1845 to 1868 in baseball

The following are the baseball events of the years 1845 to 1868 throughout the world.

Events

• 1845 September 10 – A baseball game is played that is described the following day in the New York Morning News.^[1]
• 1845 September 23 – The New York Knickerbockers draw up the Knickerbocker Rules, which are written down by Alexander Cartwright.^[2]
• 1845 October 22 – 34 first known box score appears in the New York Morning News a month after the first set of rules are written by Alexander Cartwright and some of his fellow New York Knickerbockers.
• 1846 June 19 – The New York Knickerbockers play the "New York Nine" at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey.^[3] The Knickerbockers lose to the New Yorks by a score of 23 to 1 in four innings of play.
• 1854 – The Excelsior club established in Brooklyn.
• 1855 – The Atlantic and Eckford clubs established in Brooklyn.
• 1856 – The Union of Morrisania club established in the latter-day Bronx, New York.
• 1857 – The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP) is formed in meetings of sixteen New York area baseball clubs. The New York Mutuals and Newark Adriatics teams are formed.
• 1858 – The first all-star games, and the first baseball games to charge admission, took place in Corona, Queens, New York, at the Fashion Race Course ^[4]
• 1859 – The Potomac Club is formed in the summer and the National club in November in Washington, D.C.
• 1859 July 1 – Amherst College defeats Williams College 73–32 in a game played in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.^[5]
• 1860 – The Philadelphia Athletics team is formed. The Philadelphia Olympic Club changes from townball or "Massachusetts baseball" to New York (NABBP) rules. The Newark Eurekas team starts playing other teams in the NABBP. The Union Club of Lansingburgh team is formed, which would later become the Troy Haymakers of the NABBP.
• 1860 February 22 – First recorded baseball game played in San Francisco, California between the San Francisco Eagles and the San Francisco Red Rovers.^[6]
• 1860 September 28 – The first baseball game reported between two named black teams. At Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, the Weeksville of New York beat the Colored Union Club 11–0.
• 1862 April – The Summit City Club is formed in Fort Wayne, Indiana (the club would reform as the Kekiongas in 1866).
• 1865 October – The Milwaukee Cream Citys team is formed.
• 1866 – The Fort Wayne Kekiongas team is reformed after the end of the Civil War.
• 1866–1868 – The Rockford Forest Citys feature future superstars Albert Spalding and Ross Barnes.
• 1866 June 23 – The Cincinnati Base Ball Club is formed and plays four outside matches.
• 1867 – The Cincinnati Base Ball Club plays in the NABBP.

Champions

The baseball team "Champions of America", 1865

• National Association of Base Ball Players:
  • 1857: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1858: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1859: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1860: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1861: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1862: Eckford of Brooklyn
  • 1863: Eckford of Brooklyn
  • 1864: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1865: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1866: Atlantic of Brooklyn
  • 1867: Union of Morrisania
  • 1868: Mutual of New York

Season records

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.

1868 records of major clubs

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.

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.

1867 records of major clubs

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.

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.

1866 records of major clubs

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.

Star (*) marks eight clubs among twelve who would go pro in 1869, three seasons later.

1865 and earlier clubs

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.^[7]

Births

1840s

• 1847
• January 28 – George Wright
• December 7 – Deacon White
• 1848
• October [?] – Wally Goldsmith

1850s

• 1850

Date of birth missing

• Bill Allison
• Robert Armstrong
• Ned Connor
• Dickie Flowers
• Tom Miller
• William Rexter
• Fraley Rogers
• January [?] – John Glenn
• February 7 – Mike Hooper
• March 26 – Morrie Critchley
• April [?] – Wallace Terry
• April 8 – John Peters
• April 12 – Sandy Nava
• April 30 – Charley Jones
• May 8 – Ross Barnes
• June 12 – John Stedronsky
• June 13 – Bobby Clack
• July 13 – Tom York
• July 14 – Jim Holdsworth
• June 23 – George Bird
• July 24 – Joe Miller
• July 26 – Tricky Nichols
• August [?] – Tommy Beals
• August 1 – Michael Campbell
• August 10 – Jim Clinton
• August 23 – Fred Andrus
• August 31 – Gene Kimball
• September 1 – Jim O'Rourke
• September 2 – Albert Spalding
• October 3 – Al Nevin
• October 29 – George Ewell
• November 22 – Favel Wordsworth
• November 23 – Cy Bentley
• November 30 – Alamazoo Jennings
• 1851
• September 11- Mike Golden
• October [?] – Orator Shafer
• 1852
• February 5 – Charlie Hautz
• March 27 – Ed Cushman
• August 22 – Martin Mullen
• December 10 – Frank Bliss
• 1853

• 1854
• September 8 – Russ McKelvy
• November 4 – John Abadie
• 1855
• March 21 – William Coon
• October 2 – Jack Allen
• October 2 – John Carbine
• 1856
• 1857

