Note: This site was last updated in April 2010

 

 

Project Protoball

 

Supporting Research on the Origins of Baseball

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The Protoball Chronologies

 

A Big Handful of Chronologies – Each Comprising Short Historical Entries on the Evolution of Ballplaying through 1862, with Bibliographic Sources. The master chronology now contains 1150 entries.   New! Eleven new sub-chronologies -- on ballplaying in the American South, in the military, and in several US regions, etc.  New!A listing of the 190 items newly added in Version 11 [April 2010].   Also -- Version 10 of the master Chronology showing post-1844 entries ordered by date [when known] within the given year.  Note::  We have temporarily been led to divide the chronology into two files.  To go directly to the final years, comprising 1840 to 1862, go here.

 

New!  The Spread of Modern Base Ball in the New York City Area

 

Data on the locations in Greater New York of over 150 early ball clubs, tabulated by Gregory Christiano.  Gregory has prepared a detailed map of these clubs’ home grounds, and is working on a table of the first clubs to appear in each ward of the political entities that were later to become boroughs of New York City.

 

Expanded!  Protoball’s Glossary of Ball Games

 

The names and short descriptions for over 210 species of game – most of them safe-haven games. This list includes both antique and contemporary games. If you know of missing games please submit them; we all might as well be working from the same master list.

 

New!  Ballplaying in the Civil War Camps

 

An inventory of 152 accounts – some very brief -- to ballplaying by Civil War soldiers. About two-thirds of which these not included in recent books on the base ball in the War, having been recently located in digital searches.   And a five-page summary of fact and fiction in the role of the War in making base ball into America’s game.

 

A Bibliography of Key Writings on Early Ballplaying

 

365 Histories and other references that cover safe-haven ballplaying up to 1871.  A second version of the bibliography is organized in chronological order.  This bibliography comprises the holding of the Buzz McCray Collection on Early Ballplaying, plus other sources that we can’t afford to buy.

 

Craig Waff’s Games Tabulation

 

Summary Tables of over 1500 Game Accounts through 1860 -- each including date played, the news article reference, playing site, and many listings that include excerpts from the actual newspaper account.  Over 1200 of the games are from the New York City area.  This tabulation greatly exceeds the numbers of games listed in prior sources [chiefly by Peverelly in 1866 and Wright in 2000].

 

Local Diggers

 

40 Currently Active Origins Researchers and What They’re Working On

 

Current and Recent Digging on Origins

 

Brief notes on 39 current researchers, and their recent and ongoing work

 

Want to Help Dig?

 

Some Ways to Join in Research on Early Ball Play

 

About Project Protoball

 

Who We Are, What We Think We’re Up To, and Our Free Services to Researchers

 

Terms of Site Use

 

Some Notes on the Use of this Site

 

The Project Launch Group

 

5 Smart and Large-Hearted People Who Guided the Launch of Protoball

 

Contact Us

 

Research Questions?  Suggestions?  Corrections?  Tell Us About Them

 

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Special Feature – Ballmaking in the Protoball Era

 

Rob Loeffler Gives a Chronology of Ballmaking up to 1870 – and lists 32 Ballmakers, 1858 to 1890

 

 

 

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Local Diggers

 

 

Active Researchers and Their Special Interests

 

[Note: for more detail on some diggers’ current work, go here.]

 

A.  Regional Focus

 

At Large – Bill Wagner

Boston -- Larry McCray, Dixie Tourangeau

CaliforniaAngus McFarland

Capitol Area of NYS -- Craig Waff

Central MA -- Dixie Tourangeau

Chicago and the old “NW Territory” -- John Freyer

Cincinnati -- Greg Rhodes, Greg Perkins

Eastern MA -- Joanne Hulbert

Eastern Shore MD -- Marty Payne

Hudson Valley, NY -- John Thorn

Louisville -- Bob Bailey

Michigan -- Peter Morris

MilwaukeeDennis Pajot

Minnesota – Bob Tholkes

MissouriJohn Maurath

New Bedford MAKyle DeCicco-Carey

New HampshireWayne McElreavy

New JerseyJohn Zinn

New Orleans -- Sandy Derenbecker

New York City -- George Thompson, John Thorn, Gregory Christiano

Northern KentuckyGreg Perkins

Ohio -- John Husman

Philadelphia -- Jerry Casway, Richard Hershberger

Rochester NY -- Priscilla Astifan

San FranciscoAngus McFarland

St. Louis and Southern Illinois – Jeff Kittle

Syracuse NY -- Larry McCray

Washington DC -- Frank Ceresi

Western MA -- John Bowman

Worcester MAJeremy LeBlanc

 

B.  Thematic Focus

 

19th Century Rules – Eric Miklich

Alexander Cartwright – Monica Nucciarone

Antecedents to Base Ball in the US – Tom Altherr

Ballmaking – Rob Loeffler

Ballplaying Equipment -- Bob Schaefer, Jerry Casway

Baserunning -- Larry McCray

English Rounders 1820-1870 Larry McCray

General Knowledge -- John Thorn

Gloves – David Arcidiacono

Henry Chadwick -- Andrew Schiff

Length of Games – Phil Lowry

Massachusetts Game -- Joanne Hulbert, John Thorn

Newspaper Coverage -- Andrew Schiff, Craig Waff

Spread of New York Game -- Richard Hershberger, Larry McCray, Craig Waff

Town Ball – Richard Hershberger, David Nevard

US Cricket -- Larry McCray

Wicket – Larry McCray, John Thorn

 

 

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Want to Help Out?

 

The basic idea of this site is to make material available to researchers so that they can use it and improve it. 

 

If you’re interested in working on early ballplaying, you can help by:

 

  1. Noting errors and suggesting corrections

 

  1. Responding to points made under a ”Note” heading in particular chronology entries.  Most of these points show where additional information is needed.

 

  1. Suggesting new entries.  Please note that we want to supply citations for each item so that readers can find their way to the original documents.

 

  1. Suggesting subjects for new “Sub-Chronologies.” 

 

 

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Terms of Use of This Site

 

This site operates under the general operating philosophy of Retrosheet: researchers and others are free to use the information compiled on the site, but you must acknowledge the Protoball website in your writings if its information proves materially useful in those writings.

