Early baseball in Arkansas/Game 4

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Location Arkansas
Year 1868
Month 7
Date 4
Note on date Independence Day
City Litle Rock
State AR
Country US
Site Rock City Grounds
Was NY rules baseball Yes
Played by Locals
Team 1 Rock City Base Ball Club
Team 2 Pine Bluff Base Ball Club
Team 1 Score 43
Team 2 Score 36
Length 9 innings
Found by Caleb Hardwick

As reported by the Arkansas Gazette on July 7th, 1968:

“We give below the official scoring in a game of base ball played on the grounds of the Rock City B.B. company on the 4th inst., between the first nines of the R. C. company and the Pine Bluff company, which was the most exciting contest of athletic sports ever witnessed in the state, and which we are happy to say was fully appreciated by the large audience in attendance.

The nine of the P. B. club played under great disadvantage, being unaccustomed to the ground, and the bats of the R. C. being too light for their effective use. They also had but one “pitcher”, who became exhausted at the conclusion of the seventh inning, from the heat. At the end of the fifth inning the score stood, Pine Bluff 15, Rock City, 14. There was some as pretty playing on both sides in these innings as we ever witnessed. The score, however, will indicate how closely they were contested.

This was the first time the same nine of the P. B. club ever played together, and we take into consideration the experience of the R. Cs., flushed as they were, too, with previous successes, a candid observer must admit that the odds were overwhelmingly against them. Nevertheless, the bore off the ball, and left the ground with a good opinion of the skill and endurance of the adversaries:

Rock City … 43, Pine Bluff … 36”

Note that the game represented a few of firsts in Arkansas baseball history. It was, as reported by the Arkansas morning Republican, "the first game ever played between rival clubs from different sections of the state". In addition, the paper also described seats covered by awnings for spectators, as well as tents for each team to use. Such is the first record of provided seating and 'dugouts' at an Arkansas ballpark.

The game was played at the Rock City Grounds, which were located at the "head of Scott Street" in Little Rock.

Game article at the Baseball in Arkansas Project

Sources

  • Arkansas Gazette on July 7th, 1868
  • Arkansas Morning Republican, July 1st, 1868


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