Baltimore Baseball: the Beginning, 1858- 1872
Baltimore Baseball: The Beginning, 1858- 1872 Brian McKenna Contents Preface 3 Chapter 1 What is Base Ball? 6 Chapter 2 Genesis Stories 22 Chapter 3 Baseball Establishes a Foothold, 1860 29 Chapter 4 A Place to Play 46 Chapter 5 Catching the Baseball Bug, 1861 63 Chapter 6 War Years, 1862-1864 73 Chapter 7 Black Baseball in Baltimore 85 Chapter 8 Baseball Revives after the War, 1865 89 Chapter 9 Baseball Spreads Far and Wide, 1866-1867 104 Chapter 10 Best before the Babe 127 Chapter 11 Revolving, Gambling and Game-fixing, 1868-1869 138 Chapter 12 Baseball Enters a New Era, 1870-1872 157 Appendix A Baltimore Baseball Clubs, 1859-1870 181 Appendix B Baltimore Baseball Games, 1860-1870 190 Appendix C Baltimore Ballplayers and Club Officers of Note 214 Appendix D Baltimore Baseball Grounds 234 Appendix E Baltimore Baseball Uniforms 238 Appendix F Yearly Champions 243 Appendix G Club Constitution and By-laws 248 Bibliography 254 Notes 261 2 Preface Are the 1860s relatable to the 21st century viewer? Stating the obvious, the mid-1800s were much different than today. So much has changed and we see ourselves as somehow different from the people that lived then and, thus, removed from the era. It’s not just the advances in medicine, science and computers, the automobile, tall buildings, electronics, digital communication and the 24-7-365 instantaneous media. It is also true of the sport – base ball, then a two-word phrase. Even though it was already being called the ‘national game’ and played with gusto far and wide few baseball enthusiasts today care to delve into the game before 1900, much less the genesis of the sport decades earlier.
[Show full text]