 

The data on this site are not guaranteed to be accurate, nor to adhere to common standards of publishability.  We are attempting to identify and remove any errors, but need the help of you and other researchers in doing so, particularly because the Project does not itself possess many of the original sources that are cited and used for the site.  Our policy is to ventilate questionable material [noted as such, especially in comments labeled as “Caution” are “Caveat”] in order to determine if it is reliable.

 

For security reasons, readers cannot put comments directly to the Protoball site.  However, we may at some point to conduct a moderated discussion of open issues and research ideas.  To suggest specific points that might be added to particular entries on the Protoball Chronology, or to other site features, contact Larry McCray at lmccray@mit.edu.

 

 

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About Project Protoball

 

 

Origins:  Project Protoball was conceived when it became clear that interesting new finds were still being added to our store of knowledge about the origins of baseball . . . and about earliest forms of ballplaying.

 

A few years ago, John Thorn and Tom Heitz assembled a helpful chronology of early baseball, one that listed about 70 key documented events from 2000 BC to the Civil War.  In 2000, Tom Altherr published a prize-winning paper in Nine that included scores of new citations to “baseball-like” games from 1621 to 1830.  Our project began as an attempt to build, and to maintain, a comprehensive tabulation of such evidence, adding bibliographic sources for each.

 

Aims:  Our central objective is to provide a wide range of primary and secondary information on the evolution of ballplaying to today’s researchers, so that they can identify interesting patterns readily -- and do so without chasing after elusive texts stored in libraries and personal collections around the globe.

 

We also believe that this website provides a way to remove unsupported claims from the literature.  Some early histories included plain errors, and some included generalizations that were not supported by evidence that came to light in later years. 

 

The Chronologies:  Our central online document is the Protoball Chronology, a listing of primary sources on known events in ballplaying.  Owing to recent finds by [most importantly] in David Block’s stunning 2005 book, Baseball Before We Knew It, in John Thorn’s recent research, and to a fresh scouring of the research notes of Harold Seymour and the 1905 Mills Commission files, the current version has about 1150 entries.  Recently, 27 “sub-chronologies have been added on topical areas – ballplaying on campus, in the military, by African Americans, etc.

 

The primary focus of the chronology, like the Protoball effort itself, is on what some term “bat-and-ball” games, but which are called “safe-haven” games at this site.  [The desire is to understand the evolution of ballgames that involve bases -- where runners are magically immune from harm -- and not to spotlight the many other games that employ striking clubs, such as golf, hurling, lawn tennis and other racquet sports, croquet, field hockey, lacrosse, and such ancient non-base games as soule, trap ball, bandy, kingball, ballstock, and northern spel.]  The site’s current time range is from Antiquity to 1862, with information now being collected for the years 1863-1871 for later inclusion.  The idea is that 1871 represents the beginning of the Pro Era and the end of the Protoball era.

 

Source Materials:  The Project’s files include a [often sparsely filled] folder for each entry in the chronology, and about twelve shelf-feet of baseball histories, each of which has at least nominal coverage of ballplaying prior to the advent of the Pro Era. 

 

Need a Hand?  We are happy to consult with site visitors about these assembled sources to help answer questions, to supply current Word versions of our documents upon request, and mail photocopies of requested file materials at cost, and to look up material held in the Buzz McCray Collection on Early Ballplaying.  The Project is centered at the Massachusetts home of Larry McCray, who can be reached at lmccray@mit.edu and at 125 Vine Street, Lexington MA 02420.

 

The Project has close ties to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).  Many of the individuals whose names appear on this site are SABR members, and SABR’s Nineteenth Century Baseball [19CBB] listserve is the primary venue for our discussions of the early evolution of ballplaying.  For more information on SABR, go to http://www.sabr.org/ or contact Larry.  From 2007 to present, Larry has served as Chair of the SABR Committee on the Origins of Baseball.

 

Protoball’s expenses are met, in part, by funds received from the late Vernon [Buzz] McCray, who loved Mets baseball and, for a below-average future college centerfielder, was a patient and proficient fungo-hitter.  And a lot more.

 

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Project Launch Advisors

 

 

Priscilla Astifan, Rochester, NY

Evelyn Begley, New York City

Tom Ruane, Poughkeepsie NY

George Thompson, New Paltz, New York

John Thorn, Kingston NY

 

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Other Special Contributions -- The Project is particularly indebted to John Thorn (Kingston NY), who offered enabling encouragements, access to his rich personal files, and many key strategic design ideas; to Dave Smith (Newark DE), impresario of the amazing Retrosheet data base, who offered substantial practical assistance; to Tom Ruane (Poughkeepsie NY), who is providing crucial advice, and hours of painstaking assistance, in organizing web space for the Project; to Paul Wendt (Watertown MA), former chair of SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee, who made innumerable helpful bibliographic and other practical suggestions, and whose 19CBB listserve is a continuous wellspring of data and perspectives on the evolution of ballplaying; to David Block (San Francisco), who has been extremely generous in providing both information and advice based on his prodigious new finds on early ballgames; to Phil McCray (Ithaca NY), who provided often patient advice and always savvy assistance in use of the Seymour Collection at Cornell University and baseball coverage in Syracuse newspapers; to Tim Wiles (Cooperstown NY), who provided broad early encouragement, and help in searching the files of the Giamatti Research Center at the Baseball Hall of Fame; to Craig Waff for conceiving and creating the Protoball Games Tabulation of known games up to 1860; and to cartographer Gregory Christiano, who has started an ambitious Protoball effort to document the early spread of base ball in Greater New York City.

 

 

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Contact Us

 

 

To contact the Protoball Project by email, write to lmccray@mit.edu.

 

The mailing address:

 

The Protoball Project

125 Vine Street

Lexington, MA 02420

USA

 

 

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Some Research Reports: Project Updates

 

Note: These brief summaries are taken from “The Next Destin’d Post,” a minimalist research summary updated every so often.  If you would like to be added to the email list for this update or have news to report, contact Larry McCray.

