BASEBALL IN ITS ADOLESCENCE
by CARL WITTKE
Chairman of the Department of History
and Dean of the
Graduate School, Western Reserve
University
In 1939 Americans celebrated the
centenary of their national
pastime because a baseball commission
created in 1907 to settle
the hotly disputed question of who
originated the modern game,
awarded the honor to Abner Doubleday. A
number of writers con-
tinue to insist that Alexander
Cartwright of New York City drew
up the first "baseball
square," or diamond, and that it was used
for the first time in a game played at
Hoboken on June 19, 1846.
Whatever the merits of these and other
conflicting claims, or-
ganized baseball, in recognition of the
man it had officially recog-
nized as its founding father,
established its Hall of Fame at Coopers-
town, where Doubleday is believed to
have laid out a modern
diamond and promulgated his set of
rules.
There is a voluminous and still growing
literature on the
antecedents of the great American game,
and about the civil en-
gineer from Cooperstown who rose to
high rank in the Union army
during the Civil War. History is a
seamless web. The ancients un-
doubtedly played ball, and the Romans
had "ball rooms" in their
bath houses to keep them in good
physical trim. There is a ball
in the British Museum covered with
leather and stuffed with
papyrus which swarthy princes and
princesses may have tossed
around centuries ago in the valley of
the Nile. For our present
purpose, however, it will suffice to go
no further back than English
cricket and various forms of
"rounders," "town ball," "barn ball,"
and "o-cat" played early in
the nineteenth century on the Atlantic
seaboard.
In 1842 a group of silk-stockinged,
bearded, and handle-bar
mustached New Yorkers, passionately
devoted to the pleasures of
knife and fork as well as those of bat
and ball, organized the
Knickerbocker Club, adopted rules
similar to Doubleday's, and
began playing in New York and its
environs. By 1858 interest in
111
112
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
the game had grown to a point where it
was possible to organize
a National Association of Baseball
Players consisting of twenty-five
clubs. The Civil War made baseball
popular in the army, and on
tented field and behind prison
stockades men in uniform learned the
game from New Yorkers and New
Englanders. The baseball con-
vention of 1865, representing nearly a
hundred amateur clubs, was
one of the sequels of Appomattox. By
1867 Ohio had forty-two
clubs represented in the association,
which survived until 1874.
One of these amateur clubs, the
Cincinnati "Red Stockings,"
organized in 1866 and affiliated with
the National Association for
several years, turned professional in
1869 and thereby started a
momentous development in the history of
baseball. By 1876 the
National League was organized, due
largely to the efforts of
William A. Hulbert, owner of the
Chicago Club, and the Queen
City immediately obtained a franchise
in the new organization.
The stockholders brought back two of
the professionals who had
played with Cincinnati in 1869 and
1870, and one of them, Gould,
the first baseman, managed the team,
which finished the season
in last place.
In 1880 Cincinnati was expelled from
the league because the
club from Worcester, Massachusetts,
complained that beer was
being sold at the park and that the
diamond was being rented to
amateurs for Sunday baseball. Two years
later Cincinnati joined
the American Association, recently
organized at a convention at
the Gibson House, but it attracted
attention far more because every
player wore a uniform of a different
color than because of any
winning streak on the diamond. The new
association proved short
lived, and in 1890 the Red Stockings
returned to the National
League to stay. By 1884 the winners of
the National League and
the American Association played a
post-season series, which in no
sense can be regarded as a forerunner
of the World Series, for the
teams played but two games, each
winning one, and were content
to drop their rivalry at that point.
The professional Cincinnati Red
Stockings developed from a
club founded in 1866 by a group of
lawyers and Harvard and
Yale graduates, who played amateur ball
on the grounds of the
Baseball in Its Adolescence 113
Union Cricket Club, with which they
merged their new organiza-
tion. A year before the team turned
professional there were four
paid players on its roster, including
Harry Wright, an old cricket
player who gave up his job as a jeweler
for a salary of $1,200.
In 1869 Cincinnati earned the
distinction of being "the cradle of
professional baseball." The first
paid team in the history of baseball
consisted of ten players-a jeweler, two
insurance men, a book-
keeper, an engraver, a piano maker, two
hatters, and a substitute,
whose occupation was not listed. The
age limit of these first "pros"
was from twenty to twenty-five years,
with the exception of Harry
Wright, the manager, who was
thirty-five and played center field.
