Early baseball in Kentucky/Game 1
From SABR Encyclopedia
| Spread of baseball: Home -> Kentucky -> Early baseball in Kentucky/Game 1 |
| Location | Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Year | 1858 |
| Month | 7 |
| Note on date | Date possibly the 15th |
| City | Louisville |
| State | KY |
| Country | US |
| Modern address | Louisville KY |
| Was NY rules baseball | Yes |
| Played by | Locals |
| Team 1 | Louisville Base Ball Club side 1 |
| Team 2 | Louisville Base Ball Club side 2 |
| Team 1 Score | 52 |
| Team 2 Score | 41 |
| First in Kentucky | Yes |
From Protoball Entry #1858.19 -- First KY Box Score Appears in Louisville Newspaper
“The beginnings of [Louisville] baseball on an organized basis are also lost in the mists of the 19th century. There were probably neighborhood teams competing within the city in the 1850s. But the first recorded box score in local papers appeared in the July 15, 1858 Daily Democrat. Two teams made up of members of the Louisville Base Ball Club faced one another in a contest where the final score was 52-41, a score not unusual for the period. The paper also notes that there were several other ball clubs organized in the city.
“Not much is known about the Louisville Base Ball Club. It was probably not more than a year or two old by the time of the 1858 box score.”
Possibly describing the same July game, but reporting different dates, The New York Clipper (date and page omitted from Mears Collection scrapbook; “July, 1858” annotated in hand) said: “BASE BALL IN LOUISVILLE – The game of Base Ball is making its way westward. In Louisville they have a well-organized club, called the ‘Louisville Base Ball Club.’ They played a game on the 18th, with the following result [box score for 52-42 intramural game shown]” Facsimile provided by Craig Waff, September 2008.
Louisville KY was the 12th largest US city in 1860, with a population of about 68,000.
Open issue: Does the box score give us an indication that the game was played by New York rules?
Sources
Quoted material is from “Chapter 1 -- Beginnings: From Amateur Teams to Disgrace in the National League,” mimeo, Bob Bailey, 1999, page 2.
Protoball record 1858.19 from [1]