 

 

 

Tom Altherr [Conifer CO] has brought to light another big slug of references to early ballplaying.  His article in the spring 2008 in of Base Ball, Chucking the Old Apple; Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games, resulted in 33 new entries for the Protoball Chronology.  Included are references to ballplaying by slaves between 1797 and the 1840s, soldierly play between 1775 and 1815, and numerous accounts of campus ballgames between 1813 and about 1840.  [December 2008]

 

Tom has revised a paper he presented at NASSH in 2006 [“Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries in Pre-1839 North American Ball Games History”] for possible publication. His 2007 contribution at the Cooperstown symposium is based on further research and more theoretical speculations why baseball emerged in the late 18th an -early 19th centuries. It may appear in the next biennial anthology.  After his week in Cooperstown, Tom spent a very solid week researching at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester.  This has all led him to see a possible book on all pre-1840 North American games – base ball and beyond -- played with a ball.  [January 2008]

 

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David Arcidiacono [East Hampton, CT] has been looking to confirm the report that baseball gloves were first used in an 1858 Massachusetts-rule game.  Old-timers later recalled that a ball with a bullet core was put in play, and that players then donned gloves to protect their hands.  Contemporary accounts haven’t yet confirmed this story. [March 2007]

 

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Priscilla Astifan [Rochester NY] and a colleague discuss the predecessor game to Knicks-style base ball in upstate New York in “Old-Fashioned Base Ball” in Western New York, 1825-1860,” which appeared in the fall 2008 issue of Base Ball.  The article notes that until 1860 the unusually unnamed earlier game was still played competitively in several places.  About 20 news accounts from that time, and from later accounts of a number of “throwback” games, allow a partial picture of the nature of that earlier game.  Strong similarity to the Massachusetts Game is found.  [December 2008]

 

Priscilla is expanding her earlier work on early base ball in Rochester into a monograph, and has recently examined the circumstances surrounding Samuel Hopkins Adams’ famous story about base ball in the Flower City in 1827.  She and Larry McCray [Lexington MA] have drafted a 10-page research note on what was called “old-fashioned base ball” – it was portrayed as the predecessor to the New York game -- in Western New York State. [March 2007]

 

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David Block [San Francisco] contributed an article to the spring 2008 issue of Base Ball on what is recognized as the earliest appearance of the word “base-ball,” the John Newbery’s 1744 Little Pretty Pocket-Book.  David examines some remaining mysteries of this source [which gives us that ringing phrase, “the next destin’d post”] including whether we can claim 1744 as the year “base-ball” first saw print when no editions of the book are available prior to 1760, and whether the absence of a bat in the relevant woodcut means that the bat hadn’t yet joined the game – one can, of course, “bat” a ball with one’s hands, and the text only refers to a ball that is “struck off.”  [December 2008]

 

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“Gentlemen at the Bat” is the working title of Howard Burman’s [Felton CA] current book project, one that focuses on the Knickerbocker Club.  The book’s story is told by club members in the form of a collective oral history, in which Howard’s historical research is presented through the medium of fictionalized dialog.  His earlier books include one on Shoeless Joe Jackson and one on 1950’s stickball in New York.  [January 2008]

 

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Jerry Casway’s [Columbia MD] work continues on the 19th-century. He wrote an expanded piece on the Philadelphia Pythians and its captain, Octavius Catto. It will be published in Pennsylvania Legacies, a periodical for the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The issue, published in May, examines Negro baseball in Pennsylvania.  At the Cooperstown Symposium in June, Jerry presented “Which Irish Played Baseball in the Emerald Age?”  He is now finishing up a study of the life and career of Lipman Pike.  [January 2008]

 

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Kyle DeCicco-Carey [New Bedford MA] has begun collecting early references to trap ball.  His website, at http://scvbb.wordpress.com/category/19th-century-baseball/, includes many items on ballplaying before the pro era.  [December 2008]

 

Kyle is researching early base ball on the southern coast of Massachusetts, from Fall River to New Bedford.  He reports finding a 33-inning Massachusetts-rules game from 1858, and has discovered that New Bedford clubs in those days were willing to play by either NY or MA rules. [March 2007]

 

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Researcher and author John Freyer [Chicago] reports that his interest is still Chicago-area baseball from back before the National League.  Among other feats, he has accumulated every Chicago box score between the years 1859 and the Chicago Fire in 1871.  He also enjoys researching New York baseball before the Civil War.  John has an ongoing project of bat and ball games over history, from Wicket to Wiffleball, but hasn't determined whether it amounts to a new book. Currently, John is working with others to establish a Chicago Baseball Museum, and serves as the project’s ad hoc historian.  [January 2008]

 

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The Vintage Base Ball Association’s [VBBA] recently-installed president is Glenn Drinkwater [Rochester NY].  One of Glenn’s objectives is to review the organization’s Rules and Customs program to reinforce historical accuracy.  Glenn is in touch with Peter Morris, Fred Ivor-Campbell, and Tom Schieber as part of that initiative.  [January 2008]

 

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Murray Dubin and Daniel Biddle are completing a book on the civil rights movement in the US in the 19th century, tentatively titled There Must Come a Change: Murder, Baseball and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America.  The book, slated for 2010 release, will include a chapter covering black baseball and the effort to integrate pro baseball in the late 1860s by the Pythians in Philadelphia and what may be the first game between whites and blacks, played in 1869.  [December 2008]

 

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César Gonzalez [San Pedro, Mexico] is exploring the origins of baseball in Mexico and Cuba.  His article “A New Perspective on Mexican Baseball Origins” appeared in the inaugural issue of Base Ball.  [January 2008]

 

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Brock Helander [Sacramento CA] is collecting information on baseball history in towns -- like Syracuse and Troy NY -- that once had, but then lost, major league teams.  Brock is at helander@neteze.com if you want to know more, or to help out. [March 2007]

 

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Richard Hershberger [Baltimore] has begun research on the creation of the New York game.  [December 2008]

 

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Beth Hise [New South Wales, Australia] notes that April 2010 is the time slotted for her exhibition on Cricket and Baseball at the Marylebone Cricket Club [Lord’s Grounds] in London.  It is possible that the exhibit would also be shown in Australia and at Cooperstown afterward.  Part of the exhibition will focus on bat and balls games prior to 1840, and Beth is looking into stoolball history and the 1755 William Bray diary as well.  [December 2008]

 

Long-term preparation for a special exhibit on cricket and baseball is under way by Beth.  The exhibit is slated for spring of 2010 at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, home of the MCC cricket museum, where Beth serves as a guest curator.  The exhibit may also tour in the US and Australia.  For details, contact Beth at bethhise@bigpond.net. au.  Beth, a Yale-educated Cleveland Indians fan, has 20 years experience in curating social-history events at Australian and American museums.  [January 2008]

