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1858 Fashion Race Course Original Official Handwritten Scorers Reports from Baseball’s 1st Championship All-Star Grand Match, Game 2
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Description
These two handwritten, signed and dated official score sheets, the Scorer's Report, date from the pivotal Game Two of the 1858 Fashion Course Series. They are among the most important documents ever discovered relevant to the development of the early game of base ball. The beautiful hand scripted reports include their original inscribed envelope. Remarkably, the reports come directly from the family of one of the leading pitchers and baseball organizers during the games earliest era, Frank Pidgeon, founder of the famous Brooklyn Eckfords, and they are scored by pivitol men who helped fuse a bat and ball game into the fabric of America.
In 1858 New York City was the center of baseball activity. Just a few years earlier the game initially began to take hold when, in 1845, Alexander Joy Cartwright, a young engineer and a ball playing enthusiast, proposed to other like minded young men to organize the game that they were already playing with some frequency. Calling their new club the New York Knickerbockers, that spring the boys found a "suitable playing ground" in the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey, where they enjoyed their ball game in the great outdoors.
Then, on September 23, 1845, the first set of baseball rules were crafted and adopted.
The following year, the first recorded base ball match known occurred between the Knickerbockers and another New York based club. Shortly other amateur clubs mushroomed throughout the New York City area. Soon the players wore colorful uniforms and doffed special caps to identify their local team. By the early 1850's the game was so popular that the New York press began to take regular notice. "Base Ball", the Sunday Mercury exclaimed in 1853 "is not only healthful but it is played in the great outdoors...and excellent games are now at hand".
Baseball fever heightened as teams were being formed in pockets throughout the country. The national press, taking their cue from the New York City based papers, reported as base ball fans (short for "fanatics") avidly followed their favorite teams and those players who excelled. Soon base ball would become the number one spectator sport in America and called the National Pastime.
A major catalyst occurred In January 1858 when some of the more prominent players and organizers in the New York City area decided that it was time for "all of the organized base ball clubs" to meet and take stock of the game that was now capturing the attention of men and women everywhere. In February, representatives from more than two dozen New York area clubs met. There was even a group from outside of the metropolitan area, the Liberty Club of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The meeting received exciting reports that organized base ball clubs were not confined only to New York and the immediate area but the game was being played as far away as in Boston, Maine, Detroit, Chicago and even San Francisco. Judge W.H Van Cott, a natural leader and ballplayer for the New York Gothams, was quickly elected President of the group.
Also, equally important, one of the game's premier players, Frank Pidgeon, founder and pitcher for the Brooklyn Eckfords, was in attendance, lending to the gathering his considerable baseball and worldly prestige. On the diamond Pidgeon was known far and wide as a wizard, one of the greatest pitchers of the era. Historian John Thorn noted that the pitcher was known for his brains and "headwork" as he honed his baseball skills. Off the field he was an inventor, a painter, and engineer, and a successful businessman.
The group decided two things at their meeting that proved to be of distinct historical consequence. First, after crafting and adopting rules and by-laws, the gentlemen officially organized as the "National Association of Ball Players". Thus, the organization became the very first "officially constituted" organized group of "national" base ball clubs. By unanimous vote and a stroke of Judge Van Cotts' pen, their action predated the formation of today's "senior circuit", the current major leagues National League, by almost two decades. Further, the National Association united a good half century before the American League was even considered.
It has been reported that the men also did something that perhaps had a more far reaching effect in the annals of baseball history. The gauntlet was dropped when the Brooklyn clubs challenged New York's Manhattan clubs to a series of contests where the "very best nine" would be decided on the baseball diamond. It was decided that each region was to "pick" their best nine to play against those "picked" from the other region. These were to be no ordinary games...they were to match the most skilled of the Brooklyn ball players against those from the New York City ball clubs.
Essentially, it was baseball's very first organized All Star Game. Better yet, there would not be just one game, there would be a "series" of three games. Significantly, over 50 years later, one of baseball's leading 19th century historians, Seymour Church, dubbed the fashion games the very first championship series. It was also decided at the Convention gathering or soon thereafter, that the fans would be required to pay a then hefty fifty cent admission. For the first time ever, money would be charged for fans to see the game, the proceeds to benefit New York area fire departments. The fact that a charge was levied and collected for fans to enjoy the contests was baseball's very first major step in its rapidly approaching status as a professional game.
