The National Association of Base Ball Players, 1857–1870

Before the onset of professional baseball, there existed a myriad of teams and players going back to the 1840s. The early years centered around an organization known as the National Association of Base Ball Players. This group, the antecedents of which date to 1857, governed the world of baseball until the formation of the first all-professional league in 1871. This book is the definitive statistical reference to that organization, from its humble beginnings through its explosive growth after the Civil War, culminating with its coast-to-coast inclusion of several hundred amateur and professional clubs. Relying for the most part on primary sources, the author has included introductory essays for each year, complete team statistics, every game score, and individual batting and pitching statistics for all players.

Award-winning author Marshall D. Wright is a sports statistician and archivist. He lives in Quincy, Massachusetts and is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and Society International of Hockey Research.

Marshall D. Wright
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 408
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2000
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0779-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1185-3
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments     ix

Introduction     xi

Prelude: The Knickerbocker Club     1

1857 The Association Begins     7

1858 New York vs. Brooklyn     15

1859 Baseball Clubs     28

1860 Spreading the Gospel     41

1861 Home and Home     54

1862 Throwing and Pitching     64

1863 Battlefields and Ballfields     73

1864 The Fly Game     82

1865 The Atlantics of Brooklyn     94

1866 Country Clubs     110

1867 National Tour     139

1868 Bases on Hits     186

1869 The Reds of Sixty-Nine     238

1870 End Game     284

Postlude: Breaking Away    328

Selected Bibliography     330

Index     334

“well-researched…recommended”—Booklist; “engaging…valuable…comprehensive”—Nine; “documentation is staggering…an amazing amount of information…Wright knows the game…incredible research and diligence…belongs on your baseball shelf”—One More Inning; “detailed…this new tool adds a new dimension to reference collections by extending the historical coverage of the sport…useful”—Lawrence Looks at Books; “a statistical reference guide covering this seminal group of amateur and professional teams”—USA Today Sports Weekly; “tells the story of organized base ball before professional baseball”—The SABR Bulletin.