Asa Brainard, the pitcher, was paid
$1,100; the shortstop, George
Wright, received $1,400; the third
baseman, $1,000; five other
players were paid $800 each, and the
substitute received $600 for
the season, which extended from March
15 to November 15. The
only Cincinnatian on the team was
Charles H. Gould, the first
baseman; the other players were
imported from the East--from
New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New
York, where the game
had made its greatest progress.
In their first year the Cincinnati
professionals did not lose a
game, and won thirty-nine straight,
before playing to a 17 to 17
tie. When they defeated the New York
Mutuals by the unusually
low score of 4 to 2, ardent Cincinnati
fans assembled in the Gibson
House, fired salutes, and set off red
flares. When the team returned
from its triumphant eastern invasion,
the players were welcomed
by a brass band and royally entertained
at a banquet. The president
of the club announced that he would
rather preside over the
destinies of the Cincinnati Reds than
be the chief executive of the
United States. During their first
season the club won fifty-five
and tied one, scored 2,395 runs against
574 by the opposition,
belted 169 home runs, of which George
Wright, the shortstop,
hit 59, traveled 12,000 miles, and
played to about a quarter million
paying customers. Their profits of some
$7,000 were invested in
decorating and improving their
clubhouse.
In 1870 the Cincinnati professionals
toured the South, and later
played on the West Coast. During the
entire season, which ex-
114 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
tended from April 21 to November 5, the
club compiled a total
of 2,732 runs to their opponents' 651,
averaging better than four
runs an inning, and with a team batting
average of .701. The "Reds"
were undefeated until June 14, 1870,
when Cincinnati lost an eleven
inning game to the Atlantics of
Brooklyn, by a score of 8 to 7.
Nine thousand fans witnessed the
encounter. Cincinnati had been
favored in the betting, four to one,
and lost primarily because a rabid
Brooklyn fan rushed on the field and
prevented an outfielder from
fielding a fair ball. Professionalism
having come to stay, the team
lost some of its best players to other
clubs, which were expressly
organized to compete with the
Cincinnati Reds and therefore
offered higher pay. A Cincinnati sports
writer maintained that by
1870 the Chicago White Sox represented
an investment of $18,000.
It is interesting to point out that
Rutherford B. Hayes was among
the rabid supporters of the Cincinnati
Red Stockings. Among his
papers at the Hayes Memorial Library in
Fremont is a scrapbook
of newspaper items on the Cincinnati
team for the 1870 season,
which he kept during his second term as
governor of Ohio.
The period from 1850 to 1875, with
which this paper is pri-
marily concerned, may properly be
called the adolescent age in the
history of modern baseball. During this
quarter century the game
slowly evolved a set of rules, was
organized as a national sport,
experienced some of its most difficult
trials, and became established
as an important part of the pageant of
America and the social
history of the American people. By 1888
the game was ready for
export, and two teams toured the world,
playing exhibition games
before the Prince of Wales in England,
in sight of the smoke of
Vesuvius, and in the shadow of the
pyramids.1 If it is true, as
some scholars have seriously suggested,2
that sports have furnished
1 The following books represent a few in
the rapidly expanding bibliography of
baseball: Hy Turkin and S. C. Thompson, The
Official Encyclopedia of Baseball
(New York, 1951), especially pp.
375-401; R. B. Weaver, Amusements and Sports
in American Life (Chicago, 1939); Frank G. Menke, Encyclopedia of
Sports (New
York, 1939); Francis C. Richter, Richter's
History and Records of Baseball (Phila-
delphia, 1914); Lee Allen, 100 Years
of Baseball (New York, 1950); Robert Smith,
Baseball (New York, 1947); A. G. Spalding, America's National
Game (New York,
1911); DeWitt's Baseball Guide (New
York, 1878); Alfred H. Spink, The National
Game (St. Louis, 1910); Lee Allen, The Cincinnati Reds (New
York, 1948).
2 See, e.g., F. L. Paxson, "The Rise of Sport," Mississippi
Valley Historical Review,
IV (1917-18), 143-168.
Baseball in Its Adolescence 115
an outlet for Americans and a new
safety valve after the pioneering
age came to a close, surely baseball
played a major role in this
development, and the sons of European
immigrants have risen to
fame and fortune on the diamond as
rapidly as the native-born and
have received equal acclaim for their
skills.
