page_title: Duncan Curry
section_title: Organization of the first baseball game
hierarchical_section_title: Duncan Curry / Knickerbockers Base Ball Club / Organization of the first baseball game
caption_attribution_description: English: "The American National Game of Baseball - Grand Match for the Championship", depiction of a baseball game at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ. One of the teams is probably the New York Knickerbockers. Lithograph by Currier &amp; Ives.
context_page_description: Duncan Fraser Curry was an American baseball pioneer and insurance executive.
  Curry was the first president of the Knickerbockers Base Ball Club, reported to be the first organized baseball club in 1845. He is also credited with participating in the drafting of the Knickerbocker Rules, the first written set of official baseball rules. He also served on the game's various rules committees from 1845 until at least 1856.
  Curry was also one of the founders of the Republic Fire Insurance Company and served as its secretary from 1852 to 1882.
context_section_description: Curry and two other members arranged for the Knickerbockers to play their first game against another team.  The game, long cited as the first officially recorded game of baseball, was played against the "New York Club" on June 19, 1846, at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey.  The Knickerbockers lost by a score of 23 to 1.  Curry recalled the game as follows:
  "An awful beating you could say at our own game, but, you see, the majority of the New York Club's players were cricketers, and clever ones at that game, and their batting was the feature of their work.   The chief trouble was that we had held our opponents too cheaply and few of us had practiced any prior to the contest, thinking that we knew more about the game than they did. . . . The pitcher of the New York nine was a cricket bowler of some note, and while one could use only the straight arm delivery he could pitch an awfully speedy ball.  The game was in a crude state.  No balls were called on the pitcher and that was a great advantage to him, and when he did get them over the plate they came in so fast our batsmen could not see them."
caption: Early baseball game played at Elysian Fields, Hoboken (Currier & Ives lithograph).
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