Heavy newspaper coverage led up to the 1858 Summer All Star series. The New York Clipper reported that the "Manhattan group" would consist of top players from the New York Knickerbockers, as well as the Gotham, Eagle, Empire, Harlem and Union Clubs. Their counterparts in Brooklyn would consist of the best from the Atlantics, Excelsior's, Putnam's and Frank Pidgeon's dominant Eckford club. The match would be staged in July at the famous Fashion Race Course near Flushing, in Queens, New York.
Baseball fever spread as the All Star games were the most anticipated sporting event of the year. Because of the anticipated crowds, the New York Tribune even posted that steamer ships would be poised to leave the Fulton Market slip several times in the morning and afternoon of the days of the big games. Horse drawn carriages would meet the ships to take the throngs of men, women and children to witness the contests.
The "Great Base Ball Match" lived up to its billing on each occasion. The three separate games were spread over six weeks. Tens of thousands of men and women attended the series. Each game was a spectacular success and represented the pinnacle of baseball interest up to that time and for many years to come.
The first game, held on July 20, 1858, was a scoring dandy as New York "edged" Brooklyn 22 to 18. On August 17, the return match was played again at the Fashion Race Course. Like the first game, this second game proved a popular and smashing success.
These actual score sheets, fully filled out and signed by the official scorers from game two, the pivotal "middle game" in the series, are the earliest All-Star game official score sheets in existence.
The two score sheets, and their identifying envelope, have been kept intact for almost a century, residing within the family of Frank Pidgeon. This game pitted Pidgeon, star pitcher and also the founder of Brooklyn's best team, the Eckfords, against the Gothams most dominant twirler, Tom Van Cott.
Tom's older brother and teammate William H., the respected municipal Judge who only five months earlier had been elected the very first President of the National Association, would be the game's official scorer for the New York clubs.
J.B. Leggett, star catcher of the Excelsior's and a man who played in the first match would serve in that same capacity for the Brooklyn All Stars. J.B. Bache, also of the Excelsior's, would be the umpire for the game.
According to the New York Times, the contest itself was "a lively affair". The Times recorded that when Brooklyn led off the first inning at bat, Van Cott made the game's first out after a "speedy catch". However, Pidgeon scored the game's first run for the Brooklyn Nine. This would be the first of many runs his team would tally that day, all neatly noted in these score sheets, and in what would be the closest thing to a blowout in the three game series.
The score sheets themselves, written in neat hand, delve deeply into the game, as the scorers virtually memorialize each and every at bat by both teams for the entire match. It is an amazing experience for any avid baseball fan or even those simply interested in American history to read of the plays as they occurred during a time period that scoring, as we know today, was being developed.
In the score sheet scripted at the top "All Brooklyn Nine" we see that the first run of the match was scored by Pidgeon, who also batted in three runs. Judge Van Cott documents that Brooklyn's legendary Dickie Pearce, who Albert Spalding would later call the greatest shortstop of the nineteenth century, would add four
more runs for the Brooklyn Nine. The score sheet identified as the "All New York Nine" shows that the team's leading hitter and the New York's powerful "striker" the previous year, Eagles shortstop Gelston, managed three runs on his own.
But the rest of the New York All Stars had a hard time solving Pidgeon's masterful pitching. Ultimately, Pidgeon's skills and talents as a batter, fielder and especially pitcher, plus the explosive bats of Pearce, J. Greene (who clobbered the ball and scored six runs), the Atlantics John Price (who led all Brooklyn batters in 1858 by socking in 32 runs for the season) and the others provided tonic for the Brooklyn All Stars. They evened the series by thrashing the New Yorkers, 29 to 8.
This pivotal game, as The Times reported the very next day, set the stage for the series finale, the "the conquering game" to be played in September. History would show that New York won the series in the rubber match on September 10th, 29 to 18. Pidgeon lost that game but scored three runs in the process.
The three All Star Games, pitting the Brooklyn Nine against the New York Nine, would be fondly remembered for some time. In 1866 it was stated that "This celebrated 'home and home' match at base ball between the best of the picked players of the two cities...excited the greatest enthusiasm and spirit amongst the lovers of the sport... ever known in this vicinity."
These score sheets are the only ones in existence and they represent the only official documentation of this historical All Star match. They are fully filled out by hand, dated and the two official scorers are scripted and identified, Judge Van Cott and J.B. Leggett. As mentioned, they have resided solely within the family archives of Frank Pidgeon's ancestors since the 1858 games and have never been before offered for sale.
