Early baseball in Missouri/Game 1

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Spread of baseball: Home -> Missouri -> Early baseball in Missouri/Game 1
Location Missouri
Year 1849
Month 4
Date 23
City Independence
State MO
Country US
Was NY rules baseball Unknown
Played by Unknown

From Protoball Entry #1849.13 – Did Cartwright Play Ball on His Way to California?

“April 23, 1849 [evidently the day before Cartwright left Independence MO for California] During the past week we have passed the time in fixing the wagon covers, stowing away property etc., varied by hunting , fishing, swimming and playing base-ball. I have the ball and book of Rules with me that we used in forming the Knickerbocker Base-ball Club back home.”

Source: Cartwright family typed copy of lost handwritten diary by Alexander Cartwright, as cited in Monica Nucciarone, Alexander Cartwright: The Life Behind the Baseball Legend (UNebraska Press, 2009), page 31. Nucciarone adds that this version differs from the transcription in a Hawaii museum, in that the baseball references only appear in the family’s version.

Caution: The legend is that Cartwright played his way west. Nucciarone, page 30: “[W]hile it’s easy to imagine Cartwright playing baseball when he could and spreading the new game across the country as he went, it’s much more difficult to prove he did this. The evidence is scant and inconsistent.”

Sources

Monica Nucciarone, Alexander Cartwright: The Life Behind the Baseball Legend (UNebraska Press, 2009), page 31.


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