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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