In its early years baseball had to
compete with the English game
of cricket for popular favor and
support. Such papers and periodicals
as the New York Clipper and Porter's Spirit of the Times, a
Chronicle of the Turf, Field Sports,
Literature and the Stage,
devoted many columns in the 1850's to
cricket matches and various
efforts to transplant the English game
to the United States.3 For
at least a decade cricket ran baseball
a close race for supremacy.
Cricket clubs were numerous in the
decade before the Civil War.
Lowell played Boston; Cincinnati,
Cleveland; a team from New
York played Newark; and in 1856 there
were international matches
at Hoboken between clubs from the
United States and Canada,4
and the St. George Club of Canada
defeated the New Yorkers 147
to 145 in two innings, one Canadian
player alone scoring no less
than eighty tallies.
The first annual convention of cricket
players was called at the
Astor House in New York in 1857 to
organize a "United States
Central Club" to act as a grand
umpire for the sport, in the manner
of the Marylebone Club of England.
Twelve clubs were officially
represented, and delegates from Albany
and Philadelphia took a
leading part in the proceedings.5 Another
attempt was made the
following year to nationalize and
regularize the game, but in a
time of intense nativism many Americans
experienced an instinctive
aversion for cricket just because it
was English, and would not
accept the sport in any form unless it
were thoroughly Americanized.
There were clubs which played both
cricket and baseball for a
while longer, but "the noble
American game, which all the seductions
of the scientific game of Cricket have
not been able to undermine,"
3 Porter's Spirit of the Times was edited by William T. Porter, a Vermonter, who
once gave young Horace Greeley a job in
his printing shop. For a short biographical
sketch, see Ballow's Drawing Room
Companion, August 16, 1856.
4 Porter's Spirit of the Times, September 6, 13, 1856.
5 Ibid., May 9, 1857.
116 Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
grew steadily in popular favor.6 Editorials
stressed the beneficent
effect of baseball on the national
health, and explained how it
would harden the muscles and render
Americans "fit for the battle
of life." Already the games were
being attended by "great gather-
ings of ladies" to inspire and tax
"the last energy" of the players.7
The Knickerbocker Club played amateur
ball intermittently from
1842 to 1879. In what was probably
their first recorded match on
their Elysian Fields in Hoboken in
1846, they played for a side
bet of a dinner per player, and lost 23
to 1 in four innings.8
Alexander Cartwright, promulgator of a
significant set of baseball
rules in 1845, umpired that game. By
1856 the Knickerbockers
boasted of a hard-hitting catcher who
had abandoned cricket for
baseball, and a pitcher who "sends
the ball with exceeding velocity."
Runners were still being put out by
hitting them with the ball, and
the New York Club had a player in
"short field" with such a
powerful arm that "a ball sent by
him to first base, rarely fails in
proving fatal to the runner." It
was the business of the first baseman
to "stop the career of many a fast
runner," and therefore the posi-
tion was regarded as one of the most
hazardous on the team.9
By the close of the 1850's baseball was
being played in many
American and Canadian cities, although
in some localities clubs
were still playing "town
ball."10 The sport was still entirely amateur,
and the clubs frequently emphasized the
opportunities for food
and drink and social intercourse which
the game afforded as much
as their skill on the diamond. When the
Gotham Club was organized
in 1852, it had only the Knickerbockers
to play. The Excelsior Club
of South Brooklyn, organized three
years later, consisted entirely
of "merchants and clerks,"
and the Eckford Club of New York, of
shipwrights and mechanics. By the
summer of 1856 fifty-four
matches were played in the New York
area, and home and home
games were becoming the rule.11 In
Cleveland, the game was
played daily in the Public Square, to the great irritation
of the police,
6 Ibid., September 6, 1856; also
April 10, 1858.
7 Ibid., September 12, 1857;
September 6, 1856.
8 Turkin and Thompson, Official
Encyclopedia, 377.
9 Porter's Spirit of the Times, December 6, 1856.
l0 Ibid., April 3, May 22, October 16, 1858; January 29, 1859.
