LCV Winter 2013-14 - (Page 69)

POLICE GAZETTE, 1877-1878 Among the prisoners were Lieutenants Michael McNamara and Charles Pierce, who organized a "championship" game between the Southern Club and the Confederate Club, won 19-11 by the Southern team before a crowd of 3,000 prisoners, soldiers and civilians. These were the first recorded games of baseball played between two different teams in Ohio. Accounts of the Southerners' activities in prisoners' diaries and more obscurely in the local press contradict the common belief that baseball, while codified in New York in 1845 as the Knickerbocker Rules, was spread only by Northern soldiers during the Civil War. Before the war, New Orleans already had a thriving baseball culture in the late 1850s, with nine teams active in the Louisiana Base Ball Association. In 1870 the Chicago White Stockings travelled to New Orleans to challenge the touring Cincinnati Red Stockings, who had played in the city for several weeks before moving on. Learning of the departure of the Red Stockings, the Chicago club decided to remain, and thus, the first spring training camp was established in New Orleans. From 1870 well into the mid-20th century, the city would host a number of major league teams for spring training, from the Boston Beaneaters to the New York Yankees. The 1884 World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition opened in December to much fanfare and American challenger Tom Allen (left) could not cope with European champion Jem Mace's battle plan during their bout on May 10, 1870, in Kenner. This is believed to be the first world championship prizefight held in America. provided, among other exhibits, a baseball field and schedule of games. Under the leadership of Civil War hero and local businessman Toby Hart, the diamond was constructed on a far edge of the 249-acre site that is now home to Audubon Park. Hart was so taken with the game that he led the city's failed bid to secure a franchise for the newly formed Southern League in 1885. Amateur baseball was based on the club system, as opposed to the league system. Social clubs formed teams and pitted their best nine against the best nine from another club, the winner being treated to a festive dinner and perhaps given a prized bat to hang in their clubhouse. There were no statistics and no league standings. One such social organization was the Pelican Base Ball Club, formed on September 1, 1865, with approximately 50 members. They faced off against the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1870 and enjoyed a robust playing schedule that lasted most of the year. The New Orleans Pelicans joined the Southern League for the 1887 season alongside teams from Birmingham, Chattanooga, Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Selma and Shreveport, capturing the first of three championships Winter 2013-14 * LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 69

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