The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-07-09
NATAL DAY OF BASEBALL
Day on Which the First Game
Was Played.
FIFTY-THREE YEARS AGO
How the Game Has Grown Into National
Pastime and the Different Forms It
Has Taken in Its Evolution.
Large Crowds Attended.

! June 10 is properly celebrated as the
anniversary of the natal day of base
| ball-the day on which our national
| game was given birth more than half
a century ago, for on the 18th Of June,
| 1S46, at Hoboken, N. j., was played
| the first match game of baseball that
| ever took place, the contestants being
the Knickerbocker and New York base
| ball clubs.
The sport had begun to take form
| nearly nine months before. Like man,
according to the Darwinian theory,
baseball is the result of evolution. 1t
| grew gradually out of the old English
game of FOUNDERS" which gradually
'evoluted" into town ball." in the lat
| ter sport instead of bases there were
corners" These were unattended, and
| the runners were put out by being hit
with teh ball, which was thrown di-
| rectly at them by the fielders. The
| ball used was necessarily therefore
much softer and smaller than the base
| ball Of to-day. Unlike the rubber
yarn and leather spheres now in vogue,
it was composed wholly of rubber.
In the days of which 1 write a num-
| Der of New York gentlemen We're in
the habit of assembling on a vacant
| lot, then a long way out of town and
now covered by the Madison Square
| Garden, every Wednesday and Satur-
| day afternoon to play town ball. At
length some of them began to think
that certain notifications would great
| ly improve the sport. Numerous in
| formal discussions took place, and 1t
| was finally decided to adopt the
changes proposed. Among these was
| the substitution of bases for corners
| the adoption of a hard ball with a rub
Der center wound with yarn and COW
cred with leather, the placing of men
l IN oor1 hN 1. a.
| ball thrown to them instead of directly
| at the base runners. 1t was also de-
| cided to change the name Of the sport
| from town ball to baseball, on account
| of the bases forming so important a
| part of it. On September %, 1916, the
| gentlemen who had decided upon these
| changes formed themselves into an as
ISOLATION, to which they gave the name
| of Knickerbocker Baseball club, at the
same time adopting the changes above
| named in the game of town ball, and
voting that their new game should
! thereafter be known by the name of
| baseball. Thus our national game was
born, and it has undergone innumerable
changes and notifications during the
| long period that has elapsed since it's
| birth, but it is doubtful if it has there
| by been made any more enjoyable as
sport, pure and simple. Like we'd
dings. one baseball club brings many,
organizations In and around New York,
and the first match game above men,
| toned consisted of only four innings,
| the rule then being that the club first
making Fl runs in even innings was
the winner. The gradual growth of
baseball from New York to other parts
| or the country was very slow, though
| to their credit be 1t said that one or
two ofsthe metropolitan newspapers did
all In their power to foster the sport.
| ToWn ball continued to be played in
other parts of the country, and its vo-
taries seemed reluctant to substitute
baseball for it. 1t Is remarkable that
| baseball was not introduced in PhiIa-
delphia, a. city only 80 miles from New
York. until 1860, Is years after its birth.
In that year the Olympic club, of the
Quaker City, which had been organized
in 1883 to play town ball, and had done
so ever since, decided to thereafter TO
play baseball instead The first match
game of baseball in Philadelphia did
not take place till June H. 1860, and
was between the Equity and Winona
clubs.
A striking proof that westward, the
star of baseball as we'll as that of en-
| pire, wends it's way, is found in the
fact that the first match game of the
| national sport In San Francisco took
place on Feb. %, 1850, three months
prior to the match in Philadelphia.
Baseball was not played in the New
| England states until some five or six
years after it's origination, and then
only In such a modified form that It
| was known as the New England
Game" to distinguish II from the game
played in New York
The originators of our national game
We're gentlemen who played baseball
for recreation only, and would have
held in low esteem any man who sought
to transform it into business means
of gaining a livelihood 1t was their
intention, as well as that of other gen
GRAFTON of enthusiastic ball players who
followed them, that baseball should be
purely gentleman's game. AS clubs
multiplied throughout the country it
became necessary to establish some
general organization having authority
to control and regulate the interests of
the sport, to make such changes in the
playing rules as might from time to
time seem necessary, and in every pos
sible way protect and improve our ma
tional sport. To meet this necessity
there was formed the National Associa-
ton of Baseball players in which any
club was entitled to membership with
the privilege of sending delegates to
the annual meeting. The playing rules
ADOPTED by this organization were the
standard ones for the game, and were
respected and adopted by all clubs,
whether members of the association or
not. Almost the first rule adopted by
this National association was one most
positively debarring from membership
and rendering liable to expulsion any
club in which there was a man who
played baseball for hire or emolument
of any kind, the object being to make
and keep the sport a gentleman's game
The result of this was that baseball
fourished between the years 1866 and
1871 to an extent that has never been
known before or since. The number of
clubs was literally legion, and in every
large city the number of matches that
were played daily was almost incredi-
BILE. The grounds We're usually upon
some vacant lot or common and were
free to all, no admission being charged,
AS a consequence the crowds at these
contests were very great, from 10000
to g, 900 being by no means an unusual
attendance. In the city of New York,
for example, there were five different
baseball grounds within a stones throw
of each other and scarcely a dav mass