11 Ibid., December 20, 27, 1856; January 10, 1857.
Baseball in Its Adolescence 117
who could find no city ordinance to
stop the nuisance.12 By 1857
Brooklyn was rapidly becoming the
"City of Baseball Clubs," as
well as the "City of
Churches," and clubs were beginning to wear
distinctive uniforms.13 Hoboken,
"the stronghold of lager beer,"
also was a stronghold of baseball.l4
In Boston, two clubs played a
triple-header in 1857, and the
"Bunker Hill Club" played a rival
from New Jersey in the famous Monument
Square.15 Detroit's
club claimed to be "the pioneer
club of the West,"16 and the first
club in Minnesota played by New York
rules in 1857 on "a
magnificent level prairie."17
The editor of the Spirit of the
Times reported with satisfaction
in 1856 that the "fine American
game" was flourishing everywhere,
and around New York there were contests
"on every available green
plot within a ten mile circuit of the
city."18 The reporter no longer
found it possible to attend all games,
and requested "secretaries and
referees" to send him the
"results" with "comments" and "scores."19
Players were "striking
better"; one made "three homes in suc-
cession" in one game in 1856; and
fielding was improving, "several
fine catches being made on the fly
instead of the child's play, from
the bound," and
"fieldsmen" were developing "quickness of per-
ception and nerve and
determination."20
The rules however were still unsettled,
and this partly accounts
for the huge scores, compared with
modern games. As late as
1858 a score of 135 to 101 was not
considered unusual.21 In 1871
a team in New Orleans made 22 errors in
a two hour game.22
Frequently, contests were continued
from one day to the next
because the players were
"overtaken by the shades of night" in
their futile efforts to retire the side
and end the ball game.
Membership in baseball clubs was a
social event; each club elected
12 Ibid., April 18, 1857.
13 Ibid., June 20, 1857.
14 Ibid., May 23, 1857.
15 Ibid., May 23, 30, 1857.
16 Ibid., October 3, 1857.
17 Ibid., August 29, 1857.
18 September 13, 1856.
19 Porter's Spirit of the Times, November 1, 1856.
20 Ibid., November 8, 1856.
21 Ibid., October 16, 1858.
22 New York Clipper, May 28, 1871.
118
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
a set of officers, and games were the
occasion for much pleasant
social intercourse. In 1856, for
example, the Putnam Club of
Williamsburg, after defeating the
Brooklyn Excelsiors 21 to 15 in
three innings, which it took two hours
to play, entertained their
rivals and guests at the Dancing
Academy; the two presidents made
speeches; there was an extraordinary
number of toasts, which in-
cluded drinking to the health of
umpires and referee; and the
joyous occasion was concluded with the
singing of
Here's a health to our Base Ball, and
honor and fame,
For 'tis manly and hearty and free.
Oh long may it flourish, our National
Game-
Here's a health, good old base ball, to
thee.
After the conclusion of the festivities
in Williamsburg, the Putnams
escorted their guests "to the
cars," and went with them to Brooklyn
for a further "interchange of
civilities."23 When the Putnams played
the Astoria Club on Thanksgiving Day of
the preceding year, in
a four hour game, their president, who
entertained all the players
and their ladies at his home, was given
a silver cup, with a baseball
diamond and players engraved upon it.24
"The Great Baseball Match"
between "picked players from the
crack clubs" of Brooklyn and New
York drew large crowds in a
three game series in the summer of
1858. Tickets were sold in
advance, as well as at the grounds, and
special trains of the Long
Island Railroad and chartered busses
connecting with the ferries,
brought the spectators to the playing
field. Nearly three thousand
gathered for the first game, despite a
heavy noon rain; carriages
filled with ladies were drawn up around
the diamond, and there
was an adequate supply of lager beer on
hand. The rival players
arrived in equipages drawn by six and
eight horses, and the Spirit
of the Times described a "galaxy of youth and beauty in female
form, who, smiling on the scene, nerved
the players to the task,
and urged them, like true knights of
old, to do their devoirs before
their 'ladyes fair.'" After New
York defeated Brooklyn 22 to 18
23 Porter's Spirit of the Times, November 8, 1856.
24 Ibid., December 13, 1856.
Baseball in Its Adolescence 119
in the first game, the clubs turned to
refreshments and the usual
toasts. Brooklyn won a return match, 29
to 8, and for the play-off,
carriages were drawn up around the
field in circles three deep, but
unfortunately, the festivities were
marred by "a large deputation of
overgrown boys from Brooklyn [who]
occupied a prominent posi-
tion in the Grand Stand" and
annoyed both umpire and spectators.25
By this time fans and players were
rabid about the game. A first
baseman requested that he be buried
"beneath the first base,"26
and the game was enthusiastically
recommended as a builder of
health and character. In the "New
Year's Address" in 1857 of
the editor of New York's leading sports
journal we find this poetic
tribute to cricket and baseball:
Nor will the Spirit e'er forget
the names,
Base Ball, and Cricket, noble, manly
games,
Where Health herself beholds the wicket
fall,
And Joy goes flying for the bounding
ball.
