THE NEW GAME CATCHES ON

In the first few years following that monumental summer of 1846, when baseball was introduced to the world at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, this new game of Alexander Cartwright's was mainly confined to the New York-New Jersey area.

The Knickerbockers themselves continued to play at Elysian Fields, as rampant urbanization had made it difficult for them to find a suitable playing field in Manhattan. Other groups of young men soon formed baseball clubs for both social camaraderie, and to challenge the Knickerbockers at their own game, the most prominent of these were: the Gotham Club of New York, which was formed in 1850 (originally called the Washington Club), followed in 1854 by the Eagle and Empire Clubs, also of New York, and the Excelsior Club of Brooklyn.

Three more important Brooklyn clubs soon came along, the Putnam Club was formed in 1855, and the Eckfords and the Atlantics were established in 1856. (The latter two were workingmen's clubs, in contrast to the previous clubs which were composed of mid to upper class gentlemen).

In the meantime, dozens of lesser, more casual baseball teams had come into existence, as baseball mania began to sweep the New York area. Bakers, laborers, clerks, mechanics and men from all walks of life had caught baseball fever and by the mid to late 1850's more than a hundred baseball clubs flourished in and around New York City, as it seemed like every male in the vicinity had started to play the game, and hundreds of spectators lined the foul lines to watch them.

By 1857 the game had traveled far beyond the confines of New York City and had emerged in a scattered pattern in various locations all over the continent... spread there with the help of America's new and ever expanding railroad network, and accounts of the game in such early newspapers as the New York "Clipper" and "Porter's Spirit of the Times".

In New York State, places like Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, and Troy all had local teams in the mid to late 1850's and the New York game soon slipped across the Canadian border, as both Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario had baseball clubs as early as 1859.

The first known team to play the New York game in New England was the Tri-Mountain Club of Boston in 1857. Also in 1857, the Minerva Club was formed in Philadelphia to play the New York game in that city. In the next few years they were joined by the Winona, United and Benedict clubs, and then in 1860 a group of Philadelphia lawyers and merchants formed the Athletic Base Ball Club, which is the predecessor of the very same A's that now play for Oakland in the American League.

In Detroit, the Franklin Club was organized to play baseball in 1857 and, that same year, there were reports of baseball clubs springing up in Cleveland, Chicago and even in the Minnesota Territory.

On the west coast, a baseball club called the Eagles (named after the New York Eagles) was formed in San Francisco in 1859. Baseball had been introduced there by two migrants from New York; Alfred DeForest Cartwright (Alexander's Brother) and Frank Turk, a former Knickerbocker. And baseball was even flourishing in Hawaii in the 1850's... brought there by the master himself, Alexander Cartwright.

In Washington D.C. two baseball teams composed mainly of government clerks, the Potomac Club and the Nationals, practiced and played each other in the back yard of the White House in 1859. And that same year, there were reports of this new form of baseball being played as far south as New Orleans.

So, in the first ten to fifteen years after it's inception, the Knickerbocker game had not only taken New York City by storm, but it was also being played in scattered regions all over the country... and in another ten years total saturation would be complete!

BASEBALL GOES TO WAR

The Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, played a major role in the spread of baseball nationally. Union soldiers from the northeast often played baseball for recreation behind the lines. Other Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners watched them and learned the game. And when the war was over they took baseball home with them and taught it to others. The game spread like wildfire and soon people in cities and towns and on farms in all parts of the country were playing baseball.

The game had definitely arrived!

During the latter half of the 1860's, teams sprouted up everywhere, from the small towns to the big cities, and it was along about this time that people began to see the commercial possibilities of the game. The concept of enclosing the field and then charging the spectators to enter the grounds, which had first began on a regular basis at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn in 1862, was becoming more and more prevalent.

THE GAME GETS ROWDIER

Baseball was no longer the gentleman's game that it was in Cartwright's day though... a rowdier element had taken over baseball and drinking and umpire baiting at games became commonplace. Open gambling, not only by the fans but by the players and even by the umpires, was prevalent. In many places women were strongly advised to stay away from the ballparks.

The players were generally considered to be amateurs, but many were paid for their services, either under the table or by having fake jobs arranged for them. To be considered a professional baseball player was bad form in those days. You were supposed to be playing for the fun of it... or pretending to. One example of this early hypocrisy took place in 1867 when 16 year old pitching ace Al Spalding was offered a "job" as a clerk with a Chicago grocery wholesaler for forty dollars a week (which was about ten times the average wage for this type of work) this was not really a job at all but an inducement to come to that city and pitch for Chicago's great Excelsior club. Meanwhile in New York City, the infamous "Boss" Tweed, who was president of the New York Mutuals from 1860 to 1871, put all his players on the city payroll, were they were usually listed as "street sweepers".

THE FIRST TRUE PROFESSIONALS

But all of this duplicity began to end in 1869 when a fellow by the name of Harry Wright who managed a baseball club in Cincinnati declared to the world that his team was indeed professional! The club, which wore bright red stockings made for them by a young lady named Margaret Truman, was called the Cincinnati Red Stockings. With a total annual payroll of $9300, they were the first openly professional baseball team and that year they barnstormed all over the country, taking on all comers.

The English born Wright, a former professional cricket player and a jeweler by trade, had been hired by club president Aaron Champion to turn the Red Stockings into a top caliber team. Harry Wright imported players from all over the country, including his brother George who was an all-star shortstop in New Jersey, the only player that was actually from Cincinnati was Charlie Gould the first baseman.

The great Red Stockings national tour of 1869 took the team to such places as New York, Boston, Washington, Cleveland, Chicago, and as far west as San Francisco. They played the best local teams they could find and annihilated them all, ending up with a record of 56 wins and one tie. (The tie resulted when the Troy Haymakers walked off the field in the sixth inning with the scored tied 17-17 so that gamblers who had laid money on the Troy team could avoid paying off.)

The Red Stockings also revolutionized the way baseball players dressed, the spiffy knee length flannel knickers and long stockings that they wore soon became the rage among ball clubs and replaced the traditional long trousers that dated back to the early days of the Knickerbocker Club.

The Cincinnati Red Stockings had become the acknowledged champions of the nation and by June of the following year, 1870, they had stretched their winning streak to 79 when they were finally defeated by the Brooklyn Atlantics.

Several other defeats later on in the season caused interest in the team to drop off at home, and this combined with the club's heavy travel expenses and mounting players salaries caused the demise of the team. So Harry Wright packed up those bright red stockings the team had worn and moved to Boston where he formed the Boston Red Stockings. He took several Cincinnati players with him. And once again Harry Wright defied tradition and declared his new team to be professional, almost at once the other great teams of the era cast off their amateur disguises, and this brought about the era of the professional baseball league.

It was an era that would have a bumpy start though, for the first pro baseball league was destined to fail...

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