Early baseball in California/Game 1
From SABR Encyclopedia
| Spread of baseball: Home -> California -> Early baseball in California/Game 1 |
 | This record has been submitted recently, and has not yet been reviewed. This does not imply that the information is incorrect, but that it is not yet included in official datasets. This notice will no longer appear once the record has been reviewed. |
| Location | California |
|---|---|
| Year | 1847 |
| Month | 4 |
| City | Santa Barbara |
| State | CA |
| Country | US |
| Was NY rules baseball | Likely |
| Played by | Locals |
| Team 1 | Army |
The New York Volunteer Regiment reached California in April 1847 after the end of the Mexican War, and helped to occupy the province. They laid out a diamond [where State and Cota Streets now meet], made a ball from gutta percha, and used a mesquite stick as a bat. Partly because batted balls found their way into the windowless nearby adobes, there were some problems. “Largely because of the baseball games, the Spanish-speaking people of Santa Barbara came to look upon the New Yorkers as loudmouthed, uncouth hoodlums. . . . the hostilities between Californians and Americanos continued to fester for generations.”
Walter A. Tompkins, “Baseball Began Here in 1847,” It Happened in Old Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara National Bank, undated), pages 77-78. Caveat: Angus McFarland has not been able to verify this account as of November 2008.
Protoball record 1847.7 from [http://retrosheet.org/Protoball/chron.htm