The penmanship is beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Along with the two score sheets, this lot also contains the original envelope in which the following is neatly scripted: "Scorers Report of the 2nd Match of the Brooklyn Nine vs. New York @ Fashion Course Aug. 17th, 1838. Score 29 to 8". Condition is superb with only light folds. A letter of provenance is provided by the Pidgeon Family. 3 Items
Scorecard sheets measure 10 3/4 in. by 8 1/2 in. Envelope measures 3 1/4 in. by 5 1/2 in.
In 1858 New York City was the center of baseball activity. Just a few years earlier the game initially began to take hold when, in 1845, Alexander Joy Cartwright, a young engineer and a ball playing enthusiast, proposed to other like minded young men to organize the game that they were already playing with some frequency. Calling their new club the New York Knickerbockers, that spring the boys found a "suitable playing ground" in the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey, where they enjoyed their ball game in the great outdoors.
Then, on September 23, 1845, the first set of baseball rules were crafted and adopted.
The following year, the first recorded base ball match known occurred between the Knickerbockers and another New York based club. Shortly other amateur clubs mushroomed throughout the New York City area. Soon the players wore colorful uniforms and doffed special caps to identify their local team. By the early 1850's the game was so popular that the New York press began to take regular notice. "Base Ball", the Sunday Mercury exclaimed in 1853 "is not only healthful but it is played in the great outdoors...and excellent games are now at hand".
Baseball fever heightened as teams were being formed in pockets throughout the country. The national press, taking their cue from the New York City based papers, reported as base ball fans (short for "fanatics") avidly followed their favorite teams and those players who excelled. Soon base ball would become the number one spectator sport in America and called the National Pastime.
A major catalyst occurred In January 1858 when some of the more prominent players and organizers in the New York City area decided that it was time for "all of the organized base ball clubs" to meet and take stock of the game that was now capturing the attention of men and women everywhere. In February, representatives from more than two dozen New York area clubs met. There was even a group from outside of the metropolitan area, the Liberty Club of New Brunswick, New Jersey.
The meeting received exciting reports that organized base ball clubs were not confined only to New York and the immediate area but the game was being played as far away as in Boston, Maine, Detroit, Chicago and even San Francisco. Judge W.H Van Cott, a natural leader and ballplayer for the New York Gothams, was quickly elected President of the group.
Also, equally important, one of the game's premier players, Frank Pidgeon, founder and pitcher for the Brooklyn Eckfords, was in attendance, lending to the gathering his considerable baseball and worldly prestige. On the diamond Pidgeon was known far and wide as a wizard, one of the greatest pitchers of the era. Historian John Thorn noted that the pitcher was known for his brains and "headwork" as he honed his baseball skills. Off the field he was an inventor, a painter, and engineer, and a successful businessman.
The group decided two things at their meeting that proved to be of distinct historical consequence. First, after crafting and adopting rules and by-laws, the gentlemen officially organized as the "National Association of Ball Players". Thus, the organization became the very first "officially constituted" organized group of "national" base ball clubs. By unanimous vote and a stroke of Judge Van Cotts' pen, their action predated the formation of today's "senior circuit", the current major leagues National League, by almost two decades. Further, the National Association united a good half century before the American League was even considered.
It has been reported that the men also did something that perhaps had a more far reaching effect in the annals of baseball history. The gauntlet was dropped when the Brooklyn clubs challenged New York's Manhattan clubs to a series of contests where the "very best nine" would be decided on the baseball diamond. It was decided that each region was to "pick" their best nine to play against those "picked" from the other region. These were to be no ordinary games...they were to match the most skilled of the Brooklyn ball players against those from the New York City ball clubs.
Essentially, it was baseball's very first organized All Star Game. Better yet, there would not be just one game, there would be a "series" of three games. Significantly, over 50 years later, one of baseball's leading 19th century historians, Seymour Church, dubbed the fashion games the very first championship series. It was also decided at the Convention gathering or soon thereafter, that the fans would be required to pay a then hefty fifty cent admission. For the first time ever, money would be charged for fans to see the game, the proceeds to benefit New York area fire departments. The fact that a charge was levied and collected for fans to enjoy the contests was baseball's very first major step in its rapidly approaching status as a professional game.
Heavy newspaper coverage led up to the 1858 Summer All Star series. The New York Clipper reported that the "Manhattan group" would consist of top players from the New York Knickerbockers, as well as the Gotham, Eagle, Empire, Harlem and Union Clubs. Their counterparts in Brooklyn would consist of the best from the Atlantics, Excelsior's, Putnam's and Frank Pidgeon's dominant Eckford club. The match would be staged in July at the famous Fashion Race Course near Flushing, in Queens, New York.
