The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-11-09
Brief History of Organization
of Baseball as Princeton
Sport.
PRIMITIVE RULES MUCH
SAME AS THOSE or TODAY
Tie With Orange One of Inter.
cstipS Events Half Cen
fury Ago.

PRINCETON. N. j., Nov. S.--Tbc
athletic contest with an outside team
came on October %. 1t WAS October
-, 1850. when the College Of New ,Jcr.
soy sent its first baseball team outside
of the town Of Princeton TO meet a team
representing the city Of Orange, N. j.,
and it resulted in a tie at tho score of
42 runs TO j2.
game is of historical interest because
| II was the first college game played
under the rules of baseball as that game
| Is known today.
Park H. Davis, 1898. rrinceton' s rep.
rcseutat tive on The football rules com
mlftee, makes a report Of the game in
he current number of tho Princeton
Alumni Weekly. In part, il follows.
hose, indeed, were primitive times
The name of Princeton as college title
had not been conceived. The institution
was known rs the College of New Jer.
sey, and this first athletic team had
taken It's name, scntlmentslly as well
as .putrlottcaily, from that revered old
relic of collegiate and revolutionary
America, Nassau Hill
Although Harvard and Yale had
d
animation Of their periodicals for this
period dlscloscs no activity in baseball
except the uuorganized sport of random
campus play,
Zone and only one contest is on rec
ord to deprive the Princeton Orange
struggle of the honor of being the coun.
try s original game of college baseball.
Amherst and Williams had met upon the
square of the New England game at
Pittefield, July /, 1859, where, in a bat
tie lasting four hours, Amherst had won
by rs runs to 80.
Rules Of Old.
"Perusal Of the rules of 1860 startlcs
one by their similarity tu the code Of
1910 Tho square Of the former games
was replaced by the diamond and
stakes as marks for the bases gave way
TO canvas bags, the intervening distance
being placed at ninety feet
" Tho pitched ball supplanted the ball
that was thrown. Nine players com
prlsed a side, three outs were necessary
TO terminate an inning and nine even
innings composed game, unless pre-
viously called for cause.
Five innings then, as now, made
the result conclusive. This style of game
was called at the time the New York
game.
SIN the transitory period that pre-
ceded this famous athletic fixture, in
which the old,timo games of FOUNDERS
tating into the New York and the
New England games, the foremost
cradle of the sport was Brooklyn, tho
home of the celebrated Eckfords, Put
mans, Excelsiors, Atlautics and Stars.
Among the many youthful enthusi-
asts who attended the struggles between
these classic combatants was 1.-THE,
sandy haired lad Of the name Of Lewis
w. Nudge. In the autumn of 1858 this
young man matriculated az Princeton in
the class of 1862. With him as class-
mates were several other young Brook |
lynltes also skilled and experienced in
the rising game,
Some of Pioneers.
con March ID, 1859, these men or
ganized the baseball club of the class
of 1862. The official personnel of This. |
tho pioneer baseball organization of col. |
legiatc America, was as follows: Presi- |
dent, secretary and captain, Lewis w. |
Nudge, ,62; vlce-president, Alexander !
Marks, '62; treasurer, Henry S. Butler,
"Therc was work for the treasurer
even in those days, although the. ex-
pense during that first year totaled only
$40. The labor of the office caused
by the collection of system of fines
established for disciplinary purposes
10 cents for 'profane or impious Ian
guage while assembled for exercise; 5
cents for dlsputing with the umpire; 5
cents for dsobeying tho captain. and 2
cents for audibly expressing an opinion
of play in advance of the umpire Is de-
cision.
Under the enthusiastic promotion Of
Captain Nudge, the class club soon cx-
panded into a college organization,
which in 1860, strong and vigorous,
adopted the title of Nassau Baseball
club. Nine were chosen from the club y
and games regularly sched.
ulcd''