 

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The UK Chapter of SABR is preparing to resume publication of The Examiner, which has given us several accounts of members’ research on English ballplaying [see http://www.sabruk.org/examiner/index.html.]  Martin Hoerchner [Kent, England], who has uncovered contemporary stoolball and trap ball in the olde country, is leading the renewed effort. [March 2007]

 

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In addition to helping lead the Boston SABR Chapter and pushing along an anthology of Deadball Era baseball poetry, Joanne Hulbert [Holliston MA is working on a local project that brings together the histories of the Massachusetts game and the NY Game as they impacted one small town -- Holliston.  She sees a big story in these local events.  She says that when one wanders around among the ghosts of the game, the stories are impressive: they involve triumph and tragedy, sex and violence, pathos and drama.  Besides, she lives in the original Mudville, and that’s part of the story. Her tentative title: For Fun, Money or Marbles: How Baseball Transformed a Perfectly Good Town.  She hasn’t set a target date for publication yet. [January 2008]

 

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John Husman [Sylvania, OH] is the author of “Ohio’s First Baseball Game; Played by Confederates and Taught to Yankees” which appeared in the spring 2008 issue of Base Ball.  The match game itself, apparently played by New York rules, took place at a Civil War military prison on a Lake Erie island near Sandusky OH in August 1864.  John concludes that the southern players, who were gentleman officers having connections to eastern US culture, were the ones who introduced the new game to local Ohioans.  [December 2008]

 

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A book-length evaluative history of baseball from 1845 to 1857 -- Knickerbocker Base Ball -- is occupying Fred Ivor-Campbell [Bristol RI].  A first segment, treating the 1857 base ball convention, is slated for the second issue of Base Ball. [March 2007]

 

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Wendy Knickerbocker's [Castine ME] main baseball research interest is Billy Sunday. However, she is also interested in American cultural history in general, and while doing research on a book about a contemporary of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she was delighted to find [and to submit for the Protoball chronology] an entry on baseball from Emerson's journals. It was while reading Emerson's journals to get a handle on Emerson’s friendship with (and admiration for) her current research subject, Edward T. Taylor, that she found the June 1840 baseball reference [see Protoball entry 1840.20], which imagines that some young ballplayers feel “a faint sense of being a tyrannical Jupiter driving spheres madly from their orbits.”  [January 2008]

 

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Jim Lannen [Ann Arbor MI] has just completed coding all of the 178 rich entries in David Block’s bibliography in Baseball Before We Knew It for SABR’s Baseball Index [http://www.baseballindex.org/].  In doing this, Jim has added several new search codes to TBI, including stool-ball, trap-ball, trapstick, cat, and tipcat.  [January 2008]

 

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Jeremy LeBlanc [West Boylston MA] is particularly interested in the period between 1830 and 1870, and in black baseball before the Negro Leagues.

 

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A chronology of the evolution of ballmaking has been assembled by Rob Loeffler [Rancho Santa Margarita CA].  It appears elsewhere on this Protoball site.  Rob has a collection of photos of well over 200 19th C baseballs and is analyzing them to estimate their size and weight.   [March 2007]

 

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Base Ball Discovered continues to charm audiences.  The MLB Advanced Media documentary on baseball’s origins, written and produced by Sam Marchiano [New York], received the Award for Baseball Excellence at the 3rd annual Baseball Film Festival at the Hall of Fame in September.  The award recognizes the film that best captures “research, factual accuracy, historical context, and appreciation of the game.”  This follows the warm reception Sam was given at this year’s SABR Convention in Cleveland, where she addressed the SABR Origins Committee and screened the film for a packed house of conventioneers.  Others agree:  Vin Scully calls the film a “grand slam,” and the unexcitable George Will calls it “fascinating.”  [December 2008]

 

MLB Advanced Media is preparing a full-length documentary on the origins of baseball.  Directed by Sam, Origins of the Game traces baseball back to its early roots, and shows why predecessor games from outside the US are just now being considered integral parts of the sport's evolution.  The crew consulted with SABR’s John Thorn, David Block, and Martin Hoerchner, among others, in piecing the story together.  And its work in England in June led to an original find of a 1755 diary entry referring to young adults playing "base ball."  [David describes this lucky disclosure in the Fall 2007 issue of Base Ball.]  The MLB.com crew spent a damp week filming games of stoolball, rounders, cricket, and trapball.  There were times when a combination of equipment malfunction, rain, noisy low-flying aircraft, and early-morning auto mishaps might have discouraged a weaker soul, but Sam kept on smiling.

 

MLB Advanced Media runs the website MLB.com.  Sam, who has covered ports for nearly 20 years, has worked there since 2003, receiving two Emmy nominations, including one for the 2006 documentary Vintage Base Ball.

 

The documentary is scheduled to be released online at about the All-Star break of 2008.  Online viewing will be free, with downloads available at a fee.

 

"The Next Destin’d Post will provide additional details on the release of The Origins of the Game" when they become available.  [January 2008]

 

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Larry McCray [Lexington MA] has put an initial Glossary of Games onto the Protoball website.  This primitive listing includes about 120 distinct games, and names of games, of potential interest to those contemplating the full range of baseball-like games.  Corrections and additions [Tom Altherr tipped us off on the game of chermany, said to resemble baseball, found in Virginia and the south] are welcome.  Most of the games entail safe-haven bases.  [December 2008]

 

Larry is succeeding Mike Ross [London] as chair of SABR’s Committee on the Origins of Baseball.  Mike has led the SABR-UK chapter for many years, including its creative early examination of the British roots of baseball in the 1990s.  [January 2008]

 

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Wayne McElreavy [Claremont NH] is trying to piece together the history of baseball in the Claremont area.  [January 2008]

 

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The earliest days of California base ball are being investigated by Angus Macfarlane [San Francisco CA].  He identifies the local Knickerbockers as the first CA team, and is working with Mexican historian Cesar Gonzalez to ascertain the role of the New York Volunteer Regiment, which sailed to CA in 1846, in implanting baseball in Mexico. [March 2007]

 

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Eric Miklich [North Babylon NY] joined the Vintage Base Ball Association’s Rules and Interpretations Committee in summer 2008.  He remains active in Bethpage NY’s 19th Century Base Ball Program, the oldest in the US.  Eric’s fine website, http://www.19cbaseball.com/, has several items pertinent to the origins of base ball, including a detailed listing of rule changes starting in 1854, the early evolution of ballplaying equipment, and treatment of the baseball’s predecessor games.  [December 2008]

 

Eric, author of a compendium of 19th Century rule changes, is currently researching information on the history of pitching deliveries for an article for his website, www.19cbaseball.com.  Eric is hoping to release a new book on base ball in the 1860’s by next summer.  This book, written in part with the perspective of someone with extensive VBB experience, will offer suggestions of why certain rules evolved as they did.  [January 2008]

 

The next book from Peter Morris [Haslett MI] will be Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an Iconic American Folk Hero, due out in spring 2009.  The book centers on the later professional era, but also covers the catchers of the 1860s.

