National Association of Base Ball Players - Members

Members

Contrary to the organization name, NABBP members were clubs not players. Generally the clubs joined the association and retained membership by sending delegates to the annual convention, usually in the preceding December (the ancestor of baseball's so-called Winter Meetings). Membership mediated by state associations was introduced only after ten years; then dozens of clubs from a distant state (or even New Jersey) could join and remain in the NABBP by organizing a state association whose delegates would participate in the national meeting.

The number of clubs at the convention, and thus in the association, increased from 16 to 25 to 50 by spring 1859. This list gives the sixteen who convened in 1857 followed by the three later members who survived to be charter members of the National League in 1876; none of the sixteen did so.

• Brooklyn: Brooklyn Atlantics (to 1870, professional), Brooklyn Bedford (1857), Brooklyn Continental (to 1863), Brooklyn Eckfords (to 1870, professional), Brooklyn Excelsior (to 1870, amateur), Brooklyn Harmony (1857), Brooklyn Nassau (to 1859), Brooklyn Olympic (1857 and 1859), Brooklyn Putnam (to 1862)
• Morrisania (now in the Bronx): Union (to 1870, professional) --that is, the Union of Morrisania
• New York: New York Baltic (to 1863 and later?), New York Eagle (to 1869?), New York Empire (to 1869), New York Gotham (to 1870, amateur), New York Harlem (to 1869?), New York Knickerbocker (to 1868?) --who would go down in history as the New York Knickerbockers

• New York Mutuals (1858–1870, professional)
• Philadelphia Athletic (1861–1870, professional)
• Chicago White Stockings (1870, professional)

The five named in bold continued as sometime members of the 1871–1875 National Association, the first professional league. Dates refer to NABBP membership, not baseball activity or legal organization, but not all clubs retained membership annually; in particular, the Civil War curtailed membership for 1862 to 1865.

Newark, New Jersey is one of the cities across the Hudson River from New York. Eight Newark clubs were sometime members and two more clubs from Newark, Empire in 1858 and Eckford in 1870, played matches with member clubs.

• Newark members, all years, ordered by first membership: Newark Base Ball Club (1860–1869) --that is, "Newark of Newark" or "Newark Newarks", Newark Eurekas (1860–1869), Newark Adriatics (1861–1862), Newark Americus (1865–1869), Newark Pioneer (1865–1867), Newark Active (1867-?), Newark Excelsior (1869), Newark Amateur (1870)

The members farthest from New York in the early years were the Liberty club of New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1858, the only one of 25 members outside modern New York City; Niagara of Buffalo, New York in 1859, when the next furthest of 50 members was based in Trenton, New Jersey; and Detroit of Detroit, Michigan in 1860, when five of 59 members were from outside New Jersey and New York states, the other four being in Washington, Baltimore, New Haven, and Boston. Six Philadelphia clubs joined for 1861 but war curtailed the season; some of the 55 members never played a game of any kind. Then the war curtailed membership for 1862 until 1866 when some pre-war members rejoined.

For 1865 there were only 30 members with not one in New England and western outliers merely in Washington, Altoona in central Pennsylvania, and Utica in central New York state. But the December 1865 meeting attracted triple the membership with scattered clubs from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. During the next three seasons, the association "filled" with clubs from St Louis and Iowa to Boston and Maine. By 1867 there were too many delegates to handle in convention, so membership via state associations was introduced for 1868 and, perhaps for that reason, there is no reliable enumeration of the members from 1868 to 1870.