Early baseball in Canada/Game 1
From SABR Encyclopedia
| Spread of baseball: Home -> Canada -> Early baseball in Canada/Game 1 |
| Location | Canada |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856 |
| Month | 9 |
| Date | 12 |
| City | London |
| State | ONT |
| Country | Canada |
| Was NY rules baseball | Unknown |
| Played by | Locals |
| Team 1 | London |
| Team 2 | Delaware |
| Team 1 Score | 34 |
| Team 2 Score | 33 |
| Length | 2 innings |
From Protoball Entry #1856.18 – First Reported Canadian Base Ball Game Occurs, in ONT
"September 12, 1856 –"The first reported game of Canadian baseball is played in London, Ontario, with the London Club defeating the Delaware club 34-33." Charlton, James, ed., The Baseball Chronology (Macmillan, 1991), page 13. No reference is given.
Craig Waff has identified the source for this item: "Base Ball in Canada," The Clipper Volume 4, number 23 (September 27, 1856), page 183.
"London [ON], Sept. 15, 1856. Editor Clipper: Within the past few months several Base Ball clubs have been organized in this vicinity, and the first match game was played between the London and Delaware clubs, on Friday, the 12th inst." The box score reveals that the 34-33 score eventuated when the clubs stood at 26-23 after the first inning, and then London outscored Delaware 11-7 in the second inning.
Note: is it likely that the New York rules would have produced this much scoring per inning . . . or was the match set up as a two-inning contest? Can we confirm/disconfirm that this was the first modern Canadian game in some sense [keeping in mind that Beachville report of a predecessor game at Protoball #1838.4?
Sources
Protoball Entry #1856.18 at http://protoball.org/Chronology:_1840_-_1870.
