Ball Clubs Playing The Massachusetts Game
The Olympic Club of Boston, "established in 1854, was the first regularly organized Club in the State, and for over a year the only one in the field." The Elm-Tree Club played the first match game against the Olympic club, but was short-lived. The Green Mountain Club, established 1856, played many matches on Boston Common against the Olympics. Others playing by the Massachusetts Rules included the American, Bay State, Bunker Hill, and Rough-and-Ready Clubs (all organized in 1857), and the Alpha of Ashland, Bowdoin, Fayville of Southborough, Lowell, Shawmut, Takewambait of Natick, Yankee of Natick, and Waponset Clubs. There was also a junior club called the Hancocks. Many Boston firms closed on Saturday afternoons so their clerks could benefit from the game. A team of truckmen also played in the early mornings on Boston Common, before beginning their work day.
As Kirsch relates in Baseball in Blue and Gray, in June 1857 an informal Massachusetts championship tournament was held, with about 2,000 spectators attending the first round. Twenty-five runs were needed to win a game, and three victories decided the match. The Wassapoag (or Massapoag) club of Sharon defeated the Olympics but then lost to the Union Club of Medway. Some confusion over the rules at this tournament led to the Dedham convention the following year, at which rules were drawn up. The rules as adopted were those of the Takewambait Club. Members of the Tri-Mountain Club - founded by an Edward Saltzman, a transplant from the Gotham Club - lobbied hard for New York rules, but the Tri-Mountains were in a minority. (They dropped out of the Association, and began playing the New York style.)
In June 1858 the 'Winthrop Club of Holliston beat the Olympics on Boston Common by a score 100 to 27, in a 4-hour game before 3,000 spectators. In September 1859 Winthrop Club battled the Union Club for the state championship. The two-day match drew huge crowds to the Boston Agricultural Fair Grounds, to see the Unions defeat the Winthrops, 100-71.
By 1860, 59 New England teams were reportedly playing the Massachusetts Game, while at least 18 had gone over to New York style.
Read more about this topic: The Massachusetts Game
Famous quotes containing the words ball, clubs, playing and/or game:
“But the ball is lost and the mallet slipped long since from the hands
Under the running tap that are not the hands of a child.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)
“Neighboring farmers and visitors at White Sulphur drove out occasionally to watch ‘those funny Scotchmen’ with amused superiority; when one member imported clubs from Scotland, they were held for three weeks by customs officials who could not believe that any game could be played with ‘such elongated blackjacks or implements of murder.’”
—For the State of West Virginia, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“Guilt is the most destructive of all emotions. It mourns what has been while playing no part in what may be, now or in the future. Whatever you are doing, however, you are coping, if you listen to your child and to your own feelings, there will be something you can actually do to make things right.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)
“Wild Bill was indulging in his favorite pastime of a friendly game of cards in the old No. 10 saloon. For the second time in his career, he was sitting with his back to an open door. Jack McCall walked in, shot him through the back of the head, and rushed from the place, only to be captured shortly afterward. Wild Bill’s dead hand held aces and eights, and from that time on this has been known in the West as “the dead man’s hand.””
—State of South Dakota, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)