Northampton Baseball I: 1858- The "New York" Game Comes to Northampton

The first recorded "base ball match" in Northampton took place on Wednesday afternoon August 11, 1858. The hometown "Nonotuck Club" played the Atwoods of Westfield "on the beautiful green in the meadows, near the large elm tree [above] at Hockanum Ferry," reported the Northampton Courier. The Atwoods won 36-2 before 1000 spectators. After the fast-paced game, said to have lasted one hour, the victors and the vanquished retired to the Warner House for "sumptuous entertainments."

Almost certainly, the 1858 match was not the first game of ball played here. Historians have found references to bat and ball games dating to the 1770s. In 1850 Springfield newspapers mentioned matches of cricket or "wicket ball," and by 1854 Springfield had a team that played a version of baseball called the "Massachusetts game." The "Massachusetts game" had a separate base for home plate located to one side of a square field. The rules allowed for 10 or more players, up to 100 runs a game, and putting runners out by hitting them with the ball.

During the 1840s-50s, in the New York area, another version of baseball called the "New York" game (four bases, a diamond-shaped infield, nine players, no "soaking" or hitting the runner) had been codified and refined by amateur clubs. From that model there evolved the convention of a ball club with dues-paying members and matches arranged by formal invitation with a post-game feast sponsored by the home club. These were the game rules and the gentlemanly conventions that took hold in Northampton in 1858.

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