And the gay greensward, studded with
bright eyes,
Of maids, who mark the glorious
exercise,
Clap their white hands, and shout for
very fun,
In free applause of every gallant run.27
In 1857 the Upsilon Sigma and Omicron
Gamma clubs of New
York played for seven and a half hours,
with a score of 41 to 24.28
In the same year the Nassau and Charter
Oak clubs scheduled three
games at 5 A.M. in Brooklyn, apparently
to impress players and
spectators that "there is a
cheaper and better way to health than to
pay doctor's bills."29 Admission
charges varied from twenty-five cents
to a dollar, and betting on the games
added to the zest of the teams
and their supporters. In 1863 the
Athletic Club of Philadelphia
played the Excelsiors of New York
before a crowd of 5,000 in
South Brooklyn, in a game that required
four hours to complete.
Another encounter between a
Philadelphia team and the Mutuals
of New York lasted nearly as long and
brought out an attendance
25 Ibid., July 17, July 24, August 21, September 18, 1858.
26 Ibid., January
9, 1858.
27 Ibid., January 3, 1857.
28 Ibid., June 20, 1857.
29 Ibid., July 4,
1857.
120 Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
estimated at 8,000.30 Reporters began
giving inning by inning
accounts of games, including the number
of balls pitched, the number
"passed by the catcher,"
total foul balls, put-outs "at first base,"
and "fly catches made"; and
the printing of a batting order, posi-
tions played, and runs scored,
indicated that the modern box score
was on its way.31 There were
usually two scorers, one or two umpires,
and a referee for every game.
Occasionally, the betting odds, which
changed as the game progressed, were
also reported.32
As yet there were no universally
accepted rules governing balls
and strikes, and games dragged on
endlessly in the 1850's because
"every man stood at the bat a good
while," and the "striker" was
"not compelled to strike till he
gets the ball to suit him."33 It was
proposed that a "striker"
should be called out only when the ball
was caught "direct from the
bat," and "not from the bound," and
that the batter be compelled to run
when three fair pitched balls
had been offered him. Another
suggestion was made to the effect
that every three fair balls pitched be
regarded as the equivalent of a
strike, and that there be six outs to
an inning, instead of three, but
there still was no legislation as to
what constituted the strike zone.
In New England games still were being
played with six to eight
players. The two best players,
"catcher and thrower," were known
as "first and second mates."
The distance between home and first
base was six paces; twenty paces
separated first from second base;
fifteen, second from third; and twenty,
third from home plate.
Runners were put out by
"plugging" them with the ball.34 The
ball was made of yarn wound around cork
or India rubber, and
covered with calfskin, and was
"thrown, not pitched or tossed,"
"with a vigor . . . that made it
whistle through the air, and stop
with a solid smack in the catcher's
hand, which he generally held
directly in front of his face."
Foul ball rules evolved slowly, and
many contended that a batter should
have the right to hit the ball
anywhere in front of him.
30 New York Clipper, June 27, 1863.
31 Ibid., June 27, 1863.
32 Porter's Spirit of the Times, September 18, 1858.
33 Ibid., October 24, 1857;
November 26, 1856.
34 Ibid., December 27, 1856.
Baseball in Its Adolescence 121
As the number of clubs multiplied,
agreement on rules and
regulations became imperative, and in
interstate contests it was
necessary to specify whether New York
or Massachusetts rules were
to be followed. The proper size of the
diamond, the distance
between the bases, and the proper place
for umpires and the referee
to stand, continued to be matters for
heated controversy. For a
time the umpire gave his decisions from
a seat located just off first
base. In 1856 it was proposed that two
umpires stand to the left
of home plate between catcher and
"striker," and the referee to
their right. A booklet of bylaws and
rules for the Putnam Club
of New York specified that the bat be
three feet long, and two and
a half to three inches in diameter at
the end, but both round and
flat bats were permitted. The Putnam
rules fixed the distance
between home and the pitcher at a
minimum of fifteen paces. The
ball usually weighed about six ounces,
and varied from 23/4 to 31/4
inches in diameter. Twenty-one
"counts," or runs, were needed to
win a game, and the losing club was
guaranteed a last time at bat.
