"Old Fashioned Base Ball" in Western New York, 1825-1860

Abstract

It appears that York of baseball, first codified by Knickerbockers in 1845, came to western New York State in mid-1850s. Syracuse Standard published version of Knickerbocker rules (without further explanation) under headline Ball-Rules for Playing in May 1855.1 In Rochester, new game may have been first played at about same time, and thus about two years before NABBP formed in New York City.2 In Buffalo, Niagaras in 1857 became first team to play New York game.3 But what game (or games) might have been played in region in preceding years?4We have recently identified 21 newspaper references to what was commonly called baseball in Syracuse,5 Rochester, and Buffalo. Unhappily, none of these accounts fully describes this earlier or lays out definitively how its rules differed from rules for New York However, they do contain several clues, and together, they offer at least dim outline of how earlier ballgame was played.Only one of 21 articles explicitly connects game with species of game that we understand today: game. In August 1859, Syracuse Standard reported that a game of or Massachusetts was played at Cazenovia on Saturday.6 Otherwise, coverage used such informal phrasings as the old-fashioned game of Base Ball, and base played in 'old fashioned' style. A second indication that old-fashioned game may have resembled Massachusetts game is found in an 1862 advertisement in Rochester paper: firm of Steele and Avery listed among its wares York Regulation Size balls [and] Massachusetts Balls.7 One surmises that there was at that time still demand for older-style ball, perhaps by players of old fashioned game.Old-fashioned took two forms in reports we found from late 1850s through 1870s. Before Civil War, it was still played competitively-as it may have been played in earlier decades-among local clubs. After War, it was most often played in throwback games intended, in part, to demonstrate how game had been played in earlier days; these games were, essentially, among some of earliest vintage ball games.8Competitive Games of Old Fashioned Baseball, 1858-1860In all three cities, it appears, some clubs initially resolved to cling to some or all characteristics of game up to outbreak of Civil War, and perhaps thereafter. In July 1858, three Rochester clubs expressed their loyalty to older West End Base Ball Club declared it would have nothing to do with new fangled tossing, but throw with wholesome movement, in regular old-fashioned style.9 Two other clubs, Washington and Union, soon made similar statements.10 All three of these clubs, incidentally, were composed of younger players, some as young as 12 years of age.If those who were inclined to stay with game needed rallying cry, they could have found it in Buffalo Morning Express in 1859. That paper's editors reported on an editorial from New York Tribune that mocked New York game as small potato that was worthy only of boys of ten years of age. The only genuine game, Tribune declared, was Massachusetts game.11In Syracuse area, we find evidence that old-fashioned game indeed retained popularity until start of Civil War. In July 1859 an style match was played between teams of picked from Onondaga and Madison counties-in effect, an all-star game between two adjacent counties.In March 1860, Syracuse-area Geddes Ball Players issued this public challenge in Syracuse Journal: We will raise ten men in this town that will play any ten men in city, at old-fashioned game of Base Ball [italics in original], game to be no less than 75, nor more than 100 tallies. …