 

Along with Richard Malatzky and John Thorn, Peter is guiding The Pioneer Project toward print.  The project goal is to comprise histories of a large number of the oldest base ball clubs, including many from the 1850s and 1860s.  The two dozen writers now at their drafting tables include David Arcidiacono, Priscilla Astifan, David Ball, Fred Burwell, John Bowman, Frank Ceresi, Ben Dettmer, Scott Fiesthumel, Robert Gregory, César Gonzalez, Richard Hershberger, Bill Humber, Jeff Kittel, Angus Macfarlane, Richard Malatzky, Peter Morris, Greg Perkins, Jeff Sackmann, Trey Strecker, John Thorn, Dixie Tourangeau, Brian Turner, Craig Waff, and John Zinn.  For more details on the project, go to;

http://www.petermorrisbooks.com/pioneer_project.htm. [December 2008

 

SABR’s Seymour Medal, awarded to “the best book of baseball history or biography from the previous year,” was awarded to Peter for the amazing two-volume Game of Inches [Ivan R. Dee, 2006].  He thinks of his book as “a never-ending project,” and in that vein he is posting updates to the book on his website at http://www.petermorrisbooks.com.  Peter reports that the work has gone through several printings, with sales of about 4000 copies.

 

Peter’s next publication will be But Didn’t We Have Fun, which examines the first generation of ballplayers, and is based on “dozens of previously unpublished or unavailable reminiscences.”  It is slated for release in March 2008. [January 2008].

 

Peter’s latest book is Level Playing Fields: How the Groundskeeping Murphy Brothers Shaped Baseball.  It includes coverage of the development of early ball fields before 1872.   Peter’s next project is a textbook on the history of baseball from 1840-1870, and will include the scoop from many new sources that Peter has turned up. [March 2007]

 

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David Nevard [Waltham MA] has researched and written Wikipedia pieces on Town Ball and the Massachusetts Game, and has also written a brief overview of the class of safe haven games for the site.  Next: he will try to understand, and explain, what those “old-cat” games were all about. [March 2007]

 

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“The Cartwright Conundrum:  Fact and Fiction of Cartwright’s Baseball Legacy” was the subject of a poster session by Monica Nucciarone at the SABR 36 convention.  She is in the rewrite phase of her treatise on Alexander Cartwright, and may present some results at the St. Louis SABR convention.  She spent part of last April doing research in Hawaii. [March 2007]

 

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Pre-Civil War town ball in Cincinnati is the subject of an article by Greg Perkins in the fall 2008 issue of Base Ball. The article, “The Cincinnati Game: Townball in Cincinnati, 1858-1866,” traces the rise of a distinctive form of town ball [with a hexagonal infield, and with bases 60 feet apart, and with an all-out-side-out rule] before the War.  Covington KY fielded 10 townball clubs, and 28 Cincinnati games received newspaper coverage in summer 1858 alone [average score, 155 to 112, most games lasting four innings, average team size of over 12 players].  Greg, who majored in history at the University of Cincinnati, is now collecting information on Henry M. Millar, a Cincinnati reporter who traveled with the 1869 Red Stockings and later wrote a memoir of the experience.  [December 2008]

 

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Dennis Pajot [Milwaukee] is working on a monograph on the history of baseball in Milwaukee from its earliest appearance in the late 1850s.  The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball: The Cream City from Midwestern Outpost to the Major Leagues, 1859-1901 is slotted for publication by McFarland in 2009.  [December 2008]

 

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Marty Payne [Saint Michaels MD] continues to explore the influence of the advent of the New York Game on rural towns.  He is finding that The New York game (along with improved transportation) brought competition, and had a profound social, economic, and cultural impact on small towns that previous, less structured versions of ballplay did not.  Marty has also consulted with vintage clubs in his area that formed in the last year.  [January 2008]

 

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Had you assumed that stoolball is now only to be found in very old English love poems?  Wrong.  John and Kay Price [Horsham, England] and their colleagues are actively looking after Stoolball England even as you read this.  In 2008, Sport England, the funding body for British sport, officially “recognised” stoolball as a national game, but [unlike rounders] it is not as yet supported with public funds.  In August, the Angmering club, from the south coast of England, won the Sussex League Championship, scoring 293 runs to outmatch the 106 runs managed by Horsted Keynes from central Sussex.

 

Contemporary interest in stoolball has been expressed in Roujan in southern France, where a club from Kent has been hosted during the last two Easter holidays; in Augusta, Maine, where re-enactment games have been played; in India, where ten states have joined the Indian Stoolball Federation; in Pakistan, where another Stoolball Federation has formed; in Japan, where stoolball broadcasts may be relayed on TV in the coming year; and in Thailand, where schools have shown interest.  John and Kay are also working with Beth Hise on including stoolball in the 2010 exhibition on early ballplay at Lord’s.  [December 2008]

 

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A narrative history of baseball from 1845 to the Civil War is being put together by Bill Ryczek [Wallingford CT].  Look for it to hit the shelves next year.  [January 2008]

 

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SABR-UK maintains an interest in the origins of baseball. A handsome compilation of articles on the English roots of baseball in 1995-2003 issues of the SABR-UK Examiner has been produced by Martin Hoerchner [Orpington, Kent, England].  The material was distributed at the June 20 meeting of SABR’s UK chapter in London, which was addressed by David Block and Jules Tygiel.  [January 2008]

 