If a catcher caught a third strike, the
batter was out; otherwise he
ran for first base as though he had hit
a fair ball. A foul caught
on the first bound was known as a
"hand out," and a ball hit out
of the playing field was good for only
one base. Interference with
fielders or runners was prohibited, and
a regular batting order
was established.35
Early in 1857 "Young New
York," representing fourteen clubs,
assembled in Smith's Hall on Broome
Street, at the call of the
Knickerbocker Club, to evolve a set of
rules for the "Native
American Sport" of baseball. The
editor of the Spirit of the Times
urged that there "should be some
one game peculiar to the citizens
of the United States," since
"the Germans have brought hither their
Turnverein Association . . . and various
other peculiarities have
been naturalized."36 Committees
were appointed to draft a set of
rules and to ask Mayor Wood to make
Central Park, hitherto
reserved for cricket, available for
baseball.
Among the regulations agreed upon at
this convention of baseball
35 Ibid., December 6, 1856.
36 Ibid., January
31, 1857.
122
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
enthusiasts was one fixing the size of
the ball, and providing that
it be "furnished by the
challenging club" and become the property
of the winner as a trophy of victory.
Bats still could be of any
length, provided they did not exceed
two and a half inches in
diameter at the end, and were not
whittled down to a flat surface.
Base-bags were to be of canvas, painted
white, and stuffed with
sand or sawdust. The circular home
plate was made of iron and
was painted white, like the
"pitcher's point." A balk rule was
agreed upon, and a batter hitting a
foul could be put out either by
catching the ball on the fly or on the
first bound, and the same
rule applied to fair balls and a third
strike. Baserunners were to
be called out if they deviated three
feet from the base line, could
be thrown out at first, and tagged out
at any time off the bases.
The regulation game was fixed at seven
innings, except in case of
a tie score, and if a game was called
because of weather conditions,
the score was to revert to the end of
the fifth inning. The con-
vention also legislated against betting
and gambling, and stipulated
that no one could play in a contest
unless he had belonged to his
club for at least thirty days.
Gambling, rioting, and rowdyism
were so general that there was
something of a revival in cricket
in the early 1870's in protest against
the abuses connected with the
new game of baseball. An important
amendment by the convention
as a whole to the report of its rules
committee provided that a
put-out would not be allowed unless the
ball were caught on the
fly, and that runners could not advance
on such a catch. Many
players objected strenuously to the new
ruling and argued for their
right to catch balls on the first
bounce, in order to avoid injury
to their hands, but a sports writer
answered these objections by
insisting that "surely, what an
Englishman can do [in cricket] an
American is capable of improving
upon." It was also agreed that
no player would be allowed hereafter to
catch a ball in his hat
or cap.37 Sometimes games
were started with only eight men, and
there were bitter controversies over
contests called because of
darkness, a decision left for years to
the contending clubs, not the
umpires. In New England fouls still were practically
unrecognized,
37 Ibid., January 31, February
28, March 7, 1857.
Baseball in Its Adolescence 123
and bats could be square, flat, or
round.38 Variations of this kind
pointed to the need for a national set
of regulations administered
by some national authority, and what
finally saved the game was
making it professional.
In the spring of 1858 the second annual
baseball convention
met in New York, with twenty-two clubs
represented. Annual dues
were fixed at five dollars, and young
men between seventeen and
twenty-one were admitted to the
proceedings, but without vote. This
"body of practical athletae,"
as it was described in a New York
publication, adopted a constitution
"to improve, foster and per-
petuate the American Game of Base-Ball,
and the cultivation of
kindly feelings among the different
members of Base-Ball Clubs."
The secretary prepared a booklet of
rules; it was agreed that thirty
yards was the proper distance between
the bases, and that the
pitcher had to deliver the ball as
nearly as possible "over the
center of the plate." Umpires were
instructed to keep a record
of each game, and in an effort to speed
the game, it was provided
that if a "striker" stood
without "striking at good balls repeatedly
thrown to him," the umpire,
"after warning him," could call him
out. The number of umpires was reduced
to one, to be chosen by
the two team captains; the position of
referee was abolished; and
official scorers were provided.39
Later in the spring of 1858 a
convention of ten Massachusetts
clubs met in Dedham and adopted
regulations quite different from
those accepted in New York. In New
England not less than ten
nor more than twelve players on a club
constituted "a match," and
the team that first made "one
hundred tallies" won the game.
There were three referees. In match
games "when one is out, the
side shall be considered out."
