Pre-1870 Baseball Memorabilia

[chalupacollects]

Wow some of those committee names on the Newark Base Ball Club Hop photo from Gary Passamonte appear to be descended from some of the wealthiest landowners in southern New York and Northern New Jersey. F. Pell from the Pell family landed in NY in the 1600's and owned much of the Bronx and southern Westchester County which now includes Pelham and Pelham Manor, New Rochelle, Eastchester part of Yonkers etc. The Van Houtens, Cranes and Hoppers owned much of the land encompassing the Meadowlands area in Northern, NJ up through Hackensack and surroundings towns. Most date back to original land grants from the English. Amazing where these folks popped up in those days...

[YankeeFan]

When it comes to pre-1870 Base Ball, the only things that my budget allows are newspaper articles and woodcuts. Still, I love reading these early accounts of games in the prose of the day.

Here are a few from Newark, NJ in September 1855. I grew up right outside of Newark (South Orange, NJ). The name of the newspaper is the The Newark Daily Advertiser


September 5, 1855



September 6, 1855. this one references a game at Hoboken between the Gothams and the Empires



September 13, 1855. A match between the married mend and the single men



September 20, 1855. Seems that there was a regular weekly game between the Married and Single men of the Newark Club
Also announces the formation of the "Empire Club" as only the 5th organized club in the city.

[GaryPassamonte]

Great info, Chalupacollects. Thanks.

[1880nonsports]

this is the only thing I have pre-1870 related to America's pastime. Most of my stuff is 1880-1890......... The teams represented major publishers of the day. The "gold" base ball is very neat.

[murphusa]

Visited with Bruce's (Bgar3) and his collection this weekend.

Stunning

[bgar3]

Thanks Jim, it was fun to meet someone from here. Your stories were priceless, thank you for a nice afternoon.

[IronHorse2130]

1866 Harper's Weekly Woodcut

[IronHorse2130]

Not sure what year this tintype is from but probably close to 1870?

[jpop43]

Just picked this up today at, of all places, the East Coast Nat'l show at White Plains, NY! I thought I might give my wife a few hours to herself so I took all three kids along with me and, to my great surprise, scored this super lemon peel ball!

The ball is full size for a lemon peel and has just the slightest of separation at one of the seams. The lacing is very small and very tight which, to me at least, reflects some real skill in construction.

Jon
www.dugouttreasures.com