Early Baseball
Some form of baseball has been around for a long time, but what happened in 1845 caused it to evolve into the game we know today. Alexander Cartwright, a member of the Knickerbocker Engine No, 12 of the New York City Fire Department, had been playing town ball in a vacant lot, but the lot suddenly became unavailable. He found a park available across the Hudson River in Hoboken, but the rent was $75 a year. In order to get the money, Cartwright organized an official baseball club and called them the "Knickerbockers" after his fire department. The baseball team was established on September 23, 1845. Yes, the first Knickerbockers was a baseball, not a basketball, team. This new team established a division of sorts and was the first official one following modern rules.
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| The New York Knickerbockers 1858 |
William Wheaton was the Vice President of the Knickerbockers. He'd established the rules for the Gotham Base Ball Club in 1837. Cartwright changed these somewhat and established twenty rules. Players were invited to become a part of the Knickerbockers and they had to pay their membership dues. New Yorkers seemed to love the game, and baseball swelled in popularity.
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| The New York Knickerbockers 1862 |
The first "officially recorded" baseball game was played on June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey between the Knickerbockers and the New York Nine. They played according to Cartwright's twenty rules. The Knickerbockers lost 23 to 1 in four innings. Rumors had it that some of Cartwright's best players refused to cross the river into New Jersey to play. There had been a couple of earlier unofficial games, however, and the Knickerbockers had won at least one of those.
Over the next few years, this type of baseball spread across the country. The Knickerbocker rules would be absorbed into the National Association of Base Ball in 1857, and baseball would become an important American sport. The Knickerbockers dissolved in the 1870s, and nearly a century later, the name would be adopted by the New York basketball team. This team often uses the shortened form, and they call themselves the Knicks.
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Some form of baseball has been around for a long time, but what happened in 1845 caused it to evolve into the game we know today. Alexander Cartwright, a member of the Knickerbocker Engine No, 12 of the New York City Fire Department, had been playing town ball in a vacant lot, but the lot suddenly became unavailable. He found a park available across the Hudson River in Hoboken, but the rent was $75 a year. In order to get the money, Cartwright organized an official baseball club and called them the "Knickerbockers" after his fire department. The baseball team was established on September 23, 1845. Yes, the first Knickerbockers was a baseball, not a basketball, team. This new team established a division of sorts and was the first official one following modern rules.
Over the next few years, this type of baseball spread across the country. The Knickerbocker rules would be absorbed into the National Association of Base Ball in 1857, and baseball would become an important American sport. The Knickerbockers dissolved in the 1870s, and nearly a century later, the name would be adopted by the New York basketball team. This team often uses the shortened form, and they call themselves the Knicks.
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