The following are the baseball events of the years 1845 to 1868 throughout the world.
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At its December 1868 annual meeting, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) permitted professional clubs. Twelve existing members did "go pro" and constitute the professional field for 1869.
Marshall Wright publishes 1868 season records for 98 teams, many of them incomplete ("(inc)" in the table). Bill Ryczek calls 15 of that season's teams "major" (not marked). This table covers all of those "majors" (not marked), all of the 1869 "pros" (*), all 14 member clubs with at least twelve wins on record, and a few others. For the seven listed clubs in Greater New York, no city is named in the first column; the comment gives their locales.
| Club, City | W | L | T | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic | 47 | 7 | * | Brooklyn | |
| Athletic, Philadelphia | 47 | 3 | * | ||
| Union | 37 | 6 | (inc) | Morrisania, NY | |
| Cincinnati "Red Stockings" | 36 | 7 | * | ||
| Mutual | 31 | 10 | * | New York | |
| Eckford | 23 | 12 | * | Brooklyn | |
| Buckeye, Cincinnati | 21 | 5 | (inc) | ||
| Union, Lansingburgh | 15 | 5 | * | the "Troy Haymakers" | |
| Champion | 14 | 7 | Jersey City, NJ | ||
| Harvard, Cambridge | 14 | 2 | the college team | ||
| National, Albany | 13 | 8 | |||
| Olympic, Washington | 12 | 11 | 1 | * | |
| Tri-Mountain, Boston | 12 | 9 | (inc) | ||
| Maryland, Baltimore | 12 | 6 | * | ||
| — | |||||
| Forest City, Cleveland | 11 | 11 | 1 | * | |
| Lowell, Boston | 11 | 9 | |||
| Forest City, Rockford | 11 | 4 | |||
| Star | 9 | 10 | Brooklyn | ||
| Excelsior, Chicago | 7 | 8 | 1 | (inc) | |
| National, Washington | 7 | 3 | * | ||
| Keystone, Philadelphia | 5 | 10 | 1 | (inc) * | |
| Irvington | 2 | 6 | (inc) * | Irvington, NJ |
At least four Association clubs not listed here would someday try professionalism: Riverside of Portsmouth, Ohio (1870); Kekionga of Fort Wayne, Indiana (1871); Middletown of Mansfield, Connecticut (1872); Resolute of Elizabeth, New Jersey (1873).
Meanwhile only two brand new professional baseball clubs would be established in the next three years, the Chicago White Stockings for 1870 and the Boston Red Stockings for 1871. Their commercial origins may be related to their survival alone by 1877, and on to 2010, while all of their rivals with older and amateur roots fell away.
Marshall Wright publishes 1867 season records for 89 teams, many of them incomplete ("(inc)" in the table). Bill Ryczek calls 17 of that season's teams "major" (not marked). This table covers all of those "majors", all 13 member clubs with at least fourteen wins on record, and a few others. For the nine listed clubs in Greater New York, no city is named in the first column; the comment gives their locales.
| Club, City | W | L | T | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athletic, Philadelphia | 44 | 3 | * | ||
| National, Washington | 29 | 7 | * | ||
| Quaker City, Philadelphia | 28 | 9 | maybe a one-season club | ||
| Mutual | 23 | 6 | 1 | * | New York |
| Keystone, Philadelphia | 21 | 6 | 1 | * | |
| Union | 21 | 8 | Morrisania, NY | ||
| Atlantic | 19 | 5 | 1 | * | Brooklyn |
| Geary, Philadelphia | 19 | 6 | |||
| Tri-Mountain, Boston | 19 | 3 | |||
| Cincinnati "Red Stockings" | 17 | 1 | * | ||
| Irvington | 16 | 7 | * | Irvington, NJ | |
| Oriental | 15 | 3 | Greenpoint, NY | ||
| Union, Lansingburgh | 14 | 7 | * | the "Troy Haymakers" | |
| — | |||||
| Excelsior | 11 | 5 | Brooklyn | ||
| Olympic, Washington | 11 | 5 | * | ||
| Harvard, Cambridge | 11 | 2 | the college team | ||
| Excelsior, Chicago | 10 | 1 | |||
| Lowell, Boston | 8 | 5 | (inc) | ||
| Buckeye, Cincinnati | 7 | 8 | |||
| Eckford | 6 | 16 | 1 | * | Brooklyn |
| Star | 6 | 4 | (inc) | Brooklyn | |
| West Philadelphia, Phila. | 5 | 12 | (inc) | ||
| Eureka | 3 | 8 | (inc) | Newark NJ |
Star (*) marks ten clubs among twelve who would go pro in 1869. Excelsior of Chicago and Buckeye of Cincinnati are listed because they were probably the strongest teams in the west after the Cincinnati Red Stockings.
Marshall Wright publishes 1866 season records for 58 of 93 association members, said to be complete for games between two member clubs. Bill Ryczek calls 20 of that season's teams "major" including three old New York rivals of the Knickerbockers.
This table covers all of those "majors", all 14 members with at least eight wins on record, and a few others. For the fifteen listed clubs in Greater New York, no city is named in the first column; the comment gives their locales.
| Club, City | W | L | T | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Union | 25 | 3 | Morrisania, NY | ||
| Athletic, Philadelphia | 23 | 2 | * | ||
| Atlantic | 17 | 3 | * | Brooklyn | |
| Excelsior | 13 | 6 | 1 | Brooklyn | |
| Active | 10 | 6 | New York | ||
| National, Washington | 10 | 5 | * | ||
| Mutual | 10 | 2 | * | New York | |
| Eckford | 9 | 8 | * | Brooklyn | |
| Eureka | 9 | 7 | Newark, NJ | ||
| Enterprise | 9 | 6 | Brooklyn | ||
| Irvington | 9 | 6 | * | Irvington, NJ | |
| Mohawk | 9 | 3 | Brooklyn | ||
| Star | 8 | 6 | Brooklyn | ||
| Americus | 8 | 5 | Newark, NJ | ||
| — | |||||
| Keystone, Philadelphia | 5 | 5 | 1 | * | |
| Empire | 4 | 7 | New York | ||
| Gotham | 4 | 4 | New York | ||
| Eagle | 2 | 9 | New York | ||
| Camden, Camden | 2 | 5 | Camden, NJ | ||
| Lowell, Boston | 2 | 0 | |||
| Harvard, Cambridge | 1 | 5 | the college team | ||
| Union, Lansingburgh | * | non-member; now in Troy, NY |
Star (*) marks eight clubs among twelve who would go pro in 1869, three seasons later.
For the preceding 1865 season Marshall Wright lists 30 members with supposedly complete records for most of them. Twenty-two of the thirty were in Greater New York. Bill Ryczek calls 19 teams "major" in the first season that he covers: sixteen of the members and three others (Lowell, Harvard, and Camden).
No one traveled much and membership was still depressed by the Civil War. There had been 59 delegates at the March 1860 annual meeting, and 55 at the next annual meeting that December (on a new baseball calendar), who thereby intended to play during the 1861 season that the war curtailed. Nine of 59 and eleven of 55 were from outside Greater New York.[6]
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