The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-07-16
FIRST BASE BALL GAME.
That Was Ever Played In New
England.
WAS PLAYED IN BOSTON, OCTOBER
18th, 1859.


York-The Name of the First Club Was
the Bowdoin Square Club-The Score of
That First Game.
Whichsone of the cranks that watch the
national game on the Deering grounds
knows when and how the game was first
introduced into New England, and what
were the names of the two mines that
played the first game in Boston? Doubt
lesssvery few, if any of them do, because
tie history of baseball has not yet been
sung in song and told in story and
chronicled in prosy prose, as of course it
ought to be, and as of course it will be
in the next century, together with
Grover Cleyeland's reign and the Pull
man strike and other important histori-
cal matters.
but there is man in Portland who
can answer all of the above questions.
He is an elderly man and a leading citi-
zen6 and he was member of the first
baseball nine in New England that
played the game as it is now played,
with the exception of minor changes in
rules of course.
In the spring of 1859, Mr.. B. M.
Eastman. senior member of the firm Of
Eastman Bros. & Bancroft, was clerk
in dry goods store in Bowdoin Square,
Boston. He lived at a large boarding
house at No. .Cam bridge street, together
with some 20 or 30 other young clerks.
At that time the only kind of baseball
known in New England was the game of
round" or" long" ball. There was bat
ting of the ball, running of bases ETC.,
but the ball was thrown at.the runner to
put him out. Of course the ball used
was a soft enc. Also there were other
radical differences fromthe game of today.
There was famous CLUB in Boston, at
that time, called the Tri-Mountains, and
made up largely of young mechanics.
They played the old game of round"
ball
Several Of the young clerks above
mentioned, notably Mr.. Eastman and
John A. Lowell, son of the late Abner
Lowell of this city, had heard of the
so-called New York gamer of base ball,
and resolved to learn how to play it for
the sake of the exercise it afforded and
the satisfaction of learning a new thing.
They sent to New York fo- a book of
rules and instructions, and formed an
| association among tn emselves of over 20
practically the same as the game that is
played today. They obtained hard ball
| from New York, for there wasn't hard
| ball in New England, and also obtained
bats different from those used in "roundn
| ball and similar to those used today.
| Mr.. Eastman was made seere tary of the
association, which was organized March
| Goth, 1859, The first and second mines
were soon organized among the mem
beers, and they began to practice the new
game on Boston Common, to the ntense
interest of all on-looKers, sand great
pleasure and satisfaction to themselves
They used to go out and play between
six and seven o'clock in the smorning.
and their new exercise was regarded
with extreme disfavor by their host of
the boarding house, because they would
come back to breakfast in ravenous
condition and eat twice as much as for
merly.
and the Tri-Mountain club learned the
| new game from them. They called the
selves the Bowdoin Square Baseball
Club, but later dropped the word
Square" from the name.
In October of that year they resolved
| to challenge the Tri-Mounains to
| match game, the latter having learned
| the game thoroughly by that time. This
was the first match game of baseball, as
| now played, that was .ever splayed in
| New England. The great event took
| place on Boston Common Oct 9th in the
presence of thousands of spectators, men
and women, the best people in the city
| included. The employers of the club
willingly allowed them the half day off.
but predicted that they would make but
poor showing against the brawny young
mechanics of the Tri-Mountain club.
We reproduce the account and score of
the game as printed in a Boston paper of
| the time:
MATCH GAME OF BASE BALL.
The Bowdoin Base Ball club and the
Tir-Mountain Base Ball club, both of
this city, played match game of base
ball on the Common Saturday afternoon,
| the former being the challenging club.
After seven innings were played (nine
being the full number) the umpire closed
| the game, it peing too dark to conclude
it. The Bowdoins winning the match,
| with, the followingSscore
BOWDOIN.