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Dan Selz [New York] and associates are collecting information for a prospective documentary on the meaning of baseball for localities.  They have interviewed Priscilla Astifan about events in early Rochester.  [March 2007]

 

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Andrew Schiff [Brooklyn NY] notes that his new biography of Henry Chadwick, The Father of Baseball, is scheduled for early 2008.  To order this $29.95 McFarland offering, or for more details, go to http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/ and search “Schiff.”  [January 2008]

 

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John Schiffert [Newnan, GA] identifies his continuing primary interest as baseball [and base ball] in Philadelphia, not the easiest choice for someone living far from the local sources at Temple University and the Free Library of Philadelphia.  His Base Ball in Philadelphia [McFarland, 2007] is out, with contributions from our colleagues Altherr, Casway, Helander, Hershberger, Thorn, and Marshall Wright, but John still longs to know such things as “did the Olympic Club there really, as Robert Smith wrote in 1993, play on a diamond-shaped field? What was Smith's source for that assertion? And who were the original Olympics . . . a bunch of local rope-makers?”  He admits to having thoughts about doing a more extensive book on Philadelphia’s hardball origins, once Georgia and the people at Clayton State University let go of him.  [January 2008]

 

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Bob Tholkes [Minneapolis] has founded and is editing Origins, the monthly e-newsletter of the SABR Committee on the Origins of Baseball.  Bob also edits The Base Ball Player’s Chronicle, the Vintage Base Ball Association’s three-times-a-year newsletter.  [December 2008]

 

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George Thompson [New York NY] recently re-discovered the elusive 1859 NY Tribune article that challenges the superiority of the New York Game to the Massachusetts Game. George continues to examine all aspects of life in New York City from the 1790s to 1860, including all varieties of sports. [March 2007]

 

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John Thorn’s [Kingston NY] take on the pre-Knickerbocker era appeared in “The Magnolia, the Knickerbocker, and the Age of Flash” in the fall 2008 issue of Base Ball.  Just when we’ve all gotten comfortable with the idea that some nice young professional men played the key role in establishing base ball as the US game in

1845, here comes John to show us that an earlier club, one with close connections to taverns, to decidedly ungenteel personages, and to political strongmen.  His note:  “It must have rankled the ballplaying Knickerbockers that they had to share . . . their game with a bunch of ruffians.” [December 2008]

 

Conceived and edited by John, the new McFarland offering Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game will be appearing soon.  The inaugural issue will have several substantial articles on pre-1870 ballplaying, including Joanne Hulbert’s work on Fast Day in Massachusetts, Angus McFarland’s work on San Francisco’s first team, Fred Ivor-Campbell’s take on the 1857 Convention, and John’s reflections on that surprising find of bafeball in 1791 Pittsfield MA. [March 2007]

 

--

Craig Waff [Beavercreek, OH] has compiled an initial table of known “base ball” games – including those played by New York and Massachusetts rules and town ball games in Philadelphia and Cincinnati – played in the 1845 to 1860 period.  The table includes about 1000 games, about three times the number to be found in Peverelly [1866] and in Wright [2000], and incorporates generous samplings of text from newspaper accounts for many of them.  For more on Project Protoball’s Games Tabulation, go to http://retrosheet.org/Protoball/GamesTab.htm, which has links to lists for the greater New York area and 18 other regions.  For each game Craig supplies the date, location, source, and any significant game account excerpts.

 

In the process of amassing the mega-table, Craig has found newspaper accounts of three early triple plays and what may be the first “over-the-fence” home run.  Craig is now researching the 1860 tours of the Brooklyn Excelsiors and is preparing essays on the Atlantic, Star, and Enterprise teams of Brooklyn for the Pioneer Project. [December 2008]

 

Trained in the history of science, Craig is focusing for now on early ball in New York and Brooklyn, and on games played on ice skates in the mid-1800s.  He has been using the online databases of the New York Times and Brooklyn Daily Eagle to not only track the development of interest in astronomy in New York City and Brooklyn in the late 19th century, but also to collect systematically, for the PROTOBALL archives, copies of all baseball-related articles that appeared in these newspapers up to 1860.  During that search he discovered what may be the first recorded triple play (occurring on 16 April 1859).  He is also researching the winter baseball games played with skates on ice from 1860 to 1887.  [January 2008]

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Back to Top

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Evolution of the Baseball Up To 1872

 

Contributed by Rob Loeffler, 3/1/2007

Rancho Santa Margarita, California 92688

loefflerrd@cox.net

rloeffler@advgeoenv.com

 

 

The following chronology represents key points in the development of the baseball in the time period of the early 1800s to 1872. The information listed is based on research that I have been conducting on the development of the baseball in the 19th Century over the last 6 years. Any additional information to further refine this timeline would be greatly appreciated.

 

Pre-1845: Baseballs are constructed of cores consisting of nuts, bullets, rocks or shoe rubber gum and even sturgeon eyes [1a – 1d] wrapped with yarn and covered in leather or sheepskin in the lemon-peel style or the belt/gusset ball style. Both cover styles are identical to those used in feathery golf balls from the 1700s. Typically homemade, the sizes ranged anywhere from 5.1 to 9.8 inches in circumference and could weigh anywhere from 1 oz. to 7 oz. with the typical baseball weighing 3 oz. Because outs were made by “soaking” a runner in the game of rounders or town ball, the early baseballs were typically lighter. [1e]

 

1845 – 1854: The Knickerbockers developed and adopted the New York Game style of baseball in September 1845 in part to play a more dignified game that would attract adults. The removal of the “soaking” rule allowed the Knickerbockers to develop a harder baseball that was more like a cricket ball. [1e]

 

Dr. D.L. Adams of the Knickerbocker team stated that he produced baseballs for the various teams in New York in the 1840s and through 1858. He would produce the balls using 3 to 4 oz of rubber as a core, then wound with yarn and covered with leather. [2a]

 

1854: Joint rules committee at Smith’s Tavern, New York: The weight of the ball was increased to 5 ½ to 6 ounces and the diameter to 2 ¾ to 3 ½ inches, (a variance in circumference from 8 5/8 to 11 inches). [3a]

1858: Dedham Rules of the Massachusetts Game specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than two, nor more than two and three-quarter ounces, avoirdupois. It must measure not less than six and a half, nor more than eight and a half inches in circumference, and must be covered with leather.” [4a]

