Early baseball in Washington/Club 3
From SABR Encyclopedia
| Spread of baseball: Home -> Washington -> Early baseball in Washington/Club 3 |
| Location | Washington |
|---|---|
| Year | 1876 |
| Month | 7 |
| Note on date | Newcastle issued an open challenge in 1876 to all teams from King County |
| Modern address | Newcastle, WA |
| City | Newcastle |
| State | WA |
| Country | USA |
| Nickname | Miner, Coal Miners |
| Found by | Mark Brunke |
See article, sources and notes for Seattle Alkis club. While all the information for the Newcastle club is so far gleaned from information and reminiscences about the Seattle Alkis, the Newcastle club had issued the initial open challenge for any clubs in King County seeking to play. This led to Seattle forming a club to take that challenge.
In an article from The Seattle Times, February 1, 1931, Alki Jim Warren states, in response to a claim about Harry Jacobs of the University of Washington being the first to use a curveball in Seattle, "He may have been the first curver in Seattle, but the first one in the Northwest I remember was Jim Fairburn, who came from New York and was immediately signed by Newcastle. Those miners would do anything to beat us. Fairburn pitched twice against us, but we beat him both times. Once Ed Gifford, a 17-year old boy, pitched for us and still we won. Jacobs learned to throw a curve by watching Fairburn. However, he got to be pretty good at it, for he won a lot of games after the Alkis broke up in '79."
Newcastle WA is about 10 miles SE of Seattle, but in the 1870s may have been a more distant trip if one or both of two bridges had not yet been built. Its curret population ia about 10,400.
Sources
Original Source] The Seattle Times, Sunday, September 7, 1947. “Seattle's First Baseball Games”. ; The Seattle Times, February 1, 1931. “First Busher Talks”.; The Seattle Times, February 24, 1922. “Do You Remember When-”.; The Seattle Times, Thursday, August 11, 1955. “The First Record”.