Bases were set on wooden stakes
which projected from the ground; the
distance between them was
sixty feet, the pitcher's distance
thirty-five feet, and the batter's
box four feet in diameter. No batter
was allowed more than three
strikes, but the rules did not make
clear what would happen if a
batter refused persistently to swing at
good pitches. When it
38 See letters, Ibid., October
24, 31, November 7, 14, December 12, 26, 1857;
January 2, 1858.
39 Ibid., March 20, April 3, 17,
1858.
124
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
became apparent that the majority would
not adopt the "New
York Game," the Tri-Mountain Club
of Boston seceded from the
convention, and before the end of the
season, teams from Portland
and Boston were playing on the Boston
Common according to
New York rules. On the other hand, many
teams still played
according to the rule requiring one
hundred tallies to win,40 and
as late as 1871, in a game between a
team from Boston and the
Troy Haymakers, a player received a
base on balls after only
three bad pitches.41
By 1877 western teams and sports
writers were demanding a
livelier ball and wanted to prohibit
underhand pitching, "to make
more lively play at the bat." In
1874 a pitcher was limited to four
"unfair" balls, but the
following year nine were required for a
base on balls. A new regulation
provided that the batter must
strike at one of the first four
good balls or be called out, but
whereas this reduced the average number
of runs scored, it also
increased the demand for a livelier
ball. The New York Clipper
proposed a compromise which would
permit the batter to let six
good balls go by before he would be
called out on strikes, but
also required six bad balls for a base
on balls.42
Despite such strange and confusing
discrepancies the game con-
tinued to expand to national
proportions. In 1871 the "Cleveland
Cracks," on a swing through the
East, played twenty-four games
in three weeks;43 the
baseball clubs of Maine held their fourth
annual meeting in Augusta and admitted
five new organizations
to membership, and established a
championship trophy; and Canada
awarded "a silver ball" to
the champions of the Dominion.44 Six
years later, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago,
Cincinnati, Louisville, and
St. Louis battled for a league
championship, and a still larger
number for the championship of the
United States, which was won
by Boston.45
40 Ibid., May 29, June 12,
September 25, 1858.
41 New York Clipper, May 28,
1871.
42 Ibid., September 29, 1877.
43 Ibid., June
10, 1871.
44 Ibid., May 28, 1871.
45 Ibid., September 29, 1877.
+
Baseball in Its Adolescence 125
Spikes were used on baseball shoes as
early as the 1850's.46
Most pitching continued to be
underhanded. The size of the scores
began to change. In 1867 the Washington
Nationals defeated
St. Louis 113 to 26; but in 1877
Chicago defeated the Philadelphia
Athletics 1 to 0, in eleven innings.47
Infielders were playing farther
away from their bases, but gloves were
not generally used until
the 1890's. The catcher's mitt was
introduced in 1869, and the
mask in the following decade. By 1887
bases on balls no longer
counted as hits in computing batting
averages. In 1871 when the
Cleveland Forest City Club left the
field in the eighth inning in
protest against an umpire's decision,
the game was awarded to the
Chicago club by a score of 9 to 0,48
but it was not until the
present century that the men in blue
assumed those prerogatives
which have made them the undisputed
kings of the diamond.
In 1871 the Chicago club went to New
Orleans for spring
training.49 By that time a
number of clubs were paying salaries
to their best players, and there were
advertisements in the New
York Clipper for A-1 men willing to be "first class general
players
and change pitchers" for a
"liberal salary."50 Old time players,
who had played primarily for
"healthful and innocent recreation,"
objected strenuously to
"revolvers" who jumped from club to club
in quest of higher pay for their
skills. Negro teams were not
unknown, and in the spring of 1871 two
colored teams, the Auroras
of Chelsea and the Resolutes of Boston,
played to a 21 to 16 score.51
By 1887 as many as twenty Negroes were
playing in the so-called
minor leagues, and the famous Negro
pitcher, George Stovey, won
thirty-five games in one season for
Newark in the old International
League. The first Negro to play
professional baseball in a major
league was Moses Fleetwood
("Fleet") Walker of Mt. Pleasant,
Ohio, who was a student at Oberlin
College from 1878 to 1881,
where he played on the varsity team. In
1884 he became a major
46 Porter's Spirit of the Times, December
5, 1857.
47 New York Clipper, September 29, 1877.
48 Ibid., May 28, 1871.
49 Ibid., March 11, 1871.
50 Ibid., May 28, 1871.
51 Ibid., May
28, 1871.