Date of birth missing

• J. R. Malone
• August 20 – George Baker
• October 7 – Moxie Hengel
• 1858

Date of birth missing

• John Doyle
• May 25 – Tip O'Neill
• August 19 – Phil Coridan
• September 11 – Mike DePangher

• 1859
• July [?] – Tony Murphy
• July 8 – Hank O'Day
• September 29 – Dave Orr

1860–1868

• 1860
• June 26 – Al Strueve
• August 27 – Scrappy Carroll
• August 29 – Buck West
• 1861
• August 28 – Charlie Reising
• 1862
• March 3 – Jumbo Schoeneck
• July 14 – Law Daniels
• December 22 – Connie Mack
• 1863
• May 25 – John Hofford
• 1864
• April 17 – Jersey Bakley
• June [?] – John Cuff
• August 7 – Adonis Terry
• 1865
• May 4 – Chuck Lauer
• May [?] – Fred Smith
• June 30 – Tim Hurst
• July 19 – Jim Donnelly
• October 25 – Bill Shettsline
• 1866
• January 5 – William B. Hanna
• March 12 – Denny Lyons
• March 25 – Larry McKeon
• April 20 – Pat Hannivan
• August 26 – Cannonball Titcomb
• September 16 – Joe Vila
• November 28 – Sy Sanborn
• 1867
• March 29 – Cy Young
• August 5 – Jacob Ruppert
• October 7 – Brickyard Kennedy
• 1868
• Date of birth missing

Jim Adams

Frank Knauss

Sparrow McCaffrey

Ambrose McGann

Ed Pabst

Jim Powers

Kid Summers

Fred Truax

• January [?] – Tom Letcher
• January 1 – Dave Zearfoss
• January 9 – Harley Payne
• January 11 – Silver King
• January 12 – Dan Daub
• January 14 – John Newell
• January 15 – Jock Menefee
• January 28 – Dan Sweeney
• January 30 – General Stafford
• February 13 – Biff Sheehan
• February 19 – Sal Campfield
• February 22 – George Davies
• February 23 – Lew Camp
• March 10 – Lew Whistler
• March 10 – Theodore Conover
• March 13 – Bill Gilbert
• March 15 – Roscoe Coughlin
• March 1, 9 – Skyrocket Smith
• March 23 – Mike Smith
• March 25 – Frank Dwyer
• March 31 – Jack Stivetts
• April [?] – Warren Fitzgerald
• April 2 – Frank Boyd
• April 6 – Walt Preston
• April 10 – Tom Parrott
• April 25 – Fred Hartman
• May [?] – Will Calihan
• May 1 – Pete Allen
• May 9 – Josh Reilly
• May 10 – Ed Barrow
• May 17 – Fred Woodcock
• May 28 – John Bates
• June [?] – George Hodson
• June [?] – Ed Knouff
• June [?] – Bob Miller
• June 7 – Mike Ryan
• June 12 – Sol White
• June 27 – Bill Daley
• June 28 – John Taber
• July 5 – Pat Wright
• July 7 – Willard Mains
• July 8 – Harry Gilbert
• July 18 – Tony Madigan
• July 29 – George Rettger
• August 11 – Dan O'Connor
• August 12 – Charlie Bell
• August 12 – Jerry Harrington
• August 31 – Red Ehret
• September [?] – Jeremiah Reardon
• September 1 – Mike O'Rourke
• September 2 – Al Sauter
• September 10 – Dusty Miller
• September 11 – Steve Brodie
• September 15 – Frank O'Connor
• September 21 – Joe Daly
• October [?] – Bobby Cargo
• October [?] – Tom Cahill
• October 6 – Whitey Gibson
• October 10 – Dave Anderson
• October 10 – Ad Gumbert
• October 14 – Fred Underwood
• October 18 – Boileryard Clarke
• October 22 – Charlie Weber
• October 25 – Dan Burke
• November 2 – Jim McCormick
• November 5 – Charlie Newman
• November 7 – Julie Freeman
• November 9 – Bill Phillips
• November 12 – Bill Gleason
• November 12 – Jack Ryan
• November 17 – Ezra Lincoln
• December [?] – Bill Sullivan
• December 1 – George Fox
• December 4 – Jesse Burkett
• December 5 – Frank Bowerman
• December 8 – Jocko Halligan
• December 10 – Neil Stynes
• December 11 – Tom Gettinger
• December 13 – Bill Everitt
• December 15 – George Hemming

Deaths

1860s

• 1862
  • October 18 – Jim Creighton

References

• Orem, Preston D. (1961). Baseball (1845–1881) From the Newspaper Accounts. Altadena, California: Self-published.
• Ryczek, William J. (1998). When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865–1870. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0514-7.
• Wright, Marshall D. (2000). The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857–1870. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. ISBN 0-7864-0779-4.

External links

• Baseball History: 19th Century Baseball