The Arizona Territory is known for saloons, gunfights, outlaws and strong women. But the history of baseball in Arizona is long forgotten. The national pastime came first to the territory’s many military posts and soon gained a foothold in early towns such as Tucson, Prescott, Tombstone and Phoenix. Gaining popularity in the 1880s, the game spread through the territory with the help of railroads. Soon company nines were competing against town clubs. In the early 1900s, the major leagues made several tours through Arizona. This book takes a first-ever look into Arizona’s rich baseball history, with never before seen photographs of the earliest baseball clubs and games.

John Darrin Tenney is a licensed insurance professional, historian and writer living in Mesa, Arizona. In addition to writing on local baseball history, he travels across Arizona, lecturing to interested audiences on the finer points of baseball history.

John Darrin Tenney
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 196
Bibliographic Info: 23 photos, appendices, chronology, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9610-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2144-9
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Preface 1

Introduction and Acknowledgments 3

1. Uncle Sam Brings the Game Westward 9

2. The Red Stockings Are Here! (Or Were They?) 37

3. Town Rivalries Take Shape 52

4. Women and Minorities on the Diamond 99

5. The Company Nine 125

6. The Barnstormers 153

7. Summary 171

Appendix A. List of Active Arizona Territorial Newspapers, 1863 to 1912 177

Appendix B. Chronological List of Base Ball Clubs During the Territorial Period 178

Chapter Notes 180

Bibliography 184

Index 186

“Tenney’s work is an effective example of how to utilize sport history as an apparatus to examine broader historical trends and issues…. [It] captures not only the excitement on the field, but also how baseball helped shape the territory of Arizona as it moved into its early history as the last of the contiguous states in the Union.”—Sport in American History; “recommended”—SABR-AZ; “a comprehensive examination of the early history of baseball in Arizona”—ProtoView; “The hitherto unexplored early years of baseball in Arizona are brought to life by John Darrin Tenney’s research and an abundance of memorable images. In this detailed study, Tenney explores such key subjects as the origins of baseball in Arizona, the formation of the state’s first town and company teams, the efforts of women and minorities to take part in the national pastime, and the merry adventures of the early barnstorming squads.”—Peter Morris, author of A Game of Inches and Cracking Baseball’s Cold Cases.