Amazing find. I think so anyway.
And what I find so cool about it.....this was just 5 years after the Civil War. The Civil War man!. That kinda blows my mind. I can't imagine there being too many documented balls around earlier then this one. If so, John probably has it.
I ran it past fellow NET54-er John, who has a freaking
amazing 19th Century collection, and he liked it, and he ran it past Corey Leiby....:
https://www.sportsantiques.com/corey...collection.htm
....who also confirmed it's good. In fact he once owned it. I feel honored by that alone.
I may not have the story 100% right, but per John there was a find about twenty years ago of these balls. He has one. Also said maybe they came out of LeHigh College (founded 1865 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) their museum released some to the public after over 100 years, this was about 20 years ago. If anyone here heard anything about that, please let me know the details.
This is one of them. Now what I don't know is if this team "Mutual" is THEE Mutuals of New York, based out of Brooklyn....in 1870, or another Mutuals team, if there was in fact more then one Mutuals, such an odd name.
This REA one also has singular MUTUAL written on it, so thinking could be, not sure.
https://robertedwardauctions.com/auc...tuals-gothams/
I do like this quote from the REA writeup:
"The Mutuals were not only one of the best teams on the East Coast at the time, but one of the most infamous as well. Political historians will note that the Mutuals were owned by notorious Tammany Hall politician Boss Tweed, one of the most corrupt politicians in New York City history."
Maybe he wanted Bill "The Butcher" Cutting to pitch for his team. I don't know I'm flippin' the bat on a long ball off a guy who has a meat cleaver in his belt loop, but I digress.....
There was a Negro League Team one that looks to be from this same find that went for silly money, so that's kind of cool this ball being from the same find:
https://robertedwardauctions.com/auc...ague-baseball/
So was this team this team from what basically was the first league formed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...e_Ball_Players
"if" this is the very same Mutual club, then that would makes it a little more neat........that team won the Championship in 1868 &
1870!!! And with an offense that put up 55, you can see why, although the other team put up 47, so they just needed a touchdown and go for 2 for the tie. So this one appeared to have been a dogfight. Guy probably threw 375 pitches and pitched the following day.
Thinking/hoping I fell ass backwards into something, I mean Allentown PA and Brooklyn are only 96 miles apart......could have it been a road trip?....if not still a
very cool being a ball from that time frame. 5 years after the North defeated the South. My God.
oh and what I meant by falling ass backwards....I was searching for a Baseball Trophy, and found a Trophy Baseball.