Tenney: The Mesa ‘Diamond’ Club of 1900

From SABR member John Tenney at Base Ball in Arid Land on March 16, 2014:

Like its sister cities in the Salt River Valley, Mesa was largely an agricultural community around the turn of the 20th Century. Eventually, being formally organized in the late fall of 1899, the Mesa base ball club dubbed themselves the “Diamond” club and made a go at the increasingly intense base ball scene in games with clubs from Lehi, Stringtown, Tempe and Phoenix.

With $40 left over from the 1898 campaign,  the club officially organized on August 21, 1899. The new club ordered uniforms and began play against a much stronger Tempe Crimson Rims club.  It was an unsuccessful afternoon on September 10, 1899 as they lost the first match between the two clubs by an unreported score in the pages of the Tempe Daily News. The Mesa Diamond Club would lose the return match a week later to a newly uniformed, and sharp looking Tempe Crimson Rims.

Taken sometime in 1900, here’s the only known photo of the Mesa Diamond Club. 

Read the full article here: http://baseballinaridland.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-mesa-diamond-club-of-1900.html



Originally published: March 17, 2014. Last Updated: March 17, 2014.