher from 1863 through 1865 and then became their “change pitcher” after the arrival of George Zettlein in June of 1866.8 For the Eureka Club, Charles Faitoute stood in the pitcher’s box. Faitoute was in his fourth season with the club, having pitched for the Eurekas in 1862-63, then rejoining in 1865 after taking a year off.9

Once the game began around 3:30 P.M., the Brooklyn nine immediately began to show signs that they were not at their best. Eureka’s Fred Calloway led off with a single and attempted to steal second. Pearce airmailed his throw over second baseman Fred Crane, allowing Calloway to reach third.10 The Eureka’s second hitter, Charles Thomas, drove Calloway home with a single. Thomas advanced to second when Pearce overthrew Start at first base, possibly on a pickoff play, although the Clipper’s play-by-play account is unclear on the exact circumstances.

After Thomas advanced to third base on Al Littlewood’s ground out to Pratt, Edward Pennington scored the runner with another base hit. Pennington stole second and solicited another wild throw from Pearce, this one being so poor that Pennington managed to score from first base.11 Pearce’s three throwing errors gifted the Eureka club three runs.

The Atlantics’ Tom Pratt hit a solo home run in the top of the second, but Brooklyn’s fielding follies continued in the bottom of the inning. This time it was third baseman Smith who made two crucial errors: first by missing Thomas’ groundball, which allowed the Eureka shortstop to reach first base, and then by muffing a ball that could have been more easily played by shortstop Joe Sprague.12 The Eurekas took advantage of these misplays to tally another six runs, making it 9-1.

Even Start, who later earned the nickname Old Reliable, became afflicted with an uncharacteristic case of the muffs. The newspaper accounts were in disbelief at Smith’s and Start’s fielding lapses. The Brooklyn Union remarked, “We could scarcely believe at one time that Smith was playing at third base, so carelessly did he field at times. Start, too, allowed balls to pass him that he usually holds in style.”13

Despite all this, the Atlantics scored four runs in their half of the third inning. The Eurekas were shut down in the bottom of the inning for their first whitewash. Pearce began the Atlantic half of the fourth by uttering the club’s famous rally cry: “Now we’re off!”14 That phrase had preceded other come-from-behind rallies over the years.15 So frequent were these rallies that the phrase “Atlantic luck” eventually became a turn of phrase among base ball writers of the era.16

On this day, however, Pierce’s call to action was met by a ruthless response from the Eureka fielders. Peter O’Brien grounded out to shortstop. Joe Sprague was put out on a foul tip that was caught on the first bounce by the Eurekas’ catcher, R. Heber Breitnall. (In 1865, a bound out could be made on a foul tip to the catcher at any point in the at-bat.) Pearce made his out in the same fashion as Sprague. It was a quick one-two-three inning.17

The Atlantic Club did put together five runs in the fifth inning to take a 10-9 lead. The Eurekas responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half to retake the lead, 11-10. In the Brooklyn sixth, Start began to make up for his loose fielding via his bat. He hit a clean two-run homer over Littlewood’s head in center field.18 Start’s smash gave Brooklyn the lead once again, 12-11.

The seventh began with the same cry as the fourth: “Now we’re off!”19 Sid Smith started the inning with a hit and scored on a hit from O’Brien. O’Brien, however, was put out by “by a ball splendidly thrown by (Breitnall).”20 Sprague followed with a groundout to Theo Bomeisler at third, and Pearce bounded out to Breitnall on a foul tip.21 Two classic rally cries from the undefeated champions of base ball led to only a single run, but they still held on to a 13-11 lead after seven innings.

In the top of the eighth, Start struck his second home run in as many at-bats, driving Smith home. Start batted 4-for-5 with a double, two home runs and four runs scored.22 The Clipper stated its verdict plainly: “But for Start’s fine batting, the Atlantics would have returned home minus the [victory], for assuredly nothing else saved their defeat.”23 The Atlantic batters strung together a few more hits to build an 18-11 lead, but the inning ended on another foul-tip bound out by Pearce.

Pearce continued to struggle. The fans behind home plate made every effort to get in front of Breitnall’s passed balls, while they cleared a path for Pearce’s passed balls to keep rolling farther out of play. Pearce let his emotions boil over after one such instance and cursed at the crowd in anger.24 Displays of the sort were scandalous in an era where base ball was still a gentleman’s game. The Union allowed that the crowd’s actions were “annoying … but nothing excuses blasphemy on any occasion.”25

Through it all, the Atlantic Club still entered the bottom of the ninth with a 21-15 lead. Sprague started the inning by committing a two-base throwing error on a batted ball from Faitoute. Bomeisler followed with a bound out to Pearce. The Eurekas then began stringing hits together. Number-nine hitter Edward Mills hit safely, followed by Calloway, Thomas, and Littlewood. Faitoute and the other four men came around to score. Littlewood made the last run on a fielder’s choice by Pennington. The score was now 21-20, the bases were empty, and there were two outs in the ninth.26 The next batter up was the Eurekas’ right fielder, whom history knows only as Rogers.

Rogers lofted the ball near the first-base line. Pearce watched the ball struck while Start, who had to react immediately, prepared to try to make a difficult catch on the fly. The “fly rule” had become the standard after the national convention in December 1864, meaning that fielders could no longer catch a fair ball on the first bounce and have it called an out.27 The bound out, however, was still legal on foul balls.

Pearce called out to Start to “get behind it.”28 His call was meant to inform Start that the ball was going to bounce in foul ground. Start adjusted on Pearce’s command and caught the bound out to end the game. The Atlantics had narrowly escaped defeat, 21-20.

The return match of the home-and-home series was played on August 31. This time, it was a 38-37 Atlantics victory. The champions finished the 1865 season 18-0, holding on to the pennant for their second consecutive season. They held the pennant until the Union Club of Morrisania defeated them twice in 1867.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 William J. Ryczek, When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870 (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Press, 1998), 69-70.

2 “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Daily Union, August 19, 1865: 1.

3 Irwin Chusid, “Joe Start,” SABR BioProject, accessed January 24, 2025, http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/joe-start/.

4 Craig B. Waff and William J. Ryczek, Base Ball Founders: The Clubs, Players and Cities of the Northeast That Established the Game (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland Press, 2013), 465.

5 Waff and Ryczek, 427, 431.

6 “Base Ball Circles.” Brooklyn Eagle, August 19, 1865: 2.

7 “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Union, August 19, 1865.

8 Waff and Ryczek, 463; Brooklyn Union, June 13, 1866: 4.

9 Waff and Ryczek, 753..

10 “The Third Match for the Championship,” New York Clipper, August 26, 1865: 2.

11 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

12 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

13 “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Daily Union.

14 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

15 “Base Ball,” Brooklyn Daily Times, September 14, 1866: 3.

16 “The National Game,” New York Herald, June 1, 1870: 13.

17 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

18 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

19 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

20 “Base Ball.”

21 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

22 Joe Start’s modern box-score line was compiled using the Clipper’s play-by-play account from August 26.

23 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

24 “Base Ball.”

25 “Base Ball.”

26 “The Third Match for the Championship.”

27 “The Base Ball Convention,” New York Clipper, December 24, 1864: 2.

28 “Base Ball Circles.”