William Cutler of Natick, MA reportedly designs the Figure 8 cover. The design was sold to Harrison Harwood. [4b]

Harrison Harwood develops the first baseball factory (H. Harwood and Sons) in Natick, Massachusetts. Baseballs that are manufactured at this facility include the Figure 8 design as well as the lemon peel design. [4c]

1860: National Association of Baseball Players rules specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than five and three-fourths, nor more than six ounces avoirdupois. It must measure not less than nine and three-fourths, nor more than ten inches in circumference. It must be composed of India rubber and yarn, and covered with leather, and, in all match games, shall be furnished by the challenging club, and become the property of the winning club, as a trophy of victory.” [5a]

 

 

1863: Weeks patents the cork center ball for use in cricket [6a]

 

1863 - 1866: National Association of Baseball Players rules specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than five and one-half, nor more than five and three-fourths ounces, avoirdupois. It must measure not less than nine and one-half, nor more than nine, and three-fourths inches in circumference. It must be composed of India-rubber and yarn, and covered with leather, and, in all match games, shall be furnished by the challenging club, and become the property of the winning club as a trophy of victory.” [7a]

 

1860s – 1870: At least 9 manufacturers are producing baseballs during this time period, including 1) Harwood and Sons, Natick, MA, 2) Ryan and Harvey Ross, NY, 3) John Van Horn, NY, 3) Edward Horsman, NY, 4) Andrew Peck and Co., 5) Peck and Snyder, 6) Rice, NY, 7) S.W. Brock, NY, 8) George Ellard, Cincinnati, OH, and 9) John Whiting, NY. [ 8a]. One NY manufacturer is reported to have produced 162,000 baseballs in 1870 alone. [8b]

 

1870: The New York Rubber Company reportedly manufactures a ball with a rubber cover which is deemed a failure for baseball uses because the rubber cover tears easily.

 

1872: National Association of Baseball Players rules specifies that “The ball must weigh not less than five nor more than five and one quarter ounces avoirdupois. It must measure not less than nine nor more than nine inches and one-quarter inches in circumference. It must be composed of India rubber and yarn, and covered with leather. The quantity of rubber used in the composition of the ball shall be one ounce, and the rubber used shall be vulcanized and in mould form. The ball is required to weigh not less than 5 and not more than 5 1/4 ounces, with a circumference of not less than 9 and not more than 9 1/4 inches.” [9a]

 

 

REFERENCES

 

 

[1a]. Woodbury Reporter, March 6, 1926. 70 Years Ago, Youths Made Balls at Home.

 

George F. Morris, a Woodbury resident, recalls that overshoes were made from pure rubber gum and were salvaged by boys when they were worn out. Strips of rubber from the ball, wound into an egg-sized ball and baked in an oven until the rubber could be pressed into a solid ball. Yarn was then wound around the ball and a cobbler would be paid $ 0.25 to sew on a cover.

 

[1b]. Brooklyn Eagle, February 3rd 1884

 

Base Balls. Manner and Extent of the Manufacture in this Country – How they were Made Fifty Years Ago – Gradual Growth of the Business – Preparing for the Next Season’s Trade – Dead Balls Going Out of Favor – Ball Makers’ Wages.

 

An article discussing the early development of the baseballs. This article discusses the use of overshoe rubber to make a core for the baseball. In the lake regions, sturgeon eyes were used as a core. The article also discusses the business of making baseballs in the 1870s and 1880s.

 

[1c]. New York Times, April 30, 1871

Base Balls. Manner and Extent of the Manufacture in this Country – How they were Made Fifty Years Ago – Gradual Growth of the Business – Preparing for the Next Season’s Trade – Dead Balls Going Out of Favor – Ball Makers’ Wages.

 

An article discussing the early development of the baseballs. This article discusses the use of overshoe rubber to make a core for the baseball. In the lake regions, sturgeon eyes were used as a core. The article also discusses the business of making baseballs in the 1870s and 1880s.

 

[1d]. Major League Baseball Official Program, American League Championship Series, 1996

 

An article by Tim Wiles, titled “What a Ball” about the history of the baseball.

 

 

 [1e]. Gilbert, 1995, Elysian Fields, The Birth of Baseball, pg. 16 – 17.

 

Includes a discussion of the Knickerbockers development of a harder baseball due to the removal of the “soaking” rule.

 

[2a]. Sporting News, February 29, 1896

 

Dr. D.L. Adams, Memoirs of the Father of Baseball. Dr. Adams reminisces about the early days of baseball when he was member of the Knickerbockers. Dr. Adams recalls that for six or seven years, he made all of the baseballs for his team as well as the other local teams. He discusses that he would use three or four ounces of rubber cuttings, wound with yarn and then covered with leather. It was not until 1858 that he found a saddler that would produce the ball for them.

 

Sullivan reprints this article in Early Innings, A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908, pages 13-18.

 

[3a]. Peverelly, 1866, The Book of American Pastimes, pgs. 346 – 348.

 

An annual joint meeting between the Knickerbockers, Gotham and Eagle clubs was held on April 1, 1854 at Smith’s Tavern in New York. The rules of baseball were revised and rule 17 dictated the weight and size of the baseball.

 

[4a]. Massachusetts Association of Base Ball Players, May 13, 1858

 

The Massachusetts Association of Base Ball Players convened to codify the rules of the Massachusetts Game (town ball) in Dedham, Massachusetts. Rule one discusses the ball size and weight.

 

[4b]. Bob Schaefer, http:/groups.yahoo.com/group/19cBB/message/2146

 

Mr. Schaefer indicates that he received information from the Natick Historical Society that Col. William Cutler designed the figure 8 ball cover in his kitchen at 10 West Central Street, Natick, MA around the year 1858. The idea was then sold to the Harwoods.

 

[4c]. Natick Baseball Factory, http:/www.natickhistory.com/timeline/baseball.html

 

A small article on the Natick Baseball Factory by the Natick Historical Society and Museum. I have a photo of a lemon peel ball and it’s box that Harwood manufactured, indicating that they made both types of baseballs.