Baseball fever spread as the All Star games were the most anticipated sporting event of the year. Because of the anticipated crowds, the New York Tribune even posted that steamer ships would be poised to leave the Fulton Market slip several times in the morning and afternoon of the days of the big games. Horse drawn carriages would meet the ships to take the throngs of men, women and children to witness the contests.
The "Great Base Ball Match" lived up to its billing on each occasion. The three separate games were spread over six weeks. Tens of thousands of men and women attended the series. Each game was a spectacular success and represented the pinnacle of baseball interest up to that time and for many years to come.
The first game, held on July 20, 1858, was a scoring dandy as New York "edged" Brooklyn 22 to 18. On August 17, the return match was played again at the Fashion Race Course. Like the first game, this second game proved a popular and smashing success.
These actual score sheets, fully filled out and signed by the official scorers from game two, the pivotal "middle game" in the series, are the earliest All-Star game official score sheets in existence.
The two score sheets, and their identifying envelope, have been kept intact for almost a century, residing within the family of Frank Pidgeon. This game pitted Pidgeon, star pitcher and also the founder of Brooklyn's best team, the Eckfords, against the Gothams most dominant twirler, Tom Van Cott.
Tom's older brother and teammate William H., the respected municipal Judge who only five months earlier had been elected the very first President of the National Association, would be the game's official scorer for the New York clubs.
J.B. Leggett, star catcher of the Excelsior's and a man who played in the first match would serve in that same capacity for the Brooklyn All Stars. J.B. Bache, also of the Excelsior's, would be the umpire for the game.
According to the New York Times, the contest itself was "a lively affair". The Times recorded that when Brooklyn led off the first inning at bat, Van Cott made the game's first out after a "speedy catch". However, Pidgeon scored the game's first run for the Brooklyn Nine. This would be the first of many runs his team would tally that day, all neatly noted in these score sheets, and in what would be the closest thing to a blowout in the three game series.
The score sheets themselves, written in neat hand, delve deeply into the game, as the scorers virtually memorialize each and every at bat by both teams for the entire match. It is an amazing experience for any avid baseball fan or even those simply interested in American history to read of the plays as they occurred during a time period that scoring, as we know today, was being developed.
In the score sheet scripted at the top "All Brooklyn Nine" we see that the first run of the match was scored by Pidgeon, who also batted in three runs. Judge Van Cott documents that Brooklyn's legendary Dickie Pearce, who Albert Spalding would later call the greatest shortstop of the nineteenth century, would add four
more runs for the Brooklyn Nine. The score sheet identified as the "All New York Nine" shows that the team's leading hitter and the New York's powerful "striker" the previous year, Eagles shortstop Gelston, managed three runs on his own.
But the rest of the New York All Stars had a hard time solving Pidgeon's masterful pitching. Ultimately, Pidgeon's skills and talents as a batter, fielder and especially pitcher, plus the explosive bats of Pearce, J. Greene (who clobbered the ball and scored six runs), the Atlantics John Price (who led all Brooklyn batters in 1858 by socking in 32 runs for the season) and the others provided tonic for the Brooklyn All Stars. They evened the series by thrashing the New Yorkers, 29 to 8.
This pivotal game, as The Times reported the very next day, set the stage for the series finale, the "the conquering game" to be played in September. History would show that New York won the series in the rubber match on September 10th, 29 to 18. Pidgeon lost that game but scored three runs in the process.
The three All Star Games, pitting the Brooklyn Nine against the New York Nine, would be fondly remembered for some time. In 1866 it was stated that "This celebrated 'home and home' match at base ball between the best of the picked players of the two cities...excited the greatest enthusiasm and spirit amongst the lovers of the sport... ever known in this vicinity."
These score sheets are the only ones in existence and they represent the only official documentation of this historical All Star match. They are fully filled out by hand, dated and the two official scorers are scripted and identified, Judge Van Cott and J.B. Leggett. As mentioned, they have resided solely within the family archives of Frank Pidgeon's ancestors since the 1858 games and have never been before offered for sale.
The penmanship is beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Along with the two score sheets, this lot also contains the original envelope in which the following is neatly scripted: "Scorers Report of the 2nd Match of the Brooklyn Nine vs. New York @ Fashion Course Aug. 17th, 1838. Score 29 to 8". Condition is superb with only light folds. A letter of provenance is provided by the Pidgeon Family. 3 Items
Scorecard sheets measure 10 3/4 in. by 8 1/2 in. Envelope measures 3 1/4 in. by 5 1/2 in.