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Some thoughts on the beginning of baseball
The idea of baseball, under varying spellings, names and rules, had different definitions in centuries past than it does to us in the 21st century. It could loosely mean ‘playing ball’ with just a ball. Add bases, a bat and/or a lot and the sport became a little more defined.
Was there some sort of ballplaying before the beginning of civilization? Probably. As humans settled into communities, opportunities for the game to be a little more organized arose. With a wide range of types of balls, bats, lots and rules, the game developed its own identity on a region-by-region (perhaps neighborhood-by neighborhood) basis throughout the world. In fact, variants of the game existed in each region according to who was actually playing and other factors: socioeconomic; sex; time of year; available grounds and playing implements; age range; time allotted; size of grounds; imagination; physical limitations; relationship between participants; etc.
Baseball as we know it today developed in New York City and Brooklyn in the 1830s, 1840s and ‘50s amid the Industrial Revolution after groups of men came together, originally seeking exercise and camaraderie. Yes, there are numerous recorded references to baseball or ball playing prior to this. For example:
English literature: 1744, 1748, 1749, 1755, 1768, 1788, 1796, 1798, 1799, 1824
Pittsfield, MA bylaws, 1791
Game of Bace between Columbia College students, friends and/or faculty in 1805
Game in Broadway, NY at the Jones’ Retreat saloon, 1823
Game chronicled by William Wood, 1832
The question still looms: What were they actually playing? Were these a loose version of the game we know today or ones that closely resembles it, especially the latter contests?
Among the variants of the game played, some were a little more defined like: rounders; town ball; various cat games; wicket; cricket; base or baseball of various incarnations.
KNICKERBOCKERS
Don’t waste time on Abner Doubleday, the Spalding/Mills fallacy and the Cooperstown myth, our baseball began with the Knickerbocker club of New York City and their antecedents and peers. Yes, there were others before the Knickerbockers; in fact, the Knickerbockers themselves were, in part, an amalgamation of other baseball men coming together (a few identified as previously playing with the Gothams or another club simply called the New Yorks).
The Knicks seem to have loosely come together in some fashion in 1842. Other early known clubs in no particular order:
New York (probably cricket players)
Another club identified as New York
Magnolia
Gotham/Washington
Eagles
Unnamed clubs at Jones’ Retreat
Various Brooklyn clubs such as an offshoot of the Union Star Cricket Club
The Knicks got/get the recognition because of their staying power and socioeconomic class and the attention both attracted in the press. There were assuredly other clubs but today we can only identify those that were recorded. We know about most of the above because of their relationship to the Knickerbockers. Other adult clubs, like the Magnolias, amassed for the same purpose of playing ball but did so outside a chronicler’s eye.
No, the Knicks were not the first or most competitive but they are the true fathers of the current game. Their seriousness to maintain a well-structured club and long-term success in doing so imparts their importance to the development of the game. A father doesn’t necessarily have to be present at creation. A stepfather who has staying power and is there for the formative years, sending his child off into adulthood is a father by any definition.
The Knicks formally organized and penned its rules on 23 September 1845. There is good reason to believe that the makeup of the field and those rules were not original to 23 September 1845 nor even the Knickerbockers (perhaps the Gothams in 1837 as claimed by William Wheaton).
The Knicks focused primarily on intra-squad games. Perhaps this makes them less competitive compared to the teams that emerged in the 1850s. They in fact did play games with other clubs and even brought in a ringer or two at times (maybe the sport’s first pseudo-professionals) as some members pushed to enter the fray. But the Knicks first got together in 1842 for the purpose of exercise among friends. By the 1850s, the Knicks were aging both physically and mentally and were at heart wedded to the amateur ideal or at least averse to rampant professionalism and the gambling that went hand-in-hand.
FIRST RECORDED GAMES
The first recorded games after the formation of the Knickerbocker rules. The key word is ‘recorded;’ they were not the first by far highlighted merely by the identity of the venues. Baseball was played elsewhere earlier.
Monday 10/6/1845
Knicks vs Knicks at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NY just off the waters of the Hudson River. (11-8 in 3 innings, 7 on a side)
Friday 10/10/1845
New York vs Brooklyn Union Star (an offshoot/subset of the Union Star Cricket Club) at Union Star Cricket Grounds (22-1, Brooklyn victorious)
Tuesday 10/21/1845
New York vs Brooklyn Union Star at the Elysian Fields (NY won 24-4)
Friday 10/24/1845
New York vs Brooklyn Union Star at the Union Star Cricket Grounds (NY won 37-19)
Friday 6/19/1846
Knickerbockers vs New York at the Elysian Fields (NY won 23-1)
KNICKERBOCKER RULES (formally adopted 23 September 1845)
1-attendance
2-naming the umpire
3-naming team captains
4-layout the field
5-practice days
6 and 7-filling out the rosters
8-how to win
9-pitchers’ role
10-foul territory
11-strikes
12 and 13-making outs
14-interference
15-three outs to a half inning
16-maintaining the batting order
17-umpire’s authority
18-foul balls
19-balks/illegal pitches
20-ground rule hits
PROLIFERATION OF THE GAME
The Knicks published their rules in 1848, creating the basis for the game to grow. The original rules did indeed provide a general overview of the game. The nuances of the action and situational rulings/requirements however were done on the field, presumably in a friendly or near-friendly manner between clubmates. But that couldn’t be abided when others took up the game and prioritized competition.
