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The Olympic Baseball Club Of Philadelphia
Perhaps the first town ball club to adopt a constitution was the Olympic Ball Club of Philadelphia, founded in 1833. It was formed by combining two associations of Town Ball players.
The original group included only four players, playing "Cat Ball," but eventually the number of players increased and the Saturday afternoon gathering usually included between fifteen to twenty players. -
Alexander Cartwright Jr.
The U.S Congress declared Alexander Cartwrite Jr. as the inventor of baseball in 1953. -
Knickerbockers
The first recorded baseball game was held in 1846 when Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbockers lost to the New York Baseball Club. The game was held at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. -
The Knickerbocker's Baseball cap
This here is the Knickerbockers ( the first baseball club ever ) 's first baseball cap. -
President Of First Baseball Team "Knickerbockers"
Daniel "Doc" Adams, was elected President of the Knickerbockers in 1846. Two years later he headed the Committee to Revise the Constitution and By-Laws with Cartwright serving under him. Cartwright left New York on March 1, 1849, for the California Gold Rush and eventually ended up in Hawaii. -
Baseball Bats
The first baseball bats were generally heavier and considerably thicker in the handle and had more of a gradual taper from the handle to the barrel. They were made with or without knobs on the handle and on various parts of the bat would be painted "rings" that would reflect the team color. -
The First Uniform
The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club introduced the first "uniform" on April 24, 1849. The uniforms consisted of long blue woolen trousers, leather belts, white flannel shirts with a full collar and straw hats. At the end of the 1850's, many teams adopted the flannel shirt with the button on shield style, which contained the team's emblem, name or both. -
The Champions Of 1851-1857
The Knickebockers. Only two matches were reported on, both were won by the Knickerbocker Club. On June 3rd the Washington Club was defeated 21-11 and on June 17th, in 10 innings, the Washington Club lost 22-20. Scoring twenty-one runs in a match was the factor in deciding the winner until 1857. -
Bases
19c's bases are designed from descriptions and specifications as listed in the National Association of Base Ball Players rules from 1857 through 1859, the annual Beadle's Dime Base-Ball Player guides and De Witt's Base Ball Guide, from 1860–1877. -
The Pitcher's Place
Until the convention of 1857 there were no written stipulations of the distance from the position the pitcher delivered the ball from to home base. The distance between the two is assumed to be 45 feet; however, the ending, nor the staring point of that distance, was discussed. -
Evolution Of The Bases And Foul Lines
e first written mention of the dimensions of the bases was mentioned in the 1857 playing rules. All bases were to be fastened to the field at each corner. Third and first base were to be turned so that a line from home would go through one of the corners and exit the other and the center of the base would be 30 yard from home base. -
The First Baseball Convention
The first base ball convention was held in New York City on January 22, 1857 and was attended by 15 clubs, all from New York. Daniel "Doc" Adams was elected convention president and also was elected to head the Committee on Rules and Regulations. Revisions to the original 20 "Knickerbocker Rules" were made. -
The Baseball
Early baseballs were made simply by surrounding a core, which could be any solid substance, with hand wound yarn or string. Often times the baseball would also contain some form of stuffing. The cover was a one piece cover, usually some form of brown leather, which was stitched in a fashion known as a "lemon peel" or "rose pedal." The four sides of the single piece of leather were sewn to enclose the baseballs core and the stitching formed an "X" configuration. These early base balls were extrem -
Baseball Caps
Baseball headwear from 1860, when base ball first achieved a level of organization, to the turn of the century was sartorially diverse. -
The Civil War Takes Its Toll
ith the advent of the Civil War the membership of the annual conventions declined to as low as 28 in 1863 but following the war ballooned to 202 members in 1866. -
The Profesional Team
As the game gained interest the move toward professionalism produced the first openly professional club, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. -
The Homerun
Homeruns were not common in the 19th century. They were even less common prior to the advent of professional baseball owing to the fact that the balls were mainly hand made and were not consistently hard. Many of the outfields were vast and the game was based on singles and doubles with base runners stealing and taking extra bases. -
The World Baseball Tour
The tour commenced in the summer of 1874 and twenty-three ballplayers and an entourage left America on July 16 aboard the Ohio. The game of baseball was not well received during the tour, the tour was not successful financially and there was no residual effect of the game after the teams retuned to America. -
Birth of the National League
On February 2, 1876, William Hulbert, the President of the Chicago White Stockings, who competed in the final two National Association seasons, spearheaded a meeting in New York City to organize a new more stable league. -
The First Baseball League
On February 2, 1876, William Hulbert, the President of the Chicago White Stockings, who competed in the final two National Association seasons, spearheaded a meeting in New York City to organize a new more stable league. The National League was born and has been active ever since. The charter member teams were; Boston Red Caps, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Louisville Grays, New York Mutuals, Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Brown Stockings. -
The Baseball Mask
The catcher's mask may have been first worn by Jim Tyng of the Harvard University Base Ball Club in an exhibition game loss against the Boston Red Stockings in May of 1876, 7-6. Tyng's roommate and team Captain, Fred Thayer, is said to have "invented" the mask in 1875. -
Baseball Gloves
"Gloves" did not become common until the late 1880s and the baseball has retained the same dimensions, weight and leather pattern since 1872.The glove started out as merely a leather work glove, with or without full fingers, and progressed to a more padded piece of equipment. It is impossible to pinpoint the first player to wear a "glove" but there have been reports as early as 1860 that catchers were wearing them. -
The First Night Game
The Boston press was invited to Nantasket Beach, Massachusetts to see the first trial on September 2, 1880.
The flood of mellow light, thrown upon the field between 8 and 9:30 p.m., allowed nine innings to be played. -
Lawson's Patent Baseball Card Game
The old game was sold as both a blue-backed set and a maroon-backed set. An example of the latter recently went at auction for $914.29. This blue-backed set is a fantastic collectible for any historian or 19th century base ball player. -
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. was an American baseball player who spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) playing for three teams (1914–1935). Known for his hitting brilliance, -
Yankees
Murderers Row. The Yankees went 110-44, outscored opponents by 371 runs, and then ambushed Pittsburgh in the World Series. A couple of guys named Ruth and Gehrig hit 107 homers and scored 307 runs. -
The Colts
The Astros were established as the Houston Colt .45s in 1962. The current name was adopted three years later when they moved into the Astrodome, the world's first domed sports stadium. The name reflects Houston's role as the center of the U.S. Space Program. -
The Greatest
Barry Bonds
Position- Left Fielder
Greatest Moment: Home run No. 71, breaking Mark McGwire's single season record. -
Eric Miklich
Miklich has been a 19th century base ball player since 1998, fielding all positions and playing in more than 450 19th century games. He is a pitcher on one of the most prestigious 19th century clubs in the United States, the Mutual Club of New York. -
Minute Maid Park
Minute Maid Park (also The Ballpark at Union Station, Enron Field, and Astros Field) is a ballpark in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States that opened in 2000 to house the Major League Baseball Houston Astros.
The ballpark has 5,095 club seats and 63 luxury suites.
The engine's tender, traditionally used to carry coal, is filled with giant oranges in tribute to Coca Cola's Minute Maid's most famous product, orange juice
