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Charlton's Baseball Chronology - 1857
January
| January 22 |
The first baseball convention is held in New York. It is called by the Knickerbockers and attended by 16 baseball clubs‚ all located on Manhattan and Long Island. |
February
| February 28 |
As noted by Joe Clark and reported in Bells Life in Victoria and Sporting Chronicle‚ the first ever game of American base ball is played in Australia. A match between the Richmond and Collingwood members of the Melbourne Base Ball Club takes place at Carleton Gardens. Pitching prowess seems not to have intruded as Collingwood wins by a score of 250 to 230. Collingwood could not repeat in the 2-inning nitecap‚ losing‚ 171-141. |
March
| March 7 |
The rules committee states that 9 innings shall constitute an official game rather than a team scoring 9 runs. For the first time‚ the rules specify 9 men to a side‚ even though the game has been played that way since 1845. |
May
| May 13 |
A convention is held in Dedham‚ MA‚ attended by representatives of 10 New England baseball clubs. Under the name of "Massachusetts Association of Base Ball Players‚" playing rules are adopted to illustrate the differences between New England baseball and the "New York Game." Rule four: 2 bases shall be wooden stakes‚ 4 feet high. Rule 14: If a player is hit with a thrown ball while rounding the bases‚ he shall be considered out. Other rules specify 100 runs will constitute a game and each side shall consist of 10 to 14 players. Thus is the New England game set down differently than the New York game. Earlier in the year‚ the New York Game rules were changed at a meeting of a group of clubs. The Knickerbocker Club recommended that a winner be declared after seven innings but nine innings were adopted instead upon the motion of Lewis F. Wadsworth. The base paths were fixed by D. L. Adams at 30 yards and the pitching distance at 15 yards. It was Adams who‚ in 1849‚ invented the position of SS by moving the 4th outfielder into the infield. |
June
| June 16 |
The Tri-Mountain Baseball club is organized in Boston by Edward Saltzman‚ Saltzman moved to Boston from New York‚ where he played on the Gotham Baseball Club. Not finding any teams in Boston playing "The New York game" he taught some friends the rules and formed the club. |
September
| September 9 |
The Tri-Mountain team of Boston plays host to a team from Portland‚ Maine "on the common" today‚ winning 47-42 in 9 innings playing under the New York rules. According to accounts quoted in the June 24‚ 1912 L.A. Times‚ this was the first game decided in 9 innings rather than which team reached 100 runs first. Also‚ it was reportedly the first match where the ball was pitched not tossed. The ball‚ which was 10 inches‚ according to the Times report‚ surfaced in Kansas City in 1912 and was enscribed with the results of the game. |
October
| October 22 |
The Atlantic Club defeats the Eckford Club‚ both of Brooklyn‚ to take the best-of-3-games match and claim the championship for 1857. The baseball custom now is that the championship can only be won by a team beating the current title holder 2 out of 3 games. |
November
| November 28 |
The first game of indoor baseball is played in Chicago under rules formulated by George Hancock‚ "the father of indoor baseball." The idea for the game occurred two days ago when members of the Farragut Club were throwing around a boxing glove in a gym at a Thanksgiving gathering. Indoor baseball will remain popular into the 20th century‚ and official rules will be published every year. |
