The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-23
BIRTH OF BASEBALL.
Knickerbocker Club Was Formed
in New York In l845.

Knickerbocker Club Was Formed
In New York in 1s45.
It was in 1916 that the first club
was formed, whose. immortality Of ex-
istence has been transmitted to poster
/ ity; and formed in the great city of
Gotham, it was of course christened as
the Knickerbocker. That club was the
parental organization of the present
game A second club was soon started
in the same city, known as the New
York Club, and the first match game
on this continent was played between
them on June 10, 1S46
| In 1856 the Kniclserbocker Club in
augurated movement for a conven-
ton of baseball players. and in March,
4 1887, sixteen clubs, seven having their
home In New York and nine hailing
from Brooklyn, were admitted. In
March, 1858, similar gathering was
held, at which twenty-five clubs were
represented, and to this meeting came
one club from a distance Of thirty
miles-the Liberty of New Brunswick.
Then and there "Tlle National Assoc
citation of Baseball Players" drew it's
first breath Of life.
association were held in New York
But the game had now become ma
tional, and other cities deserved the
honors Of the season. And so the meet
iings became peripa,etic, and the elev-
enth was held in Philadelphia, the
twelfth at Washington, and the thir-
teenth and last at Boston. The nomen-
clature OF the different clubs generally
betrays a local origin.
No doubt can exist where the Har-
wards, the Yales. the Cincinnatis, the
Keystones, the Forest Cftys the Ma
tionals, the Marylanders the Atlantics
and the Pacifics have their baptismal
homes The Buckslxins lived at Glow
lersville, the Buckeyes at Cincinnati, the
Southerns at New Orleans and the
Omahas at Nebraska. The Kickene-
rawlings hail from Pennsylvania and
the Kekiongas from Indiana The
lEsculapian Club of Brooklyn is made
up entirely of physicians; the ranks Of
the Manhattan in New York are re-
Icruited from the police force; the Waita
Club of that city only admit nlilkmen.
In short every profession, every call
ing, as every considerable village in
the country has its baseball club.
All the best clubs OF the country, the
Red and White Stockings the At
jlantics the Athletics, the Eckfords, the
Haymakers, the Mutuals. are profess
sional clubs; every player in them is
hired.
Emulous Chicago undertook last
spring to form a club that should be
superior to the Cincipnatis; and prices
Immediately rose. The prospects for
lanother year is that Of a further rise;
two of the best players in the country
are understood to he engaged for the
season of 1871 at salaries of $3,OoO
leach for eight months. Those salaries
are, of course, only given to pitchers,
for on them more than any other. does
the success of the club depend.
It was good playing that enabled the
Red Stockings to win fifty-seven con-
lsecutive games in 1869. Their playing
greatly varied in the contest with the
Buckeyes of their own city, the score
lstood 1OS to 8; with the Mutuals of
Of New York TO 2, and yet the same
number of innings was played in both
games. During 1869 the Red Stock
lings averaged forty-two runs to a
game, while their opponents, including
the best clubs in the country, averaged
lonly ten No luck ever gave this SUI
periority of 4 to 1.
If the number of runs indicated the
superiority of the players, the Athlet-
lies of Philadelphia would be the cham-
pion club of the country, as their play
ing in 1869 averaged more than forty
three runs to a game. The Atlantics
averaged thirty-three, the Mutuals
thirty-one and the Eckfords twenty
eight. The smallest on record that
year was that of a game played be-
tween the Atlantics and the Mutuals.
when at the end of six innings the
score stood 2 to !, in favor of the At
lantics.
Two Of the largest were made by the
Athletics, standing at 1O7 in one game
and ia in the other. One OF the
largest scores on record was made by
the Athletics in 1865. when they scored
1862 in eight innings to IL of the
Alerts This was the second game
played that day by the Athletics, the
forenoon having been spent in a friend
lily contest with the Williamsport club,
lin which the Athletics made 1O1 to 3;
263 runs in one day. In the game in
the afternoon, all the bats of both
clubs were broken. and in the last
Inning the handle of the nearest shovel
was dignified into a bat--Magazine
Article February 25 1871