The proliferation of the sport in New York City and Brooklyn took place in 1852 and 1853, precipitating the Eagles, perhaps in conjunction with or at the behest of other clubs, to approach the Knicks in an effort to aid in an effort to unify the unwritten situational aspects of the contests/actions. The result was the first of many adaptations in the evolution of the rule book in 1854. Eventually, efforts were made calling for a convention of ball clubs to promote and oversee the fledgling sport.
THE VENUES
One of the earliest playing grounds where the game that we would recognize as baseball was played by men was at Madison square (a former military arsenal and parade grounds). In the words of William Wheaton, a member of the Gotham club in the 1830s and a future Knickerbocker, “We laid out the ground at Madison square in the form of an accurate diamond, with home-plate and sand-bags for bases. You must remember that what is now called Madison square, opposite the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in the thirties was out in the country, far from the city limits.”
From there, the Knicks and other clubs moved to Murray Hill and then Elysian Fields. Surely, there were spots in and around New York City and Brooklyn unrecorded to history besides the Union Star Grounds.
Chasing lots became common (more likely had always been common for ballplayers) throughout the country. As civilization and cities grew, the best lots were eaten up by progress. As ballplaying between aggressive men and the crowds it drew became a nuisance or hazard in the cities/towns, men traipsed further and further outside city limits to the countryside or plains or towards any permissible or acceptable unused parcel.
This aspect of baseball from the very beginning necessitated one of the most majestic phrases in all of sports – ground rules. The term just oozes nostalgia in a way that most sports where all the action takes place within a rectangle could never. Here, each community could own its identity within the sport even when all the other rules were identical or at least striving towards uniformity.
The idea of baseball, under varying spellings, names and rules, had different definitions in centuries past than it does to us in the 21st century. It could loosely mean ‘playing ball’ with just a ball. Add bases, a bat and/or a lot and the sport became a little more defined.
Was there some sort of ballplaying before the beginning of civilization? Probably. As humans settled into communities, opportunities for the game to be a little more organized arose. With a wide range of types of balls, bats, lots and rules, the game developed its own identity on a region-by-region (perhaps neighborhood-by neighborhood) basis throughout the world. In fact, variants of the game existed in each region according to who was actually playing and other factors: socioeconomic; sex; time of year; available grounds and playing implements; age range; time allotted; size of grounds; imagination; physical limitations; relationship between participants; etc.
Baseball as we know it today developed in New York City and Brooklyn in the 1830s, 1840s and ‘50s amid the Industrial Revolution after groups of men came together, originally seeking exercise and camaraderie. Yes, there are numerous recorded references to baseball or ball playing prior to this. For example:
English literature: 1744, 1748, 1749, 1755, 1768, 1788, 1796, 1798, 1799, 1824
Pittsfield, MA bylaws, 1791
Game of Bace between Columbia College students, friends and/or faculty in 1805
Game in Broadway, NY at the Jones’ Retreat saloon, 1823
Game chronicled by William Wood, 1832
The question still looms: What were they actually playing? Were these a loose version of the game we know today or ones that closely resembles it, especially the latter contests?
Among the variants of the game played, some were a little more defined like: rounders; town ball; various cat games; wicket; cricket; base or baseball of various incarnations.
KNICKERBOCKERS
Don’t waste time on Abner Doubleday, the Spalding/Mills fallacy and the Cooperstown myth, our baseball began with the Knickerbocker club of New York City and their antecedents and peers. Yes, there were others before the Knickerbockers; in fact, the Knickerbockers themselves were, in part, an amalgamation of other baseball men coming together (a few identified as previously playing with the Gothams or another club simply called the New Yorks).
The Knicks seem to have loosely come together in some fashion in 1842. Other early known clubs in no particular order:
New York (probably cricket players)
Another club identified as New York
Magnolia
Gotham/Washington
Eagles
Unnamed clubs at Jones’ Retreat
Various Brooklyn clubs such as an offshoot of the Union Star Cricket Club
The Knicks got/get the recognition because of their staying power and socioeconomic class and the attention both attracted in the press. There were assuredly other clubs but today we can only identify those that were recorded. We know about most of the above because of their relationship to the Knickerbockers. Other adult clubs, like the Magnolias, amassed for the same purpose of playing ball but did so outside a chronicler’s eye.