126
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
leaguer in the old American Association
and played with Toledo.
Walker was a catcher who still caught
barehanded. Apparently the
race issue figured little in his career
except during a series played
in Louisville in 1884 when he was
"hissed" and "insulted" by the
crowd and made five errors.52
Finally a word must be said about the
developing fraternity of
sports writers who played a decisive
role in making the game
nationally popular. Among the pioneers
were men like Henry
Chadwick, who wrote for the Clipper and
the Brooklyn Eagle and
edited baseball guides and rule books
that helped standardize the
game. He invented the modern method of
keeping box scores.
Peter Finley Dunne, better known as Mr.
Dooley, was another
notable figure among the sports
reporters, who developed a unique
journalistic technique and enriched the
"American Language" by
that incomparable baseball slang which
no Englishman could
possibly understand without a glossary.53
Ring Lardner was one of
the later masters of this special argot
of the professional ballplayer,
and his "You Know Me, Al"
stories became the classics of American
baseball. DeWolf Hopper recited
"Casey at the Bat," written by a
Harvard man in 1888, so many times
before audiences all over the
country that it is now firmly embedded
in American folklore.
Although the baseball lingo of the
1850's and 1870's differed
from that of the present day, it was
definitely its progenitor. In
1856 a New York writer referred to
"the injudicious attempt" of a
player "to get a home run, when he
was headed off and put out
on home base." The next year a
second baseman was described as
"quick as a cat,"
"stealing his base and dropping so as to make it
impossible to put him out"; fly
balls were still called "sky scrapers,"
and spectators were amazed to see tip
fouls rise as much as a
hundred feet into the air.54 As
late as 1871, when a runner was
safe on an error, he was described as
"escaping," although the
52 See Toledo Blade, May 5, 1884;
and Carl Wittke, "Oberlinian Was First Negro
Player in Major Leagues," Oberlin
Alumni Bulletin, First Quarter, 1946, p. 4.
53 See
Henry L. Mencken, The American Language (3d ed., New York, 1933),
404-405.
54 See Porter's Spirit of the Times, October
24, 1856; October 10, 1857.
Baseball in Its Adolescence 127
phrase, "had a life given
him," was coming into vogue. By the
early 1870's pitchers "led off
with a high ball"; batters "took a
back seat," fielders "muffed
a hot one," and teams were being "white-
washed." Batters, still called
"strikers," "popped up" or hit "hot
liners," and taps to the infield
were described as "hitting a baby
ball." At Harvard in 1871 and for
some years after, outfielders
were still "accepting a fly,"
instead of catching it, for the put-out.55
55 New York Clipper, May 27,
1871.
BASEBALL IN ITS ADOLESCENCE
by CARL WITTKE
Chairman of the Department of History
and Dean of the
Graduate School, Western Reserve
University
In 1939 Americans celebrated the
centenary of their national
pastime because a baseball commission
created in 1907 to settle
the hotly disputed question of who
originated the modern game,
awarded the honor to Abner Doubleday. A
number of writers con-
tinue to insist that Alexander
Cartwright of New York City drew
up the first "baseball
square," or diamond, and that it was used
for the first time in a game played at
Hoboken on June 19, 1846.
Whatever the merits of these and other
conflicting claims, or-
ganized baseball, in recognition of the
man it had officially recog-
nized as its founding father,
established its Hall of Fame at Coopers-
town, where Doubleday is believed to
have laid out a modern
diamond and promulgated his set of
rules.
There is a voluminous and still growing
literature on the
antecedents of the great American game,
and about the civil en-
gineer from Cooperstown who rose to
high rank in the Union army
during the Civil War. History is a
seamless web. The ancients un-
doubtedly played ball, and the Romans
had "ball rooms" in their
bath houses to keep them in good
physical trim. There is a ball
in the British Museum covered with
leather and stuffed with
papyrus which swarthy princes and
princesses may have tossed
around centuries ago in the valley of
the Nile. For our present
purpose, however, it will suffice to go
no further back than English
cricket and various forms of
"rounders," "town ball," "barn ball,"
and "o-cat" played early in
the nineteenth century on the Atlantic
seaboard.
In 1842 a group of silk-stockinged,
bearded, and handle-bar
mustached New Yorkers, passionately
devoted to the pleasures of
knife and fork as well as those of bat
and ball, organized the
Knickerbocker Club, adopted rules
similar to Doubleday's, and
began playing in New York and its
environs. By 1858 interest in
111