Base-Ball: How to Become a Player | Page 7

boyhood and as they found them in vogue at that time. For six years the
club played regularly at the Elysian Field, the two nines being made up
from all the members present. From 1851 other clubs began to be
organized, and we find the Washington, Gotham (into which the
Washington was merged), Eagle, Empire, Putnam, Baltic, Union,
Mutual, Excelsior, Atlantic, Eckford, and many other clubs following
in the space of a few years.
In Philadelphia town-ball was the favorite pastime and kept out base-
ball for some time, while in Boston the local "New England game," as
played by the Olympic, Elm Tree, and Green Mountain Clubs, deferred
the introduction of base-ball, or, as it was called, "the New York
game," until 1857.
Base-ball grew rapidly in favor; the field was ripe. America needed a
live out-door sport, and this game exactly suited the national
temperament. It required all the manly qualities of activity, endurance,
pluck, and skill peculiar to cricket, and was immeasurably superior to
that game in exciting features. There were dash, spirit, and variety, and
it required only a couple of hours to play a game. Developed by
American brains, it was flaw to us, and we took to it with all the
enthusiasm peculiar to our nature.
In 1857 a convention of delegates from sixteen clubs located in and
around New York and Brooklyn was held, and a uniform set of rules
drawn up to govern the play of all the clubs.
In 1858 a second general convention was held, at which twenty-five
clubs were represented. A committee was appointed to formulate a
Constitution and By-laws for a permanent organization, and in
accordance with this "The National Association of Baseball Players"
was duly organized. The game now made rapid strides. It was no boys'
sport, for no one under twenty-one years of age could be a delegate.
Each year a committee of men having a practical knowledge of the
game revised the playing rules, so that these were always kept abreast

of the time.
During 1858 a series of three games between picked nines from New
York and Brooklyn was played on the Fashion Course, Long Island.
The public interest in these games was very great and the local feeling
ran high. The series, which terminated in favor of New York, two to
one, attracted general attention to the game.
In 1861 a similar game was played called "the silver ball match," on
account of the trophy, a silver ball, offered by the New York Clipper.
This time Brooklyn won easily, and it is said some 15,000 people were
present.
At the second annual meeting of the "National Association" in 1860,
seventy clubs had delegates present, representing New York, Brooklyn,
Boston, Detroit, New Haven, Newark, Troy, Albany, Buffalo, and other
cities. During this year the first extended trip was taken by the
Excelsior Club, of Brooklyn, going to Albany, Troy, Buffalo,
Rochester, and Newburgh. All the expenses of the trip were paid from
the treasury of the traveling club, for there were no inclosed grounds in
those days and no questions as to percentage or guarantee were yet
agitating the clubs and public. The Excelsiors won every game, and
their skillful display and gentlemanly appearance did much to
popularize the game in the cities visited.
Already in 1860 the game was coming to be recognized as our national
pastime, and there were clubs in all the principal cities. Philadelphia
had forsaken her town-ball, and Boston's "New England" game, after a
hard fight, gave way to the "New York" game. Washington, Baltimore,
Troy, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, all had their champion
teams. From Detroit to New Orleans, and from Portland, Maine, to
far-off San Francisco, the grand game was the reigning out-door sport.
With the outbreak of the Civil War came a very general suspension of
play in the different cities, though the records of occasional games in
camp show that "the boys" did not entirely forget the old love. In 1865
the friendly contests were resumed, though the call of the rolls showed
many "absent" who had never been known to miss a game. More than

one of those who went out in '61 had proven his courage on the crimson
field.
During the seasons of '65, '66, and '67 amateur base-ball, so-called, was
in the height of its glory. At the annual Convention of the National
Association in '66 a total of two hundred and two clubs from seventeen
States and the District of Columbia were represented; besides, there
were present delegates from the Northwestern and Pennsylvania
Associations, representing in addition over two hundred clubs.
In 1867 the trip of the "Nationals" of Washington was the first visit of
an Eastern club to the West, and helped greatly to spread the reputation
of the game.
For