 

 

[5a]. 1860 National Association of Baseball Players, Rules and Regulations Adopted by the National Association of Baseball Players - New York, March 14th 1860. This reference is available online at http://opensite.org//Sports/Baseball/History/Rules/1860_National_Association_of_Baseball_Players/

 

[6a]. In 1863, an Englishman named Weeks patented a cork center ball for cricket. http://webusers.npl.uiuc.edu/~a-nathan/pob/evolution.html

 

Although not directly related to the baseball before the 1870s, this fact is important to the later development of the baseball. In 1910, George Reach developed the first cork-centered baseball.

 

 

[7a]. 1866 National Association of Baseball Players, Rules and Regulations Adopted by the National Association of Baseball Players, Held in New York, December 12th 1866. This reference is available online at http://opensite.org//Sports/Baseball/History/Rules/1866_National_Association_of_Baseball_Players/

 

Although this rule is commonly associated with 1866, these ball dimensions were in use by the National Association of Baseball Players on December 1863. The 1863 rules can be found in the 1864 edition of The American Boy’s Book of Sports and Games, pgs. 89-93.

 

[8a]. Robert Loeffler, 19th Century Baseball Manufacturers

 

[8b]. New York Times, April 30, 1871.

 

Bats, Balls and Mallets. Concerning the Implements of Base-Ball - Facts, Figures and Fancies About the Trade- Neglected Cricket and Fascinating Croquet – Games that Have Gone Out, and Games That Ought to Come In – A Plea for Ladies’ Archery Meetings.

 

 

[9a]. The Rules of Baseball for 1873, as Revised by the National Association in 1872.  http://wiki.vbba.org/index.php/Rules/1873

 

 

 

19th Century Baseball Manufacturers

1. Harwood Baseball Factory – 1858 – 1890s
Corner of Walnut Street and North Avenue, Natick, MA

2. Andrew Peck & Co. – 1858 – mid-1860s
105 Nassau Street, N.Y.
(merged with Snyder to become Peck and Snyder around 1868)
(started stitching baseballs after in 1866 after returning from
Civil War – obit)

 

3. John C. Whiting - 1861
87 Fulton Street, P.O. Box 2217
, New York


4. John Van Horn – 1860s - 1870s
No. 33 Second Avenue, New York
("dead" ball commonly used by National Association (1871 - 1875))

5. Ryan and Harvey Ross – 1860s – 1870s
Park Avenue
, Brooklyn

6
. Rice – 1860s – 1870
Nassau Street, NY

(considered one of the earliest base ball manufacturers)
(sold company to S.W. Brock in 1870)

 

7. Edward I. Horsman – 1862 to late 1860s
124 South Sixth Street
, New York

80, 82, 100 William Street, New York

8. Peck and Snyder – late 1860s – 1890s
105 Nassau Street, NY (original Andrew Peck & Co.
address)

22 Ann Street, New York (moved to 126 Nassau address on
May 1st 1870)
: 126 Nassau Street, New York (at least 1866 into mid-1870s)
(Bought out by Spalding in 1894)

94. George Ellard – 1869 – 1880s
143 Main Street
, Cincinnati

(Cincinnati Red Stockings reportedly used the Ellard Ball in
1869 and 1870)


10. Waugh – Early 1870's

222 and 224 Ninth Avenue, New York

 

11. Ward B. Snyder – 1870s
84 Fulton Street, NY

(formerly of Peck and Snyder)

12. S.W. Brock – 1870s
Nassau Street
, New York

(purchased Rice in 1870)

 

13. S.W. Rice and Co. – 1870s – 1880s
147 Fulton Street
, New York

(probably the same Rice that sold earlier company to S.W. Brock
in 1870)

 

14. J. Ryan and Co. – 1870s – 1880s
121 Nassau Street
, New York

(National Association made the Ryan Ball the official
championship ball in 1873)

 

15. A.J. Reach Co., – 1874 – 1883 and beyond
1113 Market Street, Philadelphia
1022 Market Street, Philadelphia
(bought by Spalding – 1889)
(manufactured the American Association ball beginning in 1883)

 

16. Phillip Goldsmith and Sons, Inc. 1875 – 1899 (and beyond)
Cincinnati, OH
(Phillip Goldsmith living in Covington, KY in 1880 census)

 

17. Josh Giblin – 1875
Boston, MA
(patented ball with palm heart pill and rubber cover)

 

18. A.G. Spalding & Bros. – 1876 – 1899
108 Madison, Chicago (1876)
126 – 130 Nassau, New York (1884)
Hastings, Michigan – factory
(manufactured the official ball of the National League
beginning in 1878)

 

19. Samuel Hipkiss – 1876
Boston, MA
(patented ball with bell inside)

 

20. Wolf Fletcher – 1876
Covington, KY
(patented baseball manufacturing machine)

 

21. Mahn Sporting Goods Company – 1877 - 1880s
(James Osgood receives patent for Louis Mann for baseball
cover in 1876)

(ball commonly used by National Association (1871 - 1875))
(manufactured the American Association ball in 1882)

 

22. W.B. Carr and Co./Wilson and Carr – late 1870s - 1880s
136 N. Portland Avenue
, Brooklyn also Box 19 at Brooklyn Daily
Eagle office (1884)
245 and 247 Gold Street, Brooklyn (1879)

23
. Wright and Ditson Sporting Goods – 1880 – 1890s
580 Washington Street
, Boston

970 Washington, Boston – 1880s
(purchased by Spalding in 1891)
(manufactured the Union Association ball in 1884 (only year
in existence)
)

 

24 Charles Edwards – 1880s
61 Fulton Street
, Brooklyn

25
. J. Carr and Seaman – 1880s
245 Gold Street
, Brooklyn(1886 classified - NY Times)
581 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn (1886 classified – NY Times)

2
6. J. Shibe Co. – 1880s – 1890s
223 North Eighth Street
, Philadelphia


27. T.F. Griffins – 1880s
36 Gold Street
, Brooklyn, NY


28. Samuel Castle – 1883
Bridgeport, CT
(patented the seamless ball and was marketed by A.J. Reach Co.)

29. Thomas Taylor – 1883
Bridgeport, CT
(patented baseball manufacturing machine)

 

30. Keefe and Becannon – 1884 - 1890s
157 Broadway, New York
(an early customer was the New York Catholic Literary League)
(manufactured the Players National League of Base Ball Clubs
ball)


31. Ben Newell – 1889
Boston, MA
(patented ball winding machine)

 

32. Overman Wheel Co. – 1890s
23 Warren Street
, New York


 

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