Early baseball in Massachusetts/Club 40

From SABR Encyclopedia

SABR Origins Committee project on the
Spread of baseball
Key pages
Project home page Project map History of early baseball Research needs in the spread of baseball
Lists
Earliest games by state Earliest clubs by state All games  ·  All clubs Predecessor games Other firsts in baseball
Help
Researching early baseball Submitting research online

Spread of baseball: Home -> Massachusetts -> Early baseball in Massachusetts/Club 40

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	Massachusetts
Year	1885
City	Gloucester
State	Massachusetts
Found by	Bruce Allardice

Charles Bevis, "The New England League: A Baseball History, 1885-1949" p. 38 says that in 1886 the Gloucester team dropped out of this league, which had been established the year before, due to lack of local interest. I have found no mention of baseball in Gloucester prior to the 1885 forming of this league. The Springfield (MA) Republican, June 13, 1870, marveled that: "Gloucester has 12,000 inhabitants and no base ball club!" Gloucester is a fishing town north of Boston. I can only speculate that baseball interest was minimal here since most of the town's young men were usually out in the Atlantic fishing.

Sources

Charles Bevis, "The New England League: A Baseball History, 1885-1949" p. 38; The Springfield (MA) Republican, June 13, 1870