No, the Knicks were not the first or most competitive but they are the true fathers of the current game. Their seriousness to maintain a well-structured club and long-term success in doing so imparts their importance to the development of the game. A father doesn’t necessarily have to be present at creation. A stepfather who has staying power and is there for the formative years, sending his child off into adulthood is a father by any definition.
The Knicks formally organized and penned its rules on 23 September 1845. There is good reason to believe that the makeup of the field and those rules were not original to 23 September 1845 nor even the Knickerbockers (perhaps the Gothams in 1837 as claimed by William Wheaton).
The Knicks focused primarily on intra-squad games. Perhaps this makes them less competitive compared to the teams that emerged in the 1850s. They in fact did play games with other clubs and even brought in a ringer or two at times (maybe the sport’s first pseudo-professionals) as some members pushed to enter the fray. But the Knicks first got together in 1842 for the purpose of exercise among friends. By the 1850s, the Knicks were aging both physically and mentally and were at heart wedded to the amateur ideal or at least averse to rampant professionalism and the gambling that went hand-in-hand.
FIRST RECORDED GAMES
The first recorded games after the formation of the Knickerbocker rules. The key word is ‘recorded;’ they were not the first by far highlighted merely by the identity of the venues. Baseball was played elsewhere earlier.
Monday 10/6/1845
Knicks vs Knicks at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NY just off the waters of the Hudson River. (11-8 in 3 innings, 7 on a side)
Friday 10/10/1845
New York vs Brooklyn Union Star (an offshoot/subset of the Union Star Cricket Club) at Union Star Cricket Grounds (22-1, Brooklyn victorious)
Tuesday 10/21/1845
New York vs Brooklyn Union Star at the Elysian Fields (NY won 24-4)
Friday 10/24/1845
New York vs Brooklyn Union Star at the Union Star Cricket Grounds (NY won 37-19)
Friday 6/19/1846
Knickerbockers vs New York at the Elysian Fields (NY won 23-1)
KNICKERBOCKER RULES (formally adopted 23 September 1845)
1-attendance
2-naming the umpire
3-naming team captains
4-layout the field
5-practice days
6 and 7-filling out the rosters
8-how to win
9-pitchers’ role
10-foul territory
11-strikes
12 and 13-making outs
14-interference
15-three outs to a half inning
16-maintaining the batting order
17-umpire’s authority
18-foul balls
19-balks/illegal pitches
20-ground rule hits
PROLIFERATION OF THE GAME
The Knicks published their rules in 1848, creating the basis for the game to grow. The original rules did indeed provide a general overview of the game. The nuances of the action and situational rulings/requirements however were done on the field, presumably in a friendly or near-friendly manner between clubmates. But that couldn’t be abided when others took up the game and prioritized competition.
The proliferation of the sport in New York City and Brooklyn took place in 1852 and 1853, precipitating the Eagles, perhaps in conjunction with or at the behest of other clubs, to approach the Knicks in an effort to aid in an effort to unify the unwritten situational aspects of the contests/actions. The result was the first of many adaptations in the evolution of the rule book in 1854. Eventually, efforts were made calling for a convention of ball clubs to promote and oversee the fledgling sport.
THE VENUES
One of the earliest playing grounds where the game that we would recognize as baseball was played by men was at Madison square (a former military arsenal and parade grounds). In the words of William Wheaton, a member of the Gotham club in the 1830s and a future Knickerbocker, “We laid out the ground at Madison square in the form of an accurate diamond, with home-plate and sand-bags for bases. You must remember that what is now called Madison square, opposite the Fifth Avenue Hotel, in the thirties was out in the country, far from the city limits.”
From there, the Knicks and other clubs moved to Murray Hill and then Elysian Fields. Surely, there were spots in and around New York City and Brooklyn unrecorded to history besides the Union Star Grounds.
Chasing lots became common (more likely had always been common for ballplayers) throughout the country. As civilization and cities grew, the best lots were eaten up by progress. As ballplaying between aggressive men and the crowds it drew became a nuisance or hazard in the cities/towns, men traipsed further and further outside city limits to the countryside or plains or towards any permissible or acceptable unused parcel.
This aspect of baseball from the very beginning necessitated one of the most majestic phrases in all of sports – ground rules. The term just oozes nostalgia in a way that most sports where all the action takes place within a rectangle could never. Here, each community could own its identity within the sport even when all the other rules were identical or at least striving towards uniformity.
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