Early baseball in Tennessee/Game 1

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Spread of baseball: Home -> Tennessee -> Early baseball in Tennessee/Game 1
Location Tennessee
Year 1860
Note on date Year needs to be confirmed
City Nashville
State TN
Country US
Site Sulphur Spring Bottom Athletic Park
Was NY rules baseball Unknown
Played by Unknown
First in Tennessee Yes

"Sulphur Spring Bottom Athletic Park, built after the Civil War, hosted the first baseball game in Nashville. The low-lying area flooded whenever the Cumberland River overflowed."

Nashville's population was about 19,000 in 1860. It was the 54th lagest city in the US.


Open Issues: Can we verify and expand this fragment? In the 1960s, this was evidently the oldest ballpark in the US. Is there an indication that play was governed by Association rules?

Another source notes: "Some sources contend that the occupying Union army brought baseball to Nashville in 1862." See http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=58, accessed May 8, 2012.

Sources

Diana Diekman, Live Fast, Love Hard: the Faron Young Story (University of Illinois Press, 2007), page 89. Accessed February 2010 in snippet view via Google Books search.


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