Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-01-21
EARLY BASEBALL.
Williams and Amherst Played tho
First intercollegiate Game.
Thirteen MEN ON EACH SIDE.

The Contest Lasted Four Hours, and
the Score Was 70 to 32-Players Were
Elected by Ballot, and Popularity, Not
Skill, Was What Counted.
The first intercollegiate game of base
ball was played on July l, 1888. 1t
has frequently been declared that the
first match between colleges was the
Harvard Williams game of 1S64-that
is at once right and wrong. 1t was
the first college contest played I'M
the general rules that now govern the
game. but five years earlier, on July 1,
1850, Amherst and Williams met at
Pittsfeld, Mass, in the first intercol-
legiate baseball game of any type
played in the world.
The two balls used in that game are
hanging in a room in Amherst college,
and beside them hangs this inscrip-
ton: 1.-THE veritable balls used in the
first game of intercollegiate baseball
ever played, July 1, 1859. Amherst
versus Williams, won by Amherst"
The contest was of the old fashioned
round ball" kind and required thir-
teen men on q side. The teams were
not selected because OF any particular
skill or training, but were chosen by
ballot from the students at large" 1t
took about three weeks to settle the
negotiations for the match, and doubt
less the arguments would have con-
tinued as many months had not the
Pittsfield Baseball club offered its
grounds and thus quieted suspicious
as to neutral territory. There was
considerable dispute as to the size and
kind of ball to use, but this was d
by allowing each side to use its own
ball exclusively.
Those two balls brought to the game
were the wonder of the crowd. That of
Amherst weighed two and one-half
ounces and was about eight inches in
circumference, while that of Williams
weighed two ounces and was seven
inches round. Some Williams wiseacres
had suggested a light colored covering
so as to make it seen with difficulty
by the batters,'' and this popularity
filled the fans with admiration.
The fans at that first college game
were indeed plentiful. All the faculty
and every student at Williams were
there, and the whole village of Will
Jamestown emptied itself into the ball
grounds at Pittsfield. There We're,
moreover, several female seminaries"
within easy riding distance. and their
interested students were present to put
the boys ON their mettle. The Amherst
team felt a little lonely, as only sever
teen students, all players, were in their
company, and not a single neighbor or
member of the faculty came to cheer
them up.
1t was indeed doubtful whether the
game could ever be finished, for some
enemy of law and order started the re-
port that 1.-The Amherst throw er was a
professional blacksmith who had been
hired for the occasion" Thus the sus-
picion of professionalism entered col
lege athletics at the very beginning.
However, the contest started at IL
o'clock, lasted twenty-six rounds, or in
nings, and closed after -four hours of
continuous playing. The score was rs
to 80.
AS the man at bat had the right to
knock the ball in any direction what
ever, lueIe were mduy Sue strikes,
back knocks and licked (fouD
balls. Considering the fact that the
man behind the bat had no glove. mask
or protection of any sort, it was re-
markable that the Amherst catcher 'al-
lowed no balls to pass that were with
in his reach and missed only n licked
ball in the course of the entire game"
Strange to say, there was almost
complete silence on the part of the
players themselves. and no decision
was complained of openly.
Some of the boys in that first inter
collegiate game became famous men.
but not as ball players. The captain of
the Amherst team became president Of
Tougaloo university; Henry Hyde gain.
ed fame as a Boston lawyer; Marshall
Cushman was for years a leading Off
cial in the United States patent office,
while the umpire, L. r. Smith. became
a successful lawyer. Evidently the
spirit of 80 that made those players so
p~ersevering on that hot day in July
made them still more earnest in the
real battle of life that came in future
years.-Youth's Companion.